World will appreciate India's commitment to climate change: Goyal

Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday exuded confidence that the world would appreciate India's dedication towards climate change and the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) which are likely to be announced on October 2.

"We are conscious about our duties towards the environment. On October 2, India possibly will declare its INDC. I believe world would be pleased to look at our contributions," Goyal said here at a function organised by Brooklyn India.

All the countries are required to submit their INDCs on or before October 1, as the crucial 21st session of the conference of the parties (CoP-21) on climate change is to be held in Paris from November 30 to December 11.

The conference needs to achieve a new international agreement on climate, applicable to all countries, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.

Goyal said "polluter pay principle" should be adopted in the world and the countries which were "hugely responsible" for the current situation should contribute towards cleaning of the environment.

"We have not seen the credible affirmative action from the west in this respect," he said, adding despite this India would move towards protecting the climate with cleaner environment being the central point of the ministries of power, coal and new and renewable energy.

India was not a large pollution generating country as compared to the developed world, the minister said, adding even the energy consumption was far less as against the economically strong countries.

However, he said coal would continue to be the mainstay of power in India but the pollution level can significantly be kept low with innovative technologies and thrust on renewable energy.

Public sector Coal India Limited would produce one billion tonnes of coal by 2019-20, he said, adding that the government was committed to set up washeries on the massive scale to wash 250 million tonnes of coal in next three years.

Goyal informed that his ministry was framing a policy to liberalize coal linkages within infrastructure companies which will help bring down power cost.

By 2030, he said India would be a country of largely modern and efficient coal based plants.