Lights On

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Lights On

A newsletter covering energy and climate change with a science and business angle in India and beyond

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Post COP26, India’s crucial decade

What needs to happen for the world’s third largest emitter to meet its targets

Welcome to this special post-COP26 edition of Lights On, a newsletter that brings you the key stories and exclusive intel on energy and climate change in South Asia. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up below, for free, or you can support my work by purchasing a membership: The science is clear. For a chance to keep global warming within 1.5°C as stated in the Paris Agreement, global emissions have to nearly halve by 2030, compared to 2010 levels, before reaching net zero by 2050. While a certain amount of future warming is already locked in due to past emissions, the next decade will make or break the most hopeful future climate scenario. For India, the world’s third global emitter and still one of the poorest countries by GDP per capita, this means squaring decarbonisation and de

COP26

energy transition

india

Lou Del Bello

Nov 15 2021

7 mins read

How to spend it: Making climate finance count

In conversation with ISA’s Jagjeet Sareen

Welcome to this special COP26 edition of Lights On, a newsletter that brings you the key stories and exclusive intel on energy and climate change in South Asia. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up below, for free, or you can support my work by purchasing a membership: Every year, the UN climate talks see heated debates on how much finance there is to support developing countries and vulnerable communities cope with and prepare for exacerbating climate change. We hear that the money on the table is ‘too little, too late’, but too often that’s where the conversation stops. We now know that the financial needs of a world already in the midst of a climate crisis are in the trillions, while climate diplomats are still squabbling over the $100 billion promise made in 2009. Businesses a

COP26

climate finance

Lou Del Bello

Nov 04 2021

9 mins read

Beyond net zero by 2070: India's new climate pledge explained

What the world's third biggest emitter needs to do to get there

Welcome to this special COP26 edition of Lights On, a newsletter that brings you the key stories and exclusive intel on energy and climate change in South Asia. If you are not a subscriber, you can sign up below, for free, or you can support my work by purchasing a membership: India has joined China, Japan, the UK, the EU and an expanding group of other major economies in a bid to reach carbon neutrality, setting 2070 as a cutoff date. Together, countries committed to a net zero target now cover 90 percent of global GDP and more than 85 percent of the world’s emissions. Given its economy is heavily dependent on coal, which still makes up nearly 70 percent of its energy mix, and its need to lift its booming population out of poverty, the world’s third biggest emitter has set an extremely am

net zero

COP26

Lou Del Bello

Nov 02 2021

6 mins read