Prakash Javadekar: India is the only G20 country to be '2 degree' compliant
India is the only country in the G-20 nations which is 2 degrees compliant in keeping with the Nationally Determined Contributions presented in Paris, said Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday.
"The Nationally Determined Contributions we presented in Paris, we're walking the talk. Among G-20 we are the only country to be following the 2-degree Celsius compliant path of our NDCs," Javadekar said while delivering the keynote address at the International Energy Agency's Energy Technology Perspectives 2020.
He said the international energy report is extremely important and has raised many valid issues and pointed out that India has taken many decisive actions in fighting Climate Change, not only at the government level but even at the private level, which shows our commitment and resolve.
"Instead of talking about 2050, we must talk of 2020, of 2030 and 2040 and there needs to be phased targets and countries should be committed to achieve those," Javadekar appealed.
Highlighting the key role of finances and technology in providing clean energy and enhanced Climate actions, Javadekar said that country-specific, appropriate and affordable technologies are the need of the hour because every climate action comes with a cost.
Speaking on India's actions on renewable energy, he said that India's renewable energy now stands at 89 GW. "It has increased by 170 per cent in the last six years which is a significant increase. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has declared 175 GW of renewable power by 2022 and our aspirational goal stands at 450 GW of renewable energy," Javadekar said.
"We are improving energy efficiency and simultaneously also giving a big push to e-vehicles. The demand for EVs is growing and the prices are being slashed and we are also providing for more battery charging infrastructure. A battery swapping policy has also been adopted. We are giving subsidy for electrical buses which are already operational across many cities" he added.
Javadekar said that India is contributing massively on the energy front and the government is working tirelessly in this direction.
Fatih Birol, Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA), said that India has moved to the centre stage of international Energy Affairs and is a role model for other major emerging economies.
Speaking at a virtual launch of the Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, a new study of IEA which focusses on the technology needs and opportunities for reaching international climate and sustainable energy goals, Birol praised the Indian government for its efforts in providing clean energy to millions by way of schemes like Ujjawala and Ujala.
The IEA report launched today lays stress, among other things, especially on how governments have an outsized role to play in supporting transitions towards low emissions by way of effective policy toolkits towards tackling emissions from existing infrastructure and technologies, strengthening markets for technologies at an early stage of adoption, developing and upgrading infrastructure that enables technology deployment, boosting support for research, development and demonstration and expanding international technology collaboration.
(ANI)
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