Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a five-point climate agenda during his address at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland. Most notably, he pledged India will achieve net zero emissions by 2070.
With this, all of the world's top 10 coal-power countries have now committed to net-zero, according to climate think tank Ember.
However, India's goal of 2070 target is decades later than other polluter economies, and even later than China, which has targeted 2060.
"I’m happy to report that a developing country like India, which is working to lift millions out of poverty and working on their ease of living, accounts for 17% of the world’s population but only 5% of the world’s carbon emissions," Modi said Monday. "But it has not left any stone unturned in fulfilling its promise, and the whole world agrees that India is the only big economy that has delivered on the Paris Agreement in letter and spirit."
He also touted the Indian railway network for setting a goal to be net-zero by 2030, reducing emissions by 40 million tonnes by 2030.
Here are the promises Modi made in his five-point climate agenda:
- India's non-fossil energy capacity to reach 500 GW by 2030.
- Renewable energy will fulfill 50% of India's energy requirements by 2030.
- Its total projected carbon emissions will reduce by one billion tonnes by 2030.
- India will also reduce the carbon intensity of its economy to less than 45% by 2030.
- India will achieve the target of net zero emissions by 2070.
Modi also called on developed nations to contribute $1 trillion in climate financing to help developing countries transition to green energy and adapt to the climate crisis. He said he believes those contributions should be tracked.
"Climate finance ambitions cannot remain at the same levels as they were during the Paris Climate Agreement. Now that India has made a new commitment, the need for climate finance and low-cost technology transfer has become even more important," he said.