DISCUSSION
Dr Arvind Kumar*
Utterances in the global forums like COP26 or Davos 2022 call for innovative and pragmatically feasible ideas, some of which may entail the potential of getting fructified in the real world or some may just spur support to other prevalent ideas, and others may end in fiasco. However, the ideas pronounced by the Indian leadership at international forums enjoin upon the national government to take those pronounced ideas seriously and mainstream them into the national policies so that the nation is saved from becoming a laughing stock in the comity of nations.
At a time when the world is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and its variants like Delta and Omicron, vagaries of climate change and its associated constituents like extreme weather events and global warming are having a telling impact on the socio-economic, political, and cultural lives of humans, any global effort suggesting mutual cooperation to deal with these natural and human-induced calamities not only serves as succor for humankind but also provides hope for finding means to do away with factors that give rise to such calamities. It is perhaps in this backdrop that Davos Summit 2022 was held in a virtual manner on 17-21 January at Davos, Switzerland, under the aegis of the World Economic Forum.
The Davos Summit 2022 was held in a virtual manner wherein heads of state and government, CEOs, and other leaders came together to propose solutions to pressing global issues, and the ensuing conversations focused on topics including the COVID-19 pandemic response, the global economic recovery, climate action, technical innovation, and global collaboration.
India at Davos 2022
While addressing virtually on 17 January the World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos Agenda 2022 summit, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged some key issues warranting immediate focus at the global level along with India’s standing on these issues. In his address to the Davos summit, PM Modi claimed that India has given to the world a bouquet of democracy and multiculturalism. Admittedly, India’s prestige as a strong democracy has garnered considerable international traction; nevertheless, PM Modi’s message to the world is clear that democratic values need to be strengthened in words and action. Concomitantly, this message has to be put into action internally as well.
PM Modi emphasised the notion of the 3Ps – Pro-Planet People – a movement that stresses the commitments made by India with regard to climate change at COP-26 held in Glasgow, UK. While reiterating India’s “clean, green, sustainable, and reliable energy” goals that entail a net-zero carbon emission target by 2070, PM Modi also emphasised the urgent need to shift today’s ‘take-make-use-dispose’ economy towards a circular economy. Asserting that the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle would not only help in dealing with the current climate crisis but also help humankind to prepare for future unpredictable challenges. This assertion ought to garner our attention in the wake of the prevalence of the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainable lifestyles and the role of humans, families, and communities in this regard.
According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, India ranks among the top 10 most affected countries, and in recent years, India has already experienced and is also experiencing the consequences of global warming in terms of extreme heatwaves, heavy rainfall, severe flooding, catastrophic storms and rising sea levels wreaking havoc with the lives and infrastructure in many parts of India, especially in the coastal areas. Projecting that the serious implications of these climate-induced events areexpected to become more acute, some experts opine that India may lose anywhere around 3 to 10 percent of its GDP annually by 2100 and India’s poverty rate could grow by 3.5 percent by 2040 on account of climate change.
The ongoing processes of the use of traditional biomass for fuel in peri-urban areas along with the rapid pace of modernisation and urbanisation have culminated in the growth of commercial energy and indirect energy uses, thereby pointing to a shift towards a modern consumer society. And this increasing use of energy entails the possibility of inviting climate change risks, driven primarily by the consumption of fossil fuels, and in order to avert such a crisis situation, there is a need for a fundamental shift in energy consumption patterns that could lead to a low-emission society requiring huge changes in many areas like energy production, mobility, food production, domestic energy consumption. Some experts are of the view that such changes are unlikely to occur without the transformation of lifestyles and consumption patterns. And these experts suggest that meeting these challenges requires a system-and-society-wide transition towards sustainability, including the change of policies, technology, lifestyles, and civil society. In order to facilitate this transformation, the increased role of civil society is called for along with the active involvement of political and administrative machinery.
While hailing PM Modi’s call for reforming the world’s multilateral institutions to bring them in sync with the new world order and new challenges, as a significant move, some experts are of the view that such a call is not new because the issue of reforming multilateral organisations has been there for over a decade now. These experts opine that reforming these institutions will take time and also require a collaborative effort.
Asserting that India has come a long way from its image of License Raj to a country where power lies in the hands of its citizens, PM Modi also lauded India’s IT sector that has proved instrumental in strengthening the world, and was amongst one of the major forces for continued operations globally even the midst of the pandemic as well. Emphasising that India has given more than 5 million software developers to the world, the Indian Prime Minister informed that big reforms were being pushed in the IT and BPO sectors. Extending an invitation to international investors, PM Modi said that it was the best time for global investors to invest in India because India has more than 60, 000 start-ups, out of which more than 80 percent are unicorns. He also informed that the deep economic reforms were another reason why India is the most attractive destination for investment.
*President, India Water Foundation
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