India-Netherlands ties: Climate, water initiatives more likely to take centre stage

Climate cooperation and water safety initiatives are more likely to be the important thing focus areas for the long run ties between the Netherlands and India. These are additionally more likely to be mentioned between the international locations as a part of the upcoming state go to of President Ram Nath Kovind to the European nation subsequent week.

The go to will coincide with the publication of the most recent spherical of the worldwide local weather report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is more likely to spotlight local weather change mitigation, motion and growth pathways. Scalable strategies of renewable and photo voltaic vitality seen in international locations like India and in addition strategies the place there are institutional limitations like nuclear vitality are more likely to be the core focus of the report, Netherlands authorities officers mentioned. The report might be revealed Monday.

India and the Netherlands will even be engaged on making ready a mannequin for a worldwide water pact, taking cues from numerous water safety initiatives from internationally together with India’s Jal Jeevan Mission, Henk Ovink, Netherlands’ particular envoy for worldwide water affairs mentioned in an interplay in The Hague with Indian journalists. Global water initiatives together with India’s Jal Jeevan Mission will set the trail for world motion on water, Ovink mentioned. Jal Jeevan Mission envisions to supply secure and ample ingesting water via particular person family faucet connections by 2024 to all households in rural India.

“…water is very organised, fragmented, it means often the solution is at a very small scale, so on one local level it might make a difference, but outside the community nothing changes. India is a continent in itself. If India changes, the world changes for the good or better and better for the good,” Ovink mentioned. He highlighted the significance to deal with water as a method for hygiene particularly within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. “We say ‘wash your hands’, but if there is no water, there is no hand washing. Your government has a big focus on issues of water, sanitation and hygiene, which are of critical importance in the context of the pandemic…but we still know that billions of people around the world lack that access to water. India’s water security programme is inspirational and we can bring that learning to other places around the world,” he mentioned.

The Netherlands might be co-hosting a 3-day UN convention on March 22, 2023 for taking motion on sustainable water administration with Tajikistan.

(The correspondent was in The Hague on an invite from the Netherlands authorities)