Resources & Sustainable Development

The Glasgow climate conference has delivered enough to keep the hope alive for meeting the 1.5°C climate goal.

A great hype has been created around the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) at Glasgow. John Kerry, the US climate Czar, has repeatedly called the meeting the world’s “last best chance” to avoid climate hara-kiri. Similar sentiment has been expressed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. More than 100 world leaders attended this climate gala in the first week, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden.

On the first day of the Glasgow climate conference – COP26 – the biggest announcement came from India. Ending speculations on whether India ‘will’ or ‘can’ make a net-zero pledge, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the country will reach net-zero emissions by 2070. How ambitious are these targets?

Those most affected by the negative consequences of large-scale industrialized food production must play a vital part in discussing how to transform it. The world therefore needs a people’s Food Systems Summit that aims to end hunger and malnutrition, protect ecosystems, and provide small farmers with a decent livelihood.

Questions on her, poem by Chaoba Phuritsabam in Tattoed with Taboos: An Anthology of Poetry by Three Women from Northeast India

With a water spread of 289 square kilometres, Loktak lake is rich in biological diversity and plays an important role in the ecological and economic security of the region. It was accorded the status of a Ramsar site of international importance in 1990, which shows the significant ecological services of the wetland to humanity and the natural environment. However, the Loktat hydel project commissioned in the early 1980s disturbed the entire lake ecosystem, resulting in extensive loss to biodiversity and displacing massive human population and the wildlife. In the past five decades, the natural ecosystem has degraded considerably. The Loktak Development Authority, which came up in 1987 for taking steps to conserve and protect the lake ecosystem, has not made much headway simply for the reasons that it has not involved the community living in and around in its project designs and plans.

Nature nurtures the mankind. However, when mankind tries to fiddle with nature, it faces the wrath of the latter. Loktak Lake in the state of Manipur is a glaring example of how human intervention can damage a natural setting and also adversely affect those depending on it. Loktak, measuring about 235 square kilometres, is the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India. This article is an attempt to capture the lives of the fisherwomen of Loktak and their continuous struggle for survival amidst the wave of aggressive lopsided developmental projects.

COVID-19 has reminded the world about the implications of destroying the nature. But, the world has an excellent opportunity to do something meaningful to not just reverse biodiversity loss but also improve it. In 2021, at the UN Biodiversity Conference, countries will come together to adopt a new global biodiversity strategy for the next decade – the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. We must learn from the past frameworks, especially the Aichi targets' achievements, and design a quantifiable and measurable framework. Besides, we must address zoonosis as an essential component of the post-2020 framework.

Hosting G20 Presidency in 2023 is a fitting aspiration and a welcome challenge for India. A major economy and a developing country with a mature democracy, heading into its 76th year of its independence, India has the unique opportunity to set ‘Agenda 2023’ with a focus on equitable green and resilient recovery. The groundwork must begin now, to embrace the troika, and soon after the presidency. India can showcase the standards, practices and policies being developed to align with 1.5-degree target, adaptation readiness for building resilience of its most vulnerable while strongly highlighting the need for industrialised countries of the bloc to do much more. The government will have to begin working together with civil society organisations, think tanks, businesses, youth and women to deliver on Agenda 2023 and the agenda of G20 that responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate and inclusive sustainable development.

24 मार्च 2020 को केन्द्र सरकार ने भारत भर में लाकडाउन की घोषणा कर दी ताकि एक्यूट रेसपिरेटोरी सिन्ड्रोम कोरोनावाईरस 2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)) से उपजने वाले कोरोनावाईरस के नए रुप कोविड-19 (novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19)) बिमारी को भारत में फैलने से रोका जा सके। राज्य द्वारा सामाजिक और आर्थिक सहयोग दिए जाने के अभाव में लाकडाउन काफी कठोर साबित हुआ, हालांकि सामाजिक-स्वास्थ्य की दृष्टी से यह अहम था। पहले से चरमराई अर्थव्यवस्था को इस  विश्व्यापी महामारी के कारण भारी नुकसान उठाना पड़ा। इससे अंर्तराष्ट्रीय स्तर पर होनेवाले विभिन्न प्रकार के माल के व्यापार लगभग बंद हो गए। इसके कारण लाखों मघ्यम व लघु उद्योग और सेवाप्रदाता उद्यम बंद हो गए। इसके साथ-साथ असंगठित और दिहाड़ी मजदूर अचानक बेरोजगार हो गए। दूसरी तरफ, पर्यावरण में काफी तबदीलियां भी आईं जैसे कि प्रदूषित शहरों में ताज़ी हवा का बहना, नदियों का बहना और पक्षियों और पशुओं का वापस अपने उजड़े ठौर-ठिकाने पर वापस लौट जाना। औद्योगिकरण और शहरी इलाकों में होने वाले निमार्ण-कार्य का प्रभाव पर्यावरणिय प्रदूषण बढ़ाने में किस हद तक योगदान देता है, यह बात कोविड-19 के दौरान हुई लाकडाउन के दौरान पर्यावरण में जो तबदीली देखी गई उसी से समझ में आती है।