India at forefront in implementing its International commitments on climate change: Yadav

New Delhi: As the world is gearing up for the Stockholm conference in the coming weeks, Union Minister for Environment Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav said, India has been at the forefront in implementing its international commitments which were taken up in Stockholm Conference in 1972.

“We are currently implementing the National Clean Air Plan (NCAP) which aims to clean up India’s air through range of intervention from the local to the global” the Minister said while addressing valedictory session at the “Conference On Environmental Diversity And Environmental Jurisprudence, held in Chandigarh University.

Yadav noted that in pursuance to our commitment under the Rio Declaration, 1992 India has a robust Environmental Impact Assessment Process.
“We are today among the few countries in the world to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity in letter and spirit”, the Minister underlined.

Yadav said that India has operationalized the Access and Benefit Sharing under the Nagoya Protocol as a result 2,75,000 Biodiversity Management Committees are today functional in India in every village and local body.

Talking about, India climate commitments, he said India’s ambitious announcements of Panchamrit particularly of reaching its non fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030 further proves our significant contribution towards achieving the temperature goals of Paris Agreement.
He added that the latest IPCC Working Group III report further justifies India’s emphasis on equity at all scales in climate action and sustainable development.

Speaking about environmental justice Bhupender Yadav stated, There can be no environmental justice and equity if the people most affected by environmental protection measures are those not responsible for it.

The Minister further spoke about waves of environmental litigation over the years which have become detrimental to the development.

“The society shall have to prosper, but not at the cost of environment and similarly the environment shall have to be protected but not at the cost of development”.

He also emphasised that the need of the hour is strike a balance between the two i.e development on one side and pollution free environment on the other.

Yadav took the opportunity to reiterate India’s development philosophy of “Development without Destruction’. We are working with line Ministries and Departments to mainstream biodiversity conservation in all sectors of economic development, he informed.

He also informed that in 2018, India hosted the World Environment Day on the theme ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ and India gave a global call for eliminating single use plastics.

“This call of India provided the momentum leading to significant action on plastic pollution around the globe, culminating in the historic resolution and its adoption in UNEA 5.2 held in Nairobi in the month of March, Yadav however, added that this will institutionalize ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ around the world.