Current Affairs - Sustainable Developement

On 22nd March 2023, India's Union Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways inaugurated India's first National Centre of Excellence in Green Port & Shipping (NCoEGPS) in Gurugram, Haryana.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India has notified the National Bioenergy Programme on November 2, 2022.

• MNRE has continued the National Bioenergy Programme for the period from FY 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Recently, European Commissioner for Energy and India’s Minister for Power and Renewable Energy inaugurated the first EU-India Green Hydrogen Forum.

• The event was organized jointly by the Delegation of the European Union and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, in close cooperation with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Hydrogen Europe.

On 24th August 2022, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India published the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 to ensure environmentally sound management of waste batteries.

• New rules will replace Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules, 2001.

India Meteorological Department (IMD), the Government of Japan, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have announced a new initiative to accelerate climate action in 10 states and Union Territories across the country.

Background

• At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in November 2021, India pledged to cut the country's total projected carbon emission by 1 billion tonnes by 2030, install 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030, reduce the carbon intensity of the nation's economy by less than 45% by the end of the decade and net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.

At the ongoing (27 June-1 July 2022) UN Ocean Conference at Lisbon, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announced an ‘Ocean Promise’- its vision for Blue Economy.

About the Promise

• UNDP’s Ocean Promise underscores that every penny invested in achieving the Paris Agreement is a penny invested in ocean health — the foundation of the sustainable blue economy.

The 15th Conference of Parties (COP15) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), held in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.

• At this two-week long meeting on the future of land management, a united global pledge to boost drought resilience and invest in land restoration for future prosperity was taken.

The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution co-signed by Bolivia, Finland, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Tanzania to establish an annual International Day of Plant Health to be observed on 12th May.

• The day is a key legacy of the International Year of Plant Health, marked in 2020-2021.

Recently, the 6th Edition of the India Water Impact Summit was organized. The valedictory session was organized in a hybrid mode by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), New Delhi and Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga), Kanpur.

Theme: The Summit was based on theme of ‘River Resources Allocation- Planning and Management at the Regional Level’.

The Prime Minister of India addressed the Cop26 Glasgow Summit on 1 November 2021.

He provided facts on India’s recent initiatives towards environment; proposed the world community to follow two unique movements to meet the climate goal; and also put forth India’s own targets in this regard. He also advocated for early climate finance for developing countries.