PM’s remarks at the High-level event on ‘Green Credits Programme’ at COP-28
Speaker: Narendra Modi
Date: 01 Dec, 2023

Your Highnesses, Excellencies, You all are heartily welcome to this special event. I express my gratitude for the support of my brother and UAE President, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed. Even amid such a busy schedule, his coming here, spending a few moments with us, and getting his support, is a big thing in itself. Co-hosting this event with the UAE brings me immense joy. I also express my gratitude to the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, for joining this initiative. Friends, I have always felt that the scope of carbon credit has been very limited, and this philosophy has been influenced in a way by the commercial element. I have seen a lack of a sense of social responsibility in the system of Carbon Credit. We have to emphasize on new philosophy in a holistic manner and this is the foundation of Green Credit. Generally in human life, we experience three types of things. Even in our natural interactions, when we see people, three things come to the fore of our nature. One is Nature, i.e. Tendency, Second distortion, And third is culture. There exists an inherent nature, a natural tendency, which says that I will not harm the environment. This is its tendency. There is a distortion, a Destructive Mindset, wherein an individual believes that irrespective of the consequences to the world or the well-being of future generations, regardless of the extent of losses incurred, personal benefit should prevail. This is a distorted mentality. And, There is a culture, values, which sees its prosperity in the prosperity of the environment. He feels that if I do good to the earth then it will also benefit him. We will give up the distortion and develop our culture of prosperity in the prosperity of the environment, only then nature i.e. the environment will be protected. The way we give importance to health card in our life, i.e. what is your health card, what is your health report, we see it regularly, we are conscious. We try to add positive points to it, similarly we should start thinking about the environment also. We have to see what can be done to add positive points to the Earth’s health card. And this is Green Credit according to me. And that is my concept of Green Credit. We will have to think in our policies and in our decisions, as to how Green Credit will be added to the Earth’s Health Card. One example is that of degraded waste land. If we follow the concept of Green Credit, then first an inventory of degraded waste land will be made. Then any person or organization will use that land for voluntary plantation. And then, for this positive action that person or organization will be given Green Credit. These Green Credits will be helpful in future expansion and can also be tradeable. The entire process of Green Credit will be digital, be it registration, verification of plantation, or issuance of Green Credits. And this is just a small example I have given you. We have to work together on such infinite ideas. That is why today we are also launching a Global Platform. This portal will collate ideas, experiences, and innovations related to plantation and environmental protection at one place. And this knowledge repository will be helpful in shaping policies, practices and global demand for Green Credits at the global level. Friends, It is said here, “प्रकृति: रक्षति रक्षिता”, which means, nature protects the one who protects nature. From this platform, I appeal to you to join this initiative. Together, let’s build a greener, cleaner and better future for this planet, for our future generations. I express my gratitude to the President of Mozambique for taking out time to come and connect with us. Once again, I thank you all very much for joining this forum today.