India to Become World’s Fastest-Growing Green Economy: Piyush Goyal, Commerce & Industry Minister

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, virtually addressed the seminar ‘Only One Earth - a discussion on Environment’ at the India Pavilion, EXPO2020 Dubai.

Dubai, UAE – Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Govt of India stated that India is on its way to becoming the world’s fastest growing green economy. He said in a virtual address to the seminar ‘Only One Earth - a discussion on Environment’ at the India Pavilion, EXPO2020 Dubai on March 8, 2022, “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, intended to raise awareness and the need to protect the environment, in line with the United Nations Environment Programme’s annual global theme, ‘Only One Earth,’ for World Environment Day 2022. Goyal continued, “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.”

The Commerce and Industry Minister noted that, as a signatory to the Paris Agreement, the Modi government has ‘walked the talk’ on green energy, saying, “Our installed non-fossil energy capacity is the 4th largest in the world and has grown by 300 percent. 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.”

Underscoring that as a leading agri-producer, India is taking significant efforts to promote the biofuels and currently, food grains waste as well as sugarcane are converted into ethanol in a big way, with the ethanol blending programme making rapid strides, Goyal claimed, “It used to be 1 percent then this year between 9-10 percent and next 2 years we hope to take the blending to 20 percent, to reduce our dependence on import of crude oil and make our petrol vehicle more sustainable and support efforts towards net-zero by 2070.”

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

Patawri added during the seminar, “Every day we generate 2000 million tonnes of plastic waste and 2000 truckloads every hour, out of which we recycle only 10 percent. Fortunately, there is a silver lining in the form of 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.”

Fadnavis commented, “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 held to recognize outstanding efforts in the field of sustainability. The ‘Professional Excellence Corporate Award’ went to Vikram Shroff, Director, UPL, and Raj Shetty, Chairman and Managing Worker, Ramee Group of Companies, while the ‘Pandemic Professional Excellence Award’ went to Rohit Kochar, Regional President Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

Image Source: EXPO2020 Dubai