India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday called for a focus on “climate justice” rather than climate change, saying the poor suffered most from global warming.
India is under pressure to commit to cutting its carbon emissions ahead of a major conference in Paris later this year aimed at forging a global climate pact.
It argues the burden should lie with industrialized countries, which have been accused of hypocrisy in heaping demands on poorer nations.
In a speech, Modi said natural disasters such as flooding or drought disproportionately affected poor communities and called for a shift in focus.
“We can’t let climate change keep affecting people in this manner. Which is why I believe the discourse must shift focus from climate change to climate justice,” he said.
India has so far resisted pressure to commit to any major emissions cuts despite a pact last year between the two top global emitters, China and the United States.
Modi has bet big on coal, a key source of pollution, although India also has an ambitious renewable energy output target of 175,000 megawatts by 2022.