Money will be the key issue when about 100 countries meet in Paris Today for the One Planet Summit. The meeting will focus on marshalling public and private funds to speed the move to a low-carbon economy.
Developing countries say barely a tenth of the $100 billion promised by the end of the decade under a 2010 deal has come in so far.
India needs $140 billion to reach Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious target of installing 100,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022. So far it has just 15,000 MW, less than five percent of the country’s total generation capacity of 331,000 MW.
Developing countries “have stayed committed to the Paris agreement, even after the US decision to exit, but their ability to scale up ambitions is contingent on how much rich countries do at home and how much they support actions outside.
As one of the fastest growing major economies, India needs uninterrupted power to keep factories humming and the economy expanding.
Currently, 66 percent of its electricity is generated by coal and gas. The rest comes from nuclear and renewables, including hydro, wind and solar.
India needs renewable energy to meet its 2015 Paris commitment to reduce emissions relative to gross domestic product by up to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels.
A lack of affordable options to store wind and solar energy means cheap coal is India’s mainstay. More than 300 coal power plant units missed a December 7 government deadline to upgrade with emissions reduction technology.
The impact is visible in Uncha Amirpur, where a thick coat of grime and dust covers every surface. The Dadri power plant provides up to one third of the electricity required for New Delhi, 66 kilometres (41 miles) away by road, but also fuels the smog that envelops the Indian capital each winter.
The people of Uncha Amirpur in the northern Uttar Pradesh state — east of the smog-afflicted capital New Delhi — discovered that a mix of water and coal used by the nearby NTPC Dadri power plant had accumulated under the field and caught fire. Some cattle died.
Hundreds of millions of people in India are forced to live with the fallout of the dirtiest fuels — with the government blaming a lack of funds to pay for greener power. The pollutants accumulated over the decades and It was due to the Western economies, so they should clear up those dues as soon as possible so that world could migrate to a clean future.