India can play even bigger role in climate talks; should host COP in 2028 — Sunita Narain

NEW DELHI — India can play an “even bigger” role in climate talks by emerging as the voice of the global south and presenting the challenges faced by them, leading environmentalist Sunita Narain said as Prime Minister Narendra Modi eyes hosting the UN climate summit in 2028.

In an interaction with PTI editors here, Narain, the Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said the Conference of Parties, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, was the only forum where multilateral decisions can be taken to deal with the challenges posed by climate change.

“We can play an even bigger role as a country which stands for countries of the south. We have challenges. We can talk about our challenges, not paper over them. And, we can help the world to find a better way ahead. We can play a leadership role,” Narain said.

Modi, in his address at the Conference of Parties (COP-28) in Dubai, had offered to host the climate conference in India in 2028.

The COP presidency rotates between different world regions and India’s next opportunity will be in 2028 when Asia gets its turn. All countries in that group must unanimously agree to Modi’s bid before it is confirmed.

“Absolutely we should host the COP and absolutely we must talk. See, climate change is a very unique problem in the world which cannot be sorted on a bilateral level at all. It is a multilateral issue,” Narain said.

She said climate change was one way to relearn socialism because it was about a common atmospheric space where countries have to learn to live together, whether they like it or not.

“The UN talks are the only forum where you do multilateral decisions and decision making, however broken the system is, it is important,” Narain said.

Narain was a member of the COP-28 President Sultan Al Jaber’s advisory panel. Al Jaber, also heads oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which fuelled activists’ worries that big industry was hijacking the global response to the environmental crisis.

“A lot of the flak that was given also to me was… ‘but he is an oil producer. And why are you advising an oil producing producer?’ But that is important. And, I think it is important for us to come to a common ground to say, what are we going to do with fossil fuels? How are they going to reduce,” Narain said.

She said the Ukraine war had pushed the talk about renewable energy to the background. “Germany was going back to building LNG stations. The US is talking about fracking more and more, talking about more and more lands to be opened out. This is the reality” Narain said.

Narain said the increasing influence of right-wing parties in Europe has also led to protests against the EU Green Deal.

“We need a forum where we can come together as nations to discuss and for the south to play a bigger and bigger role in demanding that,” she said.

Narain said India should also raise the issue of climate finance and the high cost of capital for renewable energy projects.

“These are issues that we need to have on the table. And, the only way to discuss that is in multilateral forums. Yes, India should hold the talks. I think India is a very important part of the global leadership. We play an important role,” Narain said.