Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a plenary meeting of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 at United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, New York, yesterday.

IANS
New York

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday outlined India’s climate change goals at the UN Sustainable Development Summit, saying he represents a culture that calls the earth “mother” and that India over the next seven years will create 175GW of renewable energy capacity.
“I represent that culture that calls the earth Ma.. The Vedas says that the earth is the mother and we are its sons,” he said in Hindi at the summit.
He added the country has outlined ambitious programmes to fight climate change. Besides creating 175 GW renewable energy capacity, the country would also stress on energy efficiency, tree plantation, coal tax, clean environment, cleaning up of rivers, waste to wealth movement and sustainable development.
Outlining his government’s programmes towards financial inclusion, he said 180mn new bank accounts had been opened, and termed the measure the biggest empowerment for the poor. He said the government was working towards a Pension Yojana to ensure pension reaches the poor.
Modi said earlier there was talk only of the private sector or public sector, but his government has focused on the “personal sector”, like individual enterprise through micro finance, innovation, start-ups, creating opportunities and providing clean water, power, health, education, hygiene for all - all that is needed to live a decent life.
He said the government has fixed a time limit for the programmes, and added that women empowerment is a major part of his government’s policy. Another was to make agriculture more remunerative by connecting fields to markets.
Modi said his government is taking steps to mitigate the agrarian crisis, revive the manufacturing sector, improve the services sector, and stressing on investments in the infrastructure sector and focusing on creating smart cities, which are sustainable and centres of development.
He said India’s path was linked to sustainable development as it is linked to the tradition of calling the earth “mother”.
Stressing international co-operation in the UN to be at the centre of sustainable development and to fight climate change, he said: “The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is the bedrock of our enterprise for a sustainable world.”
He also proposed a global education programme to prepare future generations on the need for sustainable development.
Climate change will also be a key focus of President Barack Obama’s summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials said as US looks at India as critical to a successful global effort to combat climate change.
Obama will have a bilateral meeting with Modi on Monday after his address to the UN General Assembly, the president’s deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes said.
“This will give the two leaders an opportunity to build on the discussions they had earlier this year during the president’s historic trip to India,” he said.
“We are deeply committed to strengthening the US-Indian relationship, building our economic and commercial ties, advancing our political and security co-operation in Asia and around the world,” Rhodes said.
“Notably, India will be critical to a successful global effort to combat climate change, so the two leaders will certainly address their shared vision of how to approach the upcoming meetings in Paris,” he said.