ANOTHER COP DROWNS IN BAKU'S CASPIAN SEA

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's very little to celebrate in the face of ever increasing climate disasters.

- By Krishan Kalra

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 mobilize $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 leader of the 'global south' for getting them the needed and demanded at the beginning of the conference a commitment of $1.3 trillion per annum from now. All these protests were merely taken on record.

India's Track Record

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

Of course some countries gave the meagre assurance a standing ovation. The European Union's (EU's) Climate envoy made a self-congratulatory statement “COP29 will be remembered as the start of a new era in Climate Finance. EU will continue to lead and we are confident that the ambitious & realistic goal of $1.3 T annually will be achieved”

(author's take: very unlikely, sir, with the shameful start totally disproportionate to the scale of the crisis).