India Must Lead Global Sustainable Development Agenda Post
Rio Plus 20 Summit
New Delhi: The
Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) held a special media interaction on the
challenges and opportunities in the context of global sustainable development
agenda post the recently concluded Rio Plus 20 Summit.
Director General of TERI, Dr. R K Pachauri, Executive Director
Dr. Leena Srivastava and Distinguished Fellows Nitin Desai, Ambassador
Chandrashekhar Dasgupta & Dr. Prodipto Ghosh, reflected on the various
issues raised at the Summit and underscored the need to tackle unsustainable
means of production and consumption.
The recent culmination of the Rio Plus 20 Summit has once
again fuelled socio-political debate on the challenges and opportunities that
lie ahead on the road to sustainable development. While a number of
environmental activists and NGOs have expressed deep disappointment with the
outcome of this major event, several governments view it as a victory and
vindication of their own specific stands. TERI’s distinguished speakers said
the need of the hour was to engage concerned stakeholders to arrive at a consensus
on critical issues such as equity between developed and developing nations in
achieving sustainable development.
Speakers felt there were two ways of following the outcome
of Rio+20. One was to conclude that nothing of substance and certainly no agreements
were produced by this conference. The second view would be to conclude that the
‘future we want’ as documented as the outcome of the conference clearly
provided a wide canvas of concepts and directions that the world could possibly
adopt towards the pursuit of sustainable development.
Speakers also pointed out that at the Summit, the developed
countries had attempted to rollback principles of equity, which were an
integral outcome of the Rio Conference held in 1992. However, lauding the
strong and united stand taken by the developing nations at the Summit, Dr. R K
Pachauri, Director General, TERI, said: “It is time India takes the lead and
takes charge of the intellectual leadership of the sustainable development
goals (SDGs) raised at the Summit.” Dr. Pachauri further added, “The final
produced at the culmination of the Rio Summit had enough substance for each
community and stakeholder to pick up elements to promote the discourse of
global sustainable development.”
Speaking at the occasion, Executive Director, TERI, Dr.
Leena Srivastava said: “The final document recognised the need of clean energy
to achieve sustainable development. Emphasis of the Summit was also on boosting
education and capacity building to meet sustainability targets.”
Ambassador C. Dasgupta, a Distinguished Fellow at TERI,
said: “The road ahead would focus on the evolution and scope of sustainable
development goals (SDGs) and their relation to the Millennium Development
Goals.”
Nitin Desai, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, said: “The interest
and participation of corporate entities and the scientific and academic
communities at the Summit was far greater at the Rio Plus 20 Summit than ever
before. This is so because the trend is no longer limited to green consumerism,
but to green investors.”
Dr. Pradipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, opined: “The
focus on sustainable production and consumption is the main point that has
emerged from the Summit. Strong unity among the G-77 group to protect their
individual development space has also come out strongly through the
conference.”
Speakers also highlighted relevant opportunities to enhance
the scope of the sustainable development agenda:
i) Profiling the elements of a green economy in the context
of sustainable development and poverty eradication. The concept of green
economy would need to take into account links between financing, technology,
capacity building and national needs for sustainable development.
ii) Enunciating sustainable development goals and motivating
of stakeholders, including business and industry to set in place a reporting
system involving sustainability.
iii) Establishing regional, national, sub-national and local
initiatives to implement the provisions of the Rio+20 document.
iv) Dealing effectively with the challenge of climate change
and problems such as deforestation and loss of biodiversity as well as the
problems of desertification, land degradation and drought.
v) Evaluating pathways to sustainable consumption and
production.
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