Climate technology must be open source, available at affordable cost: Prakash Javadekar

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said just like the world is unitedly engaged in finding a vaccine for COVID-19, countries should work towards making climate technology an open source which must be available at affordable cost.

He was speaking during the first virtual interaction with 30 countries in the 11th session of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.

India along with 30 other countries participated in the dialogue, deliberating over ways and means to tackle the challenge of reinvigorating economies and societies after COVID-19, while enhancing collective resilience and catalysing climate action as well as supporting particularly those that are most vulnerable.

"Today, as the world is unitedly engaged in finding a vaccine for novel coronavirus, likewise we should have climate technology as open source which must be available at affordable cost," Javadekar said.

Stressing on the issue of climate finance, Javadekar said the world now needs more. "We must plan for 1 trillion USD in grants to developing world immediately," he said.

The minister also said the world must think of adopting more sustainable consumption patterns in line with requirement of sustainable lifestyles "as was first mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Paris COP."

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He mentioned that India's Nationally Determined Contributions spanning a ten-year time frame are ambitious and are also compliant with the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement.

The minister also spoke about the opportunity world has to accelerate renewable energy deployment and creating new green jobs in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sector, said a ministry official.

The first virtual climate dialogue, was the eleventh session of Petersberg Climate Dialogue which has been hosted by Germany since 2010 to provide a forum for informal high-level political discussions, focusing both on international climate negotiations and the advancement of climate action.

The Dialogue was co-chaired by Germany and United Kingdom, the incoming Presidency of 26th Conference of Parties (COP 26) to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The dialogue saw participation from ministers and representatives of about 30 countries.

This year's dialogue came at a crucial juncture when countries are tackling the COVID-19 pandemic to save lives, overcoming social and economic consequences of the outbreak while also preparing to move into the implementation phase of Paris Agreement under UNFCCC in post-2020 period.

The Dialogue is of particular importance this year as COP26, originally scheduled for November, has been postponed to an unknown date in 2021 due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The key agenda of the dialogue was to discuss how countries can jointly tackle the challenge of reinvigorating our economies and societies after COVID-19, while enhancing our resilience and catalyzing climate action while also supporting in particular those most vulnerable.

The Union Minister also participated in an Indo-German bilateral meeting with Svenja Shulze, Minister, Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany, the ministry said in an official statement.

This bilateral meeting was held via video conference just before the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, it said.

"It covered discussions on a range of issues covering climate change, conservation of biodiversity and technical cooperation with Germany in these areas.

"The situation in both countries arising from the COVID 19 pandemic, and recovery efforts, were also discussed," the ministry said.