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CSE along with the magazine ‘Down To Earth’ has recently released the Annual State of India’s Environment 2022 report. It was released by Bhupender Yadav, the Union Cabinet Minister of Labour and Employment, Environment, Forest and Climate Change.  

 The State of India's Environment 2022 is the country's most authoritative statement on the developments in the environment and related sectors. This is the 9th annual edition in this series. The report focuses on climate change migration, health and food systems. It also covers biodiversity, forest and wildlife, energy, industry, habitat, pollution, waste, agriculture and rural development.

Anil Agarwal Dialogue, as the four-day conclave was called, is back in its physical form after a pandemic- and lockdown-induced hiatus of almost two years. The event, which had over 60 journalists participating from across India, was held at CSE’s state-of-the-art residential environmental training facility, the Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), in Nimli in Alwar district of Rajasthan. Speaking at the annual conclave of journalists organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Bhupendra Yadav said, “Reducing consumption and forming a self-restrained society is the only way that we can live with nature harmoniously.”

Yadav highlighted three extremely critical issues that confronts the nation today -- climate change, desertification, and the sustainability-affordability linkage. He said, “We can change people’s lives by linking affordability with sustainability. We have to link traditional knowledge with scientific temperament; we sometimes are so proud of traditional knowledge that we forget logic. But we have to think of logic and affordability along with tradition to make it work.” 

Sunita Narain, Director General, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) talked about the issue of climate change in this report. It was mentioned that in the last two years, the world has seen disruption at a scale not seen before. Both Covid-19 and climate change have been the result of our ‘dystopian’ relationship with nature – this can be called the revenge of nature. Covid-19 has supposedly occurred because we have long ago broken the barrier between the wild habitats and humans and the way we produce our food. Climate change is the result of emissions needed for economic growth – fossil fuels are unsustainable; our lifestyle is the problem. Both are also linked, and are being exacerbated because of our mismanagement of health systems and the environment. Adding more to it, she said, “What does this intense heat wave that has hit large parts of India so early this summer really mean? It means this is the age of climate change; it also means that how we deal with our water in the coming days will determine whether we would survive such extreme climatic conditions.”

While answering to journalists, Bhupendra Yadav repeatedly stressed on the fact that his department is keen to have an open debate on environment. Referring to India’s efforts to achieve net zero emission by 2070, Yadav pointed out that since emissions from the energy sector were the highest, the government was putting more emphasis on it. He said, “By 2030, we plan to have 500 GW from renewable energy. Railways will be electrified by 2030 -- that will reduce 80 billion tons of emissions. We also plan to employ LED bulbs at a large scale, which can reduce 40 billion tons of emissions. We are also focusing on hydrogen. If we can make hydrogen sustainable and affordable, we can bring big changes.”

Talking of global climate negotiations and India’s position, the minister said that environmental negotiations is not about give and take – it is about saving humanity. He added, “The developed nations must take historic responsibility and consider what their ancestors have done in the past.”

While discussing the challenge of climate change, Narain said, “India needs to act in its own self-interest. Our climate change strategy has to be based on the principle of co-benefits – we will do something for climate change because it is good for the world, but also because it is good for us. We need a low-carbon strategy for every sector; we must also ask the developed world to pay for and give us the high-cost options so that we can leapfrog.”