Willingly India moves towards reducing carbon footprints: Goyal
India was willingly and voluntarily working towards reducing carbon footprints in the country, said Piyush Goyal, minister of state (independent charge), Ministry of Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy, and Mines.
He further said that there is a need for people’s participation, holistic approach to sustainable lifestyle, better allocation of resources and engagement amongst nations to make a difference. Goyal was addressing a session on ‘Milestones to 2020, & Beyond under the Paris Agreement’ at the ‘3rd Business and Climate Summit 2017’, a global annual forum that rotates different countries, organised by FICCI.
Union minister Goyal said that the country was engaging with universities across the globe to acquire technologies for climate change mitigation. He said that the government was ready to fully finance carbon capture technology and was in favour of opening up the technology to all. However, this idea did not find takers as companies wanted to sell technology for a profit. He added that climate change was being made into a business which was not in the right spirit.
He further said that the government was working out a mechanism on standardising specifications for charging batteries and creating low cost infrastructure. He added that in India prices have been de-regulated and there was free play of market forces. Besides, low cost financing was being looked at for scaling up renewable energy technologies.