“India part of climate solution, not problem”

Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, on developed countries' climate commitments and India's path ahead

- BY SIDDHARTH ZARABI

Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, says India is not only meeting its climate commitments, but also taking the lead in forming global alliances for climate action. During an interaction at the BT India's Most Sustainable Companies Summit & Awards, Yadav said the government is ensuring ease of doing business for the country's wealth creators, alongside meeting the energy and development aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians. Edited excerpts:

Q: How is India's environmental journey progressing?

A: There are three aspects of climate change. First, there is climate change, second biodiversity loss and third desertification. As far as the Indian government's international commitment and mitigation measures are concerned, after the Paris Agreement in 2016, it was agreed that every country would provide its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). We gave eight NDCs, of which three were quantitative.

Among these the first was reducing carbon emission intensity along with economic growth. Second, moving towards renewable energy. And third, increasing our carbon sink. India achieved the 2030 targets of reducing carbon emissions and increasing the capacity of renewables nine years before the target in 2021 itself.

As far as desertification is concerned, the biggest problem in the world today is that the amount of fertilisers being used in agriculture is making the land barren. It is also believed to cause diseases like cancer. When we went to the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, we said that we have implemented the biggest adaptation programme. That we have given soil health cards to 290 million farmers. It allows farmers to assess the strength of their land and apply fertilisers accordingly. We said we are moving towards natural farming.