Private sector's declaration on climate change 'historic step: Prakash Javadekar

NEW DELHI: Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday that India is on the way forward towards achieving its commitments made at the Paris Agreement and the country is acting on its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Javadekar said that India is among the few countries which is two degrees compliant and has taken many decisive actions in fighting Climate Change, not only at the government level, but also at the private level, which shows the country's commitment and resolve.

Releasing a Declaration on Climate Change signed by 24 key industry captains and the Environment Ministry at the virtual India CEO forum on Climate Change, Javadekar further said that this voluntary declaration by private sector companies is a historic step.

"The world says and preaches many things, but to bring them into practice is much more difficult. I think today the United Nations ecosystem and UNFCCC will take note of this initiative of India and its corporate world to adhere to and declare plans of their own carbon neutrality," said Javadekar.

Addressing the forum, he suggested to the corporate world to propagate and report to the government what steps and initiatives they are taking towards decarbonisation and bring to the government's notice polluting activities for it to take action.

"We have to be on the same page regarding our insistence on financial and technological support from the advanced economies, so that India can also catch up and march ahead," the minister said.

The event saw CEOs and various heads of key industries like Tata, Reliance, the Adani group, Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's etc. listing out different clean processes and initiatives they have taken and their agenda towards further decarbonisation post 2020.

The corporate sector espoused confidence and expressed its support towards a coordinated response by the government and the private sector on climate change, which will help protect the country's interests and ensure that India is on track towards meeting its climate change obligations under the Paris Agreement.

The private sector plays a pivotal role in creating low-carbon sustainable economies and has embarked on a number of voluntary actions on climate change that can contribute towards achieving India's NDC goals.

The private sector also benefitted from India's participation in the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol and going forward, Article 6 of the Paris Agreement offers further opportunities for meeting the climate change and sustainable development goals.

India is a signatory to the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

As part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), India has three quantitative climate change goals — reduction in emissions intensity of gross domestic product (GDP) by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 level; achieving about 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030; and creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. (IANS)

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