In a world where ‘green’ is a good word and ‘going green’ is no longer attracts raised eyebrows, TERI is organising its 13th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, which was inaugurated by prime minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday.

Singh said the summit had come at the right time when sustainable and inclusive development is on every nation’s agenda. He said that the most important aspect of sustainable development is contribution from every country in the world (also recommended by the Kyoto Protocol); expecting the developing countries to give up their path of development for the climate without the contribution of the developed nations would unfair to the developing world said the prime minister.

Singh also recalled that many promises made in the Rio+20 summit, the summit held 20 years after the Rio 1992 summit, were still unfulfilled and they reminded the international community how hard it has become to achieve consensus regarding environmental factors the world. However, he said that all is not lost as the present world is more conscious about the environment than any of its preceding generations.
 
Singh said that the most important thing to be done is resource efficiency in the present world of rising technology where every resource, especially environmental resource, is very important. Scarcity of natural resources directly hit the poor and thus resource efficiency should be the most important aspect of resource efficiency, said the prime minister.

India hosted the 11th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biodiversity in Hyderabad, which discussed the nation’s responsibility for maintaining and developing bio diversity in the world. Singh said that the outcome of the convention was that biodiversity was considered to be the symbol of sustainable development in India as it is an important resource for many poor people in the country.

The prime minister said that protection of environment and development should not be contradictory to each other and that states should evolve regulatory mechanisms that are transparent and accountable. He urged the country to innovate in the areas of resource use and energy efficiency for better development and environment protection. He said that India should evolve to work closely with other countries to develop new methods of sustainable growth.

Governance Now is a media partner for the event.

Read the full text of the Prime Minister’s speech here