Let us not get too romantic about the blue skies, starlit nights, clean rivers, crisp air and abundant sightings of flora and fauna over the past one month of lockdown, said Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar. “We have got this environment only because there are no vehicles plying, no industries working. Under such conditions, perhaps we can sustain a population of 30 crore, not the 130 crore we have in India,'' said the minister, emphasising that if the COVID-19-induced lockdowns around the world had shown anything, it was that people needed to live more sustainable lifestyles.
Javadekar was addressing a webinar session organised by TERRE Policy Centre, Tata Institute of Social Sciences and MIT-WPU Faculty of Sustainability Studies, on the occasion of Earth Day. This year marks the golden jubilee of the celebrations of Earth Day, an annual global event spearheaded by the Earth Day Network for environmental consciousness.
The minister said that it was even more important right now for the global community to get back together towards building a sustainable world. He noted that India's approach had always been of need-based consumption. But, unless the bigger powers of the globe also got their focus together, even the laudable achievement of India managing to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) would amount to naught, he said.
Talking of India's ambitious efforts in sustainable growth, the minister noted that other countries were much ahead with their consumptive economies, and they needed to do more. “Our power consumption is 1,000 units per persona annually. The US consumes 12,000 units per person every year. We have 25 cars per 1,000 people. The western world has 400-600 per thousand people,'' Javadekar said, emphasising that the developed world needed to contribute more, financially, to help the poorer nations, and also provide technology solutions without factoring in massive profit margins.
The minister said that economies would be heavily impacted due to the pandemic, and, right now, “we don't know what is the end of the story. Yet, we have to prepare for a post COVID-19 world, too, at the same time”. He said that the US, the sturdiest economy, was in doldrums. “On one hand, they [US] want to save lives, on the other, they are as keen to start the economy. Our targets are similar, too, though our primary focus is on saving lives. We are gradually opening up the rural economy first.''
The minister lamented that when it came to climate change mitigation, the story was one of broken promises. He was alluding to the US walking out of the Paris Agreement. There is concern now that many other countries, too, might push their INDCs to the backburner, as they try to kickstart battered economies. Will the Paris Agreement become another casualty of the pandemic? “The new normal will be very different. But India will try to ensure the Paris Agreement is kept alive. We are on target. And now, the world, too must realise that COVID-19 has taught us a lesson on the need for sustainability.''
He said that while Prime Minister Narenda Modi maintained that inconvenient truths could only be countered with convenient actions [for the world], these actions were only possible and effective when the whole world acts in one direction.