“We want a comprehensive, equitable and durable agreement, which must lead us to restore the balance between humanity and nature, and between what we have inherited and what we will leave behind”, he said.
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“The proposed solar alliance may help by permitting effective exploitation of economies of scale and comparative advantages of different countries in research and development, manufacturing, innovation and finance, while also allowing them to access technology and best practices from each other”.
After Mr. Modi met Mr. Obama on Monday – their sixth meeting in 14 months – he told reporters that the two leaders had “such a deep relationship that we are able to openly discuss all issues”, and said that he was happy to work “shoulder to shoulder with the United States”.
The evidence is clear: climate change is here, and it’s happening.
“This unprecedented worldwide solar collaboration sets an encouraging tone as country representatives gather today to reach a new global climate agreement”.
India is contending with a huge challenge to combat poverty and accelerate its economic growth, which will largely be powered by fossil fuels over the next two decades, and deal with climate change – a crisis to which it is hugely vulnerable. Prime Minister Modi said India looked at the Paris convention with both commitment and hope. “This is the moment that we finally made a decision to save our planet”, he said. We have set out 175 gigawatt of solar and renewable energy.
Talking about the significance of Sun in the Indian tradition, the Prime Minister said that according to the Rig Veda, Sun God is the soul of all beings, moving and non-moving and people in India begin their day with a prayer to the Sun. “We have got off to a good start, with almost 12 GW likely to be installed by 2016, more than three times the current capacity”, he said. And I would just like to once again reiterate that the responsibility that India has will be fully undertaken and fulfilled by it. And we will be working with all countries in the world to ensure that development and protection of the environment go hand in hand. “India is also building renewable capacity in developing countries, including small island states”, he said. In his sit-down with Xi, Obama touted close cooperation on climate change as vital to world efforts on global warming, and said nowhere had coordination with Beijing been more critical or fruitful than on climate change.
I have tried to capture some of these initiatives in my book, Convenient Action, which we shall present today.
“The idea is that larger markets and bigger volumes will lead to lower costs making it possible to spur demand”, said Ajay Mathur, India’s senior negotiator and spokesperson at the Paris summit.
Facing such alarming projections, the leaders of nations responsible for about 90 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions have come bearing pledges to reduce their national carbon output, through different measures at different rates.
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Modi then lectured the developed countries: “The principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities must remain the bedrock of our collective enterprise across all areas – mitigation, adaptation and means for implementation”.
