Climate talks: Javadekar says will protect long-term development interests

India is participating with a constructive outlook at the Madrid climate talks and will work to protect its long-term development interests, Union Environment Prakash Javadekar said on Saturday.

Before leaving for the UN-hosted climate negotiations in the Spanish city, Javadekar enumerated India's efforts in mitigating the effects of climate change and said the country "is leading from the front in climate action".

"PM was the first to propose Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure," he said. "India's ambitious renewable energy programme of 450 GW has attracted world attention as it is the largest renewable programme in the world."

Javadekar said India has reduced its emission intensity by 22 per cent over 2005 and it is one of the few countries which had increased tree cover in and outside the forest.

On Nov 27, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved India's negotiating stand at the 25th Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Madrid, Spain.

COP-25, which started on Dec 2 and concludes on Dec 13, is an important conference on climate change as countries prepare to move from pre-2020 period under the Kyoto Protocol to post-2020 period under the Paris Agreement.

Officials say India's approach will be guided by principles and provisions of UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, particularly the principles of Equity and Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capability (CBDR-RC).

In Sep, during the Climate Action Summit convened by the UN secretary-general, Prime Minister Modi had announced India's plan on scaling up of renewable energy target to 450 GW and called for responsible action by all on the principles of equity and CBDR-RC.

India has been leading the world in pursuit of solar energy capacity. It has also emphasized that developed countries should take lead in taking ambitious actions and fulfil their climate finance commitments of mobilizing USD 100 billion per annum by 2020.

At the climate talks, India will stress on the need to fulfil pre-2020 commitments by developed countries and that pre-2020 implementation gaps should not present an additional burden to developing countries in the post-2020 period.