Mumbai: The third Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) meeting under India’s G20 Presidency concluded in Mumbai on Tuesday (May 23). As per the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, the three-day meeting witnessed the participation of 141 delegates from G20 countries and 10 invitee countries. The representatives of 14 international and regional organisations also attended deliberations conducted over the 3 days.
The three priories outlined for the ECSWG were arresting land degradation, promoting a circular economy and giving impetus to the blue economy. All meetings focused on a specific theme out of these three themes.
The third ECSWG focussed on Blue Economy and was supported by two side events – Mega Beach Clean Up Event and the Ocean 20 Dialogue on Day 1 of the meeting.
The Mega Beach Clean-Up Event at Juhu in Mumbai was a successful event which saw the participation of 20 countries and 37 Indian beaches from the coastal states and Union Territories.
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The massive drive organized to sensitize people and create awareness is in alignment with the Prime Minister’s message on ‘Swachhta’ and ‘Jan Bhagidari’ and highlights the significance of the ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ (LiFE) concept and the importance of individual actions in tackling the menace of marine pollution.
With a pledge to keep the beaches clean, the message sent out was that the beach cleaning event was not only a manifestation of sustainable coastal management and ocean economy but is very closely connected to the larger issue of marine pollution and the fact that our own behaviour has an impact on the environment.
The event in India saw the participation of close to 16,000 enthusiastic volunteers. The Ocean 20 Dialogue brought together international experts, innovators, community representatives, policymakers, and industry leaders, to facilitate discussions on aspects related to emerging science-technology-innovation-driven solutions, challenges associated with effective and inclusive policy and governance, and avenues for establishing finance mechanisms to support national and regional Blue Economy endeavours.
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The second day started with an inaugural address by Kapil M Patil, Union Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, who congratulated the Working Group on the resounding success of the Mega Beach Clean Up Event and appreciated the hard work done by the ECSWG in the area of climate change and environment issues.
This was followed by opening remarks for the day by Leena Nandan, G20 India Chair and Secretary, MoEFCC, who expressed her gratitude to the delegates for engaging actively in the first two ECSWG meetings.
She appreciated that participation from countries had followed a constructive process and made the discussions so far, fruitful. Further, she urged the G20 countries for their continued participation in the Communique discussion to ensure inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented, and decisive outcomes as the Working Group moves closer towards the last leg of the proceedings under the India Presidency. Ms Nandan said,
The primary agenda of the third ECSWG meeting was the detailed discussions on the draft Ministerial Communique and entailed constructive discussions and deliberations on priority areas.
Picking up the thread from the Focus Group Discussions which had been conducted by the Indian Presidency over the past three weeks across all the three thematic priorities, the discussions were conducted with a steadfast resolve of being collaborative and inclusive.
The third ECSWG meeting ended in a discussion mode on the Communique, to be further deliberated upon and refined in the virtual meetings scheduled over the next few weeks, as a run-up to the 4th and final ECSWG meeting to be held in Chennai from July 26-27, with the Minister’s meet on July 28, 2023.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diarrhoea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
