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India’s leadership in climate actions: Critical reflections from Global South
India's climate actions have been emphasised a lot during COP, whether it was the Green Credit initiative or not signing the Climate Health pledge because it thought climate justice was more important
India at the G20 Environment and Climate Ministers’ Meeting / X/@g20org
During the conclusion of Conference of Parties 28 (COP28), nations that are most affected by climate change debated the actions needed to mitigate and slow the ongoing process of climate change. At these meetings, states talk about how to reduce and adapt for future climate change. It was decided that steps should be made to move away from fossil fuels as soon as possible. All member countries must work together to make this happen, and developed countries must take responsibility for helping developing countries do the same.
India plays a leadership role in representing the Global South's voice to the world on climate actions while it is in charge of the G20. It led talks about climate change and the security of the world economy, and they worked to find good answers to these problems. These projects promote teamwork and deal with issues like land loss, the blue economy, green hydrogen, resource efficiency, and the circular economy.
It was the goal of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Climate Action Charter to get Indian companies to work together to deal with the risks of climate change. The CII and Indian Industry have been working together on a number of projects to help solve some of these problems.
It has more than 170 members and has worked in 7 industrial areas in India over the past year. For instance, the CII-Godrej Green Business Centre (IGBC) wants to help businesses save natural resources by giving them advice. India's green building trend has been led by CII-GBC. The IGBC has registered over 11,300 green building projects covering more than 10.27 billion square feet as part of its programme. In India, 3,260 of these projects have been certified and are fully operational.
During all of these discussions, India's climate actions have been emphasised a lot during COP, whether it was the Green Credit initiative or not signing the Climate Health pledge because it thought climate justice was more important.
Prime Minister Modi stressed on India's new Green Credits Initiative. This was created by the Environment Ministry to encourage people to take care of the environment by giving green credits for projects that do any kind of environmental work. These credits also help protect human rights.
On the climate finance front, India put more emphasis on the needs for commitments from organisation such as World Bank and other co-financing private sectors who could work with governments of the developing countries to improve the risk-return nexus. The country also highlighted to carry forward the momentum of discussions and conversations around the reforms of multi-lateral development bank (MDB). This initiative is crucial for the transitions towards green energy without impacting the economic growth of the developing countries.
About 40 percent of urban population live in the slums (informal settlements). So, the state government of India are taking various steps to meet the zero-emission target based on the Paris Agreement. For example, Chennai has planned to reach their zero-emission goals by 2050, which is earlier than the 2070 deadline set by the Indian government.
At the regional level, especially in South Asian context, India negotiates with BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, China, India) bloc under COP where national interests get priority. South Asian countries need regional approach to tackle the climate crisis. Although there are two regional platforms such as Bay of Bengal Initiatives for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP), the countries need to take effective regional collaboration than bilateral approach.
India, as the emerging power of Global South, has the responsibility to raise the voice for the other vulnerable countries through multilateral platforms. The country has already secured 7th position on the Climate Change Performance Index 2023 for its commitment to a sustainable future. India’s commitments towards sustainable and resilient growth will reflect her “leadership” for Global South and pave the future to achieve climate goals through actions.
The author is a Senior Research Fellow, Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS), Dhaka, Bangladesh
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