New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday invited African countries to join an alliance of solar-rich nations that he would announce on November 30 at crucial climate Summit in Paris and asserted that "excess of few cannot become the burden of many", in an apparent attack on the developed world.
Speaking at the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS), Modi asserted no one has done less to contribute to global warming than India and Africa and no one can be more conscious of climate change than Indians and Africans.
While pitching in for a deeper India-Africa partnership on clean energy, sustainable habitats, public transport and climate resilient agriculture, Modi said "it is also true that the excess of few cannot become the burden of many."
"So, when the world meets in Paris in December, we look to see a comprehensive and concrete outcome that is based on the well established principles in the UN Convention on Climate Change. We will all do our part for it," he said.
India, Modi said, also wants to see a genuine global public partnership that makes clean energy affordable and provides finance and technology to developing countries to access it.
"I also invite you to join an alliance of solar-rich countries that I have proposed to launch in Paris on November 30 at the time of COP-21 meeting. Our goal is to make solar energy an integral part of our life and take it to the most unconnected villages and communities," he said, addressing the visiting heads of government and state of Africa.
Noting that millions of homes in India and Africa are without electricity, he said there is a need to light up lives of these people and power their future. "But, we want to do it in a way that the snow on Kilimanjaro does not disappear, the glacier that feeds the River Ganga does not retreat and our islands are not doomed," he said, adding the two countries are the inheritors of nature's most precious gifts, and their traditions and lives remain most connected to Mother Earth.
"We are each making enormous efforts with our modest resources to combat climate change," Modi said, adding that 175 gigawatts of additional renewable energy capacity by 2022 and reduction in emission intensity by 33-35 per cent by 2030 are just two aspects of India's efforts.
