India has emerged as responsible global voice on climate change: President

NEW DELHI: At the start of the Budget Session, President Ram Nath Kovind, in his address, on Monday said India has emerged as a responsible global voice on climate change, with the Union government having pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030.

The president said India’s ambitions for the environment are a testimony to the country’s “sensitivity towards nature."

At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to cut India’s total projected carbon emission by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, reduce the carbon intensity of the nation’s economy by less than 45% by the end of the decade and have net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.

The president said India has also taken the initiative of ‘Green Grid Initiative: One Sun, One World, One Grid’ with the global community, which is the first international network of globally interconnected solar power grids.

Last year, India emerged as one of the strongest voices on climate change when it pledged to take an array of steps in this direction. At the COP26, India had announced plans for switching to electricity and hydrogen fuels for transport under its five-point climate action plan.

Prime minister Modi had also called for $1 trillion in finance from developed countries to help developing countries lessen the impact of climate change through mitigation and adaptation measures.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a UN body, had said that the global sea level rose by a factor of two - that is, 4.3mm per year - between 2013 and 2021, and the rate of rising is expected to jump further in the coming decade due to rising carbon emissions.