Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to participate in the crucial 26th session of the Conference of Parties (COP-26) on climate change in Glasgow today. Expected to take lead on climate action. India is taking ambitious actions in energy efficiency measures, biofuels, sustainable transport, e-vehicles, enhancing green cover and sustainable agriculture, as shared by Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav, during a virtual high-level climate meeting convened by the President of the 76th UNGA last week.
Underlining the initiative of National Hydrogen Mission, the minister had also emphasised, “We have reduced our emission intensity of GDP by 24 per cent between 2005 and 2016, thereby achieving our pre-2020 voluntary target. Our 2030 targets under the Paris Agreement are considered ambitious and compatible with the Paris Agreement goals. We are on the path to achieving those targets.”
The high-level meeting, which took place last week ahead of COP26, on Delivering Climate Action – for People, for Planet and for Prosperity, focused on the gap between current and required technical and financial capacities to achieve the 1.5 degrees target and how that gap can be met, through showcasing best practices that simultaneously address climate action and the myriad structural challenges exacerbated by the pandemic.
During the meet, India’s Environment Minister also emphasised that the current stock of greenhouse gases is a result of the economic growth in the industrialised countries in the past, which demanded increasing amounts of energy in the form of fossil fuels and they became today’s prosperous countries with capital stock and infrastructure.
Emphasising that when the developed world is exhibiting a shortfall in actions with just 14.8 per cent emission reduction against the target of 18 per cent reduction in the pre-2020 period, Yadav said that India is overachieving its voluntary target of emission reduction.
