'India's contribution to climate change in last 200 years just 3%'

New Delhi: Unbridled carbon emissions especially by Europe and the US over the last 200 years, and in the last 40 years by China have caused the climate change disaster, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Monday.

He also said that India's contribution to climate change in the last 200 years has been only three per cent.

Developed nations owe $1.1 trillion to developing nations as a part of climate change mitigation under the Paris Agreement, and this was discussed at the G7 Summit, which concluded on Sunday, Javadekar said at the virtual 'Environment Conclave: Revival, Regeneration and Conservation of Nature'.

"India's contribution to climate change in the last 200 years is just three per cent. The unbridled carbon emissions particularly by Europe, USA and in the last 40 years by China, caused climate change disaster. These countries prospered economically but polluted the world," he said.

"India is one of the countries with the least contribution in climate change," Javadekar said at the webinar organised by the FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO).

The FLO is a wing of apex trade body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The minister said that as part of the Paris agreement, rich countries promised to provide $100 billion each year to help developing nations combat climate change.

"But for the last 11 years nothing has come. In the just concluded G7 meet yesterday they discussed this financial issue seriously because they know they cannot postpone it further," Javadekar said.

He said that as soon as schools — shut due to the Covid pandemic — reopen, his ministry will initiate a nursery programme in 5,000 schools.

Under this programme, students of classes six to eight will plant saplings and nurture them till they pass out from their schools, Javadekar said.

"This will inculcate (in them) a habit of taking care of plants, bring discipline and will also help in generating much-needed oxygen (O2). This will be also introduced in IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) and other higher education institutes soon," he said.

Speaking at the conclave, FICCI FLO president Ujjwala Singhania said the FLO encourages its members' enterprises to manage their triple bottom line - profits, people and planet.