Building on the momentum of last year’s summit, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), one of India’s leading think tanks, kickstarted the World Sustainable Development 2019 (WSDS 2019). The summit was inaugurated by M. Venkaiah Naidu, Vice President, at Vigyan Bhawan today in New Delhi. Nitin Desai, Chairman, TERI, delivered the welcome address.
This year, TERI honoured Prime Minister of Fiji Frank Bainimarama with the Sustainable Development Leadership Award 2019 in recognition of his outstanding contributions towards sustainable development in Fiji. Through his video message, Frank Bainimarama said, “It’s not the size of the country, but the size of the voice. With climate change, we all face the same future.”
Delivering the inaugural address, Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu spoke about the many facets of sustainable development like inclusive development, sustainable mobility and urbanisation, energy security, waste management and green innovation. “We need nature and culture for a better future,” he said.
Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, said, “Climate change and environmental problems are amongst the biggest challenges today. It goes without saying that these issues need to be addressed collectively by all of us before it is too late.”
Speaking about the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change collaborating with TERI to set up a Resource Efficiency Cell, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “Anticipating increased demand for raw materials in the future, it is vital to institute the best in resource efficiency as an effort toward decoupling economic growth and human wellbeing from ever increasing consumption of natural resources and the resulting impacts. The Cell will enable inter-ministerial and inter-departmental synergy in promoting material resource efficiency in India while helping frame the blueprint of the integrated Resource Efficiency policy for India.”
