In a positive move by the railway ministry to control carbon emissions and reduce environmental pollution Union Minister, Piyush Goyal has announced objectives of full electrification of Indian Railways by 2023 and making it the world’s first net-zero railway by 2030.
Crux of the Matter
According to NITI Aayog, carbon dioxide emission from the Indian Railways in 2014 was nearly 6.84 million tons.
The Government is phasing out old coal plants in order to reduce environmental pollution and in turn to create the demand for new plants and investments.
It aims to source 10% of its electrical energy from renewable sources for which the ministry has planned to set up 1000 Mega Watt (MW) solar power project by 2020-21.
Ministry of Railways has signed MoU with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) to foster the green initiatives with a primary objective to bring in efficiency in manufacturing facilities, greening of the railway properties, demonstrative pilots of net-zero energy buildings.
Ministry is also looking in at the substitution of 20% Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) with solar energy-based DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit).
Curiopedia
The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed in 2016. As of November 2019, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, and 187 have become a party to it. Its long-term temperature goal is to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 °C. Under the Paris Agreement, each country must determine, plan, and regularly report on the contribution that it undertakes to mitigate global warming. Net zero-emission implies that all man-made greenhouse gas emissions must be removed from the atmosphere through reduction measures, which will make the earth carbon neutral and global temperature would be stabilised. More Info
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