THE SOUTH REMEMBERS

The World Leaders Summit at COP26 witnessed the poorer nations calling out the global north’s insincerity in climate action; India’s announcement, however, became the biggest buzz at the summit

- REKHA DIXIT

It was a closely guarded secret, and officials in the environment ministry threw red herrings all the time. While almost everyone knew Prime Minister Narendra Modi would make a big announcement, true to style, in Glasgow, there was speculation on what this would be. Would he talk about India’s Energy Swaraj by 2047 as the additional commitment or would the transcontinental solar global green grid be the big thing? So, when he announced India’s commitment to reach net-zero (emissions) by 2070, everyone did a double take. India had finally bitten the bullet, or had it? Modi’s speech was in the late afternoon when a certain drowsiness had enveloped the summit, and not just US President Joe Biden. The announcement roused everyone into exclamations and discussions, and it remained the biggest buzz at the World Leaders Summit at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP26), putting aside the doomsday prophecies that were earlier dominating the narrative.

The year 2070 is half a century away, and two decades behind the global north’s clarion of a 2050 deadline; none of the leaders of today are likely to be around then to call each other out. Yet, Modi’s big announcement, along with a slew of others— with 2030 as the deadline for a 45 per cent less carbon-intensive economy, a 50 per cent renewable component in the energy mix and the Indian Railways going totally powered by renewables—brought in relieved praise from India’s bilateral buddy and COP26 host, the United Kingdom. It was a commitment they wanted to this new fancy of theirs, net-zero emissions. Though India has maintained that net-zero emissions alone do not solve the climate crisis, it made the needed commitment.