Occupiers of carbon space short-changing the world: Jaishankar

PTI, Dec 12, 2022, 3:36 PM IST

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday that the countries responsible for global warming need to step up and stop short-changing the world.

Addressing the India Global Forum UAE Summit themed around Climate Finance and Technology in Abu Dhabi, he drew a distinction between two parts to the climate debate – that of climate action and having the efficiencies in place to have greener growth and a second “tougher” part of climate justice, which requires promises made to the developing world being met.

“Essentially those who are occupying the carbon space have kept promising that they would help others and frankly they have kept short-changing the world,” said Jaishankar.

“They come up every COP with some new argument, some evasion, something which keeps kicking the can down the road. So, the real problem you are facing today is the same as multiple COPs ago. The developed countries are still not sincere about keeping to their promises. There is growing frustration because the state of the world is obviously getting worse,” he said.

He warned that the more climate emergencies, the more there will be the sense that the developed countries are unwilling to “walk the talk”.

The minister also condemned certain climate narratives designed to confuse and target countries with labels such as “big emitter”.

“But that country may have a per capita emission which is one-tenth that of the rest of the world. This was not the country which occupied the carbon space. So somewhere people need to be truthful about it and say who is really responsible for the global warming and the countries which need to step up,” he said.

In conversation with Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Diplomatic Adviser to the UAE President, Jaishankar also highlighted two big divides in the world today – one being the east-west divide centring around Ukraine and the other is a north-south divide centring around development.

“Ukraine is also having an impact on development. I do believe a country like India can play that bridging role, not alone but with countries like UAE. There is the need today to bridge,” he said at the forum, organised by UK-headquartered India Inc. Group.