Climate change at COP30: India must lead, not wait for other nations

If most countries are unlikely to make strong commitments, it is relevant to ask whether India should also hold back. Climate change is too important for us to take this course

Climate change has been driven off the headlines by other more immediate problems: the Russia-Ukraine war, the continuing conflict in Gaza, and the Trump tariffs. But the problem of global warming has not gone away. It will return to the centre stage when the UN Climate Change Conference, COP30, meets in November 2025 in Brazil.  

 

The problems facing COP30

 

What can we realistically expect from COP30? A major problem is that the combined mitigation commitments agreed to by all countries in COP26 will not keep global warming within the limits decided. The ideal 1.5-degree Celsius limit is likely to be