No impact on India of US exit from Paris climate deal: Top official

India on Monday asserted that it is not in favour of reopening the Paris accord on Climate Change and said the negotiations on the issue are not facing any adverse impact of the Trump administration pulling out of it.

It maintained that the US is still a part of India's climate-related negotiations.

"There has been some talk of reopening some of the clauses of the Paris agreement. India is not in favour and that is largely accepted. If the US is with us, it strengthens the climate change negotiations, but I don't think we're having an adverse impact as far as our negotiations are concerned," Union Environment Secretary C.K. Mishra told reporters.

"In all our negotiations that we are having today and tomorrow, the US is a part of the negotiation work. They are still with us on the negotiations," he said.

His remarks came at a briefing by the External Affairs Ministry ahead of the first General Assembly of the International Solar Alliance starting here on Tuesday.

Mishra also welcomed the United Nations announcement to confer Prime Minister Narendra Modi with its highest environmental honour, the Champions of Earth award, for his leadership of the International Solar Alliance and pledge to eliminate single use plastic in India by 2022.

"It is a rare honour for India as it's the first time that India is getting an award in Policy Leadership field," he said.

The award was announced on September 26 in New York and would be given to Modi on Wednesday by UN's Secretary General António Guterres.

"It is a recognition of India's leadership in environmental field in the last few years," he said.

Mishra added that India was steadily moving in the direction of its commitment to have 175 gigawatt of renewable energy being produced in India by 2022, and added that having 100 GW of solar power was a major part of that.

External Affairs Ministry's Economic Relations Secretary T.S. Tirumurti said the award, to be jointly given to Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron, was a "global recognition of work done by India especially in realm of solar power and renewable energy".

--IANS

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