India important actor in climate action: UN chief Antonio Guterres

United Nations, September 21

India is a very important actor and “fundamental partner” in international efforts on climate action and is making a “fantastic effort” to grow its renewable energy basket, UN chief Antonio Guterres has said.

UN Secretary General Guterres, who has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on several occasions, recalled his leadership of the International Solar Alliance and described India’s gift of 193 solar panels to the world organisation as “very useful”.

“There has been a huge investment in India in relation to solar power. India still has a meaningful amount of coal and we have also discussed that. And he (Modi) has a number of other initiatives of different sorts related to the Clean India (campaign) and many other aspects that will have, we believe and we hope, a strong impact from the point of view of India’s progressive performance in relation to climate action,” Guterres said in response to a question by PTI here on India’s climate action efforts.

Guterres was speaking to a small and select group of journalists at a special luncheon hosted by him ahead of the high-level Climate Action Summit that will open on September 23.

Modi will be among the first set of speakers at the Summit in the UN General Assembly chamber along with Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, President of Marshall Islands Hilda Heine and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“So India is a very important actor, an actor with a legacy that is very complex, because of the coal weight in the production of electricity. And so India for us is a fundamental partner in this discussion. And obviously, part of the dialogue was also related to our own efforts and the need to green the UN,” he said.

Noting that he would like to see environment sustainability and climate action efforts at the UN accelerated, he said “the Indian cooperation on the solar park is very useful”. PTI