NEW DELHI: Amid growing demands of raising climate action targets of India ahead of 26th session of the UN climate conference (COP26), environment minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday said the country would not raise its climate ambition at the behest of or under pressure (from anyone) and appealed to rich nations not to seek profit from disaster.
“Climate change is not business… If climate change is a disaster, we should not profit from disaster,” said Javadekar while speaking at a panel debate on boosting global action on climate change ahead of COP26 which is to be held in Glasgow, UK in November. The debate was organised by the French embassy.
Referring to the clamour for higher ambition and ‘net-zero’ goal by 2050, the minister asked the rich nation to first follow the ambition which they had promised.
In this context, he also appealed to developed countries to provide finance and extend technological support to developing countries to help them meet their mitigation and adaptation goals to fight climate change, which he said, was the “common enemy”.
In his speech, the minister referred to how India had not only met its pre-2020 voluntary targets but also raised its ambition of achieving 450GW of renewable energy by 2030 on its own as a responsible nation.
Underlining that India is the only G-20 country to walk the talk on the Paris climate agreement, he said, “We have done more than we promised”.
Noting that many countries have forgotten their pre-2020 commitments, Javadekar in his speech reminded the rich nations, mainly the US and European countries, of their historical emissions, saying the world is facing climate change due to what the developed countries had emitted in the past.
He said India was suffering because of the actions (historical emissions) of others. "Therefore, the historical responsibility is an important aspect in the climate debate," he said. He also noted that the poor countries have the right to develop and for this those (developed countries) who polluted the world due to their past emission must come forward to extend financial support and make affordable cleaner technology available to the poor and developing nations.