Berlin, May 02, 2008 India reiterated its commitment for climate and environmental causes. We have launched the National Hydrogen Energy Mission, as well as other initiatives to fulfill India’s commitment made at COP 26 to achieve net zero emission by 2070.
According to the official spokesperson, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of state, held “bilateral” talks Monday with Steffi Lemke, Federal Minister of Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection in Berlin, as part of the India-Germany Inter Governmental Parleys.
The meeting’s agenda was adaptation to climate change, biological diversity, oceans, and artificial intelligence for environmental protection.
Dr. Jitendra Sing expressed interest in increasing our cooperation in this field, including Model Development, Application Forecasts in the renewable energies, and use Artificial Intelligence/Machine learning. He mentioned that Science & Technology is a strategic pillar of bilateral partnership and suggested exploring bilateral scientific cooperation in emerging areas such as Weather and Climate Research. This would include research on trends in regional climate extremes and the variability of vulnerable areas, including tropics and high latitudes.
Dr Jitendra Singh informed his German counterpart that the Indian Tsunami Early Warning Centre, (ITEWC), at Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Servicess (INCOIS), Hyderabad, provides early warning information for Tsunami-related hazards to the Indian Ocean rim nations. He also mentioned that India has been recognised as one of the Tsunami Service Providers under United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO–IOC). He invited Germany to take advantage of this opportunity.
Dr Jitendra Singh expressed satisfaction at India’s work towards Probabilistic Tsunami Harm Assessment (PTHA), in Makran through UNESCO/IOC, funded by UNESCAP. The initiative is being implemented by German experts and institutions.
For strengthening mutual collaboration between MoES institutions and German scientific/ research agencies, Dr Jitendra Singh he proposed to develop bilateral cooperation in areas of-Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Assessments, Early detection of tsunamis including ‘atypical tsunami’ generated by the under-sea landslides triggered by earthquakes, Geodynamic modelling of Earth’s subsurface for submarine landslides and Crustal deformation monitoring using Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS) data, Tectonic settings of subduction zones in the Indian Ocean (more emphasis on Makran Subduction Zone) and integrating Machine Learning methods, Capacity building activities to strengthen pre-disaster preparedness and risk reduction programmes such as Tsunami Ready, Cooperation in the area of long term Arctic (Polar) observations & studies and Cooperation in the field of Gas Hydrates and underwater drills.
Dr Jitendra Singh suggested bilateral cooperation in Ocean Exploration. This was in view of the Blue Economy being an important dimension to Vision New India.
Steffi Lemke from Germany, Environment Minister, reacted to the offer and briefed her on German advancements in these areas. She also agreed to continue working with her colleagues.
