'Countries backing lower emissions not doing their bit'

Speaking at a webinar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar praised India's efforts in combating climate change, saying that India has "over-performed" in its goals.

New Delhi: Countries asking others to raise their targets in lowering emissions without actually doing their bit is a "flawed" approach, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday while stressing that India is one of the top performing nations in combating climate change.

Speaking at a webinar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, he said historically India's contribution to the world's emissions has been just 3 per cent.

Even with the current emissions, India's contribution is just 7 per cent even though the country has a population of 1.3 billion, he said.

Javadekar said India has "over-performed" in its goals. He cited the Climate Transparency Report, United Nation Environment Programme's Emission Gap report, Climate Action Tracker and Climate Change Performance Index to back his point.

"India is one of the top performers on the commitments and actions. This all shows that India is walking the talk," he said.

"Countries, without actually doing their own bit, are asking other countries to revise upwards, ratchet upward their ambitions. I see this as flawed," Javadekar said.

He said it will be a "good scenario" if countries comply with the Nationally Determined Contributions agreed to under the Paris Agreement.

"Why you want to ratchet it up now...everybody has given NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) ... even if you comply (with the) NDCs, it will be a good scenario. In 2023 when the global stocktake will happen, one can think of raising the ambition," he said.

'Global stocktake' refers to a proposed five-yearly review of the impact of countries' climate change actions. Under the Paris Agreement, every country must present a climate action plan in five-yearly cycles.

Javadekar said when countries are asked why targets are being raised, they say that gives a very good signal to the industry to innovate and bring out new technologies.

"It's a wrong argument that you must raise your ambitions to give correct market signal. It is not a valid argument. And therefore, I believe in human intelligence and intent."

"All these innovations have taken place because of intelligence and intent. And this has continued even today. We should not profit from disaster. We are thinking that climate change is a disaster, (then) technology will find out the answer. But we should not charge technology excessively," Javadekar said.

He stressed that there has to be collaboration in research and innovation, and there will be joint IPRs and all new technologies that cost to mitigate climate change must be provided and there should be no profit from it.

Javadekar said India has taken a lead in adapting to climate change. As far as NDC implementation is concerned, he said India is doing "much much more than what we were expected to".

"We took on ourselves, a target of reduction of 35 per cent of emission intensity by 2030 but within last five years, we have brought it down by 21 per cent, a huge impact over 2005 targets not 1990 targets.So we are also doing our bit," he added.

Javadekar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced 175 GWe of renewable energy and 40 per cent energy mix of bio-renewables in energy mix capacities and India is achieving both the targets.

In the last six years, there has been an increase in the country's green cover, he said.

PTI