By FGR Bureau
“Our environment is witnessing massive stress viz water stress, food spoilage, resource wastage, increasing carbon emissions and inefficient resource management. All this shows a trend towards a grim situation. This is resulting in the decline of the world’s finest available ‘natural capital’. The current situation is grim with unforeseen future consequences. For instance, the lives of the next generation is at bleak with just 3% of fresh water left with a burgeoning population likely to cross 10 billion by 2050. This is one such example which is bound to affect every section of the society”.
The Third Forum of Ministers and Environment Authorities of the Asia Pacific took place from 24th to 25th of January 2019 in Singapore, jointly organized by Singapore’s Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources and the United Nations Environment Programme, Asia and the Pacific Office. This also served as a platform to contribute regional perspectives to UNEA-4 that was held in March 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya. It carried the theme ‘Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production’.
The Major Group and Stakeholders Forum Enabled the delegates & stakeholders to prepare their collective views and positions on the environmental issues, Ensure the representation be adequate and fair and Deliberate on innovative solutions to those environmental challenges.
Welcoming the outcomes of the theme helped building synergies between different groups. Effective people’s participation in environmental governance while simultaneously emphasizing the need to mainstream biodiversity across sectors was the most discussed agenda. Further, Sustainable Consumption and Production plans and strategies must recognize and reflect indigenous and marginalized people’s views. Campaigns and awareness essential to change behaviors and lifestyles, catalyzing National roadmaps to address plastics and plastics waste were also stressed. An indirect reference to India’s ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ effective in segregating and recycling waste and substitution mechanisms to replace plastics like biodegradable plastic bags or promoting organic agriculture was well acknowledged. However, Green finance was prominently stressed to support strategies for SDGs 12. This was necessitated to raise money for low carbon societies and influencing the behavior of companies to adopt more sustainable business practices.
Excerpts from Dr Arvind Kumar’s intervention on ‘Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production (SDG 12)’
‘The underlying idea of transiting towards Sustainable Production and Consumption is for instance envisaging efficient resource utilization, curb wastage of natural capital and promotion of green development. In a move towards sustaining Goal 12, we first need to understand the importance of ‘Circular Approach’. It encloses the concept of 6Rs- Reuse, Recycle, Reduce, Refuse, Repair and Rethink of resources. This allows resources to self-generate (like water, clean air or energy) and move in a sustainable way to avoid depletion. The production and consumption pattern must be intertwined between social, human and natural capital to help conserve the natural resources and reverse the ill-effects of environmental degradation. With Paris Agreement being ratified and Agenda for Sustainable Development 2030 on the roll, it becomes necessary to enlighten every individual of the challenges of unsustainable and wasteful resources. While harnessing the scientific knowledge at grassroots level, it is the civil society which can serve as a proactive catalyst between the government and the people to ensure effective implementation of the environment related policies’.
India’s is realizing SDG 12 by promoting resource and energy efficiency, sustainable infrastructure, and providing access to basic services, green and decent jobs and a better quality of life for all. Its implementation shall helps to achieve overall development plans and reduce future economic, environmental and social costs. India made a commitment to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 20-25% from its 2005 levels by 2020 and by 33-35% by 2030. On 2 October 2016 India formally ratified the historic Paris Agreement. The National Policy on Biofuels and the National Action Plan on Climate Change (8 missions) are some of the government’s flagship schemes aimed at achieving responsible and sustainable consumption and production by the efficient use and management of natural resources.
Further, “Resource Efficiency” is a broad interpretation to solve the challenges posed by sustainable consumption and production by engaging concepts of green economy integrated into national development and strategy frameworks. Supporting developing countries need to strengthen their scientific and technological capacity moving towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production by rationalizing inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies and phasing out those harmful subsidies, where they exist, to reflect their environmental impacts, taking fully into account the specific needs and conditions of developing countries.
It is therefore essential to adopt a broad, trans-disciplinary perspective among the stakeholders to bring visible impacts at the local level. With a proper sustainable policy framework to curb the excess consumption and production, we should make collaborative efforts to make a visible impact and envisage a ‘Responsible Production and Consumption’ for the near future. So, ‘Let’s take a pledge towards Zero Waste’.
