India only nation to keep commitments on climate change: Javadekar

“We are the only country following our commitment ( towards mitigating environmental risks) but the rest are not sticking to their commitments,” the minister for forest and climate change, information and broadcasting and heavy industries and public enterprise said.

India accounts for only 7% of the world’s total carbon emissions and this has been possible with the country rapidly moving towards digitisation, aggressively adding renewable capacities and gradually reducing fossil fuel consumption, said Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar.

“We are the only country following our commitment ( towards mitigating environmental risks) but the rest are not sticking to their commitments,” the minister for forest and climate change, information and broadcasting and heavy industries and public enterprise said.

Javadekar said India had only 3% contribution in historical carbon balancing. Though not responsible for climate change in any way, it has been taking all measures to mitigate environmental risks.

The country’s focus on using electric vehicles would increase once the prices of such vehicles come down and charging infrastructure across the country is rolled out and strengthened. An electric vehicle, similar in size of a fuel-run vehicle, costs 40% more at present since its manufacturing has not yet achieved the economies of scale.

The Centre has already adopted a battery-swapping policy to save the charging time of an electric vehicle (EV), while also embarking on a project to set up 3,000 charging stations on Delhi-Agra and Delhi-Chandigarh highways at every 10-km distance. An EV can run up to 300 km after being fully charged and so, there won’t be any inconvenience in running EVs in cities, Javadekar said.

Fuel consumption in FY20 had already flatlined and coal offtakes had been decreasing since April this financial year. Solar capacity has gone up to 36,000 MW from 2,000 MW in 2014 and the country’s renewable portfolio presently stands at 90,000 MW. It is set to increase to 100,000 MW by 2022, the minister said.

Digitisation, he said, playing a pivotal role in reducing carbon emission through reduced paper usage, had made transactions worth $ 200 billion. The Centre, this year, instead of printing paper calendars will introduce digital calendars and is soon to extend Wi-Fi facilities in all the 6 lakh villages of the country. While 5,000 railway stations have been facilitated with Wi-Fi services, Javdekar added.

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