New Delhi: A long-term strategy is under preparation to meet India’s 2070 targets under the Paris Agreement as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26 at Glasgow early this month, said RP Gupta, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), while addressing the webinar on ‘Outcomes of COP26: Implications for Indian Industry’ organized by the industry chamber FICCI.

Gupta said that the country’s focus is on improving energy efficiency and on the required change in nature of energy basket. He added that there is a significant move in climate finance and any cost associated with net zero should be shared by the world partly. He further added that the modalities for additional finance are being worked out and assured definite climate finance for the period beyond 2025.

While sharing various government efforts that are underway for meeting the country’s targets, Gupta also highlighted the need for increased responsibility by the industry for meeting the 2070 targets as pledged by Prime Minister Modi in Glasgow. Kolluru Krishan, Chair, FICCI Climate Change Committee and Chairman, CVC India Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, highlighted that finance and market mechanisms in the Article 6 under Paris Agreement as key enablers to meet India’s targets.

Dr Prodipto Ghosh, Mentor, FICCI Climate Change Committee and Former Secretary, MoEF & CC, GoI, highlighted the challenges related to India’s ambitious targets under the Paris Agreement and indicated that this may lead to the emergence of new regulatory and fiscal mandates for the industry. He emphasized on the need for industry to shed its inhibition on technological development and urged industry to engage in adoption of large-scale R&D projects, many of which can be done in PPP mode with the research labs in India and reduce the country's reliance on clean tech imports to become competitive with respect to technologies going forward.

Dr Mukund Govind Rajan, Chair, FICCI Environment Committee & Chairman, E-Cube Investment Advisors Pvt Ltd, emphasized on the need for collaboration between the government and industry to meet India’s NDCs including co-creation of a 10-year or a 20-year plan for guiding the industry and a clear roadmap to encourage the new off-take market in areas of climate mitigation. /BI/