Panchayats with zero carbon footprints to be awarded: Union minister

Expressing concern over climate change, the minister urged panchayats to think of planting environment-friendly trees like ‘sahajan’ ‘moringa’, ‘peepal’ and ‘jamun’ to reduce the level of carbon emissions

Union minister for rural development and panchayati raj Giriraj Singh on Sunday said that the Central government would now start a practice of conferring the award on village panchayats that have zero carbon footprints.

Panchayats with zero carbon footprints to be awarded: UP minister (Sourced)

“The Central government gives awards to the best performing village panchayats on the National Panchayat Day every year. But now, the first award will be bestowed upon the panchayats that are found to have zero carbon footprints,” he said while inaugurating the ‘Conference of Panchayats-2022 on the occasion of World Environment Day here on Sunday.

Expressing concern over climate change, the minister urged panchayats to think of planting environment-friendly trees like ‘sahajan’ ‘moringa’, ‘peepal’ and ‘jamun’ to reduce the level of carbon emissions.

Mentioning the efforts being made by the Central government to deal with the challenge of climate change, he said the country was producing more than 100 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy and has set the target to produce 450 GW of renewable power by 2030. “India has tremendously increased solar power production since 2014,” he pointed out.