UN climate chief Simon Stiell lauds India’s renewable push

New Delhi: UN climate chief Simon Stiell is in India to “get a deeper understanding” of the “incredible progress” on the country’s energy transition, its electrification programmes and “significant rollout” of renewables.

“India’s clean energy growth is like Sachin Tendulkar and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi...rolled into one: astellar record. But the story is just getting started — and if India keeps doubling down on renewables and clean tech, the next chapters promise to be truly extraordinary,” said Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In Delhi, Stiell met with ministers and key officials from the ministries of environment, power, new and renewable energy, and external affairs, as well as business leaders.


“The discussions have ranged from outlooks to the preparations for COP31 in terms of expectations, globally and expectations for India, and how India will engage within the negotiations,” he said.

In the meeting with environment minister Bhupendra Yadav on Monday, discussions focused on “key agenda items” such as adatation, technology transfer, climate finance, global stocktake and just transition. This was their first in-person interaction since COP30 in Belém in November last year.

As the nodal authority, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change leads India’s participation and engagement on climate change at the multilateral UN forum and other formal and informal platforms. India’s participation at the mid-year climate negotiations in Bonn, as well as important informal ministerial meetings such as the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial and the Petersberg Dialogue has been low key.

At the Bonn meeting in June, India participated virtually because of the austerity measures put in place on account of the war in Iran. The virtual participation was supported by a small on-site team comprising technical negotiators and officials from the Indian Embassy in Berlin, Germany.

Even before the austerity measures were announced, India’s participation in key annual meetings like the Petersberg Dialogue had been limited. Yadav did not attend the informal ministerial meetings in Copenhagen, Berlin or Brussels, where India was represented by embassy officials. The head-ofdelegation meeting in Tokyo was also attended by an embassy official. Indications are that the UNFCCC COP31 High-level Retreat for heads of delegation this week, co-hosted by Azerbaijan and incoming COP31 presidency Türkiye, will see a similar arrangement. These informal meetings discuss key and complex issues to build acceptable compromises.