It will be better if India also achieves carbon neutrality by 2050 as every country needs to make more efforts to deal with the climate crisis, German Ambassador to India Walter J Lindner said on Sunday.
Carbon neutrality refers to the idea of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by balancing those emissions so they are equal (or less than) the emissions that get removed through the planet’s natural absorption. More than 110 countries have already pledged to become carbon neutrality by 2050.
“The United Nations’ goal is (achieving carbon neutrality by) 2050. The European Union’s 2050. Germany’s goal is 2045. The sooner it will also be achieved by India the better,” Lindner said at an event held to mark the 31st anniversary of German reunification.
“I am not judging what India is saying and doing. If he (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) says he can achieve (carbon neutrality by) 2050 – the goal of the United Nations – that’s great. Anything earlier is, of course, even better,” Lindner told PTI.
Asked if Germany expects India to raise climate ambitions going to COP26 in Glasgow, he said, “I think we all have to do more. We messed up this planet. So we have to do something… all industrial nations and other nations on the way to industrialisation… all have to work together. This is not a finger-pointing issue. It’s a matter of global responsibility and India is very aware of that.”
India is implementing one of the largest renewable energy expansion programmes with a target of achieving 175 GigaWatt (GW) renewable energy capacity by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is a must to keep global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, to pre-industrial level by the end of 2100.
The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held from October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
