Need, not greed, has been India's guiding principle: PM Narendra Modi Full Speech at UN Climate Action Summit 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first speakers at the United Nations Climate Action Summit opening ceremony, held in New York on 23 August. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on world leaders to bring forth their concrete plans, and ambitious actions to solve the climate crisis. PM Modi opened by acknowledging that the problem of climate change is a significant and difficult problem to address and that there isn’t enough being done to solve it head-on. India has come with more than words/talk, we have come with a strategy and a roadmap, PM Modi said. He also addressed targets and milestones India has set in renewable fuels, water conservation and management, e-mobility and reducing the country’s collective dependence on single-use plastic.

“I thank the UN Secretary-General for inviting me to speak today. “Last year, after I was awarded the Champion of the Earth award, I am speaking here at the UN for the first time. And I’m happy to be talking about climate action today. There is a lot of work being done around the world to address climate change. But we also have to accept that to meet this big challenge head-on, there isn’t enough being done to solve this challenge as there should.” “What we need is a comprehensive approach that considers education, values, and lifestyle, but also development and philosophy. We need a revolution to create a behavioural change in people. It has been our responsibility and duty to protect the world’s natural resources, and this is also part of our culture and belief. Need not greed has been our guiding principle. So India has come with more than words/talk, we have come with a strategy and a roadmap. We believe that an ounce of practise is worth more than a tonne of preaching.” “We are increasing our dependence on non-fossil fuel sources of energy. By 2020, we intend to increase our renewable capacity to 175 Gigawatt, and we are working to further increase it to 450 Gigawatt capacity in the future. In our investments, we are giving e-mobility priority.”

“We are making a lot of advances towards large-scale mixing of petrol and diesel with biofuel. We have given 150 million families access to clean cooking gas connection. “We have increased our commitment to water conservation, rainwater harvesting and water resource development with the start of Mission Jal Jeevan, and we plan to further invest a 50 billion USD in this program in the future.” “Excellencies, if we speak of our international presence, over 100 countries are now connected with our solar panel network. India and Sweden along with various partners are launching a leadership group for the industry transition track. This pioneering effort is bringing together the government and the informal sector to bring low-carbon pathway solutions to polluting industries.” “To build resilient infrastructure and to better equip ourselves to face natural disasters, India has founded the Coalition for Disaster Resistance Infrastructure. I invite all member states of the UN to join this effort.” “This year, on 15 August, India’s Independence Day, we took a nation-wide stand against single-use plastic. We expect that this will go a long way in reducing our collective dependence on single-use plastic.” “Excellencies, I am happy to share with you that in this UN building, we will inaugurate solar panels made and installed by India tomorrow. The time for talking is over. The world needs to act now. Thank you, thank you very much.”