2nd Sustainable Environment & Energy Summit, 2020

Social Responsibility Council (SRC) organised 2nd edition of Sustainable Environment & Energy Summit 2020 on 19th December 2020 at Hotel Le Meridian, Janpath, New Delhi.  First, of its kind, this Environment Summit was hybrid of physical and virtual presence of speakers and guests under the Chair of Mr Vivek Narayan Sharma, Advocate, Supreme Court, who informed that the summit was held to discuss serious environmental issues pertaining to ‘Policies on Sustainable Environment & Energy and their impact’, ‘Sustainable Finance for effecting real change’, ‘New environmental perspectives and best practices post COVID-19’ and global problems like pollution, deforestation, climate change etc. and to find relevant solutions to curb such problems for providing a better living to future generations. 

The Founding Director of SRC, Mr Arun Khurana stated that Social Responsibility Council (SRC) is a New Delhi based Government of India recognized Start-Up Company, registered as a voluntary non-profit organization under the Indian Companies Act, 1956, as amended in 2013 and was established to create awareness about the various facets of social responsibility of persons, groups, societies & corporate in India and abroad and it has been doing so through organizing various programmes and initiatives in sustainability fields of environment & energy and SRC is a research and training wing of the environment sector that plays a major role in bridging the gap between people, organisations, governments and courts.

Mr Justice Dipak Misra, former Chief Justice of India adorned the Summit as the Chief Guest along with, Guests of Honor Dr Rene Van Berkel, India Representative at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO); Mr Justice Kalyan Rai Surana, Judge, Guwahati High Court; Mr. Justice Arun Monga, Judge, Punjab & Haryana High Court, Chandigarh and Shri Baijayant Panda, Vice President and National Spokesperson, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP); all of whom attended the Summit in virtual mode. Physically present were the Special Guests Mr. VK Duggal, IAS (Retd.), Former Governor (Manipur & Mizoram); Shri PK Gupta, IAS, Principal Secretary, Government of Delhi & Shri Ved Prakash, IRS, GM – DFCCIL.   

In his introductory address, Mr Vivek Narayan Sharma, Chairman, Organising Committee of SEE Summit-2020 outlined factual ground conditions pertaining to environmental problems arising in relation to Air, Water, Power and E-waste. He further highlighted awareness in the context of lack of implementation of environmental laws. Mr Vivek showed his major concern in growing more trees as that’s the reason of the world being alive. He emphasised that India is currently having 35 billion trees against the need of 140 billion trees. He said that the issues of Environment are complex and our entire ecosystem has been endangered through sometimes our reckless attitude, sometimes lack of awareness, sometimes helplessness but mostly because of greed and non-implementation of laws. Adding another angle to this, he stated that he has found Environment is the most hyped subject because people like to talk about it, then to adhere to environment-friendly acts. He talked about some of the major sustainability concerns and talked about solutions.   

The Chief Guest at the Summit, Mr. Justice Dipak Misra, former Chief justice of India said we should inculcate the attitude to obey the command of nature and state should follow the obligations as enshrined under Article 48 (A) and the citizen should perform his duty as engrafted under Article 51(A)(g) that is the requirement to become a constitutional individual. There has to be harmonious co-existence of Sustainable environment, sustenance of growth and economy. He emphasised the concepts of Inter-generational Equity and Understanding. Stating that in 21st century, there is Planetization of the individual and present generation, he pledged the youths to achieve Environmental Peace with Growth, Progress and Environmental Morality. 

Delivering the inaugural address Dr Rene Van Berkel from the United Nations emphasized philanthropy and social responsibility are important factors for sustaining the environment and India needs to adopt best global practices to scale down environmental concerns of today. He also spoke about biomedical waste management. Stressing on the need for a sustainable environment and energy, Dr. Rene discussed solutions for the relevant concerns we are facing today. Shri VK Duggal, former Governor of Manipur & Mizoram emphasised the need of youths to participate in environmental issues for better resolution to sustainability concerns. Highlighting global response to be participatory in such issues to achieve any target, he focused on decarbonisation to have a proper society. Shri VK Duggal further quoted about the Pradhan Mantri Yojana that initiated LPG connections to reduce deforestation. According to former Governor, the need of global partnership is required the most especially quoting that its the time to listen to Nature, before it becomes late. 

Shri Tarun Kapoor, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India stated to shift to eco-friendly energy from Petrol, diesel to CNG and improve the environment. Major reforms suggested by him were cleaner energy resources, centralized CNG supply all over the country by putting a trunk network consisting of 34000 km long pipelines of which 17,500 km pipelines are already commissioned. Also, natural gas will be encouraged for power generation, in addition to this another cleaner form of fuel i.e. LNG could prove very useful. To promote the use of electronic vehicles, a huge network of EV charging stations has to be set up in retail outlets. He also threw some light on various policy reforms that included easy accessibility of biofuels, CNG and biogas in the open market, so that gas exchange is easily available for sale and purchase. Mr PK Gupta, IAS, Principal Secretary, Government of Delhi, showed his major concern on traffic, pollution, management of garbage dubbing, encroachment. He said Delhi does not have its own climate as it comes from the neighbouring states like summer from Rajasthan, winter from Northern side. He further stated that to achieve sustainable development, global response is needed to have a balance with the growth of the economy while maintaining sustainability.

Mr. Justice Kalyan Rai Surana, Judge, Guwahati High Court appreciated the summit as a fruitful thought for the future and expressed that he is expressing his personal views and not as the Judge of Guwahati High Court. He stated that the state of Assam claims that the forest area is approximately 34 per cent which is more than the average forest area. He also conveyed that the Assam government has come with a different definition for forest stating that if there are 200 trees in a hectare it would be classified under the category of forest. He questioned that is the mankind doing enough to preserve the forests or the green cover with an example of water wastage in the restrooms and ended his address expressing the need for reducing Carbon Footprints.

Putting light on renewable sources of energy and their costing Mr. Baijayant Panda, Vice President and National spokesperson, BJP stated that people are facing environmental concerns due to sticking to the traditional sources of energy and India has taken bold policies steps in recent years and is expanding the use of a sustainable form of renewable solar energy very fast. 

Mr Justice Arun Monga, Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court appreciated the introduction of Environment Oath by SRC and spoke of the duty towards Environment and nature and said that one must act as soldiers to promote a sustainable environment and to make this as a solemn oath, one must realise that we have to respect nature, we can’t play with nature and must become subservient to nature. He added that it is not a fight between humans and nature, it is fought between sustainable development and mitigation of climate change and we can achieve it, he concluded by quoting that the fundamental rule is sustainable development that is possible only by sustainable energy. 

The summit was ended on a warm note by Mr Vivek Narayan Sharma, Chairman on saving the planet through each individual being sustainable to contribute to the world for a better environment, bringing new possibilities for the country to be more concerned about the Mother Earth.