Reduced 38 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually, India tells United Nations

New Delhi: India has told the United Nations as a "leading contributor to climate action", it has reduced 38 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. India's statement was at the Open Debate on "Humanitarian Effects of Environmental Degradation and Peace security".

In a written statement at UN Security Council (UNSC), India has highlighted in last decade "around 3 million hectares of forest and tree cover has been added" which has "enhanced the combined forest and tree cover to 24.56 per cent of the total geographical area of the country".

It listed out that India aims to "restore 26 million hectares of degraded and deforested land and achieve land-degradation neutrality by 2030" and have set "additional targets of eliminating single-use plastic by 2022 and installing 450GW of renewable energy by 2030."

India also pointed out principles such as “Common But Differentiated Responsibilities” are sacrosanct when it comes to environmental protection and "steering away from these principles....attempting to discuss such issues by obfuscating those responsible for addressing them will only do a disservice to the real issue rather than make it more meaningful to address them".

Climate action has been part of the government and last few years saw it playing a proactive global role especially by proposing India led International solar alliance which has more than 120 countries as its members.