Conference of empty promises

Despite lofty promises, COP-29 ended in disappointment, with little progress on climate finance and a stark failure to address the needs of developing nations facing worsening climate crises.

- KRISHAN KALRA

COP-29 at Baku has come to an end, and like the earlier 28, it has not achieved much. Barring some agreements on energy storage and transmission grids there is very little to celebrate in the face of everincreasing climate disasters. What happened on the last day 24 November-was quite ugly; "Not just a failure but a betrayal" to quote LDC (least developed countries) Group's comments. Despite India seeking the floor to speak, before the deal was adopted, host country President Mokhtar Babayey brazenly gaveled through that "Rich nations would mobilise $300B per annum by 2035, from a wide variety of sources."'11 years for raising this abysmally poor and paltry sum' sounds like a cruel joke. India immediately junked the "Stage-managed deal through unfair means." Other developing countries also echoed similar comments; they were looking up to India as the leader of 'global south'-for getting them the needed and demanded at the beginning of the conference commitment of $1.3T per annum from now. All these protests were merely taken on record.

India has indeed shown an excellent track record, being the only G-20 nation progressing satisfactorily on achieving the Paris agreement goals. 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030, leading the International Solar Alliance initiative, push on EVs, strong programme for improving energy efficiency in industry are all admirable demonstrations of our work. India has shown the world that sustainable development and economic growth can co-exist.