India Participates in First Virtual Petersberg Climate Dialogue – Discuss Ways to Tackle Climate Change

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar said as the World is unitedly engaged in finding a vaccine for novel Coronavirus, likewise we should have Climate Technology as open source which must be available at affordable cost. Javadekar was representing India in the first virtual Petersberg Climate Dialogue. 

The eleventh session of Petersberg Climate Dialogue witnessed India along with 30 other countries deliberating over ways and means to tackle the challenge of reinvigorating economies and societies after COVID-19, while enhancing collective resilience and catalyzing climate action while also supporting in particular those most vulnerable. 

Stressing on the issue of Climate finance, Javadekar said the World now needs more. “We must plan for 1 trillion USD in grants to developing world immediately”, advocated the Union Minister. 

Expressing solidarity with the world as it combats the COVID 19 pandemic the Union Minister highlighted how COVID – 19 has taught us that we can survive on less. The world must think of adopting more sustainable consumption patterns in line with requirement of sustainable lifestyles, as was first mooted by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi during Paris COP, reiterated the environment Minister. 

He mentioned that India’s Nationally Determined Contributions spanning a ten-year time frame are ambitious and are also compliant with the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. The minister also spoke about the opportunity world has today to accelerate renewable energy deployment and creating new green jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sector. 

The first virtual Climate Dialogue, was the eleventh session of Petersberg Climate Dialogue hosted by Germany since 2010 to provide a forum for informal high-level political discussions, focusing both on international climate negotiations and the advancement of climate action. The virtual XI Petersberg Climate Dialogue was co-chaired by Germany and United Kingdom, the incoming Presidency of 26th Conference of Parties (COP 26) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The dialogue saw participation from Ministers and representatives of about 30 countries. 

This year’s dialogue came at a crucial juncture when countries are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic to save lives, overcoming social and economic consequences of the pandemic while also preparing to move into the implementation phase of Paris Agreement under UNFCCC in post-2020 period. The key agenda of the dialogue was to discuss how we can jointly tackle the challenge of reinvigorating our economies and societies after COVID-19, while enhancing our resilience and catalyzing climate action while also supporting in particular those most vulnerable. 

The Union Minister also participated in an Indo German bilateral meeting with Ms. Svenja Shulze, Minister, Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety , Germany. This bilateral meeting was held via video conference just before the Petersberg Climate Dialogue. It covered discussions on a range of issues covering climate change, conservation of biodiversity and technical cooperation with Germany in these areas. The situation in both countries arising from the COVID 19 pandemic, and recovery efforts, were also discussed.