G20: 2nd Environment and Climate Sustainability meeting to start in Gandhinagar on Monday

The first meeting of the ECSWG was held in Bengaluru from February 9-11. The third meeting will be held in Mumbai (May 21-23) and the fourth in Chennai (May 26-27). The ministerial meeting is expected to be held on July 28 in Chennai.

In a statement, the Environment ministry said 130 delegates from G20 member countries along with 11 invitee countries and 14 international organizations will take part in the second meeting.

“The three-day meeting would focus on thematic areas like arresting land degradation, accelerating ecosystem restoration and enriching biodiversity, encouraging resource efficiency and circular economy and promoting a sustainable and climate resilient blue economy,” it said.

Special presentations on major initiatives like Namami Gange, climate resilient infrastructure, participatory ground water management, Jal Jeevan Mission, and Swachh Bharat Mission will also be made during the meeting.

Land degradation, biodiversity loss, marine pollution, resource overconsumption and lack of waste absorption are the key environmental concerns which will be addressed in the four ECSWG meetings in India’s G20 presidency.

Under the Biodiversity and Land Degradation Theme, India aims to enhance G20’s contributions to achieve 50 per cent reduction in degraded lands by 2040. It also seeks to enhance global efforts to foster growth and development while pursuing strong climate ambitions, it said.

India is committed to restoring 25 million hectares of land and sequestering an additional 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2030.

The Indian presidency hopes to help evolve and encourage the adoption of a G20 Framework to Combat Land Degradation and develop the G20 Online Knowledge and Solutions Exchange Platform to identify and showcase successful land restoration projects, the statement said.

It would bring out G20 studies on restoration of abandoned mine sites and areas impacted by forest fires; and a compendium on “Best Practices for Integrated Planning and Sustainable Management of Water Resources”.