Different countries need different goals on sustainable development, Union Minister of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Prakash Javadekar said on Thursday.
“There will have to be different targets for different countries, as countries are at different stages of development,” said Javadekar,” while speaking at the inauguration of the three-day 15th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit in the capital.
A United Nations (UN) meeting in September is expected to finalize the sustainable development goals (SDG) for countries.
“There are three main global events lined up in 2015—a conference on financing for development in Addis Ababa in July, UN meeting in September to finalize SDGs and then the Paris meeting to decide the new global climate deal,” Javadekar said.
“I hope the world will deliver at Paris,” the minister said, referring to the December climate summit in the French capital.
The minister said even though India is under no pressure to act on climate change, it is taking steps to voluntarily cut carbon emission and diversify India’s energy mix, with a heavy focus on renewable energy.
He said the government is committed to moving toward green credits from carbon credits and is actively pursuing its solar power target of 100,000 MW by 2020.
“Even though our target is to achieve 100,000 MW of solar power by 2022, we will achieve that by 2020,” he added.
Earlier, former California governor and Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is attending the summit, said he wants to “terminate” the adverse effects of climate change. Schwarzenegger—a star of Terminator action movies—also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his initiatives on solar power as Gujarat chief minister.
He praised Modi’s “brilliant idea” of covering canals with solar panels and described Gujarat as the California of India, adding the environment and economic growth can go hand-in-hand.
Schwarzenegger said the fight against climate change not only supports the environment but also creates employment, ensures national security (in terms of energy) and, with seven million people dying due to air pollution every year, takes care of health.
