BackPrakash Javadekar says budget will give direction to climate change efforts
Environment minister Javadekar says India work started on contributions that will form the basis of global climate change negotiations at the end of 2015
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New Delhi: Environment minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said the upcoming budget will clearly signal the government’s efforts to tackle climate change, adding that India has already begun work on its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), which will form the basis of climate change negotiations in Paris at the end of the year.
“I hope that the budget will give a clear indication on how we want to walk the talk. And therefore, clean energy, clean water, clean air and many other initiatives of the Narendra Modi government will get reflected into budget," Javadekar said at an event on India’s climate policy and INDCs organized by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a think tank on environment issues.
“Various modalities and frameworks for developing India’s INDCs were being worked out. We have already started our action. It is not ‘intended’—it is already implemented. So, the INDCs to be presented will be some of the implemented status of our INDCs," Javadekar added.
Each nation has to submit its INDCs by mid-2015 for negotiating a new climate deal on emission cuts in Paris.
The environment minister urged developed nations to fulfil their commitments to operationalize the Green Climate Fund which are meant to provide affordable clean technology to developing countries.
Javadekar also said the government plans to add to the eight missions—or programmes—of the National Action Plan on Climate Change that are currently being implemented. India at present has national missions on solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, sustainable habitats, water, sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem, green India, sustainable agriculture and strategic knowledge for climate change.
“So all put together, we are mapping what can be the best INDCs... There will be a complete synthesis between the country’s declared intentions and its action," Javadekar added.
The environment ministry is already working with state governments, who have their own state action plans on climate change, for finalizing the INDCs.
On the controversy surrounding Jayanthi Natarajan, the former environment minister who recently resigned from the Congress party, Javadekar said that his government will trace alleged cases of “extraneous influence" in the environment ministry regarding the clearance of specific files during her tenure.
“She has mentioned certain files and she has not mentioned certain files, but she indicated what was happening. But one thing is clear—that the (former) prime minister (Manmohan Singh) was in office, but not in power. The power was concentrated in 10, Janpath. So we will definitely look into those cases mentioned and hinted where some extraneous influence has happened. We will see if there is any trace of such extraneous influence," said Javadekar.
Natarajan, who was removed as environment minister in the previous government, resigned from the Congress on Friday. In a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, made public last week, she alleged that during her tenure as environment minister she had received specific requests from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, seeking to influence the environment ministry’s decisions. No. 10 Janpath is the home of Sonia Gandhi in central Delhi.
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