Green over brown: On India's climate goals
The HinduIndia asserted at the virtual Climate Ambition Summit, co-convened by the UN to mark five years of the Paris Agreement, that it is well on its way to not just fulfilling its national pledge on emissions reduction, but exceeding the commitment. Indeed, the Emissions Gap Report 2020 of the UNEP includes India among nine G20 members who are on track to achieve their unconditional commitments under the Paris pact, based on pre-COVID-19 projections. India faces a particular challenge, in moving its pandemic rehabilitation spending away from traditional brown sector policies aligned with fossil fuel use to green territory. In the year that remains before countries meet at the UN Climate Change conference in Glasgow in 2021, India needs to focus on future emissions and plan green investments that qualify for global climate funding.