Over 142 delegates to participate; thematic site visits to be conducted to showcase forest restoration models.
The first G2O Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group Meeting under India’s presidency will begin in Bengaluru tomorrow. This is part of the 200 plus Working Group Meetings being held in over 50 cities across the country on different core themes.
Addressing media persons, Smt. Richa Sharma, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, said the Working Group Meeting under India’s G20 Presidency is an opportunity for the country to steer global discourse on the most pressing environment and climate issues of the day. Tomorrow’s Group Meeting will get underway with a side event on Restoration of Degraded Landscapes. Since India is a signatory to the Convention on Biodiversity, issues concerning biodiversity will be top on the agenda for deliberations, Smt. Sharma said. She noted that while G20 countries account for 85 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product, they are responsible for 80 per cent of annual green house gas emissions as well.
Land degradation and biodiversity loss; marine pollution, need for protection of mangroves & coral reefs; and resource over-consumption and lack of waste absorption are the core areas of deliberations in the three-day event.
Each Group Meeting will have a dedicated side event and three more Group Meetings will be held in Gandhinagar, Mumbai and Chennai between February and July this year on different core themes. Environment & Climate Ministers of member countries will gather at the concluding Group Meeting in Chennai to adopt a ministerial declaration on the deliberations as the eventual outcome of the deliberations across the Group Meetings.
Thematic site visits will be arranged to the Kalkere, Arboretum and Bannerghatta National Parks to showcase the forest restoration model adopted in these ecosystems.
Over 142 delegates are expected to attend. They include 96 from 19 member countries and the European Union, 25 from 10 guest countries and 21 from international organisations.
