WHY INDIA SHOULD LEAD BY EXAMPLE, NOT EXHORTATION

INDIA CANNOT BRING ABOUT A CHANGE OVERNIGHT, BUT IT CAN REORIENT ITS DEVELOPMENT ON AN ECOLOGICALLY MORE SUSTAINABLE PATH VIA A LONG-TERM STRATEGY WITH CLEAR INTERMEDIATE MILESTONES

- SHYAM SARAN

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an important initiative at the Glasgow Climate summit in 2021, entitled LiFE or Lifestyle for the Environment. This seeks to mobilise a worldwide movement for the adoption of a lifestyle that preserves the ecological integrity of our planet. It acknowledges that at the heart of the current ecological crisis is the value system underlying our current lifestyles. Unless this value system is transformed, there is no likelihood of reversing the ecological crisis. The prime minister’s initiative must be incorporated in India’s own economic growth strategy to be credible and to be an example to other countries. India needs to articulate a “vision of a new path of development”, in the words of Nicholas Stern. This new path remains be spelt out.