A powerful new documentary film about former US vice president Al Gore's sustained campaign to encourage renewable energy use across the world, gives India's part in the climate change movement a starring role.
"An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power", directed by the American directing duo of Jon Shenk and Bonni Cohen, premiered at the 70th Cannes Film Festival yesterday.
At one point, the film shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech at the November 2015 Paris Climate Conference, insisting on continuing with conventional energy so as not to put up barriers in the path of development.
India is even referred to as "the biggest holdout in the negotiations." But by the end of the conference, the narrative undergoes a change, with India changing its stance and throwing its weight behind the Paris Agreement.
Gore, the central figure in "An Inconvenient Sequel", had a special word of praise for India.
"India is doing a commendable job in moving from coal to solar power to meet its energy needs," he said after the film's world premiere in the festival's Special Screenings section.
Gore's decades-long campaign culminated in the Paris Climate Conference in November 2015.
"An Inconvenient Sequel" tracks the progress made by him in the ten years since "An Inconvenient Truth" put the global spotlight on the question of climate change and what needs to be done to reverse it.
Talking to the press, co-director Jon Shenk said: "This film is about a truly epic battle between all those who have got us into the mess we are in today and those who want to do things in a new, sustainable way."
For Al Gore, it has proven to be a powerful medium. "When 'An Inconvenient Truth' premiered in Cannes, I learned something I did not know before. Film is the most effective medium to deliver a message. The news environment is so messy and chaotic today that it is difficult to get focussed attention," he said.
While in the film he laments the distortions that have crept into democracy, he asserted that the climate change fight is now "a hopeful cause because we have the solutions".
"The solutions are available. It is important to summon the political will to identify and apply them," Gore added.
He said that "the influx of big money" is posing a real threat to US democracy. But he was quick to add: "I have a great deal of hope that democracy will be revivified.
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