Dr. Vibha Dhawan, Director General, commends India’s ambitious and bold stand on climate action and equity
Considering the urgency of actions needed to address climate change, it is encouraging to see India announcing ambitious 2030 targets along with initiatives such as the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) and Green Grids Initiative— One Sun One World One Grid (GGI-OSOWOG).
India took a bold stand at COP26 closing plenary in protecting the right to sustainable development through energy security and social security by supporting the poor and vulnerable.
Fossil fuel energy sources have huge environmental implications at all stages including extraction and use. India has very ambitious 2030 energy related commitments on non-fossil fuels-based power generation and on renewable energy. India is also among the few countries which has a clean energy cess on coal.
Given the urgency of climate action, it is high time the developed countries step up their 2030 commitments. They will have to walk the talk and instil greater trust in developing countries through their actions. The developed world has much to do in terms of providing climate finance for adaptation, loss & damage and mitigation.
The Paris Rulebook is in place and this is a positive step but the glacial pace on climate finance is disappointing. For adaptation and loss & damage, greater public finance and grant support is imperative. While the commitments on climate finance could have been higher and accelerated, the processes on long-term climate finance and new collective quantified goal on climate finance have been initiated.
The Glasgow Climate Pact is an incremental step in the right direction. Its four important elements include: (1) Glasgow–Sharm el-Sheikh work programme on the global goal on adaptation; (2) Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage; (3) Call to double climate finance for adaptation; and (4) Focus on ocean-based climate action. I hope that the four agendas on global goal on adaptation, loss & damage, climate finance, and equity are further concretized in Egypt and UAE. There is a need for concrete, strong and accelerated progress on these aspects soon.
The Glasgow discussions also upheld issues related to indigenous communities, gender along with empowerment of stakeholders including youth through education, sensitization, participation, capacity building and public availability of information.
TERI remains a committed partner and we look forward to taking the climate action agenda forward in the spirit of intra-generational and inter-generational equity.