New Delhi: Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary, General said India is not responsible for the climate crisis, but it should not copy the West’s polluting practices from the 19th century during its development. In an interview, Scotland said India could exemplify a new, clean and safe development model that could serve as a beacon of hope for the global South. The Commonwealth Secretary General said, India is a developing country, despite not causing climate crisis
India is grappling with severe climate consequences including extreme heat, floods and intense monsoons. It needs to act on this. Scotland said, look at the heat levels, floods and monsoon in some cities of India. People are suffering. Therefore, India shouldn’t follow the development model of the West. It should not emulate what failed and led to the climate crisis.
In the 2015 UN climate talks in Paris, countries had committed to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average to avoid the adverse effects of climate change. Earth’s global surface temperature has already increased by about 1.2 degrees Celsius due to rapidly increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide and methane, in the atmosphere. India experiences severe heatwaves between March and June. The increasing frequency of severe heatwaves in recent decades has been roughly attributed to global warming.
Scotland stated that, unlike the West during its development, India knows the implications of its actions and has the potential to lead by developing a new and regenerative model of development based on a circular economy.