India Withholds Signature on Global Renewable Energy Pledge at COP28 Due to Coal Phase-Out Conditions: Sources

According to sources in the Indian delegation, New Delhi opposes the draft text’s inclusion of phase-out of coal, leading to which India declined to sign the commitment to treble global renewable energy capacity by 2030 at the U.N’s COP28 climate meeting on Saturday.

In a widely praised move, 118 nations pledged to triple the amount of renewable energy produced globally by 2030 during the UN climate conference.

The source stated that the commitment made by a group of nations was beyond the purview of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and that India had already achieved a deal on the increasing renewable energy capacity by three folds during the G20 Summit held in Delhi in September.

However, despite having previously pledged to tripling global renewable energy capacity by 2030 as part of its G20 chairmanship, India and China declined to sign the pledge at the COP28 climate meeting.

India declined to sign the agreement because, as one source in the Indian delegation claims, New Delhi objects to its mention of gradually eliminating coal use.

Rather than negotiating a more limited agreement to phase out coal use, India has been requesting that nations agree to phase out all fossil fuels and not just coal.

The commitment made by nations at G20 summit called for stopping the phase-down of coal power and ending the funding of brand-new coal-fired power facilities.