India's successes at COP26

Collaborative, not competitive, approach can save our planet

- BHUPENDER YADAV

THE RECENTLY concluded 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (cop26) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland, proved to be a success from India’s standpoint. India emerged on the world stage as a global power walking the talk on combating climate change, voicing concerns of the developing world, and leading international initiatives to drive change in building an environmentally sustainable world.

Delivering the National Statement at the cop26 Summit in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminded the world that despite being home to 17 per cent of the world's population, India has been responsible for only 5 per cent of the global emissions. From the cop26 stage, the prime minister announced India’s commitment to “Panchamrit”:

• India will bring its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030

• India will bring its economy's carbon intensity down to 45 per cent by 2030

• India will fulfil 50 per cent of its energy requirement through renewable energy by 2030

• India will reduce 1 billion tonnes of carbon emissions from the total projected emissions by 2030

• India will achieve net-zero by 2070

While India did its bit, the country also reminded the Global North of its unfulfilled commitments. India told the world that while we all are raising our ambitions on climate action, the world’s ambitions on climate finance cannot remain the same as they were at the time of the Paris Agreement. During his address at the World Leaders Summit, the prime minister said, “India expects developed countries to provide climate finance of $1 trillion at the earliest.”