India's climate action plan submitted to the United Nations is "comprehensive, ambitious and progressive" which will help reduce emission intensity by 33 to 35 percent by 2030, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Friday."The plan submitted by India is comprehensive, ambitious and progressive. India targets to reduce the emission intensity by 33 to 35 percent in the next 15 years and will curb 3.59 billion tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030," he said at a press conference here.Emission intensity refers to the ratio of a country's emissions to its economic output.Ahead of the crucial 21st meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP-21) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Paris from November 30 to December 11, India has made a 38-page submission under what is called the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
The deadline to submit the INDCs was October 1, 2015 and India kept the deadline as well as it coincided with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2 by submitting it after midnight, Javadekar said."Much before the climate change debate began, Mahatma Gandhi had said that we should act as 'trustees' and use natural resources wisely as it is our moral responsibility to ensure that we bequeath to the future generations a healthy planet," he said.Javadekar said India has pledged for eight major goals, including a target of generating 40 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030. "Its a huge target that will help in curbing the global warming," he said.
The minister said India's INDCs focuses on various elements -- mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology transfer and capacity building.Stating India's plan was synchronized with the country's development agenda, the minister said: "India faces enormous development challenges like poverty eradication, ensuring housing, electricity, good health and food security for all."He said it was a pressing need to chart a path of growth that was less harmful to the environment without sacrificing the country's aspirations.
Saying India's climate actions have largely been financed from domestic resources, he said implementing climate change mitigation and adaptation actions would require domestic and new and additional funds from developed countries in view of the shortage of resources.Although India was not a large pollution generating country as compared to the developed world, the minister said the country had taken a pledge to save the environment from global warming."India is not a part of problem, but it is a part of solution," he said.