UN calls on ‘solar superpower’ India to submit stronger climate plan

The top United Nations climate official says India is uniquely placed to take advantage of the global shift towards cleaner energy and urged it to submit a more ambitious national climate plan.

Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told a business conference in New Delhi that India was well placed to reap the economic benefits.

Investing in clean energy is “strategic and profitable,” Stiell emphasized, describing it as “the biggest economic and commercial opportunity” of the current age.

“Those that take the lead have a chance to benefit massively from a new order.  Where some governments talk, India delivers. India is already a solar superpower, one of only four countries to have installed more than 100 gigawatts of solar.”

Speaking at the ninth annual Global Business Summit, organized by ET Now, Stiell detailed many of the steps that India has already taken to increase access to energy and boost renewable energy.

“Now there is a real opportunity to take the next step and unleash even bigger benefits for India's 1.4 billion people and economy. Doing so requires a strong climate plan – a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).”

Under the Paris Agreement, countries must submit NDCs that spell out the commitments they will make to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to reach the global climate targets.

Stiell noted that in the past, NDCs were focused almost entirely on cuts to fossil fuel production.

“I am asking that these plans now focus on the huge growth potential. Growth in wind and solar, growth in living standards, growth in jobs.  

“India is already headed firmly in this direction, but an even stronger embrace of the global clean energy boom will supercharge India's economic rise. You already led the way by increasing economic growth while decreasing energy intensity. Creating the International Solar Alliance. And setting impressive targets for clean energy growth. 

“Now you have a chance to go even further. To realize ambitious plans to deploy hundreds more gigawatts of renewable energy capacity. To lead a new wave of green industrialization, developing, scaling, and exporting vital technologies.”

Stiell stressed that countries must adopt an integrated approach to climate, ensuring that governments, the private sector and the wider society are working together on research, investment, education, training and innovation.

“India is powerfully placed to seize the dividends that flow from ambitious, economy-wide climate plans.  Key among them is Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi's leadership in prioritizing LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) – unleashing the power of institutions, communities, and individuals to protect the environment and promote a circular economy. 

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Together, India's leaders have an exciting opportunity: to deepen whole-of-economy industrial strategies that ensure India is a dominant force in clean energy and industry… The alternative – inaction – is a recipe for massive human and economic destruction.”