PM Modi conveys best wishes to UK for upcoming climate summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met with Alok Sharma, President-designate of 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) where he discussed India-UK cooperation on climate change and conveyed best wishes for the climate summit.

"Pleased to meet with COP26 President-designate @AlokSharma_RDG today. We discussed India-UK cooperation on climate change agenda and COP26. My best wishes to UK for successful orgsation of the climate summit," Prime Minister Modi said in a tweet.

Earlier today, Sharma had said that PM Modi has "shown an enormous amount of leadership" in the area of climate change and issues relating to nature and biodiversity.

Sharma, who met the Prime Minister today, said the governments must come forward with ambitious targets to cut emissions by 2030 and to set out net-zero targets.

"We had a very good discussion with Prime Minister Modi and I remarked on the fact that he personally has shown an enormous amount of leadership in the area of climate and of course, nature and biodiversity. When he was Chief Minister in Gujarat he set up a climate finance department which was pioneering. It wasn't something that was happening regularly something across the world. He was someone who helped to get the Paris agreement over the line," Sharma told .

Earlier today, Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar also met Alok Sharma and discussed important issues, for negotiations to be held in Glasgow later this year.

"I showcased him and told about various initiatives taken by India on renewables, disaster-resilient infrastructure, adaptation, electrical buses, on metro expansion, our reduction of emission intensity and increasing tree cover. It was a very fruitful meeting," said Javadekar.

This is Sharma's first visit to Asia as COP President, where he is expected to welcome India's significant progress on climate action and clean energy transition.

Sharma's visit follows those of the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and International Trade Secretary Elizabeth Truss and paves the way for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's visit later this year, during which climate cooperation will be a focus.

( With inputs from ANI )