India, France to work jointly on phasing out single-use plastics

New Delhi: France and India are expected to work together on a joint initiative on phasing out Single-use plastics as part of their engagement in dealing with climate change. This was one of the key outcomes of the meet between visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and India's Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar.

Speaking at an event in Delhi, the French Foreign minister said, "France and India could also work together to fight single-use plastics. Our countries have taken very strong decisions on this issue...We should invite other countries to join this momentum and –why not? – work on a moratorium on single-use plastics."

India will be phasing out single-use plastics by 2022, and France, for its part, has started to ban a series of single-use plastic products. In the past, India and France have taken the joint initiative, most notable being the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in 2015 which aims to harness the energy of the sun as part of the use of clean energy.

Other than the initiative on "Single Use Plastic", both sides decided to work on Green Hydrogen or Hydrogen used via "clean process". France will also be sending an "expert" for the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure or CDRI.

Hailing the CRDI, the French FM said, "France and India are also cooperating together under the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, which was launched by the Prime Minister of India in 2019."

"From our point of view, this coalition has a very important role to play in the Indo-Pacific region to adapt infrastructures to the consequences of climate change. Here, too, France will make a concrete contribution by seconding an expert to this organization in Delhi," he added.

CRDI aims to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure against climate and disaster risks. 22 countries and 7 organizations have joined the group, as of March 2021.