Indian PM Modi to attend COP26 climate conference in Glasgow
India's leader Narendra Modi will attend the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, it has emerged.
Mr Modi will join other world leaders including US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the talks, where countries will be under pressure to increase action on climate change – although the leaders of some major polluting countries are set to skip the event.
Downing Street has welcomed the news of Mr Modi's attendance, which brings the number of confirmed world leaders to more than 120.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "India play an important role in this and the Prime Minister has had a number of conversations with Modi on the importance of climate change so we look forward to discussing it with him further."
The news comes after documents leaked in the run-up to the conference showed countries lobbying for changes to a UN report making recommendations on how the world should tackle climate change.
But scientists involved in the major science assessments conducted by the UN'S Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the reports' authors strongly resisted political pressure.
Documents, leaked to Unearthed, Greenpeace's team of investigative journalists, names countries including Australia and Saudi Arabia as those trying to get the IPCC to weaken a conclusion that fossil fuels should be phased out.
Brazil and Argentina have also reportedly made comments pressing IPCC report authors to delete messages about the climate benefits of undertaking a "plant-based" diet, despite a study in 2018 finding that moving to a meatfree diet could cut food land use, and reduce emissions by 49 per cent.
And the Australian government asked to be deleted from a list of the world's major producers and consumers of coal,
despite being the fifth largest coalproducer,unearthedsaid.
The process of putting draft reports out for government and expert review is part of the cycle that IPCC climate science assessments go through.
The final draft of each report is published after it has been approved unanimously lineby-line in sessions between government representatives and scientists.
The leaked documents include more than 32,000
submissions made by governments, companies and other interested parties, on the draft report of the IPCC'S working group III section of the UN body's sixth assessment of climate science.
Theworkinggroupiiireport, due to be published next year, is responsible for assessing responses and solutions to climate change, by reducing emissions and enhancing "carbon sinks" such as forests.
Unearthed reports that the
majority of contributions were "constructive comments" aimed at improving the report.
A spokesman for the IPCC said processes used when drafting reports were "designed to guard against lobbying from all quarters".
And UK scientists involved in the process rejected the idea they would be swayed by political lobbying.