Delhi Ministerial Dialogue on Green Economy and inclusive Growth

The main challenge facing the international community today is to sustain and accelerate the process of poverty eradication and ensure food and energy security, particularly to developing countries while shifting gradually to a Green Economy. Agriculture plays a critical role in determining food, water, ecological and livelihood security. Integrating the strategies and policies for a green economy into agriculture has to proceed with an absolute imperative of ensuring these and not forgetting the differentiated needs of subsistence agriculture and market-oriented crops. Also, transitioning to a greener model of agriculture will depend on the expeditious provision of green technologies and financial support to developing countries for productivity enhancement, improved resilience and diversification of production systems. Sustainable development and management of agriculture would benefit from sharing of best practices including farm and non-farm development, improved post-harvest management, integration of supply chains and strengthening of public distribution systems.

Eradicating poverty is an indispensible requirement for sustainable development. A major cause aggravating poverty is the unsustainable pattern of consumption and production. Poverty eradication remains an overriding objective of governments in developing countries, and efforts to build green economies should contribute substantially to realizing that objective. A green economy approach to development holds the potential to achieve greater convergence between economic and environmental objectives.

Integrating green economy strategies and policies into poverty eradication, food security and energy security is an imperative for sustainable development. The issues to be addressed at the two-day 2011 Delhi Ministerial Dialogue on ‘Green Economy and Inclusive Growth’ include sustainable management of sectors like agriculture, industry, energy and transport, urgent adoption of sustainable life styles and consumption patterns through reduction in per capita ecological footprint, appropriate population policies, equity concerns, poverty eradication and developmental imperatives. Designed properly, green economy policies and programmes can directly contribute to poverty eradication. Successful examples can offer lessons and possible models for replication. For instance, India’s rural employment guarantee programme is at one and the same time an anti-poverty programme and an ecosystem restoration programme. This and other important examples of aligning environmental and social objectives would be ALSO presented and discussed at the Dialogue.

Food security and access to affordable clean energy are both crucial to eradicating poverty and promoting social development. The main challenge facing the international community now is to sustain and accelerate the process of poverty eradication and ensure food and energy security, particularly to developing countries while shifting gradually to a Green Economy. Agriculture plays a critical role in determining food, water, ecological and livelihood security. Integrating the strategies and policies for a green economy into agriculture has to proceed with an absolute imperative of ensuring these and not forgetting the differentiated needs of subsistence agriculture and market-oriented crops. Also, transitioning to a greener model of agriculture will depend on the expeditious provision of green technologies and financial support to developing countries for productivity enhancement, improved resilience and diversification of production systems. Sustainable development and management of agriculture would benefit from sharing of best practices including farm and non-farm development, improved post-harvest management, integration of supply chains and strengthening of public distribution systems.

The issue of energy security and universal energy access is intricately linked with economic development and growth, and rising energy needs to meet it. Energy poverty coexists with inefficient energy use in much of the world, which – given continued heavy dependence on fossil fuels – has been a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Understanding the flexibility or lack of flexibility of each country to change this energy mix and devising innovative methods to secure energy security are the need of the hour without compromising on the need for high economic growth to meet the aspirations of the people, especially in developing countries.

Energy security is a multi-faceted concept. In the current context, the primary focus is on poor people’s securing adequate energy supplies to raise their living standards, including through improved income generation, health and education. Renewable energy should be considered as an integral part of the solution to the energy needs of the poor, but that will only be feasible if it is affordable and technologically accessible. As affordability is a function in part of large-scale deployment and learning, the strategy to address energy poverty needs to be linked to a broader alternative energy strategy as part of a green economy.

With respect to energy security, rural energy access remains seriously deficient in many developing countries, with well over a billion people lacking access to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels. At the same time, even in urban areas, electricity is often underprovided and unreliable, especially for urban poor communities. This exacerbates poverty and closes off escape routes by limiting income generation opportunities as well as educational opportunities especially for girls.