India Will Reduce Coal Emissions If COP21 Guarantees Financial Assist

Summary: India will reduce coal emissions if COP21 guarantees financial assist for green energy development, senior negotiator Dr. Ajay Mathur tells COP21.

India will only relinquish reliance on coal if COP 21 gives firm guarantee of international funding for India's switch to green energy sources; Jharia Coal Field in eastern India's Jharkhand state has an underground fire which has been burning unremittingly since first detection in 1916: TripodStories- AB (1984abhionwiki), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

On day two of formal negotiations at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP21, Dr. Ajay Mathur, senior negotiator in India’s delegation, affirmed India will reduce coal emissions if COP21 agrees to a firm package of international support for India’s green energy development.

Coal-rich and population-rich India’s overriding goals, noted also on COP21 opening day, Monday, Nov. 30, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are to grow the economy and to provide access to electricity for 300 million electricity-less Indians, almost one-quarter of the country’s population of 1.25 billion. With coal as a major, inexpensive energy source for the world’s second most populous country, India plans to expand coal production to 1.5 billion tonnes by 2020. Dr. Mathur stated that solar energy, despite a 75 percent decline in cost in four years, still doubles coal in cost.

“We are very clear that solar and wind is our first commitment. Hydro and nuclear, all of these non-carbon sources, are what we will develop to the largest extent we can,” Dr. Mathur explained, but added: “What cannot be met by these will be met by coal.”

India’s determined path to development requires customized, unique strategies. Paradigms of the greenest European countries do not apply to India’s high population and newly industrialized status.

Dr. Mathur noted: “What I am truly fearful about is, say, if India moves onto a path of Denmark, and even has two cars for 10 people, we will be swamped. Even the Denmark paradigm does not work for us.”

India’s delegation at COP21 has adhered to the view expressed in the country’s pre-conference Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), an emissions reduction statement pledged in October. India holds to the stance that, to be fair and just, the COP21 agreement must require more from industrialized countries and less from newly industrialized countries. Allowances and climate finance assistance should be extended to newly industrializing countries in their mitigating navigation of the global warming landscape of greenhouse gases, a landscape created by already industrialized nations in their own historical course of rapid development.

India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution interweaves emissions reductions of 33 to 35 percent below 2005 levels with 40 percent reliance on non-fossil fuels via expansion of renewable energy and forest cover enlargement. The price tag for India’s climate change pledge is estimated at around $2.5 trillion.

Dr. Mathur, who also serves as director of India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency, expressed that “We look forward to an agreement that enables financial support from the countries that have developed on the backs of cheap energy, to those who have to meet their energy with more expensive but low carbon energy.”

India seeks financial support for developing non-carbon energy sources to meet goal of providing electricity to 300 million electricity-less Indians: India@COP21 @India4Climate, via Twitter Dec. 3, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

India will only relinquish reliance on coal if COP 21 gives firm guarantee of international funding for India's switch to green energy sources; Jharia Coal Field in eastern India's Jharkhand state has an underground fire which has been burning unremittingly since first detection in 1916: TripodStories- AB (1984abhionwiki), CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coal_Mine.jpg

India seeks financial support for developing non-carbon energy sources to meet goal of providing electricity to 300 million electricity-less Indians: India@COP21 @India4Climate, via Twitter Dec. 3, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/India4Climate/status/672472839035994113

For further information:

Coca, Nithin. "COP21 Challenge: The Climate Finance Gap." Triple Pundit. Dec. 2, 2015.
Available @ http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/12/cop21-challenge-climate-finance-gap/

India@COP21 @India4Climate. "Positive voices for a just #climateagreement. Ban Ki Moon endorses India's need to development. #COP21 @UN_Spokesperson." Twitter. Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/India4Climate/status/672472839035994113

Iyengar, Rishi. "India Says It Will Cut Back on Coal if Paris Deal Pays for More Renewable-Energy Sources." Time > World > Climate Change. Dec. 3, 2015.
Available @ http://time.com/4134234/india-coal-paris-climate-talks/

Kumar, Nikhil. "India's Need for Coal-Fueled Growth Complicates Paris Climate Summit." Time > World > India. Dec. 1, 2015.
Available @ http://time.com/4131236/india-coal-climate-change-paris-summit/

Marriner, Derdriu. "COP21 Opening Day Showcased World Leaders and Now Negotiations Begin." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/cop21-opening-day-showcased-world.html

PTI. "$2.5 trillion required for India's climate change actions." The Economic Times of India > News > Politics and Nation. Dec. 1, 2015.
Available @ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/2-5-trillion-required-for-indias-climate-change-actions/articleshow/50002518.cms

"Statement by Prime Minister at COP 21 Plenary Paris, 30 November 30, 2015." UNFCCC > Files > Meetings > Paris November 2015.
Available @ http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/paris_nov_2015/application/pdf/cop21cmp11_leaders_event_india.pdf