India must become champion of climate action: Amitabh Kant
India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant set a high target for India, stating that India must become the first country in the world to industrialize without carbonizing, while delivering the opening address at Connect Karo 2023 organized by WRI India in New Delhi on Monday.
Connect Karo 2023 is WRI India’s flagship event that offers a platform for multiple stakeholders from India and abroad to share their perspectives and experiences as well as to ease collaborations toward finding meaningful responses to critical environmental and sustainability challenges. Launching the two-day conference, Mr. Kant said, “India as a country occupies just 1.3 percent of the total carbon space available (in the world) today. But the way we will urbanize and indurstrialize in the future, we will become the third-largest carbon emitter in the world in due course. It is important that India as a country, both from the perspective of climate action and technology, leapfrogs and makes a substantial difference as for as action on climate front is concerned.”
He emphasized, “India must take leadership position technologically and in climate action. We must become the champion of climate action, energy transition, green hydrogen and sustainable public transportation. That is how we can provide a better life for our citizens for the future. For our survival, we need all to take radical measures and assume leadership position in this area.”
Speaking at the event, Madhav Pai, CEO of WRI India, said, “We launched Connect Karo in 2013 with the aim to build a network of thinktanks, private sector players, researchers, civil society and the government to work together and find viable solutions that enable sustainable development in India. A decade on, it is heartening to find more than 450 participants join our discussions, seeking an evidence-based response to complex, sectoral issues and exploring nuanced, contextualized solutions to urgent challenges of our times.”
Pai highlighted that Connect Karo’s endeavor is to offer a platform for a high-level dialogue that would foster the building of sustainable, livable cities of the future that place people at their center. “To shape connected, low-carbon and resilient cities, we must focus simultaneously on data-led urban planning and climate action, incorporating nature-based solutions and reimagining our food systems (from production, storage and distribution to consumption practices),” he explained.
