Modi calls for like-minded people to promote sustainable lifestyle
While making a concerted pitch for co-ordinated global action to combat climate change, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasised that environmental sustainability can only be achieved through climate justice.
“Successful climate action also need adequate financing. For this developed countries need to fulfil their commitments on finance and technology transfer,” said Modi in his inaugural address at the World Sustainable Development Summit 2022 (WSDS) through video conferencing on 16 Feb 2022.
Addressing the need for global alliances to tackle climate change, the Prime Minister drew attention to the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, the International Solar Alliance as well as the new initiative LIFE – Lifestyle for Environment.
LIFE, the Prime Minister said, will be a coalition of like-minded people across the world who will promote sustainable lifestyle. “I call them (the) three Ps – Pro Planet People. This global movement of (the) three Ps is the coalition for LIFE. These three global coalitions will form the trinity of our environment efforts for improving the global commons.”
The WSDS 2022, the annual flagship Summit of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), is on the theme of ‘Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future’.
Observing that environment and sustainable development have been key areas of engagement, Modi said, “We have heard people call our planet fragile. But it is not the planet that is fragile.
“It is us. We are fragile. Our commitments to the planet, to nature has also been fragile. A lot has been said over the last 50 years since the 1972 Stockholm Conference. Very little has been done. But in India we have walked the talk.”
The WSDS 2022 is being attended by two heads of States, Ministers for Environment from nearly a dozen countries, representatives from the United Nations, and delegates from 137 countries across the globe. Dignitaries at the inaugural event called for collective action, but also the need for mitigation and adaptation support, especially for developing countries.
Opening the Summit, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav asserted the need for developed countries to meet their promises on cutting back emissions and proving the developing countries with climate finance.
“Both environment and development are just two sides of the same coin and must proceed hand in hand. For development to happen, we don’t have to dismantle and degrade our green assets. Utilisation of resources must be based on mindful and deliberate utilisation and not mindless and destructive consumption,” he added.
Hosted as it is on the back of extreme weather events across the globe in the recent years, the virtually held WSDS 2022 will focus on planetary well-being and experts will deliberate on a range of pressing issues ranging from climate change, sustainable production, energy transitions, global commons and resource security.
Chairman, Governing Council of TERI Nitin Desai said, “This Summit brings together political leaders who can translate sustainable development into policy, corporate leaders and executives who can translate it into investment choices, researchers and academics who can bring research and analysis into technology and people involved in civil society.”
TERI Director General Dr. Vibha Dhawan reminded that, “It is nature that will eventually tide us through climate change and high carbon emissions. We require energy, we need development. But we have to realise that nature is more important and we have to sustain ourselves on this planet.”
New Delhi-headquartered TERI is an independent, multi-dimensional research organization, with capabilities in policy research, technology development, and implementation. fiinews.com
