Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his speech at the UNSG's Summit on Climate Change, quoted Mahatma Gandhi and said, "we believe that an ounce of practice is worth more than a ton of preaching". Speaking at the Summit, PM Modi mentioned the ‘Champion of the Earth Award’ he received last year and said, it is a happy coincidence that the subject of his first meeting in New York is ‘Climate’. Prime Minister reiterated that the efforts made to avert climate change were not enough.

“Various efforts are being made by different countries to fight climate change but we must accept that if we have to overcome a serious challenge like climate change then what we are doing at the moment is not sufficient,” he said.

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Need for a comprehensive approach

PM Modi called for a comprehensive approach towards the fight against climate change. “Today, there is a need for a comprehensive approach which should include education, lifestyle, development and philosophy as well,” he said. “There is a need for a global movement to bring behavioural change,” the Prime Minister added. He also talked about the Ujjwala scheme at the Summit and said the government has provided clean cooking gas connections to millions of families. 

Read: PM Modi Upps Ante On Renewables, Targets 450 GW After '175 GW By 2022'

Single-use plastic ban

Prime Minister has been constantly speaking against single-use plastic and has made several appeals to get rid of it. At the Summit, he again mentioned the menace of single-use plastic and hoped for its riddance. “On this year's India's Independence Day, we called for a mass movement to have freedom from single-use plastic. I hope that this will raise awareness against the usage of single-use plastic, at a global level,” said PM Modi. 

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The target for renewable energy

PM Modi also made his intentions clear on the extensive use of renewable energy in the coming future and announced an ambitious target of 450 gigawatts capacity in renewable energy. "By 2022, we will increase renewable energy capacity to 175 GW and we are committed to increasing it to 450 GW. We are encouraging e-mobility in the transport sector," he said. "In biofuel mixing, we have progressed greatly by mixing petrol with diesel," PM Modi added.