India’s stance on coal at the recent COP26 climate-change conference drew heavy criticism, but richer Western economies have done little to help developing countries’ green transition. India will make a good-faith effort to help avert climate disaster, but only within the limits of what it can feasibly do.
NEW DELHI – India has somehow emerged as the villain of last month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), blamed for resisting cuts to coal consumption even as toxic air envelops its capital, New Delhi. The country’s supposed crime in Glasgow was to join China in insisting on a last-minute change to the conference’s final declaration, in which countries pledged to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal. For that, India, whose per capita carbon-dioxide emissions are a fraction of those of the world’s leading emitters, was widely criticized for obstructing the global fight against climate change.
NEW DELHI – India has somehow emerged as the villain of last month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), blamed for resisting cuts to coal consumption even as toxic air envelops its capital, New Delhi. The country’s supposed crime in Glasgow was to join China in insisting on a last-minute change to the conference’s final declaration, in which countries pledged to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal. For that, India, whose per capita carbon-dioxide emissions are a fraction of those of the world’s leading emitters, was widely criticized for obstructing the global fight against climate change.