New Delhi, (Samajweekly) Hours after the curtains went down on the 26th session of the Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Framework for Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Glasgow, Indi’s Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister, Bhupender Yadav said India walked the talk and termed the summit “a success from India’s standpoint”.
“India articulated and put across the concerns and ideas of the developing world quite succinctly and unequivocally. India presented the way for a constructive debate and equitable and just solutions at the forum,” Yadav wrote in his blog entry under COP Diary on Sunday, hours after the COP26 concluded post-midnight India.
Consensus remained elusive at COP26, he contended, for a reason.
During the last few hours, nay minutes, certain words in the COP26’s agenda were changed at India’s intervention leading to some criticism. Referring to that, Yadav reiterated in his blog entry: “Fossil fuels and their use have enabled parts of the world to attain high levels of growth. Even now, developed countries have not completely phased out coal. The UNFCCC refers to mitigation of GHG emissions from all sources. UNFCCC is not directed at any particular source.”
“Developing countries have a right to their fair share of the global carbon budget and are entitled to the responsible use of fossil fuels within this scope,” he asserted.
Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the high level segment on the first day of the COP26, wherein he gave a one word mantra, LIFE – Lifestyle for Environment – to the world, Yadav said: “India has maintained that the current climate crisis has been precipitated by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption patterns mainly in the developed countries. The world needs to awaken to this reality.”
Mentioning how India walked the talk on combating climate change, he cited the ‘Panchamrit’, or the five-point climate agenda offered by the Prime Minister on the first day of the high-level summit. Among other ambitious targets, Modi had declared that India would achieve net zero emissions in 2070.
He also recounted the proactive steps taken by India under Modi’s leadership as examples of international collaboration to combat climate change: International Solar Alliance (ISA), Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), and the One Sun, One World, One Sun Grid initiative (OSOWOG).
The Minister listed climate finance issues, including a work programme on new collective quantified goals, support for enhanced transparency framework for developing countries, Article 6 rule book, and the adaptation and common timeframe at the COP26 negotiations as India’s achievements.
“India is hopeful that the world will rise to the urgency of the climate crisis facing us and that alone will ensure we have real actions to save our planet for the future generations,” Yadav said.
