As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrives at Rio de Janeiro on a rainy morning to articulate India stand on sustainable development and its efforts to clean up Mother Earth, leaders of rich nations face a critical question – have they done enough in the last 20 years to keep their promises made 20 years ago.

India to seek rich nations’ commitment on CBDR 

A crucial summit on global development kicks off here today with nearly 20 heads of state and government, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in attendance in a fresh bid to rally the world behind a common environmental blueprint amid economic woes and discord.

The mood on the eve of the Rio+20 Earth Summit, two decades after the path-breaking conference, could not be more different. In 1992, leaders were hopeful of a brave new world founded on sustainable development, a catchphrase coined by the Brundtland Commission on environment and development some five years earlier.

The World Health Organisation estimates that indoor pollution from inefficient burning of biomass fuels kills about two million people every year. Not just that, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, professor of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, has proven that soot from cooking plays a key role in climate change. 

The United Nations Environment Programme has recognized HCC ( Hindustan Construction Company), an infrastructure construction and development company, of being the only Indian company to be featured in its Climate Report.

This week the United Nations is holding the Conference on Sustainable Development, hosted by the government of Brazil. It was 40 years ago that the UN Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm, in which only two prime ministers, Indira Gandhi from India and Olof Palme from Sweden, participated. In 1992, 20 years later, the UN Conference on Environment and Development was held with much fanfare and amidst high expectations.

Climate change, the greatest global challenge, is already a reality for the farmers of Rajasthan. It is increasing the pressure on already scarce resources and if proper measures are not taken, migration towards the cities will soon reach new heights.

The sands across the world are crawling, turning vast stretches of land into desert each year. Their relentless march, invading villages, farmlands and water bodies, has made millions of people ecological refugees across the world.  June 17 is annually observed as World Day to Combat Desertification. Dr. Mansour N’Diaye, Chef De Cabinet of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) secretariat, spoke to K.P.M. Basheer onthe need for setting a sustainable development goal of “zero net land degradation by 2030” at the Rio+20 meet.

The Prince of Wales is urging world leaders to adopt a better, more integrated approach to issues like climate change. In a pre-recorded speech to a United Nations sustainability conference in Brazil today, he will warn of the potentially “catastrophic” consequences of inaction on issues such a climate change and global food security.

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the historic Earth Summit, India made out a strong case against  restrictive trade barriers imposed by rich nations in the name of climate change and insisted that “sustainable development goals” have to be “voluntary, aspirational and non-binding.”