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  India   ‘Villages key to fulfil climate deal’

‘Villages key to fulfil climate deal’

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : Oct 23, 2016, 12:50 am IST
Updated : Oct 23, 2016, 12:50 am IST

Days after India ratified the Paris agreement, Union environment minister Anil Madhav Dave on Saturday said that the climate action plans pledged by India can be achieved only if efforts related to it

Days after India ratified the Paris agreement, Union environment minister Anil Madhav Dave on Saturday said that the climate action plans pledged by India can be achieved only if efforts related to it span six lakh villages in the country.

Post-2020, Mr Dave added, India has to think over the implementation of whatever agreement was finalised in Paris in 6.5 lakh villages of the country. “If INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) goals are to be achieved, we will have to connect this effort with these villages,” he said.

Ahead of the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the UNFCCC to be held in Marakech in Morocco next month, Mr Dave said the issue of financing should be “clear, simple and straight” without manipulations by auditors. “Two things are very important — high-end technology that too without patent and minimum profit and finance, a transparent financial structure and it should be crystal clear,” he said at an event, adding, “Finance should be simple and straight. But accountants and auditors, they keep on manipulating things. It should not be there. We will put that on the world platform properly.” He said India had already started bringing up the issue at various bilateral and multilateral discussions. “If not today, tomorrow there will be a clarity and modalities will be worked out so that in the future, we will be able to do it within a time-frame,” he said.

Addressing the gathering, the European Union’s Ambassador to India, Tomasz Kozlowski, said that as far as EU is concerned, it has made certain commitments concerning finance and is delivering on that and will continue to do so. “Concerning modalities, our objective is to make it as simple as possible.”

The system should be simple and result-oriented. All commitments that we have made, we are ready to deliver on them. We have so far delivered what we have committed,” he said.

On the finance aspect, Mr Kozlowski said that in 2014, EU mobilised more than 14 billion euros for financing projects related to climate change. “It means that I disagree that the EU and member states are not ready or not delivering,” he added.

Location: India, Delhi, New Delhi