Vice President Inaugurates International Conference on ‘Strengthening Green Federalism : Sharing International Practices’
New Delhi, October 29: The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that culturally, legally, morally and existentially we need to move to a deeper understanding and recognition of the fact that human wellbeing and even economic growth are underpinned by a clean and healthy environment. Delivering inaugural address at the International Conference on ‘Strengthening Green Federalism: Sharing International practices’ organized by The Energy and Resources Research Institute in partnership with and supported by Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Inter-State Council Secretariat, Government of India; the World Bank and the Forum of Federations, Ottawa here today, he said that despite immediate preoccupation with the global financial crisis and its implications for the development agenda, most governments acknowledge today that a judicious balance between development and environment would be the key to comprehensive human security in the long run. In some countries, however, the debate around this balance is still built around contestation and conflict, because the inter-linkages between eco-systems and the economy, between eco-systems and quality of life, between human and national security, are still not properly understood or perhaps not better articulated.
Ansari said that environmental issues manifest themselves at various levels – global, national, state and local – and call for action at each of these levels in order to ensure the most efficient and equitable delivery of the required high and low spillover public goods. He touched upon a few matters that readily come to mind: Forests and Climate Change, being a global issue, requires multilateral solutions with adaptive responses at national levels appropriate to specific regional and local requirements.
The Vice President said that on the Indian subcontinent, many bio-diverse rich eco-systems like the Himalayan eco-system, the Western Ghats and the Coasts, have a number of overlapping institutions that give rise to contradictory incentives which are detrimental to their protection. It is of course necessary that biodiversity be protected for the larger public interest, but it is also essential perhaps to think about how sub-national and local units which stand to lose from the conservation of these habitats be compensated. Inter-state rivers are source of conflicts and acrimony between countries and between states around the sharing and use of water. Many of these conflicts result from a poor fit between ecosystems they represent and the institutions designed to manage them. A course correction is required.
He opined that serious reflection and action is also required on issues of governance and institutional design wherein environment and development are concerned. In our context, the Thirteenth Finance Commission in its recommendations urged the need to “manage ecology, environment and climate change consistent with sustainable development’’ and to incentivise Indian states towards improved environmental performance through intergovernmental transfer of financial resources in the form of grants. The same point has been made by the Punchhi Commission on Centre-State Relations has acknowledged the importance of strengthening federal relations to protect the environments and addressed them in some detail.
Ansari said that environmental issues manifest themselves at various levels – global, national, state and local – and call for action at each of these levels in order to ensure the most efficient and equitable delivery of the required high and low spillover public goods. He touched upon a few matters that readily come to mind: Forests and Climate Change, being a global issue, requires multilateral solutions with adaptive responses at national levels appropriate to specific regional and local requirements.
The Vice President said that on the Indian subcontinent, many bio-diverse rich eco-systems like the Himalayan eco-system, the Western Ghats and the Coasts, have a number of overlapping institutions that give rise to contradictory incentives which are detrimental to their protection. It is of course necessary that biodiversity be protected for the larger public interest, but it is also essential perhaps to think about how sub-national and local units which stand to lose from the conservation of these habitats be compensated. Inter-state rivers are source of conflicts and acrimony between countries and between states around the sharing and use of water. Many of these conflicts result from a poor fit between ecosystems they represent and the institutions designed to manage them. A course correction is required.
He opined that serious reflection and action is also required on issues of governance and institutional design wherein environment and development are concerned. In our context, the Thirteenth Finance Commission in its recommendations urged the need to “manage ecology, environment and climate change consistent with sustainable development’’ and to incentivise Indian states towards improved environmental performance through intergovernmental transfer of financial resources in the form of grants. The same point has been made by the Punchhi Commission on Centre-State Relations has acknowledged the importance of strengthening federal relations to protect the environments and addressed them in some detail.
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