Paris agreement gives roadmap to move towards cleaner energy: Piyush Goyal

Minister of State for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal on Sunday hailed the international climate change agreement in Paris, saying that it would give a roadmap to all the countries to move towards cleaner energy.

"This agreement will give direction to the whole world to move closer to nature. It also captures the responsibilities of the developed nations and gives a road map to all nations to move towards cleaner energy," Goyal told ANI.

When asked if the agreement would have an impact on the energy produced in India using coal, he said, "Low cost energy is very important for development of the nation. Coal is our resource, and energy produced by coal gives a base load which can be combined renewable energy for the progress of the nation."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier asserted that the outcome of the Paris Agreement had no winners or losers and climate justice was the lone winner.

In a series of tweets, Prime Minister Modi said that deliberations of the COP21 and the Paris Agreement demonstrated the collective wisdom of the world leaders to mitigate climate change.

After two weeks of rigorous negotiations, a legally-binding pact seeking to limit global warming to below 2 degree Celsius - will come into effect from 2020 - reached after nearly 200 countries reached a landmark deal to fight global warming and accepted the final draft of an ambitious 'climate change agreement' here last night.

On the crucial financing issue, though developed countries agreed to muster at least 100 billion dollars a year from 2020 to help developing nations, it was not included in the legally binding section of the deal following objections by the US.

The deal ended decades-long rows between rich and poor nations over how to carry out a multi-trillion-dollar effort to cap global warming.