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Whose Emissions, Whose Burden?
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Good Morning. A familiar divide emerged at the COP30 in Brazil’s Belem with a stalemate over fossil fuels. While rich nations called for a rapid phase out, India stuck to its historic stance that development can’t happen without coal power. The debate put the spotlight back on the fact that most of the emissions warming the planet were created long before today’s poor countries had even begun to grow. So who should bear the burden of cleaning the planet?
India’s benchmark indices hit record highs during intraday trading on Thursday, with the BSE Sensex finally closing at 85,720.38, up 110.87 points or 0.13%. The NSE Nifty50 26,215.55, gaining 10.25 points or 0.04%.
In other news, OEMs continue to push electric vehicles and surrounding infrastructure in India. Meanwhile, is India falling out of love with Starbucks?
A Bigger Climate Fund, But The Same Old Fights At COP30
The 30th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30), concluded last week in Belem, Brazil, promising to triple the funds that the rich would transfer to developing countries for climate action and refrained from outlining any action plan to phase out fossil fuels, much to the dismay of the garden variety of climate activist. New Delhi, an energy-poor nation, was with the petro states in opposing an immediate phase-out of fossil fuels, and rightly so.
The biggest polluters are poverty and want, Indira Gandhi told the first UN Conference on the Environment in 1972, in Stockholm. This was, of course, before her image makeover as destroyer of democracy during the Emergency.
Her forceful position made the gathering Green movement in Europe wake up to the reality that the rich world’s developmental phase of enormous violence on the environment might be behind them, but that the rest of the world was just embarking on that journey, and needed technological solutions and forbearance.
Who Cleans History?
New Delhi has not wavered, ever since, from privileging development, while being as mindful as possible to minimise environmental damage. Growth calls for lots more of electricity, and we cannot rely just on non-fossil sources to supply the power needed to build the prosperity of a poor, aspiring population that is 1.4 billion strong.
In the global effort to combat climate change, beginning with the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, and particularly in the 1999 conference that created the Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC, which enshrined the goal of slashing emissions as the path to combat climate change, India and other developing countries slipped up.
We conceded the notion that global warming is to be fought by reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases, demanding only special and differential treatment for developing countries while setting emission reduction targets.
The sensible strategy would have been to demand that the rich world take out from the atmosphere the greenhouse gases it had pumped into the atmosphere to grow rich.
The Sixth Assessment Report submitted to COP26 held at Glasgow in 2021 brings out the problem in stark detail.
Beginning 1850, till 2019, the world had pumped out 2,400 Gigatonnes (Gt) of CO2 equivalent into the atmosphere, and 58% of this depredation took place before 1990. The significance of emissions up to 1989 is that they have almost entirely been by the rich world. China began its reforms in 1979, true, but began growing fast in the 1990s, and became a manufacturing giant only after it joined the WTO in 2001. India began its reforms in 1991.
If the rich world accounted for the bulk of warming gases in the atmosphere, the appropriate climate action is for them to remove it.
How can the world find better ways to deal with this?
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CORE NUMBER
11 million tonnes
That’s the volume of Russian crude reportedly shipped on false-flagged vessels in the first nine months of 2025 — worth €4.7 billion (USD 5.4 billion), according to new data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
Why It Matters: The scale highlights how Moscow is increasingly using a “shadow fleet” to bypass Western sanctions imposed after the Ukraine invasion, the report said. The shadow fleet evades sanctions via opaque ownership, disabled tracking and flag swaps, raising spill, safety and security risks and reputational harm.
The Big Picture: CREA urged tougher flag-state reforms and detentions to disrupt these flows. CREA found that 113 Russian vessels flew false flags in January–September, accounting for 13% of Russia’s crude. By September, 90 shadow vessels were operating under false flags — six times the number in December 2024.
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FROM THE PERIPHERY
Economy Stays Steady
A finance ministry report has found that India’s economy remains on a stable footing, with GST rate rationalisation providing a “measurable” boost to consumption and easing inflation, PTI reported. Retail inflation fell to a record low of 0.25% in October, helped by reduced GST rates, a favourable base effect and a sharp decline in food prices. The ministry said that strengthening indicators like record festive auto sales, robust UPI transactions and rising tractor sales showed broad-based improvement in both urban and rural demand.
The Lead: The full impact of the September GST overhaul will unfold over the next two quarters. Despite domestic resilience, the ministry flagged risks from global trade-policy shifts, geopolitical tensions and financial volatility. Independent estimates place Q2 FY26 GDP growth at 7–7.5%.
Setup: The report said well-anchored inflation expectations, strong public capital spending and firm consumption trends position the economy to navigate global uncertainties and maintain growth momentum through the remainder of FY26.
EVs Continue To Accelerate!
Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra has launched its seven-seater electric SUV, the XEV 9S, entering a segment currently dominated by Tata Motors. The company also announced plans to set up 250 fast-charging stations of 180 kW by 2027, adding 1,000 charging points nationwide. Car market leader Maruti Suzuki is also expected to roll out its much-anticipated e-Vitara SUV soon.
Setting: Despite slow initial sales, Tesla is also targeting to build a charging ecosystem in India tailored to varied customer needs, including a mix of superchargers and home-charging solutions, as it expands operations in the country. Meanwhile, Vietnamese automaker Vinfast took a slight lead over Tesla during the festive season.
Overview: These developments come as 2025 shapes up to be a milestone year for India’s EV sector. For the first time, total EV registrations have crossed 2 million units across all segments — with more than a month still left in the calendar year. Globally, battery electric vehicle sales across major markets rose 35% in Q3 2025 compared with the same quarter last year.
Starbucks’ Desi Reality Check.
Starbucks India reported a modest 5% rise in revenue to Rs 1,277 crore in FY25, but losses ballooned 65% to Rs 135.7 crore, The Economic Times reports. Tata Consumer, Starbucks’ joint-venture partner, has signalled it will invest more only if the chain launches cheaper, India-specific products.
The Lead: The coffee giant is also losing ground to both street-side brews and rapidly expanding homegrown cafés like Blue Tokai and Third Wave.
Backdrop: The slowdown isn’t just local. In North America, Starbucks plans to shut 1% of its stores and cut hundreds of jobs. That has triggered a fresh wave of strikes by Starbucks Workers United, which alleges the company is slashing hours, understaffing stores and retaliating against unionising employees. The union says it may take its protests beyond the US unless Starbucks commits to fair bargaining.
Apple vs Indian Antitrust Law.
Apple is challenging a 2023 amendment to India’s competition law in the Delhi High Court; the updated law allows regulators to calculate antitrust penalties based on a company’s global revenue instead of only what it earns in India. Under this rule, Apple could face a fine of up to 38 billion USD if the Competition Commission of India (CCI) eventually finds it guilty of violating antitrust rules.
Backdrop: Since 2022, Apple has been fighting an antitrust case at the CCI filed by Match Group and several Indian startups. They accuse Apple of abusing its dominance in the iOS app ecosystem by forcing developers to use Apple’s in-app payments system, which can charge commissions of up to 30%.
Flashpoint: Apple argues that India’s new “global turnover” penalty rule is unfair for conduct limited to the Indian market. In its court filing, the company called the rule “arbitrary, unconstitutional, grossly disproportionate and unjust.”
PODCASTS
Sensex Hits Record 86,000
On Episode 737 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Devina Mehra, Chairperson and Managing Director at First Global, in an excerpt from our upcoming Weekend Edition.
Sensex Hits Record 86,000 as Nifty Scales Peak in Narrow Rally
Rupee Risk Persists After RBI Sells $30 Billion to Stem Slide
Nifty’s Record Calm Defies Rupee’s Run as Asia’s Worst Currency
Oil Slides to $63 on Ukraine Ceasefire Hopes, Aiding India Margins. The IEW Segment
Mahindra Challenges Tata’s EV Dominance With New $22,000 SUV
KKR Sees $7 Trillion AI Boom as ‘Industrial Revolution,’ Not Bubble
Altman’s Allies Face Reality Check as Google’s Gemini 3 Gains Ground
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