India, Nov. 13 -- The UN's climate chief has backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's argument that clean energy investment softened the blow of the global oil price shock on India, calling the remarks "very salient" and welcoming the proposed Green Energy Corridor.

Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, who is running the negotiations at COP31 in Antalya, Turkiye, said in a written interview that the world is in the middle of a fossil fuel cost crisis, with import bills driving inflation through economies. Clean energy, he said, protects countries "from the ruinous rollercoaster of fossil fuel dependency".

He described Modi's Green Energy Corridor announcement - aimed at strengthening grids and...