Delhi Sustainable Development
Summit 2008
The inaugural session of DSDS 2008 was held at Vigyan Bhavan
on 7 February 2008. The eighth DSDS is being held in the background
of the increasing concerns related to climate change in the
world today, which have been articulated in the Fourth Assessment
Report of the IPCC. The summit assumes greater significance
as it connects issues related to sustainable development with
climate change, and hopes to encourage activities that need
to be undertaken for sustainable development across the globe.
The debate on climate change gained further
momentum after the 13th COP (conference of parties) held at
Bali in December 2007, and the DSDS 2008 is expected to take
forward the discussions on both the challenges and the opportunities
facing the world today. The impacts of climate change are
global and unequivocal, but ironically are felt most by the
poorer sections of society who have contributed least in polluting
the environment. The measures adopted for combating climate
change would also translate into action against poverty, and
organizations like TERI have a responsibility to create a
climate for this change.
India needs to take the lead and be a frontrunner in taking
steps to tackle climate change. The Prime Minister’s
Council on Climate Change is currently working on a national
programme to address various relevant issues. However, the
recommendations of this plan would require commitments of
time and resources from all sections of society including
governments, businesses, and the civil society. In this context,
India’s Eleventh Five-year Plan (2007–12) articulates
strategies in the areas of afforestation, sustainable energy
use, flood protection, transportation and financial instruments
such as capital debenture funds.
Developing countries need to find a middle
path between development and addressing the sustainability
challenges with the forward-looking policy interventions.
For example, the subsidies on products like kerosene could
be shifted to environmentally benign technologies such as
solar devices. TERI’s Lighting a Billion Lives campaign
aims to promote the use of solar devices through the dissemination
of solar torches and solar lanterns to households in villages
without electricity.
|
