This year, the World Sustainable Development Summit will be under the umbrella theme, “Towards a Resilient Planet: Ensuring a Sustainable and Equitable Future”. The Summit will have special features including ministerial sessions, youth plenary, women leadership plenary, CEO Forum and thematic tracks.
The onslaught of extreme weather events around the world has brought to the forefront how human well-being and the health of our planet are inextricably linked. Just and equitable implementation of climate and environmental policies need to go hand in hand with broader sustainable development objectives. The present state of planetary health along with pandemic driven socioeconomic crises call for a revisit on questions related to global ambition and measures for sustainable development. The stage is set for global deliberations and the global community must be pushed to take ambitious and equitable measures on adaptation, climate finance, transparency, and loss & damage.
While revised nationally determined contributions (NDCs) pledges and net-zero commitments by a few countries give a glimmer of hope to realize the Paris goals. A higher level of ambition is needed from developed countries, which should move towards being net negative by 2050 and will need to achieve net zero much earlier. In addition, while some countries are making big progress in achieving Sustainable Development Goals, others are being left behind. Unless all countries come together to partner with each other, we can achieve neither the Paris goals nor the SDGs.
Leadership by countries can be multi-faceted. A country can demonstrate leadership by being a normative leader by exerting influence through ideas and values. A country can also demonstrate entrepreneurial leadership by shaping institutions that cater to global needs by recruiting constituents. A country can also demonstrate role model leadership by being an achiever in areas of common global goals. In this regard, the role of leadership in driving global action becomes crucial. By developing ambitious policies on climate action and sustainable development, a leader can forge a narrative that addresses the need for urgent action on a global level. Most importantly, leaders need to come together and work in a collective spirit.
The inaugural session of the World Sustainable Development Summit 2022 seeks to bring together world leaders together on one platform, in order to inform and inspire each other and rest of the world on how to move ahead on the road to sustainable development. Through this session, leaders are expected to set the vision and policy directions in the present decade for enhanced ambition and accelerated actions.
The inaugural session will have addresses by heads of state and government. When these leaders from various spheres come together and reflect upon their experiences, they build their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing knowledge, thus giving a new direction to future policies and actions. Thus, the inaugural session and overall, the Summit itself, seeks to reinforce commitment and action at all levels to enhance ambition and urgency, which will create a more sustainable and equitable world for present and future generations.
The session will start with Welcome Remarks by the Chairman of the Governing Council of TERI. This will be followed by an Opening Address which will then be followed by Keynote Addresses. The next segment will be the Inaugural Address by the Chief Guest. This will be followed by the announcement of ‘Sustainable Development Leadership Award’ and the acceptance speech by the Awardee. Finally the session will conclude with a Vote of Thanks by Director General, TERI.
The Energy & Resources Institute
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