India on track to meet NDC goals under Paris Agreement: Survey

New Delhi, Jan 31 () India is on track to achieve its Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, the Economic Survey said.

India has strived to ensure that it follows a growth path that delivers sustainable development and protects the environment by investing in various schemes aligned with its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement in accordance with principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, the survey has stated.

"India is on track to achieve its NDCs (goals). The survey further highlights the significant leap in India's renewable energy sector i.e. 83 GW targets being achieved out of aimed target of 175 GW Renewable Energy under one of the world's largest renewable energy expansion programs," the Survey said.

Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) was launched in 2014 with twin objectives of ensuring 100 per cent scientific solid waste management and making urban India open defecation free (ODF) to achieve total environmental improvement, the Finance Ministry said in a release.

All Urban areas of 35 States/UTs have become ODF and percentage of waste processing rose from around 18 per cent to 60 per cent.

India's decision to revise the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) is in line with NDCs to make it more comprehensive. Schemes like UJALA for LED bulb distribution have crossed 360 million mark, while street lighting programme under which 10 million conventional street lights were replaced by LED street lights resulting in saving 43 million tons of CO2 emission.

"In the solar sector, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) has taken up the role of enabler by institutionalizing 30 fellowships from the member countries; of facilitator by getting the lines of credit worth USD 2 billion from EXIM Bank of India and USD 1.5 billion from Agence Francaise de Development (AFD), France; of an incubator by nurturing initiatives like the solar risk mitigation initiative and of an accelerator by developing tools to aggregate demand for 1000 MW solar and 2,70,000 solar pumps," the ministry said.

Recently, India also launched the coalition for disaster resilient infrastructure (CDRI) on sidelines of UN Secretary General's Climate Action Summit in September 2019.

CDRI aims to promote resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and Disaster Risks to reduce the infrastructure losses from Disasters.

India has the second largest emerging green bond market after China.

"The Survey also expressed concern over crunch issue in climate finance .Green Climate Funds' first replenishment (2020-2023) so far witnessed 28 countries pledging resources to replenish the fund for an amount of USD 9.7 billion which is quantitatively lower than the Initial Resource Mobilization (IRM) period.

"The Survey further expressed a hope that India will continue to do its fair share of responsibilities while strongly calling for developed countries to take the lead," the statement said. ABI MR MR