At the COP26 climate summit on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 2070 as the target for India to reach net zero carbon emissions. India’s announcement came as a surprise to delegates at the climate talks in Glasgow, as it had rejected calls to announce such a target only last week. Environment secretary RP Gupta had argued that it was more important for the world to lay out a pathway to reduce emissions than just achieving carbon neutrality. A net-zero target refers to the date by which point a country will only emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases that can be absorbed by forests, crops, soil and developing technologies like carbon capture technology.