India to become fastest-growing green economy of the world: Piyush Goyal

Dubai: Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India and Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha today said that India is moving towards becoming the fastest growing green economy of the world.

Addressing the seminar, 'Only One Earth - a discussion on Environment' at the India Pavilion, EXPO2020 Dubai virtually, Goyal said, "While we are proud to be the fastest-growing economy in the world we hope to become the fastest-growing green economy across the planet."

The session, organized in collaboration with Bhamla Foundation, aimed at raising awareness and the need to safeguard the environment, in line with the annual global theme laid out by the United Nations Environment Programme, 'Only One Earth' for the World Environment Day 2022.

Goyal further said, "I am grateful to the leadership of United Arab Emirates for giving the India Pavilion a place of pride at the World EXPO2020 Dubai. The Pavilion is a perfect example of bringing sustainability into action. It has been constructed on principles of water and energy conservation and we are focusing on recycling in a big way and hosting a wide range of discussions around biodiversity, wildlife conservation, climate action and renewable energy."

"As a signatory to the Paris Agreement, the Modi government has walked the talk on green energy. Our installed non-fossil energy capacity is the 4th largest in the world and has grown by 300 per cent. One of our notable initiatives was a conversion from the incandescent light bulb to LED light where we are probably the world's largest in terms of the rollout of LED. That has saved the country 6-7 billion dollars of our consumers and saved 80 million tonnes of carbon emission and contributed to making the world a safer place to live in," he added.

Goyal further stated, "As a leading agri-producer, we are taking significant efforts to promote the biofuels. Now, food grains waste and sugarcane are converted into ethanol in a big way, with the ethanol blending programme making rapid strides. It used to be 1 per cent then this year between 9-10 per cent and next 2 years we hope to take the blending to 20 per cent, to reduce our dependence on import of crude oil and make our petrol vehicle more sustainable and support efforts towards net-zero by 2070."

The session was attended by eminent personalities from the UAE and India including Amruta Devendra Fadnavis, Social Activist on Environment & Sustainability, Royal Prince of Udaipur, Lakshyraj Singh Mewar, Shantanu Mukherjee, Musician and Composer on Environment & Sustainability, Suniel Shetty, Indian film personality, and Surendra Patawri, Indian film producer, Chairman, Gemini Corporation NV, Belgium.

Addressing the seminar, Surendra Patawri said, "Every day we generate 2000 million tonnes of plastic waste and 2000 truckload every hour, out of which we recycle only 10 per cent. Fortunately, there is a silver lining in form carbon credits and plastic credits. After 6 years of our efforts, the leaders have agreed to carbon credits and rules related to cross-border trading. As a result, recyclers in India are getting some funding."

Amruta Devendra Fadnavis said, "Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been leading the initiatives on climate change and promotion of biofuel. We fully support his efforts towards sustainable development."

A special award ceremony was also conducted to showcase the exceptional work done in the field of sustainability. Among the winners were Vikram Shroff, Director, UPL and Raj Shetty, Chairman and Managing Worker, Ramee Group of Companies who received the Professional Excellence Corporate Award and Rohit Kochar, Regional President Indo-American Chamber of Commerce received the Pandemic Professional Excellence Award.