NEW DELHI: Noting that the threat of climate change is “real” and India is vulnerable to it, President Pranab Mukherjee today stressed the need for adopting a twin approach of limiting rise of climate change and at the same time ensuring existence of sufficient resources to meet the country’s future development needs.
Observing that India ratified the “landmark” Paris deal recently, he hoped the country’s move will encourage other nations to follow and ratify the agreement so that it can come into force, giving a “major” boost to the fight against climate change.
“India ratified the landmark Paris Agreement that was reached at the 21st Conference of Parties. As President of the republic, four days ago I had the privilege to ratify the agreement. I am glad that our ratification has occurred prior to the next COP22 (in Morocco) and I hope that it will encourage other countries to follow suit.
“If the legally required ratification by countries who together account for 55 per cent of the global emissions is achieved, it will enable the coming into force of the Paris Agreement before the next conference. This will be a major boost to our fight against climate change,” Mukherjee said.
He was speaking after inaugurating the World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS), 2016, organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) on the theme ‘Beyond 2015: People, Planet and Progress’.
Noting that promising initiatives have been taken both at the national and international levels aimed at addressing the challenge of climate change, Mukherjee said the adoption of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 are two “crucial” steps in this effort as they underline that all nations need to work together for a common future.
Noting that the climate action plans submitted by India before the Paris agreement are “ambitious”, Mukherjee said it will be possible to achieve the targets if steps are accelerated on several fronts.
“We need to follow a twin-tracked approach of limiting the rise of climate change while ensuring the existence of sufficient resources to meet our future developmental requirements. We should aim at creating a society that is prosperous but not wasteful.
“We should make use of our abundant renewable sources to create a society that is self-sustaining and mindful of its responsibilities towards the present and future generations. Our society must learn to exercise restraint in consumption while continuing to use resources in moderation,” he said. (AGENCIES)
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