China is not the only country that is playing the useful green idiots of the west for suckers. China has done a great job of getting them on side by meaningless green gestures and now India has got into the game.

First Mr Modi played hard to get, threatening to boycott the meeting, then he turned up and sensationally signed on to the net zero quest! That looked like a triumph for net zero except that he pushed the target out to 2070 which is effectively meaningless.

Now he has gone one better and completely put a spoke in the wheel. After the captains and the kings departed the smaller people are quabbling over the spoils that they might be able to extract from us. His king hit is to demand a trillion in hard cash for India alone by 2030.

Lets see if they can get an agreement on that from the western nations who will have to foot the bill.

The demand comes after India’s surprise announcement at the opening of COP26 negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, that it would set an ambitious new goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2070. In his speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that rich countries should provide as much as $1 trillion in climate finance. 

On Wednesday, Indian officials clarified their demands. They want $1 trillion in funds just for India by 2030 — ten times more than the unmet $100 billion a year for all poor countries sought under previous deals. Over a decade, that would mean advanced economies have to give India the same amount of funds they’ve promised for all poor countries.