India, one of the world’s largest coal users, will cut back on its investments in the fuel if the new climate deal due to be struck next week in Paris delivers more money to help it shift to cleaner sources of energy such as solar power, a senior negotiator said on Wednesday.
“We’ve made it very clear that solar and wind is our first commitment,” said Ajay Mathur, director general of India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency, said at the Paris talks, known as COP21.
“Hydro, nuclear, all of these non-carbon sources are what we will develop to the largest extent we can,” he told reporters. “But it has to be affordable.”
He was speaking as campaigners from a fossil fuel divestment movement said the number of investors shunning coal, gas and oil has surged ahead of the Paris conference.
At least 500 institutions with more than $3.4tn in assets have pledged to avoid or cut holdings in fossil fuels, said activist groups 350.org and Divest-Invest.
That represents a big jump from a year ago, when 181 institutions representing about $50bn in assets were committed to such a step, they said.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
