NEW DELHI: India will not bow down to any international pressure on climate change and safeguard its own interest first, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said in response to a calling attention notice on climate change in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Javadekar said the government will take up issues like developed nations not meeting their commitments over providing financial assistance and technology transfer to developing countries in order to reduce emissions.

Replying to a calling attention notice on “situation arising out of climate change in the country and steps taken by the government in regard thereto” in Rajya Sabha, the minister said, “It is true that developed world is responsible for most of the the climate change situation today.”

Elaborating, he said, “Over 70% of the green house gases emission was due to the developed countries while India's contribution is just three per cent. There was over consumption by the people in the developed word.”

“We will not bow down to any pressure from developed countries on climate change issues. They had committed $100 billion and technology transfer for developing nations for dealing with climate change issue. But that has not happened,” he added.

The minister said India did not sit on the back benches during Paris Climate Summit in 2015 and rather led from the front and inked the important agreement.

Calling the attention of environment minister, Rewati Raman Singh (SP) sought to know the situation arising out of climate change in the country and steps taken by the government in this regard.

Initiating the discussion, Javadekar said so far, 33 states and Union Territories have prepared their climate action plan.

“India will also work towards creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

The minister said emission intensity of GDP has decreased by 21% in 2014 as compared to 2005 levels, thereby already achieving our voluntary pre-2020 goal of reducing emission intensity by 20-25% from 2005 levels by 2020.

However, Singh said the effects of climate change are visible throughout India with the delayed arrival of monsoons which is a dangerous situation. He deemed as “insufficient” the government's efforts to arrest impact of climate change.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the job of the environment minister is not to clear projects but to protect the environment.

He said if the government was to deal with climate change, it will have to take some hard decisions and those decisions may clash sometimes with the ease of doing business.

Vandana Chavan of the NCP said environmental clearances are being given left, right and centre. If we have to address issue of climate change, action has to happen at the grassroot level.

