India wants alliance for disaster-resilient infrastructure

NEW YORK: India’s top representative to the UN said that India is looking at bringing together developed and developing nations for another coalition to focus on disaster resilient infrastructure to help nations build better after natural calamities.

Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India will be among the first set of speakers at UN Secretary General’s high-level Climate Action Summit in the UN General Assembly chamber, on September 23, along with the Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, Hilda Heine, the President of Marshall Islands and Angela Merkel, German Chancellor.

Over 63 countries have been invited to speak at the Summit, which will demonstrate solutions proposed by governments, the private sector and civil society to reduce emissions and build climate resilient infrastructure.

Immediately after this session, PM Modi will address the first-ever high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage, which will launch new efforts to provide access for all too affordable, inclusive and resilient health systems.

On PM Modi’s agenda for the Climate Action Summit, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said that India is increasingly talking about addressing issues of e-mobility. “Again, this will be a big issue because it has factors relating to use of fossil fuels.”

Speaking at a press conference in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Akbaruddin said, while India’s focus is on engaging with developing countries, it is sui-generous as a country and is able to engage with both developing and developed countries as partners through broad-based coalitions that cut across the developing and developed world.

Akbaruddin added, “So our effort is to see if we can bring together this coalition, because climate action also requires us to build better, and to build best at the beginning so that we don’t have to build better when there is a crisis. So this is another element of a broad-based coalition that we are working on, and which will be announced by the PM, as he talks about India’s engagement on climate change at this Summit.”

Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change of India, will attend meetings and events on September 21 and 22 that will be organised as a precursor to the UN Climate Action Summit.