India can guide the world in dealing with climate change: Minister

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has placed India in a position where it can guide the world in dealing with the crisis of climate change, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said here on Friday.

Yadav, who is in Glasgow for the 26th international climate conference COP 26, said he was privileged to represent India in the negotiations and also overwhelmed to see the impact the Prime Minister's initiatives and ideas have created on world leaders.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has placed India in a position where the country has come to guide the world in dealing with the crisis of climate change," Yadav said.

While at the Paris Climate Conference, the Prime Minister had urged the world to increase forest area, decrease carbon emission and encourage alternative sources of energy, at the ongoing COP26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland, he took the pledge of Panchamrit' or five-nectar elements in India's fight against climate change, Yadav shared in his blog COP 26 Diary'.

The Panchamrit' commitment made by our respected Prime Minister seeks to raise India's non-fossil fuel-based energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030, ensure that 50 per cent of the country's energy requirements would be met by renewable energy sources by the same year, reduce the total projected carbon emission by one billion tonnes, decrease the carbon intensity of the economy to less than 45 per cent and finally, become achieve net zero emissions by 2070."

I was privileged to represent India in the negotiations in Glasgow and also overwhelmed to see the impact the PM's initiatives and ideas have created on world leaders, he said.

The minister said that this Panchamrit' vision presented by Prime Minister Modi is going to introduce the global community to the capabilities of the New India.

The BJP National Working Committee congratulates the Prime Minister for showing the world the road ahead and making India the leading stakeholder in the fight against climate change, he wrote in his blog.

The environment minister attended a side-event organised by the International Solar Alliance (ISA) on Thursday and reiterated the Prime Minister's vision.

He said he emphasised the fact that we must return to the Sun to save the Earth. As the world progresses to achieve newer heights economically and socially, solar energy will power the transition.

Earlier at Glasgow, the ISA, India Presidency of the ISA, and the UK COP Presidency unveiled the plans for the first international network of global interconnected solar power grids, known as the "Green Grids Initiative" at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.

At the side event, I stated that sustainable development and climate change mitigation is at the heart of the Green Grids Initiative and that the scale of the project could very well make it the next biggest modern engineering marvel, he said.

The project aims to reduce reliance on non-renewable energy such as coal by enabling and popularising the use of affordable solar power from other countries.

The announcement was accompanied by the "One Sun" declaration, which has been endorsed by 83 ISA member countries.