India, July 24 -- Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran on Thursday said something that cut through the familiar language of net zero targets, carbon trading, and renewable energy mandates.

Addressing a gathering of intellectuals at the India International Centre (IIC), Saran said the world had already crossed the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold, that the net zero concept is essentially a "sleight of hand" that creates the illusion of progress while emissions continue, that Europe's response to record heatwaves has been to ask for more air conditioning. And that what humanity is facing is not a climate emergency but an ecological emergency, one that can only be resolved through a civilisational response, not a technological one, he said.

Am...