Thread by @surajbrf

There's a lot of talk about India and climate change goals. Particularly, it is argued that the Indian government lacks commitment. This thread is intended to offer an overview of current status. It will be data focused.

The most recent epoch of data is the annual climate transparency report: climate-transparency.org/wp-content/upl…
All major nations are rated by their ongoing progress against Paris Agreement Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 2015) towards their 2030 target goals.

Page 23 is of particular interest. All major nations listed with status:
USA: critically insufficient
China: highly insufficient
Japan: highly insufficient
EU: insufficient
Germany: insufficient
France: insufficient
Australia: insufficient
Canada: insufficient

And what about India ?

India: is the ONLY nation among the G20 that is compatible with its NDC 2015 targets. Reported in DW:

dw.com/en/india-only-….

This is not a one hit wonder. The 2019 report shows same trend. See page 20 of climate-transparency.org/wp-content/upl…

India is highest in achieving fair share, and close to highest in terms of overachievement vs goals. This means we aimed high, achieved higher.

Another article about this:
foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/22/gre…

Quoting the article:

The Economist’s briefing perfectly encapsulates the widespread view of India as climate policy’s problem child. But the conventional wisdom couldn’t be more wrong.

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Little noticed in the West, India is undergoing a green-energy revolution—exceeding targets, breaking records, and quickly making the age of cheap clean energy a reality.

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An easy counterargument to India's successes is that we set low goals. But there's two problems with this claim:

1. Indian NDCs are quantified. climate-transparency.org/wp-content/upl…
"India’s NDC is the most ambitious, closest to the
1.5°C limit. "

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2. India negotiated goals it could meet.
Not quite. It's already known our NDCs are the most ambitious. India currently makes 38% of electricity from non-fossil fuel sources. Its 2030 target is 40%. It will likely reduce emissions by 45% by then, vs 33-35% target.

The 2018 CTR also puts India in front:
climate-transparency.org/wp-content/upl…
"According to the ClimateActionTracker,16 India is leading
the G20 countries in closing the gap. Its NDC would lead
to a warming of below 2°.. Its NDC thus comes closest
to the 1.5° limit set by the Paris Agreement."

The CTR data shows India as the highest performing nation every year since 2018, and by 2020 it is the ONLY nation that's compatible with its Paris Agreement NDCs. One of the major problems with climate activism is the lack of data driven behavior.

The reality is that the Indian government has coordinated and executed year upon year on its climate change goals for several years now. It is far ahead of its G20 big economy peers - China is highly insufficient, US is critically insufficient. Even EU is insufficient.

India is often criticized because it is a hard bargainer. It does not roll over in negotiations. It has deadlocked the WTO Uruguay and Doha rounds, and was a major dissenting voice in Paris.

It is seen as someone who argues and doesn't just accept what it's offered.

This is because India does not subscribe to the accepted world order. New powers do not accept the current status quo. Successive Indian governments have done a good, or at least very decent, job of trashing the standard agenda and ensuring our goals are met.

Is this a bad thing ? Quite the contrary - it demonstrates our rising national power. Power is not something written on paper. It is the ability to act in a manner in line with our interests regardless of anything written on paper, or pushed by any agency.

However, with power comes responsibility, as they say. Having negotiated NDCs in Paris, India has proceeded to demonstrate its commitment to accomplishing them. By 2017, it was already in front. Climate Transparency Reports from 2018 through 2020 have India as top performer.

A common climate activism argument is to 'listen to the science'. Science is data driven. The data is readily available. A discussion on the basis of data - and NOT alarmist language - will show India's performance on this subject.

Yes, much more needs to be done. That's not something anyone else has any business lecturing India, because India already ranks #1 among G20 major economies, and has done so for the past three years.

Don’t want to depend on just one data source ? Fine here is another: germanwatch.org/en/19552

The 2021 Climate Change Performance Index, posted separately by @surjitbhalla just now too.

India ranks in the top 10, along with the Scandinavians and a few other small countries. It is by far the highest ranked big emissions country. India ranks above combined EU, far ahead of China and the US is comfortably at the bottom.