- September 20, 2026
PM Modi pushes back on West’s narrative over carbon emissions
NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi Saturday questioned the narrative in which the responsibility for carbon emissions is pinned on developing countries while Western countries are absolved of their role as historical polluters, even as he reaffirmed the country’s commitment to climate action and stressed that it has the best record among G20 countries. “In developed countries, per capita carbon emissions are six times higher than India’s… India presents this fact strongly on global platforms… We are establishing new benchmarks for environmental protection by taking the world along,” he said. His remarks at an international conference on ‘The Future of Environment and Climate Dynamics’, organised by NGT, come as the world gears up for the global climate conference scheduled for Nov in Turkiye.He said India is providing solutions to modern climate challenges even as its per capita carbon emissions are less than half of the global average.The PM’s remarks are being seen as a pushback against the West’s attempt, despite its historical responsibility for alarming emission levels, to suggest that India needs to accept stiff emission-reduction targets. India’s cumulative (1751-2024) contribution to overall carbon emissions is merely 3.5%, compared with 23.5% for US, 15.4% for China, 6.6% for Russia, 5.1% for Germany, and 4.3% for UK. Though India is currently the third-largest emitter, its per capita emission, as Modi underlined, at 2.2 tonnes per person per year, is less than half of the global average (4.7 tonnes per person per year) and six times less than the per capita emission of US (14.2 tonnes) and Russia (14 tonnes).
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India has always raised these points at all multilateral forums, pointing to equity and importance of a cut in emissions by big polluters who developed by burning fossil fuels over the past two centuries, which led to global warming. India, however, has never deviated from its responsibility and has fulfilled climate action pledges under the Paris Agreement.“India is the only country in G20 that has fulfilled all the commitments it made at the COP21 summit in Paris (in 2015), and has done so ahead of schedule. This is the strength of ‘Hindustan’ that I am talking about. On every parameter — non-fossil fuel, solar energy capacity, curbing carbon emissions — India’s performance is today a subject of positive discussion worldwide,” said PM Modi while urging the gathering of jurists, academicians, policymakers, scientists, environmental experts and other stakeholders from 17 countries across the world to look at the figures.Looking ahead to COP31, scheduled for Nov in Antalya, Turkey, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said India will continue to advocate climate action centred on equity, implementation and the needs of vulnerable countries.
