World must unite to address climate change crisis: PM Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres on Thursday launched Mission LiFE, a global initiative by India to combat climate change and make it a people’s movement across the world.
Modi said at a time when the world is being sought to be divided into rival and antagonistic blocks, the mission can be a unifying bond as he highlighted the need for all countries to come together to address the “emergency” of climate change. Mission LiFE aims to change people’s collective approach towards sustainability.
Addressing a gathering after the launch of Mission LiFE at the Statue of Unity, PM Narendra Modi said, “Now we are living in a world where there are talks of which country is with which nation or against which nation or group. But Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) brings everyone together as pro-planet people.” Heads of 11 countries have praised the Indian government for taking this lead.
Mission LiFE aims at a three-pronged strategy for changing people’s collective approach towards sustainability. First, by nudging individuals to practise simple yet effective environment-friendly actions in their daily live; second, by enabling industries and markets to respond swiftly to the changing demand; and to influence governments and industrial policy to support both sustainable production and consumption.
The PM said the initiative envisages to make every individual and community a trustee of the environment who doesn’t allow blind exploitation of resources. “The trustees are not exploiters rather nurturers. Mission LiFE will strengthen the concept of 3P – pro-planet people,” Modi said adding that the concept of trusteeship was introduced by Mahatma Gandhi.
Invoking Gandhi’s words that “the world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed”, the UN secretary general said, “This perfectly captures the situation we face now and, unfortunately, greed is prevailing over need. We need to reverse this trend. The plane is ready to support each and every one of us. But we must treat its resources with wisdom and respect.”
The PM said issues regarding climate change cannot be confined to policy-making alone. “People now have a feeling that each person, family and community must take some responsibility to save the planet and do something about it.”
He said Mission LiFE answers all these questions while adding that India is presenting the initiative to the whole world so that everyone living on the planet can take some steps at the individual level to protect the planet. “This initiative is a democratic fight against climate change and we are expanding this so that everyone can contribute. ‘Mission LiFE’ believes that small steps or initiatives can have a huge impact. By changing our lifestyles, we can protect the environment,” the PM said.
Modi said though India’s annual per capita carbon footprint is 1.5 lakh tonnes as compared to the global average of four tonnes, the country is on the front foot to address the concerns relating to climate change. “Reduce, reuse and recycle, and circular economy have been a part of the lifestyle of Indians for thousands of years,” he said.