New Delhi [India]: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced that India has achieved the target of 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol five months before the deadline.
The Prime Minister made this announcement at a program on the “Save Soil Movement”, which coincided with World Environment Day.
“India has achieved the target of 10 percent ethanol blending, five months ahead of schedule. In 2014, ethanol blending was at 1.5 percent,” PM Modi said.
Explaining the benefits behind achieving this goal, PM Modi said “it has led to a reduction of 27 lakh tonnes of carbon emissions, saved foreign exchange worth Rs 41,000 crore, and farmers of the country have earned Rs 40,600 crores in the last eight years due to increase in ethanol blending”.
PM Modi said that the policies introduced by the Centre in the past eight years have protected the environment in multifaceted ways.
The Prime Minister further informed that India has achieved the target of sourcing 40 per cent of the country’s installed power generation capacity from non-fossil-fuel, nine years ahead of schedule.
“Solar energy capacity has increased by 18 times and policies like Hydrogen Mission and Circular economy-related policies, scrappage policy is examples of our commitment to environmental protection,” he said.
He further cited the Swachh Bharat Mission or the waste to wealth-related program, reduction of single-use plastic, one sun one earth, or ethanol blending program as examples of multi-dimensional efforts by India for the preservation of the environment.
The Prime Minister said that the average carbon footprint of the world is about four tons per person per annum compared to just about 0.5 tons per person per annum in India.
He said that India is working on a long-term vision in collaboration with the international community to protect the environment and established organizations like Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, and International Solar Alliance. The Prime MInister reiterated India’s goal of Net-Zero by 2070.
He also called for increasing awareness regarding environment and soil protection and concluded by calling for a people’s movement for creating 75 Amrit Sarovar in every district.
“Save Soil Movement” is a global movement to increase awareness about deteriorating soil health and to bring about a conscious response to improve it. The movement was started by Sadhguru in March 2022, who embarked on a 100-day motorcycle journey passing through 27 countries. The day marks the 75th day of the 100-day journey. (ANI)
