PM emphasises the need to fight climate change in an integrated, comprehensive and holistic way

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today emphasised  that climate change must be fought in an integrated, comprehensive and holistic way and not in silos. He said while all are focused on saving citizens and economies from the effects of the global pandemic it is also equally important to keep focus on fighting climate change. Speaking at the G-20 summit virtually, Mr Modi said, India has adopted low-carbon and climate-resilient development practices.

He said, India is not only meeting its Paris Agreement targets, but also exceeding them. Highlighting the efforts made by the government, the Prime Minister said, LED lights have been made popular, which saves 38 million tons of Carbon Dioxide emissions per year. He said, smoke free kitchens have been provided to over 80 million households through our Ujjwala Scheme which is among the largest clean energy drives globally.

Saying there are efforts to eliminate single-use plastics, the country’s  forest cover is expanding, the Prime Minister stated that the lion and the tiger population is also increasing and we aim to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. Mr Modi said, India is making next-generation infrastructure such as metro networks, water-ways and more. The Prime Minister expressed confidence that India will meet  the goal of 175 GigaWatts  of renewable energy well before the target of 2022 and seek to achieve 450 GigaWatts by 2030.  

Saying, this is the best time for further increasing research and innovation in new and  sustainable technologies, Mr Modi said all should do so with a spirit of cooperation and collaboration. He said, the entire world can progress faster if there is greater support of technology and finance to the developing world.