The 26th meeting of the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021, COP26, was held from 31 October to 13 November 2021 in Glasgow. Alok Sharma was the president of the conference. It was an opportunity for countries to deliver timely commitments towards achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting temperature rise to 1.5°C, adapting to the adverse impacts of climate change, and making financial flows consistent with both. While COP26 delivered some important successes, overall, the final outcome fell far short of expectations.
One of the highlights of COP26 was India’s announcements. PM Modi announced five new targets, 'the Panchamrit' (five goals) at COP26. These include raising India's non-fossil fuel-based energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030, ensuring that 50 per cent of the country's energy requirements are met by renewable sources by 2030, reducing the total projected carbon emission by one billion tons, decreasing carbon intensity of the economy to less than 45 percent and, achieving net zero emissions by 2070. These are country pledges and not updated NDCs. He coined a new acronym for ‘Life’ - ‘Lifestyle for Environment’. India also showed its commitment to promote futuristic energy solutions through the Green Grid Initiative: One Sun, One World, One Grid, which was launched in Glasgow. Earlier, at the COP21 in Paris in 2015, India had launched the International Solar Alliance with France. India’s Environment Minister said, “Environment cannot remain an issue of just dialogues, it should be converted into action with vision. We are well on our way to achieving whatever goals we committed to in our Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and showed that we are willing to do much more.”
The responsibility for causing climate change lies with the developed countries. The industrialised nations are responsible for most of the carbon emissions currently present in the atmosphere. To ensure climate justice, they have to provide finance and technology to developing countries to mitigate the adverse impact of climate change. Towards their historic responsibility, the developed countries had to give $100 billion annually to help developing countries tackle climate change from 2020 onwards under the Paris agreement. But, so far, they have failed to keep their promise.
Article 4.1 of the Paris Agreement notes that developed countries must reach peak emissions before developing countries while Article 9 says that they shall provide financial resources to assist developing countries to both mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, since the signing of the Paris Agreement, developed countries have failed to follow through on financial support. Even the OECD’s own estimates of provided climate finance falls 20 percent short of the goal of $100 billion annually by 2020. Mitigation efforts from developed countries have also been deemed insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature goal.
At the end of the Conference, a controversy was created about a change in language from "phase out" to "phase down" of coal subsidies. The President of COP26 expressed his frustration and named India in the process. Indian sources indicated that while the amended text was read out by India at COP26, India was not the author of the amendment.
Media reports also clarified that India did object to the wording in the text that called for ending the dependence on coal for energy while leaving other fossil fuels out of the ‘phase out’. The idea behind the objection was that countries cannot cherry-pick and leave vulnerable nations to fend for themselves. India’s emphasis was that the ‘phase out’ should be done subject to provision of support to the poorest and the most vulnerable and in line with national circumstances, so that the transition from coal to other forms of energy could be done in a just way. It was also clarified that the use of coal cannot be stopped overnight. It would have to be a gradual process.
Developed countries have delayed adequate climate action for the past two decades. The inconsistency between talk, decisions, and actions is well established. To ensure climate justice, a level playing field has to be created. Developed countries must fulfil their responsibility on climate finance and technology transfer. They should follow a much faster pace of achieving the promised goals. Developed countries occupy an inordinately large share of the carbon space. It is time they stop encroaching upon the carbon space of the developing countries. If the world is to be saved, those who contributed most to the greenhouse gases in the past must fulfil their responsibilities in full earnest.
