The Union Cabinet has approved an agreement between India and Finland on environmental corporation. The memorandum of cooperation will bring in the latest technologies and best practices that will further help in bringing about better environment protection, better conservation, and better management of climate change and wildlife protection and conservation.

The announcement was made in a media statement recently released by the government. The memorandum of cooperation will include partnership between two countries in air and water pollution prevention and purification, waste management, climate change, cooperation in promotion of circular economy, low-carbon solutions, sustainable management of natural resources, conservation of marine and coastal resources and integrated water management of oceanic or sea islands.

The government also gave its ex post facto approval to the memorandum in the field of tourism. The agreement also aims to expand bilateral cooperation in the tourism sector, promote safe and sustainable tourism among others. It should be noted that Romania is a potential tourism market for India, which received approximately 11,844 tourists from the European nation last year.

The agreement is a welcome move, especially in the wake of growing concern about environmental degradation and issues around the same. In the recent past, the country has entered into a series of agreements with other countries to combat climate change and transfer the required know-how.

Mercom recently reported India has signed an MoU with France to cooperate in the field of renewable energy. Through the signed MoU, the two countries will work to establish a cooperative institutional relationship to promote technical bilateral cooperation on renewable energy issues.

This came on the heels of two other MoUs signed with Morocco and Guyana in which the participant countries agreed to cooperate for the expansion of renewable energy.

Mercom also reported that after initiating and founding the ISA jointly with France, India entered bilateral agreements with Fiji and Greece to further the development of renewable energy generation and reduce their collective carbon footprint for a sustainable future.

These agreements reflect India’s desire to strengthen its leadership role in climate action and its ability to bring tangible changes via the ISA. The ISA became a juridical personality in March 2018 following the signing of a Host Country Agreement with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

India ratified the Paris Climate Accord in October 2016, setting a goal to generate 40 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources.

India currently is the third largest solar market in the world and installed close to 10 GW of solar in 2017.