Boris Johnson applauds Narendra Modi’s commitment to a net-zero climate policy

Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s climate promises, which include achieving net zero carbon emissions and sourcing half of India’s energy from renewable sources by 2030.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced India’s intention to attain the net zero target of balancing the country’s energy usage by 2070 while delivering India’s national statement at the World Leaders’ Summit in Glasgow on Monday.

He also outlined “Panchamrit,” or five critical steps to achieve this goal, including expanding India’s non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030 and lowering the country’s overall anticipated carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes.

“India has stated ambitious goals to source 50% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. After PM Modi’s statement at the COP26 climate meeting, Boris Johnson tweeted, “This would decrease carbon emissions by a billion tonnes, adding to a global decade of climate change delivery.”

“For the first time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged for India to achieve net zero emissions, implying that 90 percent of the world’s GDP is now committed to this target.” He added the UK would cooperate with India to make even greater progress, notably through the Clean Green Initiative, which was debated at COP26 today.

Johnson unveiled the new UK India Green Guarantee at the United Nations (UN) summit, which will add GBP 750 million to green initiatives across India.

PM Modi also pledged to cut the country’s carbon intensity by 45 percent as part of the five core climate goals, which he termed as “unprecedented action by India on climate action.”

“We are yet to peak; we are yet to achieve that level of industrial activity in development… While many of the economies that have announced a net zero have peaked considerably earlier, we are yet to peak; we are yet to reach that level of industrial activity in development… With regard to India’s objective of 2070, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said, “If you look at the time lag between peaking and the timeframe between net zero for many countries, clearly ours is potentially among the quickest.”

“We are, first and foremost, a developing country. Our main goal is to lift millions of people out of poverty… We account for 17% of the world’s population. Despite the fact that we only contribute 5% of global emissions, we are extremely willing to contribute to the broader issue of climate change because we believe in it,” he told reporters at a post-summit press conference.