Climate talks: Environment Minister Javadekar says India will work to protect its long-term development interests

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

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”.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi 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 had reduced its emission intensity by 22 percent over 2005 and was one of the few countries which had increased tree cover in and outside forests.

On November 27, the Union Cabinet, chaired by PM 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.

From Kyoto Protocol to Paris Agreement

COP-25, which started on December 2 and concludes on December 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 said India's approach would 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 September, during the Climate Action Summit convened by the UN Secretary-General, Modi had announced India's plan to scale up the 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 emphasised that developed countries should take the lead in taking ambitious actions and fulfil their climate finance commitments of mobilising $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.

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)