I joined United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres in New Delhi to honour the 2018 Champion of the Earth Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The high-level event in Delhi was well attended with almost all of the country’s top leadership in attendance. In his remarks, the Secretary-General reminded us that climate change poses an existential threat to the planet. While many leaders know and recognize this threat, the difference as he rightly pointed out, is that the Indian Prime Minister acts with enormous energy. “Through a number of policies, including LED lighting, clean cookstoves and solar expansion, India is betting on a green economy because they realize that is the economy of well-being,” he said.
In an inspiring speech, the Prime Minister “I accept this award on behalf of millions of Indians who protect the environment each and every day,” Modi said. “From fisherfolk who only take what they need or tribal communities who think of forests as their family. We will never be able to tackle climate change without bringing climate into our culture. And this is why India is taking so much action for our climate.”
I held an excellent meeting with my friend Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. I shared our continued commitment to supporting the Government of India’s new and ambitious scheme to set up compressed bio-gas production plants. The aim is to boost availability of more affordable transport fuels, better use of agricultural residue, cattle dung and municipal solid waste, as well as to provide an additional revenue source to farmers. This is in line with our work on energy.
I invited the Minister to join the Global Plastics Platform which UN Environment launched last week at the General Assembly, and promised to connect the government with the European Union which has done tremendous work on plastic pollution. We explored the possibility of greater government involvement in the UN Environment Assembly in March 2019 and I invited the government to showcase Indian innovation, and in particular cutting-edge innovation in waste to wealth initiatives being undertaken across the country.
I also met, for the first time, Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, the country’s premier policy think tank established by the Government of India to spearhead implementation of the sustainable development goals, we had an excellent conversation on the think tanks priorities – to promote competitive federalism amongst states; encourage innovation; and implementation of the sustainable development goals in India. We discussed potential areas of collaboration including e-mobility; renewables; resource efficiency and moving “Make in India” to “Make in India, take to the world.”
Taking further a collaboration that first began around World Environment Day in India, I was delighted to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Confederation of Indian Industry, with a particular focus on a key area in our programme of work on plastics management. The Un-plastic initiative will call on industry to curb single-use plastic pollution and seek alternatives to throwaway plastic across industries. Leadership from India is critical when it comes to single-use plastic, and it is with the private sector that solutions rest.
