At the COP26 conference, India put a de facto veto on a final agreement to “phase out” coal and subsidies for fossil fuels. In an interview with Bloomberg, India’s Environment Secretary, Rameshwar Prasad Gupta, “pushed back on proposed language in the final Glasgow agreement that countries will ‘accelerate the phasing-out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels.’ Gupta said the nation will only move away from the dirtiest fossil fuel if it gets the financial support it’s asking for. In a press conference, Gupta explained that advanced countries have to compensate for all the CO2 they have accumulated in the past,” reported one news outlet.
Prime minister Modi had declared at COP26 on Nov. 2 that “India expects developed countries to make $1 trillion available as climate finance as soon as possible,” and now it is clear that this is only for India, and that it is a precondition for accepting an exit from fossil fuels.
“They want $1 trillion in funds just for India by 2030 — ten times more than the unmet $100 billion a year for all poor countries sought under previous deals,” Bloomberg news wrote. “Over a decade, that would mean advanced economies have to give India the same amount of funds they’ve promised for all poor countries.”
U.S. climate envoy John Kerry met with the Indian delegation in Glasgow, after which he said he “won’t promise” one trillion for India and still needed to look at the details.
