Environment Minister reiterates commitment to climate change

Javadekar suggested the quick operationalisation of the Green Climate Fund which could pay the cost of making climate-friendly technologies

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar today reiterated India’s commitment to work with the international community to find practical and pragmatic solutions to climate change.

Speaking at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, he said that Climate Action has a cost and India supports the Polluter Pays principle. 

According to a press release by the ministry, Javadekar said, “Instead of making the polluters to pay, we should not end up with a formula where we make the poor pay.”

He said the international community must incorporate the concerns of developing countries in terms of their need for development and meeting their basic national priorities. There was a need to incentivise poor nations to enable ambitious action on their part.

He also urged developed countries to finalise the draft for Pre-2020 actions during the Bonn session in June 2015.

He said the most important issue for the 2015 Agreement were in the provision of finance and its differentiation. Stressing upon the already accepted upon core principles of Common But Differentiated Responsibility, he demanded that developing countries should soon get to know the exact quantum of financial assistance they are entitled to.

The Official Development Assistance had been earlier pegged at 0.7 % of the GDP of developed countries or 100 billion per year by 2020. But that is yet to materialise.

He suggested the quick operationalisation of the Green Climate Fund which could pay the cost of making climate-friendly technologies available to developing countries at affordable costs . 

The minister said that India striving towards a speedy solution to the climate change gridlock was necessitated not by any external pressure, but the pressure of climate change and its implications on the aspirations of future generations.