The ‘#Melodi’ moment occurred when Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni posted a selfie with Prime Minister Modi.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shared a selfie alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the COP28 climate summit in Dubai. Ms. Meloni captioned the post with, “Great friends at COP28. #Melodi.” She had previously visited Delhi in September for the G20 summit. In addition to her meeting with PM Modi, he also had encounters with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Turkish President RT Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, and Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, among other leaders.
Prime Minister Modi had a busy day at the UN climate change conference, addressing four sessions. During the event, he engaged in discussions on promoting environmentally friendly growth and addressed bilateral and regional concerns in meetings with various leaders on the summit’s sidelines, according to Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra.
Historically, global climate talks avoided explicit mentions of fossil fuels, but a shift occurred at COP26 in Glasgow, where there was an agreement to “phasedown” unfiltered coal power and “phase-out” inefficient fossil fuel subsidies. Since then, there has been growing momentum toward a more ambitious commitment to move away from all fossil fuels.
Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief, expressed optimism about achieving climate goals due to an unprecedented surge in renewables and electric vehicles. These goals are rooted in the 2015 Paris Agreement, where nearly 200 nations pledged to limit global warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius since the pre-industrial era, with a preferable target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
During his COP28 speech, PM Modi urged nations to collaborate in significantly reducing global emissions. He also introduced a “green credit” initiative that emphasizes creating carbon sinks through public participation.
He mentioned that India, despite constituting 17% of the world’s population, contributes only 4% to global carbon emissions, which is significantly lower than many nations with smaller populations. The Prime Minister highlighted India’s rapid progress in achieving its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets, reaching non-fossil fuel goals nine years ahead of schedule. Emphasizing the urgency to address past mistakes, PM Modi urged all nations to earnestly strive to meet their NDC targets, emphasizing the limited time available for corrective action.
