New Delhi: India will set the narrative on how to grow responsibly and sustainably, said the secretary at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Leena Nandan. Speaking at a side event on ‘India’s journey towards sustainable cooling’ at the India Pavilion, on the sidelines of the COP28 in Dubai, she said that nothing is a better display of this resolve than India’s current status in terms of Nationally Determined Contributions for climate mitigation.
Elaborating, she said,
When India had announced NDCs in 2015 we envisaged 33-35 per cent emission intensity reduction by 2030, but we have pushed its efforts in a big way. While India has continued to grow, it has also progressively decoupled emissions from economic growth and this has resulted in the achievement of a 33 per cent reduction in emission intensity of GDP in 2019 itself.
The Secretary credited this success to a parallel push India has given to renewable energy for its requirements. She added,
We have gone on to scale up our climate ambitions. The NDCs updated last year reflect our concern that we indeed as a global fraternity need to do much more to tackle climate change. Going forward, we need to bolster our efforts and be at the forefront of change, and research on coolants that would be most appropriate to Indian climatic conditions.
This research, she added, should be matched with the dialogue with industry to cause quick off-take and scaling up of this technology.
The India Pavilion at COP28 showcased India’s success in achieving targets and its roadmap towards creating sustainable cooling for overall environmental sustainability.
India, at COP26 in 2021, committed to an ambitious five-part “Panchamrit” pledge. They included reaching 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity, generating half of all energy requirements from renewables, to reducing emissions by 1 billion tonnes by 2030.
India also aims to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45 per cent. Finally, India commits to net-zero emissions by 2070.
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NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. 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 a world post 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 well-being, 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 diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
