In new role as G20 chair, India set to focus on climate
In new role as G20 chair, India set to focus on climate
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes part in the closing session at the G20 Leaders Summit in Bali, Indonesia on Nov. 16, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
BENGALURU, India -
India officially takes up its role as chair of the Group of 20 leading economies for the coming year Thursday and it's putting climate at the top of the group's priorities.
Programs to encourage sustainable living and money for countries to transition to clean energy and deal with the effects of a warming world are some of the key areas that India will focus on during its presidency, experts say. Some say India will also use its new position to boost its climate credentials and act as a bridge between the interests of industrialized nations and developing ones.
The country has made considerable moves toward its climate goals in recent years but is currently one of the world's top emitters of planet-warming gases.
The G20, made up of the world's largest economies, has a rolling presidency with a different member state in charge of the group's agenda and priorities each year. Experts believe India will use the "big stage" of the G20 presidency to drive forward its climate and development plans.
The country "will focus heavily on responding to the current and future challenges posed by climate change," said Samir Saran, president of the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank. The ORF will be anchoring the T20 -- a group of think tanks from the 20 member countries whose participants meet alongside the G20.
Saran said that India will work to ensure that money is flowing from rich industrialized nations to emerging economies to help them combat global warming, such as a promise of US$100 billion a year for clean energy and adapting to climate change for poorer nations that has not yet been fulfilled and a recent pledge to vulnerable countries that there will be a fund for the loss and damage caused by extreme weather.
He added that India will also use the presidency to push its flagship "Mission Life" program that encourages more sustainable lifestyles in the country, which is set to soon become most populous in the world.
When outgoing chair Indonesia symbolically handed the presidency to India in Bali last month by passing the gavel, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the opportunity to promote the program, saying it could make "a big contribution" by turning sustainable living into "a mass movement."
The impact of lifestyle "has not received as much attention in the global discourse as it should," said RR Rashmi, a distinguished fellow at The Energy Research Institute in New Delhi. He added that the issue "may get some prominence" at the G20 which would be a success for the Indian government, but critics say the focus on lifestyle changes must be backed by policy to have credibility.
India has been beefing up its climate credentials, with its recent domestic targets to transition to renewable energy more ambitious than the goals it submitted to the UN as part of the Paris Agreement, which requires countries to show how they plan to limit warming to temperature targets set in 2015.
Analysts say nations' climate ambitions and actions -- including India's -- are not in line with temperature targets.
Many of India's big industrialists are investing heavily in renewable energy domestically as well as globally, but the Indian government is also preparing to invest in coal-based power plants at the cost of $33 billion over the next four years.
At the UN climate conference last month, India -- currently the world's third largest emitter of greenhouse gases -- proposed a phaseout of all fossil fuels and repeatedly emphasized the need to revamp global climate finance. The country says it cannot reach its climate goals and reduce carbon dioxide emissions without significantly more finance from richer nations, a claim which those countries dispute.
Navroz Dubash, author of several UN climate reports and professor at the Centre for Policy Research, said that a key question for many countries is how "emerging economies address development needs and do it in a low carbon pathway" with several in the global south, like India, pointing to a need for outside investment.
As the chair of the G20, India is a good position "to say what it will take for us to develop in ways that don't lock up the remaining carbon budget," Dubash added, referring to the amount of carbon dioxide the world can emit while still containing global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial levels.
"Developing countries are making a convincing case that green industrial policies are actually quite dependent on having public money to throw at the problems," said Dubash. Some experts say more than $2 trillion is needed each year by 2030 to help developing countries cut emissions and deal with the effects of a warming climate, with $1 trillion from domestic sources and the rest coming from external sources such as developed countries or multilateral development banks.
"This public money can also be a way of getting in private money, which is what the U.S. has done in its Inflation Reduction Act," Dubash added. The U.S.'s flagship climate package that passed earlier this year includes incentives for building out clean energy infrastructure.
The G20 will also be looking closely at alternative means to getting climate finance, experts say. The group could potentially take a leaf out of the Bridgetown initiative proposed by the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, which involves unlocking large sums of money from multilateral development banks and international financial institutions to help countries adapt to climate change and transition to cleaner energy.
ORF's Saran said that as G20 chair India can help move forward the conversation on the initiative. Developing countries are often charged higher rates of interest when borrowing from global financial institutions. Rejigging global finance to make renewable energy more affordable in the developing world is key to curbing climate change, Saran said.
The idea has recently gained traction amongst developed nations, with France's Macron recently vocalizing his support.
"A large share of emissions will come from the developing world in the future," Saran said. "If we make it easier for them to shift to clean energy, then these emissions can be avoided."
------
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP's climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars. W5's documentary 'Buried Evidence' airs Saturday at 7 p.m. on CTV.
The massive white orb drifting across U.S. airspace has triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and is blowing up on social media. A look at what's known about the balloon crossing the U.S. and what isn't.
In the field of cancer treatment, nothing is more important than diagnosing and treating the problem as quickly as possible — but according to new survey data, about one in four Canadian cancer patients report that they are still experiencing cancelled or postponed appointments.
The oldest preserved vertebrate brain has been found in a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish skull that was removed from an English coal mine over a century ago.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said the supply of more advanced U.S. weaponry to Ukraine will only trigger more retaliatory strikes from Russia, up to the extent of Russia's nuclear doctrine.
The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was found floating over sensitive military sites in the western United States had been tracked by Canada's government since last weekend as it passed through Canadian airspace, sources tell CTV News.
It took 40 years, but former NHL player and coach Ted Nolan is now one of eight Indigenous ex-NHL-ers being honoured hockey trading cards as a part of Upper Deck's First Peoples Rookie Card series.
Indian police have arrested more than 2,000 men in a crackdown on illegal child marriages involving girls under the age of 18 in a northeastern state, officials said Saturday.
Canada announced that it had called China's ambassador onto the carpet as Ottawa and Washington expressed their disapproval Friday over a high-altitude balloon found to have been hovering over sensitive sites in the United States.
A group of airlines is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hear their case after a lower court largely upheld the validity of Canada's air passenger bill of rights.
Medicago Inc., the Quebec-based drug manufacturer of a Canadian COVID-19 vaccine and other plant-based drugs, is being shut down by parent company Mitsubishi Chemical Group.
A landmine killed a 13-year-old boy in the contested Yemeni city of Hodeida, medical and security officials said Friday, the latest in a string of similar incidents in the war-torn country.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday that industrialized countries in the Group of Seven are imposing a price cap on refined Russian oil products such as diesel and kerosene, as part of a coalition that includes Australia and a tentative agreement from the European Union.
The massive white orb drifting across U.S. airspace has triggered a diplomatic maelstrom and is blowing up on social media. A look at what's known about the balloon crossing the U.S. and what isn't.
A huge, high-altitude Chinese balloon sailed across the U.S. on Friday, drawing severe Pentagon accusations of spying on sensitive military sites despite China's firm denials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a high-stakes Beijing trip aimed at easing U.S.-China tensions.
China said Friday that a balloon spotted over American airspace was used for weather research and was blown off course, despite U.S. suspicion it was spying. The discovery further strained already tense relations between Beijing and Washington.
The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that was found floating over sensitive military sites in the western United States had been tracked by Canada's government since last weekend as it passed through Canadian airspace, sources tell CTV News.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is hosting an in-person meeting Friday with the provincial and territorial finance ministers in Toronto to discuss issues including the current economic environment and the transition to a clean economy.
The federal Liberals have withdrawn an amendment to their gun bill aimed at enshrining a definition of banned assault-style firearms, citing 'legitimate concerns' about the need for more consultation on the measure.
Paid subscriptions to on-demand care are among the many strategies primary health-care providers in Ontario are adopting in order to meet increased demand for access to doctors in the past year, while also managing staffing shortages.
Ontario fully supports the federal government's push to make health-care funding contingent on data reporting, the province said Thursday as it announced a plan to boost access to primary care doctors.
White-tailed deer may be a reservoir for COVID-19 variants of concern including Alpha, Delta and Gamma, according to new research out of Cornell University that raises questions about whether deer could re-introduce nearly extinct variants back into the human population.
Using a device that might be described as a super-duper cocktail shaker, scientists have fashioned a previously unknown form of ice - one that might exist on our solar system's icy moons - in research that sheds light on water's behaviour under extreme conditions.
The oldest preserved vertebrate brain has been found in a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish skull that was removed from an English coal mine over a century ago.
Three bodies found in a vacant Detroit-area apartment building have been identified as those of three aspiring rappers who went missing nearly two weeks ago, police said Friday.
Mexican actor Pablo Lyle was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for involuntary manslaughter after fatally punching a man during a road rage confrontation in Miami in 2019.
A California jury has ruled that Elon Musk is not liable for losses experienced by Tesla shareholders following his controversial "funding secured" tweet from 2018.
A Yukon court has quashed government approval for a mining exploration project, siding with a First Nation that argued there was a failure to properly consult it about the project on its traditional territory.
A group of airlines is asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hear their case after a lower court largely upheld the validity of Canada's air passenger bill of rights.
A Portuguese dog named Bobi has been named the world’s oldest living dog by Guinness World Records, which claims the pooch is also the oldest canine ever recorded.
Canada's newest millionaire, an 18-year-old university freshman from northern Ontario, has achieved a lot of firsts with a recent lottery win. Here is her story.
It took 40 years, but former NHL player and coach Ted Nolan is now one of eight Indigenous ex-NHL-ers being honoured hockey trading cards as a part of Upper Deck's First Peoples Rookie Card series.
The world’s largest international Arctic sporting event is underway in northern Alberta, where athletes compete in unique games significant to the cultural identity of the North.
Unable to get a new contract, Kyrie Irving is looking for a new address. The All-Star guard has asked the Brooklyn Nets for a trade, a person with knowledge of the details said Friday.
Formula One's governing body confirmed the six engine providers for the 2026-30 cycle on Friday which aims to use sustainable fuels and greater electric power.
Ford will return to Formula One as the engine provider for Red Bull Racing in a partnership announced Friday that begins with immediate technical support this season and engines in 2026.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes part in the closing session at the G20 Leaders Summit in Bali, Indonesia on Nov. 16, 2022. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
