BERLIN, May 2 : India today reiterated its commitment to climate and environmental causes and pointed out that we have launched the National Hydrogen Energy Mission and several such initiatives to fulfil India’s commitment at COP 26 of achieving net zero emissions by 2070.
On the 2nd day of his visit to Germany, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh held “bilateral” talks with his counterpart, Ms. Steffi Lemke, Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection in Berlin as part of the India-Germany Inter Governmental parleys.
The meeting’s agenda included 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 of course the use of Artificial Intelligence/Machine learning. He mentioned Science & Technology as one of the strategic pillars in bilateral partnership and suggested bilateral scientific cooperation in emerging areas such as Weather and Climate Research. In particular, he discussed trends of regional climate extremes and vulnerability of vulnerable areas, including tropics and higher-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 added that India has been recognized as one of the Tsunami Service Providers (TSP) under United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC) and invited Germany to make utilization of this opportunity.
Dr Jitendra Singh was happy to note that India is working towards Probabilistic tsunami Hazard Assessment (PTHA), in the Makran area through UNESCO/IOC and funded UNESCAP. This initiative includes German experts and institutions.
Dr. Jitendra Sing proposed strengthening the cooperation between German scientific/ research institutions and MoES institutions.
Dr Jitendra Singh proposed bilateral cooperation in Ocean Exploration. He highlighted the importance of Vision New India’s Blue Economy dimension and suggested joint collaboration in areas such as Coastal Marine Spatial Planning and Tourism and Marine fisheries and aquaculture, fish processing, Coastal and Deep-Sea Mining and Offshore Energy.
Ms. Steffi Lemme, German Environment Minister, reciprocated the offer and briefed her on German advances in these areas. She also agreed to a new collaboration.
