Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the World Sustainable Development Summit 2021, organised by The Energy Resources Institute, Delhi, on February 10. “We must enhance our disaster management capabilities. The way to do this is to improve our human resources as well as technology,” he said in a mediated video conference address that had delegations and heads of state listening in.
On February 7, India saw an avalanche cause a flood in Chamoli, Uttarakhand, which killed at least 30 people, destroyed two hydropower plants, and caused damage to livestock and property.
“India is part of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. We are working in this direction. We are working towards whatever needs to be done to achieve this. Our human centric approach could act as a force multiplier to achieve this,” Mr. Modi said.
In his address, Mr. Modi repeatedly spoke about “climate justice” in that it meant developing countries be given enough space to grow. “The road to fighting climate change is through climate justice and the route of climate justice is in the principle of being large-hearted. When every individual understands our personal and collective duties, climate justice would be achieved,” he said.
He reiterated India’s achievements of ensuring that nearly a fourth of its geographical area was under forest cover, of installing nearly 38% of its electrical energy capacity through non-fossil sources that “included nuclear power as well as large hydropower projects”. He underlined India’s commitment to install infrastructure for 450,000 MW of renewable energy by 2030.