Prime minister Narendra Modi announces $30m solar investment, but also pins historical blame on rich countries asking them to do more on emissions and aid

India has emerged as a pivotal player in the climate talks, championing developing country demands that the rich take the lead in cutting emissions and providing more money for poor countries. But desperate for a strong deal to protect it from the ravages of climate change, it is also backing the US-led principle that all countries should act.

Narendra Modi, prime minister of the country of 1.2 billion and the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has so far taken the strongest line of all the developing country leaders in the talks.

He’s announced $30m (£20m) of investments in solar energy, and has also argued for a deal that would allow India to continue to grow its economy with coal and fossil fuels for many years.

“We hope advanced nations will assume ambitious targets and pursue them sincerely. It is not just a question of historical responsibility. They also have the most room to make the cuts and make the strongest impact,” Modi told nearly 150 heads of state on Monday. He added that a strong agreement was need on ‘loss and damage’, the idea that vulnerable countries be compensated for irreparable damage done by climate change that they did not cause

“He wants a deal which will force rich countries to increase their commitments,” says a government spokesman.

India is arguing that while all countries should work towards reducing emissions, those which industrialised first and whose emissions led to climate change, such as the US, Britain and Germany, should cut the most and help pay vulnerable countries to adapt. This, it says, is a non-negotiable, fundamental part of the UN’s framework convention on climate change and must not be dismantled.

“We are not supporting any one prescription [for cuts] … On historical emissions we start in 1850. We are not singling out countries [for responsibility]. What individual countries do is to be decided by them. But the fact is that historical emissions have led to climate change,” said the spokesman. “Developing countries are trying to take action on their own, but their actions will fall short. It should be the responsibility of developed countries to step in.”

With industrialised countries in Paris reluctant to offer new money or to cede ground on loss and damage, India is certain to clash with the US and Europe over the next 10 days.

But India is not a deal breaker. It definitely wants a deal , according to negotiators from Africa and the least developed countries, who have been working with India.



Sanjay Vashist, a spokesman for Climate Action Network (CAN) South Asia, said: “Modi’s line reflects China’s situation 10 years ago. He is saying that developed countries are protecting their lifestyles while developing countries are negotiating for survival. There must be space for people to live a decent lifestyle too.

“To understand India’s position, you must realise that 300 million people live on under $1 a day and have no electricity, and that 700 million people depend on climate-sensitive monsoon-pattern agriculture.”

“Only a a strong global deal can generate the finance to avert disaster,” said Joydeep Gupta, editor of India Climate Dialogue, a leading Indian analyst group. “It is trying to be a leader of the developing world. It has led the poor and vulnerable in these negotiations by making these demands.”

Bill Hare, a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and founder of climate research group Climate Analytics, said: “I think India has some stark choices ahead of it. If it goes into coal, it will not contain its air pollution problems; if it goes into renewables, it will have a much better chance of a sustainable future. We’re seeing [in India] one of the fastest upscalings of renewables that have ever happened on the planet under way now but, on other hand, a huge lot of talk from the coal ministry about it [coal] being essential to India’s future.

“One of the paradoxes of that situation is that India is a hotspot of future with very damaging impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations – there would [with climate change] be major reductions in agriculture production, huge increases in heatwaves, and flooding. India, has a major interest in the outcome of the world reducing emissions sufficiently to get below 2C. I think that’s a major challenge.”