Addressing the Business and Climate Summit (BCS) 2017 in Delhi, the minister said that world came together in 2015 and agreed upon the Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It came into force in November 2016 and till date, 160 Parties have ratified the agreement. India as a party to the Paris Agreement is committed towards its successful implementation.

It is also however, critical and necessary that equal focus is given to Pre-2020 actions by developed countries under Kyoto Protocol and that they fulfil their commitments of providing effective finance, technology transfer and capacity-building support to developing countries.

In order to strengthen Pre-2020 actions and close the emission gap, we also need to agree on a timeline for early ratification of the Second Commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. India deposited its instrument of acceptance of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol on August 8, 2017. UNFCCC should endeavour to promote developed country parties in fulfilling their commitments in the Pre-2020 period, he said.

The minister said that India submitted its ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ in 2015. It includes 8 goals, 3 of which are quantitative, including reducing the emissions intensity of our GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level; achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030 and creating an additional sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. The other five goals pertain to healthy and sustainable lifestyle, climate friendly and clean path to economic development, building capacities on climate technology and mobilise domestic and new additional funds.

“We are now working on developing a roadmap for implementation of our NDC and have constituted an Implementation committee and six thematic sub-committees involving key ministries and departments,” he said.

He added that to achieve the goals, the union government is implementing the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which encompasses eight national missions representing multipronged, long-term and integrated strategies for achieving key goals in the context of climate change. The broad policy initiatives of the government are supplemented by actions of the State Governments through their State Action Plan on Climate Change. Key sectors covered by SAPCCs include agriculture, water, habitat, forestry, health and disaster management among others.

The government has set an ambitious target of 175 GW renewable power installed capacity by the end of 2022 and we have already achieved 58.3 GW of renewable energy installed capacity so far.

“There are a number of other initiatives including distribution of energy efficient appliances where we have distributed about 23.39 crores LED lights; Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to provide free clean cooking gas connections to women below poverty line where more than 2.8 crore LPG connections have been released,” the minister added.