Government engaging stakeholders to pave the way towards sustainable long term economic growth: Ashwini Kumar Choubey, MoS for Environment, Forest and Climate Change

New Delhi: Green investment and sustainability a priority in public policy, government engaging with all stakeholders for a sustainable long term economic growth, says Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Hon’ble Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change at an ASSOCHAM event.

Speaking at the webinar on ‘ASSOCHAM conference on Green Investment & Sustainability’ organized by the chamber, the Minister highlighted various initiatives taken by the government to promote renewable energy, electric mobility, forestry, fiscal instrument design, and green growth plans.

“Government schemes and policies such as Swachh Bharat mission, Pradhan Mantri AwasYojana, Smart Cities, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana and Pradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana, etc. are all contributing towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Both Central and state governments continues to target and maintain economic growth by introducing and implementing various policies and measures relating to sustainable development, climate change, energy efficiency and air pollution” the minister said.

“Under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme, more than 8.5 Crore gas connections were given to women of below poverty line families. This has contributed to cleaner air and resulted in a drastic reduction of respiratory disease and untimely deaths as per recent medical reports. Under the leadership of Hon’ble PM, the nation has embarked on a path of climate policy initiatives and green recovery through a structured approach, planned investments to tackle climate change such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, and low-carbon transport are the foremost priorities and central to the development agenda” he further added.

Shri Suvendhu J. Sinha, Adviser (Infrastructure connectivity & Electric Mobility), Niti Aayog, addressing the conference as a Special Guest said, “Sustainability has become a common agenda and a common challenge for humanity. It is no more confined to a particular country or group and has nothing to do with religion. It concerns the entire planet and must be addressed as such. Sustainability calls for a change in mindset, preferences, lifestyle, values and ethics. Technological innovations will help us setting up new things and undoing the wrongs we might have committed. Initiatives to increase awareness must be initiated and all these will require investments. Our lending agencies must be encouraged to relook the priority portfolio of their lending and streamline the due diligence process for lending to the green sector. Ensuing a sustained flow of fund to the lending institutions cannot be achieved only through government initiatives, the private sector must participate in a big way. In the entire evaluation, monitoring and development system, can sustainability be made a prime focus, can the output-outcome framework that we have decided be aligned to sustainability these are some of the challenges that we all need to work through”.

Shri Bharat Lal, Addl. Secy and Mission Director, NJJM, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti Govt. of India said, “The paucity of water should not become a limiting factor in our socio-economic development and quest for high economic growth. The era of big dams is over because of environmental concerns. Existing dams and reservoirs needs capacity enhancement so that they can store more water. There is a holistic management of water resources under the Ministry of Jal Shakti so that demand, supply, quality issues etc are handled at one place. The Jal Jeevan mission was launched with the objective of achieving water security. The provision of tap water supply in rural areas has increased from 17% in 2019 to 43% at present and 90K to 1lakh households per day are being given tap water connection under the mission”.

Shri Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO WWF-India said, “WWF recognizes that the ever growing human demand for resources is putting a tremendous amount of pressure on bio-diversity of our natural world. We have seen a 68% decline in the size of population of animal species, fish, reptiles and amphibians over the last 60 years. The issue of green, gases warming of the oceans, rising temperature of the earth are a global concern. The Indian industry being an evolving and intelligent sector has also made efforts to address this concern through associations such as ASSOCHAM. India is estimated to contribute or require at least $2,5 trillion till 2030 as part of the country’s nationally determined contribution. We may need to deploy $500 billion in investments to reach 4050 GW renewable energy target alone. The cost of the climate emergency is going to be fairly high and we are one of those countries that will be affected by the over 2 degree centigrade rise in temperature. India is already doing a lot in the area of MSME, in the areas of innovation and transition to different production methodologies which are environmentally friendly in the long run.

The conference deliberated upon pertinent topics such as Regulation and Policies, Role of funding and finance institutions, Alternative source of Green Finance and ESG Investment, Role and Importance of Private Participation and Challenges & opportunities in the green investment and sustainability. Industry stalwarts such as Mr Sumit Sharma, Programme Officer, UN Environment Programme, India, Dr Charan Singh, chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council For Banking, Prof. (Dr.) Adarsh Pal Vig, Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board, Ms Juhi Gupta, Head of Sustainability, PepsiCo India, Mr Annanya Agarwal, CEO & Co-founder, Runaya, Mr Sanjiv Sharma, Executive Director, Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Mr Nishant Arya, Vice Chairman, JBM Group, Mrs Sakshi Goyal, Senior Investment Specialist, Invest India, Mr Ravi Bhatnagar, Co-Chairperson ASSOCHAM CSR Council & Director-External Affairs & Partnerships (South Asia), Reckitt, Mr Sunil Chari, CMD, Rossari Biotech, Mr Vipul Sabharwal, Managing Director, Luminous Power Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Dr. Avanish Kumar, Co-chairperson ASSOCHAM CSR Council and Director, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation addressed the conference.