November 13, 2021

COP26: India makes critical commitments, foregoes others

topic:	Climate action
located:	India
editor:	Tish Sanghera

Those eager to see India’s contributions at COP26 had a slow start; but on day 2, they were met with an unexpected announcement - Prime Minister Modi announced that India would target net-zero emissions by 2070.

After initially refusing to set overall emission reduction targets, India joins a host of other countries in their decarbonising ambitions. China and the US, the largest and second largest carbon emitters respectively, had already set 2060 and 2050 as their net-zero goals.

How does India intend on reaching this milestone? Its pledge to ramp up the transition to renewable energy will play a key role. India promised to increase its installed renewables capacity to 500GW (from 100GW at current levels), vowing it would account for 50 percent of India's energy mix by 2030.

PM Modi also promised to lower emissions in the world’s 6th largest economy by one billion tonnes from projected emissions by 2030. He also hopes to reduce the economy’s carbon intensity – a measure of how much CO2 is produced per unit of electrical energy - to less than 45 percent compared to 2005 levels.

However, amidst the array of new pledges, analysts have been disappointed by India’s notable silence in certain key areas. For example, India has not joined the commitment to reduce methane emissions – a plan proposed by the US and joined by over 100 countries in a critical step to limiting one of the most damaging greenhouse gases emitted when producing coal, oil and natural gas. Analysts have described this as a welcomed step, but have also stressed that the world should focus on the larger goal of halting fossil fuel production as opposed to making it cleaner.

But perhaps the biggest disappointment has been India’s total lack of progress on moving away from coal, which currently supplies 70 percent of India’s energy. Many had hoped to see a clearer commitment to phasing out coal, by far the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Already, an estimated two thirds of all deaths in India, 2.5 million each year, are from breathing the most polluted air in the world.

While India continues to rely on fossil fuels that contribute to global warming, the most vulnerable of its populations are set to suffer. Currently 800 million people rely on agriculture, forests and fisheries for their livelihood, but the future promises to bring water shortages and lower crop yields, among other issues. Similarly, the huge numbers of migrants living in poor-quality housing in megacities like Delhi and Mumbai will bear the brunt of soaring temperatures and more frequent, devastating floods.

Yet Indian officials at COP26 claim that with more financial backing from wealthier nations – namely $1 trillion before the decade’s end – they could do more to tackle these issues. Though the figure is astronomical - ten times more than the unmet $100 billion per year requested for all poor countries under previous deals - it can be seen as largely symbolic. India wants to send the message that focusing on climate financing is as important as emission goals if the world wants poor countries to succeed.

India is right to ask for climate justice. Greater support from the nations who have achieved their current state of development by the use of the very fossil fuels we are now trying to prohibit is only fair - and could well be the only hope for undeveloped countries to fund the climate battle. But that does not mean that India’s attempts to deflect attention away from its lacking efforts are valid – for instance, it urgently needs to stop clearing mature forestland for coal mines and displacing indigenous populations for this argument to stand.

For when preaching about fairness and equality, surely climate justice starts at home.

Image by Mohd Aram

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