India can’t prioritize eliminating greenhouse gas emissions without sufficient financing from richer nations to help offset the high cost of transitioning to clean energy, according to a senior government official.

In laying out its position ahead of key global climate talks later this year, the top bureaucrat in India’s environment ministry also said the country doesn’t plan to tighten its emissions goals unless more money is promised from developed economies under the United Nations-sponsored climate change agreement.

“Every policy decision has a cost to the economy. Going net-zero or using less carbon also has a cost,” Environment Secretary Rameshwar Prasad Gupta said in an interview at his New Delhi office. “We are not anti-net-zero. But without adequate climate finance being definitively available, we can’t commit on that part.”

The stance by India, the world’s third-biggest emitter, highlights a top challenge global leaders will face when they meet at the UN Climate Change Conference, which starts in late October in Glasgow. While cutting net global carbon emissions to zero by 2050 is key to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, aimed at avoiding catastrophic damage from climate change, figuring out how to pay for the transition toward clean energy has been a sticking point.

Gupta also said the current $100 billion-a-year pledge by richer nations to help developing nations — a target they haven’t even met yet — is insufficient to make the shift.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/renewables/india-wants-rich-countries-to-pay-more-for-green-energy-shift/articleshow/84335402.cms?from=mdr