Scientists and Climate activists have long been seen as alarmist for suggesting that global warming and climate change will destroy Planet Earth, but by this week, and the 26th meeting of the Conference of Parties or CoP 26, it was world leaders that were making dire predictions and some new commitments. 

India was most closely watched, as it has yet to update its NDCs or Nationally Determined Contributions to countering climate change. And there was some suspense, given that:

- Climate negotiators from the UK, US, EU had all visited India in the last few months but had not been given any promises (Kerry and Sharma visited twice) 

- India had not updated NDCs by October 12, the UNFCCC deadline

- And just a day before he went to Glasgow, at the G-20 in Rome, PM Modi had made no commitments, and in fact G20 Sherpa Piyush Goyal said India was not in a position to identify a year by which it would reach Net Zero. Net zero is when a country’s carbon emissions are offset by taking out equivalent carbon from the atmosphere, so that emissions in balance are zero. 

But in his national statement in Glasgow PM Modi spelt out five targets for India: 

Read more here

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices