Intervention by Environment Minister at the Second Meeting of the Business Dialogue for COP 21

Intervention by Environment Minister at the Second Meeting of the Business Dialogue for COP 21

The following is the text of the Intervention made by Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar, at the Second Meeting of the Business Dialogue for COP-21 held at UNFCCC in New York yesterday:

“The world must incentivize green growth activities as ‘Green Credit’ instead of Carbon Credit Mechanism, which provides a way out for the Emitter to get rid of the blame of pollution by paying for the emissions. India has put forward new ideas and proposed debate on lifestyle issues, climate justice and green credit mechanism.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was a success for the first commitment period ending in 2012. Demand-supply mismatch and low ambition for emission reduction expressed by developed countries under the Kyoto Protocol is a major cause for the slowdown of the well-established CDM market thereafter. In addition, the unilateral decision taken by some countries to restrict the benefits of CDM to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) only, and not to other developing countries like India, has further reduced the confidence in the Market mechanism. At present, CDM is facing one of the most severe crises since its inception. Therefore, the world must discuss new ways to make it a success, with newer concepts like green credit.

Carbon pricing is a major issue but we should not forget that it is a function of demand and supply. The world is now ready with respective Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), with the resolve of each country to work in the direction of green growth. Thus, the signal for the industry is positive and they should invest more and more for research and development.

Research and development must also become part of the business plan, which carries a certain risk, but also generates tremendous profits for the companies. The real issue is how to make available the critical technologies for the developing world at an affordable cost. To this end, India is proposing that part of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) should be used for this purpose, which will be a win-win proposal for all the stakeholders”.