A Decade of Global Climate Caution Is Sealed by India’s Wary Goals
Meager new emissions reduction plans from New Delhi limit the prospects of major progress through 2035 from the three biggest polluting nations.
Air pollution shrouds electricity towers in New Delhi, India.
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images
After the US retreat from action on climate change under President Donald Trump and a timid set of new goals from China, attention focused on India — the world’s third-largest polluter — to provide fresh momentum in global efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
A revised green strategy through 2035, endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet on Wednesday, instead outlines a more cautious approach to curbing pollution and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, limiting prospects for progress over the next decade among the three nations, which together account for almost half of all emissions.