India committed to climate change issues, says Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi: India is committed to tackling climate change, irrespective of the stand taken by any other country, Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Friday, hours after the United States announced its withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.
“Our government is committed irrespective of the stand of anyone, anywhere in the world. It has been the stand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said, stressing that Modi had provided “leadership” at the Paris climate summit.
“We are committed to ensuring that we will do our best to address the issue related to climate change and global warming,” Vardhan told reporters.
President Donald Trump on Friday declared the US would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement, saying the “draconian” deal unfairly punished America but benefited countries such as India and China.
The stand drew strong condemnation from leaders and
environmentalists from across the world.
“India makes its participation contingent on receiving billions and billions and billions of dollars in foreign aid from developed countries. There are many other examples. But the bottom line is that the Paris accord is very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States,” Trump said.
India, under its climate action plans, has pledged to curb its greenhouse gas emissions by up to 35 per cent from its 2005 level.
In the plans submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), India had also vowed that 40 per cent of its total electricity needs would be obtained from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.