COP28 Climate Summit: PM Modi Announces Green Credit Scheme, Proposes COP33 In India

Dubai: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced at the COP28 Climate Summit a ‘green credit’ initiative which focuses on creating carbon skins with people’s participation.

He also proposed that India host the COP33 summit in 2028.

“India is committed to UN Framework for Climate Change process. That is why, from this stage, I propose to host COP33 Summit in India in 2028,” the Indian PM said.

Modi urged all nations to work together in an effort to reduce global emissions drastically, pointing out that India’s emissions are very low compared to even those countries with a much lower population.

“India’s population is 17 per cent of the global population, but in global carbon emissions India is only at 4 per cent. We are moving fast in achieving the NDC targets. In fact, we reached our non-fossil fuel targets nine years before the deadline,” Modi stressed, referring to the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), a climate action plan to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts.

“We do not have much time to correct the mistakes of last century,” the Indian PM said, and asked all countries to be sincere in meeting NDC targets.

The ‘green credit’ initiative is aimed to encourage traditional environmentally friendly practices and conservation reflecting ideas of the ‘LiFE’ concept – ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ movement announced by Modi in 2021.

Modi, the only leader to join the opening plenary along with COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber and UN Climate Change president Simon Steill, called for maintaining a balance between mitigation and adaptation.

He advocated a “just and inclusive” energy transition across the world, and wanted rich countries to transfer technology to help emerging economies fight climate change.