India and World need technology to mitigate climate change: MoEFCC Secretary Leena Nandan

Sharm-El Sheikh: Technology is the need of the hour for India and the World to mitigate the devastating impact of climate change, said the Secretary, MoEFCC, Leena Nandan on Friday.

Speaking at a panel Discussion on “Techonology Needs Assessment for Sustainable Life” at the India Pavilion at COP 27 She said, “Climate change is not an issue confined to those who are seen as emitters and there is now a realization and larger and uniform understanding that Climate change cannot be wished away”.

“It is knocking at our door” she added.

She reiterated the need to work through silos and also stated that technology cannot remain confined to big players due to their access to finance,adding that MSMEs and start ups need to be enabled to access finance to use technology optimally.

Stating that climate change is leading to devastation in the form of several nature based occurrences, Leena Nandan said “Our lifestyles need to change to respond to the challenges that we are facing”.

She said,”that our discussions need to now focus on bridging the gaps between what we want to achieve and how to achieve it”.

Secretary MoEFCC said that science is there but how to apply this science and knowledge to our activities needs to be processed.

Speaking in the context of technologies in road construction she said that one size fits all cannot apply to India due to India’s huge diversity. Technology needs assessment is different for different states.

The Secretary also spoke about Circular economy. Reduce, reuse, recycle, restore and refurbish. All R’s need the T that is technology, she said. She urged DST to engage with state governments to come up with innovative solutions.

“We need to add our bits in the larger picture only then as a country we could say that we have taken decisive steps to tackle Climate Change”, concluded the Secretary.

India set up a pavilion with the theme of “LiFE- Lifestyle for Environment” at the ongoing 27th Session of Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 27) Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi coined the concept of LiFE — Lifestyle for the Environment — at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) held in Glasgow November last year.

The LiFE movement seeks to transform persons into ‘pro-planet people’, who would adopt sustainable lifestyles in the modern world.