Indian PM blames developed countries for world's environmental woes

Modi said India was making multi-pronged efforts to protect the environment even though its role in climate change was negligible.

Modi noted that the average carbon footprint of the world was about four tonnes per person per annum compared to just about 0.5 tonnes per person per annum in India.

He said India was working on a long-term vision on protecting the environment in collaboration with the International community and established organisations like the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the International Solar Alliance, he said, reiterating India’s goal of ”Net-Zero by 2070”.

The PM was addressing a “Save Soil” programme organised by the Isha Foundation on World Environment Day. 
Appreciating the “Save Soil Movement”, he said that at a time when the nation was taking new pledges, such movements acquired a new importance. He expressed satisfaction that key programmes of his government in the last eight years had been designed keeping environmental protection in mind.

Modi said that to save the soil, his government was focused on: how to make the soil chemical-free; how to save organisms that live in the soil; how to maintain soil moisture and increase the availability of water; how to remove the damage happening to the soil due to less groundwater; and how to stop the continuous erosion of soil due to the reduction of forests.

He said efforts were being made in the agricultural sector to alleviate problems related to the soil. The PM said that earlier, the farmers lacked information about the type of soil, deficiency in soil and how much water was there. To overcome these problems, a huge campaign was launched to give soil health cards to the farmers in the country.

Modi said the government was connecting the people of the country with water conservation through campaigns like ”Catch the Rain”. 


In March this year, a campaign to conserve 13 big rivers was also started in the country. Along with reducing pollution in water, work was also being done to plant forests on the banks of rivers. Estimates were that this would add a forest cover of 7,400 square kilometres to the 20,000sq km forest cover in India that has been added in the last eight years, he said.

The PM noted that the policies related to biodiversity and wildlife that India was following today have also led to a record increase in the number of wildlife. Today, whether it was tigers, lions, leopards or elephant, their numbers were increasing.

He said that natural farming was a solution to some of India’s biggest problems. He noted that in this year’s budget, the government has decided to encourage natural farming in the villages situated on the banks of Ganga, which would make a huge corridor for natural farming.

He said India was working on the goal of restoring 26 million hectares of land by 2030.

Modi added that India had achieved the target of sourcing 40 per cent of its installed power generation capacity from non-fossil-fuel nine years ahead of schedule. Solar energy capacity has increased by 18 times and "Hydrogen Mission", circular economy-related, and scrap policies were examples of the government’s commitment to environmental protection, he said.

The PM said India had achieved the target of 10 per cent ethanol blending five months ahead of schedule. Elaborating on the enormity of the achievement, he said that in 2014, ethanol blending was at 1.5 per cent. There were three clear benefits of achieving this goal: It has led to a reduction of 27 lakh tonnes of carbon emissions; it has saved foreign exchange worth 410 billion rupees (THB181.3 billion); and farmers of the country have earned 460 billion rupees in the last eight years due to an increase in ethanol blending.

The Statesman

Asia News Network

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