Union minister for environment, forest and climate change, Bhupender Yadav pitched for promoting lifestyles for environment stating that taking care of the land that sustains us can help the fight against global warming.

The union minister was addressing the opening plenary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) Conference of Parties at its fifteenth session in Cote d'Ivoire on Tuesday.

Speaking on the effect of global warming on land, Yadav stated that protecting both people and the planet will not be possible without the developed countries taking the lead in drastic emissions reduction, as their responsibility for global warming is the highest both historically and in the present.

Speaking on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the minister stated that it has compounded the challenge of fighting global warming as economic pressures have delayed or slowed climate action across the world, but at the same pointed out the finding of the IPCC Report of the Third Working Group, about the world exhausting its remaining carbon budget at a rapid pace, pushing us closer to the temperature limits of the Paris Agreement.

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Speaking on India’s presidency of the Conference of the Parties (COP) since 2019, Yadav informed that during the COP Presidency under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has made significant progress in its commitment to restore 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030.

Concluding the statement, the union minister expressed hope that the collective commitments are transformed into action by all countries, and public, private and civil society actors, significantly increasing resources to address the global challenge of containing land degradation, and assured India’s continued support and readiness to contribute to the positive outcome of this conference.

The fifteenth session of the COP15 of the UNCCD at Abidjan from May 9 to 20 will bring together leaders from governments, the private sector, civil society and other key stakeholders from around the world to drive progress in the future sustainable management of land and will explore links between land and other key sustainability issues.

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