India on track to achieving climate goals: PM Modi

NEW DELHI: While receiving the prestigious CERAWeek Global Energy and Environment Leadership Award on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the country is on track to achieving its climate goals well before the target date as it switches over to energy-efficient mediums and uses waste to generate energy.

Speaking after accepting the award for his commitment to energy sustainability and the environment, PM Modi said that climate change and calamity are major challenges facing the world. Both are interlinked, and one way to fight them is through policies, laws, rules and orders, and the other is bringing behavioural change, he said, listing measures taken by his government for sustainable energy usage.

While the target of mixing 20 per cent ethanol has been advanced to 2025, 5,000 compressed bio-gas plants will be set up to turn municipal and agriculture waste into energy, the PM said. While switch over to energy-efficient LED bulbs has helped save 38 million tonnes of carbon emission, modern techniques of irrigation as well as reducing the use of pesticides with greater awareness of improving soil health has greatly helped, he added. The share of non-fossil sources in India’s installed capacity of electricity has grown to 38%.

India has maintained that it is not a polluter and cause of climate change and has voluntarily committed to reducing greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

On behavioural changes, Modi cited examples such as people embracing LED bulbs, voluntarily giving up LPG subsidy, increased cooking gas coverage and affordable transportation initiatives.

The Prime Minister noted that over the last seven years, India’s forest cover has grown significantly, the population of lions, tigers, leopards and waterfowls has grown. These, he said, are great indicators of positive behavioural changes.