In a joint appearance, neither Trump nor Modi mentioned climate change. Manish Bapna of the World Resources Institute said "the omission signifies discord, not apathy." Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s first meeting with his Indian counterpart, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, went off Monday with a conspicuous omission when the two leaders made no mention of climate change and just a passing reference to energy in their public remarks.
The subject had produced barbs between American and Indian officials in recent weeks after Trump singled out India and China as unfairly benefiting from the Paris climate agreement. When Trump announced he would withdraw the United States from the accord, he objected to India making its participation “contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries.”
While the country is seeking aid, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj quickly shot back that “India signed the Paris climate pact not because of pressure from any country or due to lure of money. Our signature in the pact was not because of greed, it was not because of fear. We signed it due to our commitment to protecting the environment.”
The absence of any mention of climate change in the public statements on Monday spoke volumes, said Manish Bapna, executive vice president of the World Resources Institute. “The omission signifies discord, not apathy, on climate, and lies in stark contrast to the productive U.S.-India talks of recent years,” he said.
Standing outside the White House on a sunny Monday evening, the two leaders showed no signs of a lingering rift, or of the massive shifts underway in India’s energy sector, which has seen the rapid rise of solar power over the past year.
The only mention of energy policy came in an announcement from Trump that the nations were negotiating long-term contracts to export liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to India.
But those who follow India’s climate role, as the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions behind China and the U.S., are watching changes like these:
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