CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION (C-SPAC)
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EVENT Report |
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EVENING DISCUSSION: "ATMOSPHERIC ISSUES AND ITS IMPORTANCE AT THE WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT"
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The CUTS-Centre for Sustainable Production and
Consumption (CSPAC) and Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business
Management (IISWBM) jointly organised an evening discussion titled “Atmospheric
issues and its importance at the World Summit on Sustainable Development” at
IISWBM, Calcutta. The event was organised on September 20,to mark the
International Ozone Day (September 16) and the Sub-regional South Asian
Preparatory meeting (September 27-29) of the World Summit on Sustainable
Development. The objective of the program was to enlighten students
of the premier management institute on importance of Atmospheric issues. §
History of Multilateral Environment
Agreements and its importance at the World Summit on Sustainable Development,
2002 §
Kyoto Protocol- Forestry and Carbon
Sequestration §
Industry response to atmospheric issues in
West Bengal City-based experts on environment and atmospheric
issues, representatives from government bodies, non-government organisations,
academicians, media and students of IISWBM and Jadavpur University were the
participants. |
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Proactive role of
developing countries crucial for attaining goals of Agenda 21 Calcutta, September 21:
The CUTS-Centre for Sustainable Production and Consumption and Indian Institute
of Social Welfare and Business Management jointly organised an evening
discussion titled “Atmospheric issues and its importance at the World Summit
on Sustainable Development” at IISWBM, Calcutta yesterday. The objective of
the program was to enlighten students on the history of Multilateral Environment
Agreements and its importance at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to
be held at Johannesburg in September 2002, the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols and
how far we have been able to keep the commitments and industry response to
atmospheric issues in West Bengal. “Global
climate is changing due to discharged pollutants in the atmosphere. Some of the
common global effects are Ozone layer depletion, Global warming, El Nino and
Acid rain,” said K.M. Agarwal, Head Environment Management, Indian Institute
of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM). He also mentioned that the
inputs from this discussion would be reported to Sustainable Development Cell
under the Ministry of Environment and Forests to feed into their initiative of
101 ways of attaining sustainable development so that it catalyses similar
efforts in India. “Environmental degradation is a global problem and it can affect the political, economic and social interests of both the developed as well as the developing world. Unfortunately the North do not try to understand that the situation prevailing in developing countries in the South are much different from what they experience. This lack of understanding about the Southern problems on part of the North is perhaps the most important bottleneck for attaining the goals of Agenda 21. There needs to be a proactive agenda with a bottom up approach rather than a top down approach. Hence this kind of local workshops are crucial to highlight local problems to the international community,” said Arjun Dutta of CUTS. “India has around 50
environmental laws with provisions for imprisonment of violators and new laws
are coming in. The main bottleneck as far as these laws are concerned is
implementation,” said eminent academician Ashish Ghosh. He mentioned that
Bengal is the first state to have an environmental law in India called the
Bengal Smoke Nuisance Act, 1905. He was elucidating the existence of environment
law in context of practice of double standards in transnational corporations and
misleading green claims. “Global warming is going
to affect developing countries much more than the developed countries.
Ironically the countries which are least responsible for such environmental
degradation will pay the highest price so they need to have a proactive
agenda,” said Joy Dasgupta, West Bengal National University of Juridical
Sciences. He said that the southern areas are rich in forests and they are
emerging as carbon sinks. The developed countries fund the developing country to
help them to conserve the forest so that these forests can emerge as carbon
sinks and for this reason one need to be cautious while taking fund, as these
are not grant but loan and has to be paid back. “Industry response to
Ozone Rules has been very poor in West Bengal,” said D.K. Pal, SISI. He said
that industry would take steps to change over to new technology only when the
deadline approaches. He felt that there is a need for a change in mindset of
industries here. The discussion attracted healthy participation of city-based experts on environment and atmospheric issues, representatives from government bodies, non-government organisations, academicians, media and students of IISWBM and Jadavpur University.
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CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION (C-SPAC) 3
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