India is on the front lines of climate change but has the vision and political will to act despite serious resource constraints, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in Lima Wednesday.In view of the government's focus on growth and poverty alleviation, the minister said India was "pursuing action-oriented policies to bring rapid development to our people while purposefully addressing climate change".In a statement to the high-level segment of the 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP20), the minister said India has allocated over $200 million to intensive afforestation, ultra mega solar projects, ultra-modern thermal power technology, and the development of solar parks.Highlighting some of India's clean energy measures, Javadekar said the National Solar Mission is being scaled up five-fold from 20,000 MW to 100,000 MW, which would cap CO2 emission significantly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "100 Smart Cities" initiative designed to mitigate the effects of climate change in urban areas, India's action plan for cleaning River Ganga, and the progress in developing National Air Quality Index were other key climate-friendly initiatives that were mentioned.Javadekar also called on developed countries to scale up their mitigation ambition, beef up the Green Climate Fund, and provide technological support to developing countries.Standing firm on India's stance with respect to Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), Javadekar said its targets must not be subject to external review and remain strictly "nationally determined"."We do not see any role for any ex-ante review in this (INDC) process," he emphasised.Hoping to make the COP20 Lima a "stepping stone" towards a post-2020 agreement, Javadekar said it should provide equitable carbon space for developing countries to achieve sustainable development and eradicate global poverty.