Energy requirements of the people of India are expected to nearly double in the next twenty years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he urged developed countries to fulfil their commitments on finance and technology transfer.
“Denying this energy would be denying life itself to millions. Successful climate actions also need adequate financing. For this, developed countries need to fulfill their commitments on finance and technology transfer,” Modi said while delivering the inaugural address at the 21st World Sustainable Development Summit 2022 (WSDS-22) on the theme 'Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future'.
Modi said India believes in fulfilling commitments under the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and added that the country has raised its ambitions during CoP-26 at Glasgow.
Sustainability requires coordinated action for the global commons, he said.
"Our efforts have recognised this interdependence. Through the International Solar Alliance, our aim is One Sun, One World, One Grid. We must work towards ensuring availability of clean energy from a worldwide grid everywhere at all times. This is the 'whole of the world' approach that India's values stand for," the prime minister said.
He said equitable energy access to the poor has been a cornerstone of our environmental policy. Steps like 90 million households getting access to clean cooking fuel under Ujjwala Yojana and renewable energy to farmer Under the PM-KUSUM scheme where farmers are being encouraged to set up solar panels, use it and sell surplus power to the grid will promote sustainability and equity, he claimed.
“Environment and sustainable development have been key focus areas for me all through my 20 years in office, first in Gujarat and now at the national level,” Modi said. He, however, lamented that very little has been done despite lot of talk over the last 50 years, since the 1972 Stockholm Conference.
Modi claimed the the LED bulbs distribution scheme has helped save more than 220 billion units of electricity and 180 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. He encouraged academic and research institutes like TERI to come up with scalable solutions to realize the potential of green hydrogen.
“India is a mega-diverse country and It is our duty to protect this ecology,” the prime minister said, noting that with 2.4 per cent of the world's land area, India accounts for nearly 8 per cent of the world's species.