Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched the Green Credit Initiative (GCI), focusing on creative carbon sinks through people’s participation, and offered to host COP33 in the country in 2028.
COP28 stands for the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The “parties” are the countries that signed up to the original UN Climate Agreement in 1992.
Addressing the plenary session at the COP28 UN Climate Summit in Dubai, UAE, he cautioned that the world does not have much time to correct the mistakes of the last century, and called for a pro-planet proactive and positive initiative, adding the GCI would go beyond the commercial mindset associated with carbon credits.
Speaking at the high-level segment for heads of state and governments during the global event, PM Modi invited the participants to join the new initiative, which he said is similar to the Green Credit Programme, notified in October. It is an innovative market-based mechanism designed to reward voluntary environmental actions in different sectors by individuals, communities, and the private sector.
Asserting that New Delhi has offered an example to the world on how to strike a balance between development and environmental conservation, the Prime Minister said India is among those few countries that are on track to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions or the national action plans to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the guardrail to avoid worsening of the impact of the changing climate.
At the opening ceremony, PM Modi was the only global leader to join COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber on the stage along with the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Steill.
“Over the past century, a small section of humanity has indiscriminately exploited nature. However, the entire humanity is paying the price for this, especially people living in the Global South,” he said.
“Thinking only about our own interests will only lead the world into darkness,” he added.
His statement came in the context that the poor and developing nations bear the brunt of extreme climate events such as floods, droughts, and heat/cold waves because of the changing climate and increased global warming due to carbon emissions by the richer countries.
PM Modi called for maintaining a balance between mitigation and adaptation and said that energy transition across the world must be “just and inclusive.” He also called on rich countries to transfer technologies to help developing nations combat climate change.
The Indian PM has been championing the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE movement), which he announced at the Glasgow COP (in 2021), urging countries to adopt planet-friendly living practices and move away from deeply consumerist behavior.
Citing a study by the International Energy Agency, he said this approach (LiFE) can reduce carbon emissions by 2 billion tons and urged the world to work together and be decisive against the climate crisis.
Developed countries have already consumed more than 80 percent of the global carbon budget, leaving developing and poor countries with very little carbon space for the future.
PM Modi underlined that India is home to 17 percent of the world’s population, but its share of global carbon emissions is less than 4 percent. “India is one of the very few economies in the world that is on track to achieve its NDC targets,” he said.
India achieved its emissions intensity-related targets 11 years ahead of the committed time frame and non-fossil fuel targets nine years ahead of schedule.
“And India did not just stop there, we remain ambitious,” he said.
The country aims to reduce emissions intensity of gross domestic product by 45 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels and achieve 50 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. It has also committed to become a net zero economy by 2070.
As part of its G20 Presidency this year, India drew consensus from the world’s major economies for a Green Development Pact, seeking to balance development and the environment.
The Pact shifted the conversations from the billions to the trillions needed for the energy transition. It noted that developing countries will need USD 5.8-5.9 trillion in the pre-2030 period, particularly to implement their NDCs.
If India’s proposal to host COP33 is accepted, it would be the next big global conference in the country after the G20 Summit held in September this year.
Earlier, India hosted COP8 in New Delhi in 2002 where countries adopted the Delhi Ministerial Declaration which called for efforts by developed countries to transfer technology and minimize the impact of climate change on developing countries.