The consequences of degrading biodiversity and environment are leading to increasing costs and complexity in all aspects of life. The interrelated matters of climate change and biodiversity loss demand a concerted and calibrated global effort and require a committed farsighted leadership by the G20 nations. India is uniquely positioned to champion the aspirations of the Global South. The Global South, in particular, looks up to the G-20 dialogue and needs for an urgent consensus that prevents both a climate crisis and a debt crisis for developing nations," stated by Hardeep Singh Puri, the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs & Petroleum and Natural Gas, through a video message while addressing the First Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group meeting which is underway in Bengaluru.
He said that in the last eight years, the government has taken many transformative steps in advocating for ‘climate justice’. Prime Minister Modi’s announcement of the Panchamrit Action Plan at COP-26 in Glasgow envisages India becoming a net-zero emissions country by 2070. This is one of the shortest time-spans proposed between peak emissions and net zero status by a developing economy, he added. Puri emphasised that India is demonstrating that economy and ecology are not at odds with each other, but in fact, fundamentally intertwined.Puri said that the Working Group can be the catalyst for the G20 countries to adopt the core tenets of the LiFE movement and promote the uptake of sustainable living at a global scale. It has the potential to embed justice and fairness in the discourse around climate change and pioneer mutually beneficial instruments to accelerate climate financing and drive collaborative actions.
Affirming the significance of adopting a sustainable lifestyle, Puri said that it is encouraging to note that the three identified priority areas to be discussed in the Working Group are aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s, Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) mission which emphasises “mindful and deliberate utilisation, instead of mindless and destructive consumption to protect and preserve the environment.”He said that all the delegates here have assembled to promote the universal sense of oneness that is enunciated in this year’s G20 theme of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – One Earth, One Family, One Future’. Talking about the importance of the Working Group Meeting, Puri said that this year’s Working Group provides an opportunity for G20 nations to conceptualise and adopt a concrete roadmap based on the recommendations at COP-27 in Sharm el-Sheikh and the Biodiversity Conference held in Montreal this year. In the end, Puri said that through the collective experiences during the deliberations in the meeting of the Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group will help build a bold, visionary roadmap that can be shared with the G20 leaders