India will go beyond expectations to achieve Paris Agreement goals: PM Modi over climate change

'In 2047, India will celebrate 100 years as a modern, independent nation. To all my fellow residents of this planet, I make a solemn pledge today," PM said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that when independent India would celebrate its centenary in 1947, it would not only meet its targets for contributing to the global fight against climate change, but would also go beyond expectation of the international community.

“In 2047, India will celebrate 100 years as a modern, independent nation. To all my fellow residents of this planet, I make a solemn pledge today. Centennial India will not only meet its own targets, but will also exceed your expectations (in doing its bit for the fight against climate change),” Modi said in a video message at the Climate Ambition Summit, jointly convened by France, the United Kingdom and the United Nations. The virtual summit was held to mark the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the 2015 Paris Agreement to fight climate change.

Modi said that the Paris Agreement was the most ambitious step in the global fight against climate change. “Today, as we are looking to set our sights even higher, we must also not lose sight of the past. We must not only revise our ambitions, but also review our achievements against targets already set. Only then can our voices be credible for future generations.”

He said that India was on track not only to achieve its Paris Agreement targets, but to exceed them beyond expectations. “We have reduced our emission intensity by 21% over 2005 levels. Our solar capacity has grown from 2.63 GigaWatts in 2014 to 36 GigaWatts in 2020,” he said, adding: “”Our renewable energy capacity is the fourth largest in the world. It will reach 175 GigaWatts before 2022. And, we have an even more ambitious target now – 450 GigaWatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030. We have also succeeded in expanding our forest cover and safeguarding our biodiversity.”

India had ratified the Paris Agreement on October 2, 2016 and its pledged Nationally Determined Contributions to the fight against climate change included – reducing the emissions intensity of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 33%–35% by 2030 below 2005 levels, increasing the share of non-fossil-based energy resources to 40% of installed electric power capacity by 2030 with help of transfer of technology and low-cost international finance including from Green Climate Fund (GCF) and creating an additional (cumulative) carbon sink of 2.5–3 GtCO2e through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

The Prime Minister on Saturday also referred to two global initiatives by India – setting up the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

The Climate Ambition Summit was held on Saturday as a prelude to the next UN Climate Conference, COP26, which will be hosted by the UK in Glasgow in November 2021.