India refrained from signing on global renewable energy pledge at COP28 over coal phase-out terms: Sources
04 Dec 2023
India and China both on Saturday refrained from signing the
pledge at the COP28 climate summit to triple the world's renewable energy
capacity by 2030 even though New Delhi already committed to it as part of its
G20 presidency.
Dubai: India refrained
from signing the pledge to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030 as
the draft text mentioned phasing out coal, which New Delhi doesn't
support, according to sources in the Indian delegation. India and China both
on Saturday refrained from signing the pledge at the COP28 climate summit to
triple the world's renewable energy capacity by 2030 even though New Delhi already
committed to it as part of its G20 presidency.
During the UN's climate talks here, 118 countries committed to tripling the
global renewable energy capacity by 2030 in a highly endorsed initiative.
Advt
A source in the Indian delegation said that India refrained from signing
the pledge as the draft text mentioned phasing out/down coal, which New Delhi
doesn't support.
India has been asking countries to agree to phase down all fossil fuels rather
than a narrower deal to phase down coal.
The source said that India has already delivered a deal on the tripling of
renewable energy capacity at the G20 Summit held in Delhi in September and that
the pledge taken by a group of countries was outside the ambit of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The pledge called for phase down of unabated coal power and putting an end to
the financing of new coal-fired power plants.
"Unabated"
fossil fuels generally refer to the continued use of coal, oil and gas without
efforts to curtail emissions. Nonetheless, a universally accepted and precise
definition of this term is currently lacki