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| Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressing world leaders at the TERI's 13th Sustainable Development meeting in New Delhi |
New Delhi: Following the Rio+20, June 2012, summit world leaders gather
in New Delhi for the 13th Sustainable Development meeting (DSDS) 2013 organised
by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) on Thursday.
The held parley was inaugurated by the Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh. The gathering is said to influence the global discourse on
sustainability issues.
“The world community met in Rio last year on the occasion of
the 20th anniversary of the path-breaking Rio Summit of 1992. Rio+20 was a
poignant reminder that the ambitious goals that we had set for ourselves at the
Rio Earth Summit in 1992 remain far from being realised,” Manmohan Singh said
in his inaugural address at Taj Palace Hotel where the summit was held.
“It also served to
remind us that a meaningful consensus on environmental and ecological issues is
perhaps harder to achieve today than it was some 20 years ago, “he added.
Over the years, Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS)
has evolved as a global platform that addresses the key challenges of
sustainable development and explores the means by which this can be attained.
Accepting the fact that the climate change has become the
face of many challenges in pursuit of sustainable development and can only be
tackled through coordinated global action Manmohan Singh said,” it is therefore
crucial to look at sustainable development from a global rather than a purely
national perspective,”
Mr. Singh said the recent Doha climate conference reaffirmed
these principles and concrete efforts is needed to ensure development aspirations
and eradication of poverty.
“I am happy that the recent Doha climate conference
reaffirmed these principles. They should form the bedrock of future
arrangements post-2020 and we should ensure that the development aspirations
and poverty reduction efforts of the developing countries are not constrained” he
added.
As world economies progress, half of the world's rainforests
have already been lost, every day one wildlife species goes extinct, more and more
rivers get polluted with toxic wastes.
The term sustainable development has acquired a whole new
meaning and to give meaning to this term, leaders from around the world gathered
at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit and discussed the ecological and
environmental challenges ahead they have.
World leaders debated a range of issues from low carbon
growth to growing cities and their resilience to climate change, to low cost
technologies for businesses.
For a world mesmerised by growth, the challenge now lies in
using the outcomes of this summit to saving all that's good for planet Earth.