India cuts down its carbon emissions substantially: Environment Secy.

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SME Times News Bureau | 02 Sep, 2017
Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MOEFCC), Ajay Narayan Jha Friday said that India has cut down its carbon footprints and emissions substantially with the help of enabling technology in fossil fuel plants, transition to renewable energy and improved forest cover.

Speaking at a Plenary Session on 'India's Policy and Business Climate for a Low Emissions Trajectory', on day two of '3rd Business and Climate Summit 2017' organized by FICCI in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India; Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India and the Government of Sweden in New Delhi, Jha said that India has been at the forefront of developing institutional mechanism and framework for climate change and had initiated a Plan of Action to achieve the goals of India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).

He added that synergies between the Centre and States were also crucial as States had a crucial role in mitigating climate change.

Naina Lal Kidwai, Chair, Delhi BCS Steering Committee & Past President, FICCI, moderated the session.

Dr. Ajay Mathur, Director General, TERI, said that energy consumption was amazingly low in India and there was a great opportunity for technology leapfrogging to reduce emissions in the country. There was a need for large amount of infrastructure on both supply and demand sides. Besides, new business models were necessary for reducing specific energy consumption.

Dr. Mukund Rajan, Chairman, Tata Global Sustainability Council, Chief Ethics Officer & Head – International Operations, Tata Sons & Chairman, FICCI Environment Committee, said that the corporates were undertaking social and natural evaluations to access the damage to the environment and find ways to reconcile it. Circular economy and sharing economy were being propagated to reduce emissions. Corporates were willingly joining skills programs and other such endeavors. Leading companies were placing sustainability at the heart of the strategy, he added.

Jill Duggan, Director, Prince of Wales' Corporate Leaders Group (CLG), said that India has been working on various programs on climate change mitigation and nations could learn from India's policies.

She added that though business needs a stable policy environment, policy makers should have the flexibility of renewing and revisiting policies. Prince of Wales' Corporate Leaders Group brings together European business leaders to accelerate progress towards a low carbon and sustainable economy.