Global goal for pesticide discount pointless: India at UN’s COP15 summit

By PTI

MONTREAL: A numerical international goal for pesticide discount within the agriculture sector is pointless and have to be left for nations to resolve, India has stated on the UN biodiversity convention right here in Canada.

India additionally supported subsidies for the agriculture sector.

Currently, greater than 40 per cent of India’s complete workforce is employed in agriculture, based on the World Bank knowledge launched in 2019.

Speaking throughout a high-level section of the fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav stated that the agriculture sector in India, like different growing nations, is the supply of “life, livelihoods, and culture for hundreds of millions”.

“Such essential support to vulnerable sections cannot be called subsidies, and targeted for elimination,” Yadav stated on Friday.

“While they are being rationalised, biodiversity must be promoted through positive investment,” he stated.

“Similarly, a numerical global target for pesticide reduction is unnecessary and must be left to countries to decide,” the minister added.

The Target 7 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) contains the discount of pesticides by at the least two-thirds by 2030.

A report by Pesticide Action Network (PAN) India launched in February reveals severe issues of pesticide utilization in India and factors to poor regulation of hazardous agrochemicals.

The present use sample is implicated in widespread unauthorised makes use of of pesticides in India, posing menace to meals security and environmental contamination, it stated.

Proponents of the goal state that redirecting dangerous subsidies in the direction of biodiversity financing would go a good distance in the direction of bridging the funding hole of round USD 700 billion a yr.

Currently, India alone spends about USD 30 billion (about 2.2 lakh crore) subsidising agricultural inputs, together with pesticides.

The minister acknowledged that credible motion is the supply of power and optimism in going through all international challenges together with biodiversity.

He stated regardless of India being residence to 17 per cent of the worldwide inhabitants, however solely 2.4 per cent of the land space and solely 4 per cent of its water assets, the nation is forging forward in its efforts to guard biodiversity.

“Our forest and tree cover is steadily rising together with our wildlife population. Definitive steps are being taken to return the iconic cheetah to Indian habitats,” he added.

“India has taken a quantum jump in the number of declared Ramsar sites to the current figure of 75. As a large developing country, our forest policy is challenging to implement, but our forest surveys are testimony to its success,” stated Yadav.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is a global treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, signed in Iran in 1971.

The minister stated that India’s steadiness sheet in implementing the Aichi Targets (specified by 2010) is proactive and forward-looking and the nation is on monitor to satisfy its commitments.

To counter the worldwide biodiversity disaster, on the 2010 UN CBD COP10, virtually 200 nations pledged to guard at the least 17 per cent of their terrestrial environments and inland water, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas by 2020 (often known as a part of the Aichi Targets).

Yadav additionally stated that India has taken quite a few steps to maintain invasive alien species at bay, however a numerical goal will not be possible with out the required baselines and related scientific proof.

“The Global Biodiversity Framework must be framed in the light of science and equity and the sovereign right of nations over their resources, as provided for in the Convention on Biodiversity,” the minister stated.

“If the climate is profoundly linked to biodiversity, then the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities must equally apply to biodiversity,” he added.

Yadav stated when nature itself is below stress due to the historic disproportionate and inequities in greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions of the developed nations, the nature-based options to international warming and different environmental challenges usually are not a solution with out resolute motion by developed nations to measure as much as their historic and present obligations.

However, this precept, whereas accepted within the UN local weather talks, has been some extent of rivalry on the biodiversity summit.

“Nature cannot protect if it is not itself protected; nature is a victim of global warming and its protective features can do little against unchecked temperature rise,” he added.

Touching on the monetary hole for biodiversity conservation, Yadav stated added the provisions of the technique of implementation should match ambition.

“Our only source of funding remains the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which caters to multiple conventions,” he identified.

“The value of biodiversity to humankind also lies in its economic dimension alongside the cultural and socially sustainable use and access and benefit sharing are key to promoting biodiversity alongside the efforts to conserve protect and restore,” he added.

“What is needed today is mindful and deliberate utilisation instead of mindless and destructive consumption,” he added.

During COP15, being held right here from December 7 to 19 (or longer, if events fail to come back to an settlement on schedule), about 20,000 delegates from 196 nations the world over are negotiating an eight-year plan to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and restore nature by 2050.

The spotlight of this COP can be the adoption of 4 targets and 22 targets as a part of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework which is able to set the platform for biodiversity conservation.

The Indian delegation is led by Yadav, and a workforce of negotiators comprising senior officers from the Government of India.

MONTREAL: A numerical international goal for pesticide discount within the agriculture sector is pointless and have to be left for nations to resolve, India has stated on the UN biodiversity convention right here in Canada.

India additionally supported subsidies for the agriculture sector.

Currently, greater than 40 per cent of India’s complete workforce is employed in agriculture, based on the World Bank knowledge launched in 2019.

Speaking throughout a high-level section of the fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav stated that the agriculture sector in India, like different growing nations, is the supply of “life, livelihoods, and culture for hundreds of millions”.

“Such essential support to vulnerable sections cannot be called subsidies, and targeted for elimination,” Yadav stated on Friday.

“While they are being rationalised, biodiversity must be promoted through positive investment,” he stated.

“Similarly, a numerical global target for pesticide reduction is unnecessary and must be left to countries to decide,” the minister added.

The Target 7 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) contains the discount of pesticides by at the least two-thirds by 2030.

A report by Pesticide Action Network (PAN) India launched in February reveals severe issues of pesticide utilization in India and factors to poor regulation of hazardous agrochemicals.

The present use sample is implicated in widespread unauthorised makes use of of pesticides in India, posing menace to meals security and environmental contamination, it stated.

Proponents of the goal state that redirecting dangerous subsidies in the direction of biodiversity financing would go a good distance in the direction of bridging the funding hole of round USD 700 billion a yr.

Currently, India alone spends about USD 30 billion (about 2.2 lakh crore) subsidising agricultural inputs, together with pesticides.

The minister acknowledged that credible motion is the supply of power and optimism in going through all international challenges together with biodiversity.

He stated regardless of India being residence to 17 per cent of the worldwide inhabitants, however solely 2.4 per cent of the land space and solely 4 per cent of its water assets, the nation is forging forward in its efforts to guard biodiversity.

“Our forest and tree cover is steadily rising together with our wildlife population. Definitive steps are being taken to return the iconic cheetah to Indian habitats,” he added.

“India has taken a quantum jump in the number of declared Ramsar sites to the current figure of 75. As a large developing country, our forest policy is challenging to implement, but our forest surveys are testimony to its success,” stated Yadav.

The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands is a global treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of wetlands, signed in Iran in 1971.

The minister stated that India’s steadiness sheet in implementing the Aichi Targets (specified by 2010) is proactive and forward-looking and the nation is on monitor to satisfy its commitments.

To counter the worldwide biodiversity disaster, on the 2010 UN CBD COP10, virtually 200 nations pledged to guard at the least 17 per cent of their terrestrial environments and inland water, and 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas by 2020 (often known as a part of the Aichi Targets).

Yadav additionally stated that India has taken quite a few steps to maintain invasive alien species at bay, however a numerical goal will not be possible with out the required baselines and related scientific proof.

“The Global Biodiversity Framework must be framed in the light of science and equity and the sovereign right of nations over their resources, as provided for in the Convention on Biodiversity,” the minister stated.

“If the climate is profoundly linked to biodiversity, then the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities must equally apply to biodiversity,” he added.

Yadav stated when nature itself is below stress due to the historic disproportionate and inequities in greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions of the developed nations, the nature-based options to international warming and different environmental challenges usually are not a solution with out resolute motion by developed nations to measure as much as their historic and present obligations.

However, this precept, whereas accepted within the UN local weather talks, has been some extent of rivalry on the biodiversity summit.

“Nature cannot protect if it is not itself protected; nature is a victim of global warming and its protective features can do little against unchecked temperature rise,” he added.

Touching on the monetary hole for biodiversity conservation, Yadav stated added the provisions of the technique of implementation should match ambition.

“Our only source of funding remains the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which caters to multiple conventions,” he identified.

“The value of biodiversity to humankind also lies in its economic dimension alongside the cultural and socially sustainable use and access and benefit sharing are key to promoting biodiversity alongside the efforts to conserve protect and restore,” he added.

“What is needed today is mindful and deliberate utilisation instead of mindless and destructive consumption,” he added.

During COP15, being held right here from December 7 to 19 (or longer, if events fail to come back to an settlement on schedule), about 20,000 delegates from 196 nations the world over are negotiating an eight-year plan to halt biodiversity loss by 2030 and restore nature by 2050.

The spotlight of this COP can be the adoption of 4 targets and 22 targets as a part of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework which is able to set the platform for biodiversity conservation.

The Indian delegation is led by Yadav, and a workforce of negotiators comprising senior officers from the Government of India.