India on Sunday called the COP26 summit a success, saying it put across the concerns and ideas of the developing world quite succinctly and unequivocally in front of the world community.
Negotiators from nearly 200 countries have accepted a new climate agreement after the COP26 summit in Glasgow concluded its extra time plenary on Saturday with a deal, which recognises India’s intervention for the world to phase down rather than phase out fossil fuels.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, head of the Indian delegation at the Glasgow conference, said that the world needs to awaken to the reality that the current climate crisis has been precipitated by unsustainable lifestyles and wasteful consumption patterns in the developed countries.
“The summit proved to be a success from India’s standpoint because we 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. Consensus, however, remained elusive at COP26. 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,” Yadav wrote on his blog on Sunday.
The minister, who has been maintaining a blog ‘COP 26 Diary’, wrote that India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has proactively taken the lead in creating the International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and the One Sun, One World, One Sun Grid initiatives as examples of international collaboration to combat climate change.
“Having done its part, India at the summit, asked the developed world concrete actions in this decisive decade and translation of commitments to actions,” he said.
India has been criticised by several countries for the change promoted by it to phase down, rather than phase out coal power, the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions.
Yadav said that 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 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (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 said.
The minister said that climate friendly lifestyles and climate justice as enshrined in the Paris Agreement are the key to solving the climate crisis.
“We can proudly say today that India is the only G20 nation well on track to achieve the goals mentioned under the Paris Agreement. While there has been a lot of talk about and around Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), the lack of commitment on climate finance is troublesome. There is a wide mismatch between climate finance and mitigation efforts. The record on means of implementation support to developing countries has been dismal so far. India looks forward to a change in finance and technology support to developing countries going forward,” he said.
In the end, the minister hoped that the world will rise to the urgency of the climate crisis.
“As I conclude my engagements at COP26 and return home, 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,” he said.
“India, I am happy to note, achieved some remarkable results in terms of climate finance issues including a work program on new collective quantified goal, support for enhanced transparency framework for developing countries, Article 6 rule book, adaptation, common timeframe, at the COP26 negotiations,” he added.
