Fossil fuel-led development is the cause behind climate change and the benefits of it are mostly enjoyed by the developed countries while the developing nations are the sufferers, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan today said.
"All this problem of climate change and global warming has started because of fossil fuel-led development, the benefits and luxuries of which have mostly been enjoyed by the developed world.
"The developing world has always been the sufferer. But despite that, India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading from the front and is providing the most able, sincere and dedicated leadership to this movement (of fighting climate change)," the Minister said.
He was delivering the keynote address on the occasion of signing of Accreditation Master Agreement (AMA) between Green Climate Fund (GCF) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
He noted that due to the persuasiveness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, words like climate justice and sustainable lifestyle were incorporated into the Paris agreement.
"This is in our inherent dna. Words like climate change and global warming might have appeared now, but our ancestors have given to us the real lifestyle and ways to live which are environment friendly," he said.
He said the ancestors gave lifestyle which will ensure that "we do not have to create a fund or a mechanism to fight these issues."
He however rued, "Unfortunately over the years, we have also not been able to keep up those teachings of our ancestors."
Noting that his ministry was trying to develop a data bank of the good environmental and positive deeds, Vardhan said that very soon, his ministry will try to take it to the Parliament, chief ministers and ministers of all the states.
"When we develop a model in India, we would like the world to follow this and not be running after money to handle climate change but to be running after good positive environmental deeds which have to be done by everyone and which will solve most of our problems," he said.
He pointed out that India already has a national climate action plan which has eight missions under it.
The minister said that new missions are also being added for ocean, energy, waste management and all the other related sectors which are relevant.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is one of the operating entities under financial mechanism set up under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
It aims to provide support to developing countries in combating climate change, with resources to be generated from funding by developed countries and various other public and private sources.
It supports both climate change adaptation and mitigation projects in developing countries.
So far, one project from India on 'Installation of Ground Water Recharge System' in Odisha has recently been approved by the GCF for USD 34 million.
Another proposal on coastal areas has already been submitted to the GCF Secretariat and several more projects are in the pipeline.
India has nominated a total of five direct access entities for accreditation by the GCF.
So far, NABARD and SIDBI have been accredited by the GCF.
NABARD is the first entity from India to be accredited as Direct Access Entity (DAE), an official statement said.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
