This week, climate negotiators and world leaders from around 200 countries are descending on the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el Sheikh for COP27—the twenty-seventh gathering of the 197 nations that signed up to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change back in 1992. 

As proceedings get underway, a huge question mark hangs over this year’s climate summit. Rich nations are pushing for poor countries to announce greater cuts to carbon emissions, but developing countries claim that their developed counterparts have stiffed them when it comes to climate finance. 

To make sense of this dynamic at this year’s gathering and to explore the unique role India plays, journalist Bill Spindle joins Milan on the show this week.

Bill is the climate and energy editor at the new journalism start-up, Semafor. He’s also a ten-year veteran of the Wall Street Journal, where he served as South Asia Bureau Chief from 2016 to 2020. Bill has spent the last year crisscrossing the length and breadth of India reporting on the transformation of India’s energy sector—a journey he documented on Substack.

Bill and Milan discuss the developed vs. developing country deadlock that imperils the COP27 proceedings, India’s opportunity to play a leadership role, and the continuing uncertainty over U.S.-China relations. Plus, the two discuss Bill’s year-long adventure traveling 8,000 kilometers across India by train.

1. Semafor “Climate” newsletter by Bill Spindle. 
2. Bill Spindle, “Energy: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly,” The Energy Adventure(r) newsletter, June 14, 2022.
3. Bill Spindle, “The Free Power Flywheel,” The Energy Adventure(r) newsletter, August 29, 2022.
4. Bill Spindle, “Global climate conference threatens to be a bust,” Semafor, October 22, 2022.
5. “How India Can Get to Net Zero Emissions (with Jayant Sinha),” Grand Tamasha, October 13, 2021.
6. “What COP26 Means for India—and the World (with Navroz Dubash),” Grand Tamasha, November 17, 2021.