Overview
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the National Green Tribunal’s two‑day conference in New Delhi on Saturday, September 19, and launched the NGT mobile app while saying India’s per‑capita carbon emissions are less than half the global average.
- Coverage cited a 2024 PRS analysis that put India’s per‑person CO2 at about 2.1 tonnes compared with roughly 13.4 tonnes in the United States, 8.9 tonnes in China and 5.4 tonnes in the European Union.
- Modi said developed countries emit about six times more per person than India and used that claim to argue that responsibility for emissions is often wrongly placed on developing nations.
- He asserted India has met its Paris COP21 pledges ahead of schedule and highlighted rapid clean‑energy gains such as solar capacity rising from about 2 GW to more than 160 GW in roughly 12 years and non‑fossil power exceeding the 50% mark, while independent sources say the Paris sink target is still incomplete.
- The conference brings judges and officials from 17 countries to discuss enforcement and policy gaps, a forum that could affect how courts handle environmental lawsuits that have previously slowed projects such as nuclear plants and that may shape India’s role in loss‑and‑damage and global climate diplomacy.