Carbon emissions for 2020 to come down by 8 pc due to lockdown: Env ministry

Due to COVID-19 lockdown across India, this year's carbon emissions are predicted to fall by around eight per cent, a senior official of environment ministry has said.

During a virtual session organized by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday on 'Parigm Shift in Business Sustainability – Strategies to Meet Challenges in Post COVID-19 scenario', Sujit Kumar Bajpayee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said pandemic has given an opportunity to jump start ecomies.

“ pandemic has given a lot of challenges but it has given opportunity to jump start ecomies, rebuild societies through recovery plans and focus on climate change and environment conservation,” he said.

Talking about importance of environment and conservation of natural resources, he also insisted on importance of bio-diversity. "We need to realize that our life and livelihood revolves around nature and environment,” he said.

“Due to COVID-19 lockdown across India, carbon emissions are predicted to fall by around eight per cent in 2020," Bajpayee said.

He pointed out that "nature" is an essential source of many medicines and industries like construction, agriculture, food and bevers are highly dependent on it.  “Such industries require direct extractions of resources from forest or rely on ecosystem services such as healthy soil, clean water, and a stable climate. Due to many reasons we are losing species and many have gone extinct, that has disrupted eco-system," he said.

Bajpayee furr said impact of this pandemic is "so complex" that it will continue to be analyzed for years to come. He ded that climate change and pandemic are related to anthropogenic activities.

“Due to pandemic, many businesses need to change ir models of sustainability and understand that we all need to take ownership of future,” he said.

Speaking at session, D K Aggarwal, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry deliberated upon improvement in quality of air and water which he described as "silver lining of pandemic".  “We could see goodness of nature due to lockdown and, we can see that nature h taken its course of stabilizing things,” he said.

Talking about business sustainability, he said in today's times it's driven towards contribution to environment and society.

“ environment is pivotal, we owe our duty and responsibility towards it to ensure that we do t pollute or dam it. In se times, many companies are investing ir fund in Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) companies. We need to give back to planet, people, and profit to sustain environment,” he ded.

J P Gupta, Chairman, Environment Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said environment is a key driving factor for running industries and re is a need to be considerate towards environment for sustainability and growth.

Under Paris Agreement, India h pledged to reduce emissions intensity of GDP by 30-35 per cent by 2030 and create an ditional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through ditional forest cover by 2030.

Last month Union environment minister Prakash Javekar h said that India has achieved reduction of 21 per cent in emission intensity of its GDP between 2005 and 2014, reby achieving its pre-2020 voluntary target.

(Im Credit Pixabay)