Date: 21/10/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.

Key Phrases: Lifestyle For The Environment, Mindful And Wasteful Consumption, Mindful And Deliberate Utilisation, Pro-Planet People, Environment-Friendly Behaviours, Consume Responsibly, Produce Responsibly, Live Responsibly.

Why in News?

• The world today is in a state of disruption facing multiple mutually reinforcing crises.
• As the world is heading toward a fragile recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, war fuels a devastating energy, food, and cost-of-living crisis.
• The United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report has for the first time warned that global human development measures have declined across most countries in the past two years.

Key Highlights:

• The earth is facing one of the greatest existential threats of all i.e., the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.
• This year’s record-breaking heat waves, floods, droughts, and other extreme forms of weather have forced us to face these increasingly devastating impacts.
• Climate change is a disruption multiplier in a disrupted world, rolling back progress across the global Sustainable Development Goals.
• The Paris Agreement and the COP26 Summit in Glasgow represent urgent, collective steps countries are taking to limit emissions.
• However, the commitments under them will not keep warming below the 1.5 °C target that gives the best chance of averting catastrophe.
• While governments and industry carry the lion’s share of responsibility for responding to the crisis, citizens as consumers play a large role in driving unsustainable production methods.

LIFE, a fresh perspective:

• LIFE, or Lifestyle for Environment, announced by the Prime Minister at COP26 in November 2021, brings a fresh and much-needed perspective.
• LIFE recognises that small individual actions can tip the balance in the planet’s favour rather than framing climate change as a ‘larger than life’ challenge but this needs guiding frameworks, information sharing and the scale of a global movement.
• Mindful choices cultivated by LIFE actuate this spirit by promoting an environment-conscious lifestyle that focuses on ‘mindful and deliberate utilisation’ instead of ‘mindless and destructive consumption.
• It includes actions such as saving energy at home; cycling and using public transport instead of driving; eating more plant-based foods and wasting less; and leveraging the position of customers and employees to demand climate-friendly choices.

Achieving goals of LIFE by nudging for behavioural change:

• Many of the goals of LIFE can be achieved by deploying ‘nudges’ and gentle persuasion techniques to encourage positive behaviour.
• The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) employs proven nudging techniques such as-
  • discouraging food waste by offering smaller plates in cafeterias;
  • encouraging recycling by making bin lids eye-catching;
  • encouraging cycling by creating cycle paths
• According to the UNEP, more than two-thirds of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to household consumption and lifestyles and thus, the urgent cuts to global emissions needed can only be achieved through widespread adoption of greener consumption habits.
• While LIFE is a global vision, India is an excellent place to start with.
• If India, with over 1.3 billion people achieves a true jan andolan here, the momentum generated will be enormous and the world will increasingly follow as India will lead and there has never been a better time for India’s leadership on climate action, at home and on the international stage.

India’s track record of being central to global environmental action:

• The Prime Minister has called on all consumers across the world to become “Pro Planet People” by 2027, adopting simple lifestyle changes that can collectively lead to transformational change.
• India has a proven track record of translating the aspirations of national missions into whole-of-society efforts and serving as kinetic energy behind the decisive climate action on the world stage
• The success of the Swachh Bharat Mission, which mobilised individuals and communities across socio-economic strata to become drivers of collective good health and sanitation is an example.

Differentiated Approaches for ‘Pro Planet’ stakeholders:

• The LIFE mission recognises that accountability is relative to contribution.
• Emissions across the poorest half of the world’s population combined still fall short of even 1% of the wealthiest.
• Those who consume the least, often the most vulnerable and marginalised members of society, will not be asked to consume less, but rather supported to participate in the green economy.
• Each ‘Pro Planet’ stakeholder is nudged according to differentiated approaches.

Onus on the developed world:

• The LIFE movement resonates with the global climate justice.
• India has highlighted the enhanced obligations of developed countries to support climate adaptation and mitigation for those most affected.
• The average carbon footprint of a person in a high income country is more than 80 times higher than that of a person in the least developed country.
• It is common sense and only fair to call on the developed world to shoulder a proportionate share of this transition.

Conclusion:

• From the Panchamrit targets announced at COP26, to support for the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and South-South cooperation platforms, from the world’s fifth largest economy with vibrant businesses making enormous investments in renewables and electric mobility, to a world class public digital tech stack, India brings scale, expertise and legitimacy; a well-positioned founding UN Member State bridging the G20 and G77.
• With COP27 next month, and India set to assume the G20 Presidency weeks after, followed by the halfway mark to Agenda 2030 next year, India and its people must contribute to this mission to give a new lease of LIFE to climate action.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. While governments and industry carry the lion’s share of responsibility for responding to the crisis, citizens as consumers play a large role in driving unsustainable production methods. Examine the statement in the context of the Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) movement launched recently. (250 words).