Earlier this year, Indian-origin scientist Joyeeta Gupta, professor of environment and development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam, won the Spinoza Prize, the highest award in Dutch academia, sometimes referred to as the Dutch Nobel prize. Gupta’s work lies at the intersection of climate crisis, governance and justice, and the jury recognised it as “extremely broad and interdisciplinary”: She was also the lead author of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 along with former US vice-president Al Gore. Currently in Delhi, she spoke to Indulekha Aravind about the inadequacies of the global response to the climate crisis, why net zero could be a fig leaf and why she feels growth should not be measured in terms of GDP alone. Edited excerpts:
