Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that developed countries need to fulfill their commitments on finance and technology transfer for sustainable development, as very little has been done despite a lot of talk over the last 50 years since the 1972 Stockholm Conference.
“It is not the planet that is fragile but the commitments to the planet, to nature, have been fragile… But in India, we have walked the talk. Equitable energy access to the poor has been a cornerstone of our environmental policy,” Modi said, while delivering the inaugural address virtually at The Energy and Resources Institute’s (TERI) World Sustainable Development Summit on Wednesday.
Luis Abinader, President of the Dominican Republic, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Amina J Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General, United Nations and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav were among those present on the occasion.
Modi encouraged academic and research institutes like TERI to come up with scalable solutions to realize the potential of green hydrogen. With 2.4 per cent of the world's land area, India accounts for nearly 8 per cent of the world's species.
“India is a mega-diverse country and it is our duty to protect this ecology,” he said.
Commenting on the efforts regarding strengthening of Protected Area network, Modi mentioned international recognition to India’s efforts such as The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognition. The Aravalli Biodiversity Park in Haryana is being declared as an OECM site for its effective conservation of biodiversity. With recognition of two more Indian wetlands as Ramsar sites, India now has 49 Ramsar sites spread over more than 1 million hectares, he said.
Restoring degraded land has been one of the main focus areas and since 2015 and more than 11.5 Million Hectares have been restored, he said.
“We are on track to achieve the national commitment of Land Degradation Neutrality under the Bonn Challenge. We firmly believe in fulfilling all our commitments made under the U.N.F and Triple C. We have also raised our ambitions during CoP-26 at Glasgow,” Modi said.
Stressing that environmental sustainability can only be achieved through climate justice, Modi said that energy requirements of the people of India are expected to nearly double in the next 20 years.
“Denying this energy would be denying life itself to millions. Successful climate actions also need adequate financing. For this, developed countries need to fulfill their commitments on finance and technology transfer,” he emphasized.
Modi emphasized that sustainability requires co-ordinated action for the global commons. We must work towards ensuring availability of clean energy from a world-wide grid everywhere at all times.
The concerns of the disaster-prone areas have been addressed by the initiatives like The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (C.D.R.I.) and ''Infrastructure for Resilient Island States''. The Island Developing States are the most vulnerable and hence need urgent protection, he said.
