Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Monday said that India is moving towards becoming the fastest growing green economy in the world.
Addressing the seminar, 'Only One Earth - a discussion on Environment' at the India Pavilion, EXPO2020 Dubai virtually, Goyal said, "While we are proud to be the fastest-growing economy in the world we hope to become the fastest-growing green economy across the planet."
The session, organized in collaboration with Bhamla Foundation, aimed at raising awareness and the need to safeguard the environment, in line with the annual global theme laid out by the United Nations Environment Programme, 'Only One Earth' for the World Environment Day 2022.
Goyal further said, "I am grateful to the leadership of the United Arab Emirates for giving the India Pavilion a place of pride at the World Expo2020 Dubai. The Pavilion is a perfect example of bringing sustainability into action. It has been constructed on principles of water and energy conservation and we are focusing on recycling in a big way and hosting a wide range of discussions around biodiversity, wildlife conservation, climate action and renewable energy."
"As a signatory to the Paris Agreement, the Modi government has walked the talk on green energy. Our installed non-fossil energy capacity is the fourth largest in the world and has grown by 300 per cent. One of our notable initiatives was a conversion from the incandescent light bulb to LED light where we are probably the world's largest in terms of the rollout of LED. That has saved the country 6-7 billion dollars of our consumers and saved 80 million tonnes of carbon emission and contributed to making the world a safer place to live in," he added.
Goyal further stated, "As a leading agri-producer, we are taking significant efforts to promote biofuels. Now, food grains waste and sugarcane are converted into ethanol in a big way, with the ethanol blending programme making rapid strides. It used to be 1 per cent then this year between 9-10 per cent and next two years we hope to take the blending to 20 per cent, to reduce our dependence on import of crude oil and make our petrol vehicle more sustainable and support efforts towards net-zero by 2070."
The session was attended by eminent personalities from the UAE and India including Amruta Devendra Fadnavis, social activist on environment and sustainability. Fadnavis said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been leading the initiatives on climate change and promotion of biofuel. We fully support his efforts towards sustainable development."
( With inputs from ANI )
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