India has the potential to become net-zero in carbon emissions by 2070, according to Rachel Kyte, a member the UN Secretary General’s high level advisory group on climate change.
Kyte was visiting India recently to meet with business leaders, policymakers and think tanks to discuss efforts to address the climate crisis. He believes the world must place big bets in India because many of the solutions to climate change can come from here.
Kyte, who is also dean at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, stated that India not only has the potential for meeting its climate change goals (becoming a net-zero carbon emitting country by 2070) but also supports other countries in reaching their targets with appropriate foreign investments.
She said that India can be a green staging place for the rest of the world, and that the world needs India to follow its green agenda.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) that India would achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070 and increase its non-fossil fuel capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate required countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
Kyte says that India is serious about becoming a global hub for green hydrogen and green ammonia production.
She said that her conversations with the government’s think-tank NITI Aayog, as well as other government divisions, have highlighted the country’s commitment towards green hydrogen.
“Everyone I have met here is thinking about green hydrogen. India can not only become a supplier of green energy for its own economy but can also export it,” stated Kyte, who is also an advisor to UK governments on UN climate negotiations.
She said that this transition to green energy solutions, including moving away from coal to renewables and transforming the transportation sector, will not be possible without “adequate funding” from the developed countries.
She said that the promise of a package worth USD 100 billion for the developing world “still remains an unfulfilled promise”.
“That’s a totemic pledge that had been broken. She stressed that we must fulfill the promise.
The USD 100 billion annual support the developed countries promised in 2009 to climate action by developing nations has been rescinded.
