India is to finally submit official plans to reduce emissions to the United Nations (UN) in September, an obligation under the Paris Agreement that was supposed to be fulfilled before the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) last November, as reported by Strait Times on July 13. According to people familiar with the matter, India plans to put forward the official document to the UN this September, weeks before the COP27 climate talks in Egypt. The source also disclosed that the Indian government delayed submitting the document due to the tedious inter-ministerial negotiations over the climate plan, especially for industrial sectors such as cement and steel.

Though India has yet to submit the official climate plan, India Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi committed at the COP26 summit that the country will achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. As the world’s third-largest carbon emitter, India falls behind the largest emitter China which committed to carbon neutrality by 2060. However, this lagging target is deemed incredible for a country that is still years away from peaking its emissions, according to Shikha Bhasin, senior program lead at India’s Council on Energy, Environment, and Water. In addition, PM Modi also admitted that India’s further ambition in tackling climate change depends on financial support from rich countries. In May, the Group of Seven (G7) major economies vowed to expand an initiative to help developing countries including Indonesia, Vietnam, India, and Senegal phase out coal. The US and Germany were assigned to be the major contributors to India under this initiative.

Sources:

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/india-preparing-to-submit-new-climate-targets-to-un-in-september

https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/cop26-heres-what-countries-have-pledged

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Environment/Climate-Change/G-7-to-help-Indonesia-Vietnam-shed-dependence-on-coal-power-plants