NEW DELHI: Making the stand of the NDA Government clear on climate change, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said India is committed to reduce carbon emission but it may increase in the process of development and poverty eradication.
Underlining that the problem of global warming was created by the developing nations, Javadekar said that India has “a right to grow” and “unless we tackle poverty, we cannot really address the climate change.”
“We have to reduce our carbon emissions. But I have not created the carbon emisssion problems, which have been done by others. But I am not into any blame game. The issue is that I have a right to grow. India and developing countries have the right to grow. These are the emerging economies. To that end, we need to grow. Our net emission may increase,” he said while speaking at a function here.
His statement may raise a few eyebrows as developed nations want India and China to cut down their carbon emissions.
Several nations, civil society groups and climate experts are meeting in September in New York to discuss measures needed to deal with the climate change issue.
He also announced an ambitious programme to combat the challenge of land desertification and make the country “land degradation neutral” by 2030.
The Environment Ministry along with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Water Resources and other Ministries will chart out a detailed programme to combat the challenge of desertification with the participation of people.