Act on commitments under UN climate convention and Paris agreement, PM Modi urges G20 nations

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged the G20 nations to act on commitments under the UN climate convention and Paris agreement.

Addressing the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Ministerial Meeting in Chennai via video conferencing, the Prime Minister said the countries of the Global South are particularly impacted by Climate Change and environmental issues.

"We need enhanced action on commitments under the 'UN Climate Convention' and the 'Paris agreement'. This will be crucial in helping the Global South fulfill its developmental aspirations in a climate-friendly way,” PM Modi said.

Talking about various projects implemented by India that focus on community-based conservation such as Namami Gange Mission for cleaning river Ganga, Misison Amrit Sarovar to clean waterbodies and others, PM Modi urged G20 countries to work constructively for an effective international legally-binding instrument to end plastic pollution.

With India setting a target to become carbon neutral by 2070, he said, India continues to collaborate with partners through alliances including International Solar Alliance, CDRI, and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition. But he didn’t state anything on the energy transition commitments at the G20.

Meanwhile, the Union minister for environment, Bhupender Yadav pressed for collaboration among nations stating it was crucial for tackling the complex and interconnected challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification and pollution, among others.

India seeks to lead the global fight against climate change, together with the G20, he said. Yadav was speaking at the environment and climate sustainability working group of the G20 at Chennai.

Speaking at the G20 forum, he said: "We have delved into the pressing issues of forest fires and mining degraded areas as priority landscapes. Our experiences and best practices to restore them are included in Presidency documents, and these can be useful in implementing measures to achieve our target for land degradation neutrality. We have also addressed the issue of integrated water resource management and captured best practices in the G20 in a compendium that can be a useful resource. On the ocean agenda, we have focused on the challenges associated with developing a sustainable and resilient blue economy. We organized the second edition of the Ocean 20 Dialogue, focusing on conservation of coastal and marine ecosystems, advancing marine spatial planning, combatting marine litter and enhancing finance. We also worked with Japan to bring out the fifth edition of the ‘G20 Report on Actions against Marine Plastic Litter’. We organized a mega beach cleanup event across several G20 and invited countries, to draw attention to the pervasive problem of marine litter.”

At the end of the day, he said, they would release Presidency documents, outcome document and chairs’ summaries that reflect key areas of agreements made by various countries.