The Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant Governor, Shri Manoj Sinha welcomed the distinguished guests at the Y20 2023 Consultation Conference landmark event. Jammu & Kashmir is not just famous for snow capped mountains, divine green valley, but also for intellectual brilliance, LG said. This crown jewel of India is Sharda Peeth, the seat of learning and living example of immortal, organic composite Indian culture. It is a land of enlightenment and beautifully provides a connection between the ancient and the modern.
I take pride in the fact that our natural resources are growing, the green cover has gone up in the last few years by 55 percent and in the last financial year alone, we have planted more than 15 million trees across the Union Territory of J&K, LG shared. A massive participation in the Y20 Consultation Conference signals the encouraging prospects of a new energy in a global partnership environment, development and our collective effort to ensure equity, global prosperity and better quality of life for everyone, LG remarked.
The vision of India’s G20 Presidency is the vision for the future of humanity. One Earth-One Family-One Future. The division of shared responsibility to courageously tackle the two great challenges of the next 25 years – protecting the climate and promoting sustainable development. It means as one family we need to nurture Earth that sustains life and sustainable development objectives should be translated into collective actions to transform the lives of common man, LG said at the Y20 event.
The Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has made it clear to the global family that climate change cannot be fought on a conference table alone. The Prime Minister has urged the 8 million people of this earth to transform their effort of tackling climate change into a mass movement and promote an environmentally conscious lifestyle. I firmly believe that India can really soar in the world under the leadership of PM Modi. And he can lead us on how to build a sustainable society, a society that will both be an economic powerhouse and a major contributor in restoring the delicate balance of nature, LG said.
So I must say it should become a practice, a natural habit of ours to count the trees outside our house as a member of the family because our very existence depends on them. India’s PM by outlining India’s seven major priorities and by incorporating green growth gave a great message to the whole world. It is impossible to imagine development without nature. And the time has come for that nature that is visible to us becomes an integral part of human nature.
When India’s budget was presented in the Indian Parliament, for this financial year, for green growth and green hydrogen mission, energy transition, energy storage project, renewable energy evacuation, green credit programme, PM Pranam Gobardhan Scheme, Mishti, Amrit Dharohar and other projects were started. The target that has been kept to achieve zero carbon emission is 2070. This resolution is not just limited to carbon footprint. Rather, there is also a resolve to bring about behavioural change in each and every individual.
I consider youth consciousness as the most effective medium. They can tell the whole world that our natural resources aren’t solid and permanent. It can be made an important item on the agenda of every family, LG said. Our lives and natural resources are not absolute. It is temporary. This thinking should become part of our daily habit to ensure a prosperous earth and our future generations. Today, almost all societies in the world are becoming aware of the challenges posed by climate change. The main task of converting this awareness into thinking in each individual can be done only by the youth. Till then our efforts in this direction will be considered incomplete, LG said.
What few natural resources we have left with us, to save them for future generations, sporadic efforts may not succeed. Efforts have to be made in this direction of global understanding with full capacity, full resources and determination. And we have no other way. As our cultures have over the centuries promoted a simple lifestyle we have to reset it in the minds of the common people. All sections of the society should be involved in this effort. For that youth must lead and they have to take the reins so that the challenges of climate change can be dealt with. And the discussion can move out of the conference hall and be targeted into a public goal. The youth participating at the Y20 Consultation Conference said that the event was very inspiring.