India will not accept unjust carbon emission mandates: DPIIT Secy

New Delhi: India will not accept any unjustified mandate on carbon emissions but will deliver more than the commitment it makes, a senior government official said on Friday.

While speaking at the Aavaana-Startup India ClimateTech Challenge event, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said India's mandate is to become net zero by 2070.

"We have accepted a stretched-out kind of goal because India believes we are not historically responsible for carbon emissions, even less in per capita terms, but the vision of the Hon'ble PM has always been that we will not accept unjustified mandates but we will deliver much more than we have promised,' he said.

Singh said India has already built the world's 4th largest renewable energy capacity of 180 gigawatts. "We are well ahead of our SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) goals," he said.

He said that as India moves towards a greener future, start-ups will play a very important role through their innovation in the journey of energy transition.

Avaana Capital declared three winners of the challenge that were selected by a panel of jury chaired by G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant.

Avaana Climate and Sustainability Fund's founding partner Anjali Bansal said that India has a pivotal role to play both in terms of mitigation of carbon GHG as well as adaptation and technology will play an important role in that transition.

HSBC India, MD, Chief of Staff and Head of Strategy, Ranjan Bhattacharya said while solving sustainability problems, enterprises should not create problems on the other side.

He cited an example of a wooden toothbrush wrapped in paper being given to hotel guests which addresses the issue of plastic waste but on the other side, it may lead to cutting of trees and deforestation.