Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave to the world the mantra of LIFE – Lifestyle for Environment – to combat climate change, at COP26 held in Glasgow, United Kingdom. The message urged people to make changes in one’s lifestyles that would contribute towards saving the environment.
At the macro level, our Government is taking major steps toward a greener and energy-efficient country. However, micro-steps are as important as macro steps. The most powerful way to fight climate change is ‘Behavioural Change’, PM Modi had once said, stressing behavioral change in day-to-day life such as avoiding single-use plastics, switching off the light when not in use, proper waste management, etc, are critical steps for fighting climate change.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)
The United Nations has created a framework of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which is a comprehensive strategy to reorient economies toward long-term sustainability. The SDGs address issues such as health and education, inequity, climate change, and the preservation of our oceans and forests, among others.
Goal 12 of the SDG ensures sustainable consumption and production patterns focussing on waste management (both municipal and hazardous), food loss reduction, waste recycling, and reuse, and sustainability in industries such as tourism. SDG 12 also calls for a change in the present lifestyle to one that is more sustainable.
India too has taken several measures for promoting Resource Efficiency and a Circular Economy, including for prevention and management of waste. The step is a part of the United Nations Decade of Action for the attainment of SDGs. Further, the concepts of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and circular economy are based on principles of reduce-reuse-recycle and are relevant for promoting sustainable consumption and production.
Curbing Plastic Usage
NITI Aayog has constituted Committees for the development of circular economy (CE) action plans for different categories of wastes. Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is the Nodal Ministry for Circular Economy Action Plan for Tyre and Rubber. On February 16, 2022, the Ministry notified the ‘Guidelines on the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Plastic Packaging’ under Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016.
The policy mandates to reuse of rigid plastic packaging material and reducing the use of fresh plastic material for packaging. This is a step to manage plastic pollution. Further, the guidelines allow for the sale and purchase of surplus extended producer responsibility certificates, thus setting up a market mechanism for plastic waste management.
Green Good Deeds
In January 2018, MoEFCC launched the Green Good Deeds (GGDs) movement as a social movement to bring about mass environmental awareness in society at all levels. GGDs are simple, practical steps that every individual may perform in day-to-day life to adopt an environment-friendly lifestyle.
A compilation of such deeds has also been published under the title ‘Green Deeds & Habits for Sustainable Environment’. Further, the government has also taken steps to promote GGDs among school and college students under the National Green Corps (NGC) “Eco-club” programme.
Moreover, cleanliness drives, plantation drives, awareness on waste management, minimizing the use of single-use plastic, eco-friendly celebration of festivals, etc. are also some of the activities undertaken by Eco-club students.
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