Hitting out at “developed nations” who press on imposing regulations on the usage of fossil fuels, Union Minister for Power and New and Renewable Energy RK Singh said that these nations are responsible for the poor state of the environment at present and India will not compromise on its energy needs.

“Those developed nations who lecture us on imposing regulatory norms on the usage of fossil fuels today are responsible for the poor state of the environment. Around 85 per cent of the carbon dioxide load in the atmosphere is because of industrialisation which was started by these developed countries,” Singh said while speaking to reporters while inaugurating the Power Ministry Pavilion at the 42nd India International Trade Fair on Tuesday.

The Power Minister said that India’s per capita emissions are one-third of the world average while those of the developed countries are three times the world average.

“India contributes to 17 per cent of the world population, while our contribution to carbon dioxide load is only 3.5 per cent. Our per capita emissions are one-third of the world average, whereas the developed countries are three times the world average,” Singh said.

The Power Minister said that the developed countries need to cut down their emissions first.

“It is the developed countries that need to cut down their emissions first before talking about anything else,” he said.

The Union Minister said that India will not be compromising on its energy needs since the developed nations have prospered by burning fossil fuels.

“Yes, we are using coal and will continue to do so because we need electricity. We won’t compromise on the availability of electricity. You have developed by using fossil fuels. We need to develop now,” Singh said.

The Power Minister said that India needs cement and steel to construct crores of square meters. However, he said that India will develop with responsibility.

“We have to construct crores of square meters. We need cement and steel to construct residential places, commercial places and industries. However, we will develop with responsibility,” he said.

Singh said that India has achieved its Nationally Determined Contributions pledge ahead of its time limit and has further revised its targets.

“We have pledged in the NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) that by 2030, 40 per cent of our total electricity generation will be from renewable sources. We have achieved that in 2021 itself,” the Power Minister said.

“We had said that we will be decreasing our emissions intensity by one-third by 2030. We achieved that in 2019. In Glasgow, we said that by 2030 we will decrease our emissions intensity by 45 per cent and by 2030 our total electricity generation capacity will be from renewable energy. We will achieve that,” Singh added.

US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday his goal during talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week is to resume normal communications between the two superpowers, including military-to-military contacts.

Speaking to reporters after remarks on climate change at the White House, Biden said he is trying to alter the US relationship with China for the better, after a period of strained ties.

Biden and Xi are to meet on Wednesday in the San Francisco area during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. It will be only the second in-person meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office in January 2021.

Asked how he would measure success at his highly anticipated summit talks with Xi, Biden said before departing for San Francisco:

“To get back on a normal course, corresponding and being able to pick up the phone and talk to one another in a crisis, and being able to make sure that our militaries still have contact with one another.”

Biden said it would benefit all if the average citizen in China had a decent-paying job.

“But I’m not going to continue to sustain support for a position where in order to invest in China, we have to turn over all our trade secrets,” he said.

The Chinese severed military-to-military contacts with the United States in a fit of pique after then-House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022.

Restoring the contacts is a top US goal to avoid miscalculations between the two militaries.

Relations between the two countries grew frosty after Biden ordered the shooting down in February of a suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States.

But top Biden administration officials have since visited Beijing and met with their counterparts to rebuild communications and trust.

UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman, sacked by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, quit her office today with a massive parting shot — a scathing resignation posted on social media where she accused him of being “weak” and failing to deliver on key policies and keep their promise to the British people.

The Prime Minister, she wrote, got the office partly because of her support.

“I agreed to support you because of the firm assurances you gave me on key policies… our deal was no mere promise over dinner, to be discarded when convenient and denied when challenged,” she wrote.

“Your rejection of this path was not merely a betrayal of our agreement but a betrayal of your promise to the nation that you would do ‘whatever it takes’ to stop the boats,” she added.

The “promises” she accused Mr Sunak of breaking include reduction of illegal migration, stopping the migrant boats from crossing the English Channel, issuing statutory guidance to schools protection of biological sex and deliver on the north Ireland protocol.

“Someone needs to be honest: your plan is not working, we have endured record election defeats, your resets have failed and we are running out of time,” she wrote.

Suella Braverman was sacked after the comments she made last week about the police’s handling of a pro-Palestinian march.

In an article she wrote published by The Times, she had accused the police of “playing favourites” during protests and claimed they largely ignored “pro-Palestinian mobs”.

She also wrote that she did not believe the protests were “merely a cry for help for Gaza” but were more an “assertion of primacy by certain groups — particularly Islamists”.

The Opposition Labour Party alleged it had increased tension at pro-Palestinian rallies and Mr Sunak came under increasing pressure to drop her from his cabinet.