India, Germany to boost ties with climate talks in Feb

Katowice (Poland): The bilateral relations between India and Germany seem to be reinforcing at the 24th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP), which is being hosted by the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) at Katowice.
Prominent delegates of the two countries, including Union environment minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, held a closed-door meeting late on Monday evening, with the aim of “enhancing cooperation on environment issues”.

Speaking exclusively to TOI, India’s chief climate negotiator Ravi Prasad said the Indo-German environment forum meeting of the two nations would be held in New Delhi in February next year. “The German delegates, including the environment minister, will be coming to scale up our collaborative activities,” Prasad said.

During the meet, special focus would be on three main areas: waste management, circular economy, and climate change. “Solid waste management is a challenge in India as many cities do not have the capacity or resources to tackle the problem arising out of the generated garbage,” said Prasad.

Apart from this, discussions will also take place on resource efficiency. “We would also highlight various issues related to climate change, including forestry, water sector, renewables and adaptation technology. Technology transfer will be embedded in many sectors, and we are also looking for possible storage technology in renewables,” Prasad said.

Around ten days back, a team of German officials visited India for the preparatory work. Prasad said, “The agenda of the meeting in Katowice was to touch base with the minister before the final big meet. Apart from environment ministry, other ministries will also be involved in the forum.”

In May last year, India and Germany had signed eight bilateral agreements in Berlin. “We are made for each other,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced then. Germany is the largest trade partner for India in the European Union (EU).