India is not only on track to achieve its Paris Agreement targets but to exceed them beyond expectations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday at the Climate Ambition Summit 2020 through video conference.
“Today as we are looking to set our sight 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 at the summit on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement.
Sharing details on the achievements achieved by India under the pact, Modi said that “ We have reduced our emission intensity by 21 per cent over 2005 levels. Our solar capacity has grown from 2.63 GigaWatts in 2014 to 36 GigaWatts in 2020. 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,” he pointed out.
We have also succeeded in expanding our forest cover and safeguarding our biodiversity, said the Prime Minister who asserted that “on the world stage, India has pioneered two major initiatives ie the International Solar Alliance, and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure to cut down climate change.
Asserting that India is committed to walk on green path, the Prime Minister, addressing the global leaders at the summit, said that in 2047, as India will celebrate 100 years as a modern, independent nation, it will not only meet its own targets, but will also exceed your expectations.
The Summit provides a platform for leaders to announce ambitious new commitments under the Paris Agreement.
This agreement is a landmark deal in the multilateral climate change process.
For the first time, a binding agreement brought all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects.
It is a legally binding international treaty on climate change which was adopted by 196 Parties at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris, on the 12th of December 2015 and came into force on the 4th of November 2016.