CERA Week: PM Modi calls for behavioural change, circular economy to tackle climate change

PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said behavioural changes and a circular economy are necessary to tackle climate change issues.

Addressing the CERA Week global energy meet organised by IHS Markit on March 5, Modi said that India is on road to achieve its Paris Climate Agreement target much before 2030. By the end of 2020, India had achieved 21 percent of its target to reduce the emission intensity of GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030. The international energy forum awarded Modi with the CERAWeek Global Energy and Environment Leadership Award on March 5.

"The most powerful way to fight climate change is behavioural change," the prime minister said urging for a change in consumption pattern by individuals. Talking about India's plan to come out with metro networks in 27 cities, he said that for large scale behavioural change 'large private participation' is required.

"Over the last seven years, India's forest cover has grown significantly. The population of lions, tiger and leopards and the number of waterfalls have grown. This is a positive behavioural change," he said.

Interestingly, with 38 percent non-fossil fuel capacity for the generation of electricity, India is only 2 per cent short of its 2030 target of 40 per cent of installed non-fossil electricity generation capacity under the Paris agreement.

Highlighting the environment-friendly steps taken by his government, Modi said that 'waste to wealth' is the new buzzword in India and the country is set to come up with 5,000 compressed biogas plants by 2024 with a production target of 15 million tonne (MT).

"We have moved to Bharat VI emission norms since April 2020. India is working to increase the share of natural gas in its energy basket from the current 6 per cent to 15 per cent by 2030. LNG is being promoted as fuel. We just launched a national hydrogen mission last month for use of hydrogen as fuel. Recently, a scheme called PM Kusum was announced to promote, an equitable and decentralised model of solar energy generation," he said.

The prime minister added that as of March 1 this year, around 38 million LED bulbs are being used in India, which helped the country to reduce carbon dioxide emission by 38 MT. India's liquefied petroleum gas penetration also increased from 55 percent in 2014 to 99.6 percent now. He said that the country has also advanced the target of increasing ethanol blending of petrol to 20 percent from 2030 to 2025.