Coal will be among India’s energy mix, asserts New Delhi as PM Modi leaves for COP28 summit

New Delhi: Notwithstanding the pressure on India to reduce its coal consumption for the sake of climate, top officials on Thursday said the mineral would continue to be an important part of India’s energy mix because of the country’s developmental priorities.

Briefing reporters hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Dubai to participate in the annual UN Climate Change Summit, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra also said that New Delhi would expect a clear roadmap on climate finance including a new fund-flowing mechanism that the nations would have to work out at the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28).

In his departure statement, the Prime Minister said in keeping with civilisational ethos, India always focussed on climate action while pursuing social and economic development.

“India has walked the talk when it comes to climate action. Our achievements in renewable energy, energy efficiency, afforestation, energy conservation, Mission LiFE are testament to the commitment of our people towards mother Earth,” he said.

“COP28 will provide an opportunity to review progress made under the Paris Agreement, and chart a path for future courses on climate action,” he said. This will be the third UN Climate Summit that Modi will be attending after Paris in 2015 and Glasgow in 2021.

Being one of the world’s biggest polluters, New Delhi in every recent climate summit came under pressure to make a commitment on reducing its coal consumption but officials argue that India’s per capita emission is far below the world average and will remain so.

Also, India needs more access to energy to pull out more people out of poverty and improve the quality of life for the rest.

“Coal is and would remain an important part of India's energy mix, it has always been, as we move forward to meet our developmental priorities in the country,” Kwatra said, responding to the question of how India would tackle proposals from the USA and France to halt private financing in coal-fired power projects.

On climate finance, the Foreign Secretary said, “Climate finance and also climate technology is a very, very crucial segment of all the global efforts in addressing the challenge of environmental degradation. We expect a clear roadmap to be agreed at COP28 on climate finance, which would be important for delivering on the New Collective Quantified Goals (NCQG) at COP29.”

The annual conference began amid concerns that the emission-cut steps taken so far are too little to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and the rich countries are nowhere close to fulfilling their promises of providing $100 billion every year to the poor and emerging economies to tackle the consequences of climate change.

While that target remains unachieved, new estimates suggest that $100 billion is a fraction of what developing countries require to lower emissions and expand their clean energy basket.

“In the (G20) New Delhi Leaders' Summit, there was an acknowledgement that we need to move from billions to trillions,” said Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs.