United Nations in India

India is critical in determining the success of the SDGs, globally. At the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted, “Sustainable development of one-sixth of humanity will be of great consequence to the world and our beautiful planet. It will be a world of fewer challenges and greater hope; and, more confident of its success”. NITI Aayog, the Government of India’s premier think tank, has been entrusted with the task of coordinating the SDGs, mapping schemes related to the SDGs and their targets, and identifying lead and supporting ministries for each target. In addition, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has been leading discussions for developing national indicators for the SDGs. State governments are key to India’s progress on the SDGs as they are best placed to ‘put people first’ and to ensuring that ‘no one is left behind’. The UN Country Team in India supports NITI Aayog, Union ministries and state governments in their efforts to address the interconnectedness of the goals, to ensure that no one is left behind and to advocate for adequate financing to achieve the SDGs.

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Publication

17 August 2022

UN India Annual Report 2021

The UN in India 2021 Annual Report gives an overview of how the UN in India, partnering closely with the Government and our stakeholders in civil society, the private sector, and communities, redoubled our efforts to save lives, protect people and build back better through the second year of the pandemic. This report covers the penultimate year of the UN - Government of India Sustainable Development Framework (UNSDF) 2018-2022, which continued to guide our support to India’s development priorities, even as we repurposed a significant part of our planned activities and budget towards the COVID-19 response. We worked to respond to the health emergency, training frontline workers, delivering essential equipment and medical supplies, addressing misinformation, and supporting India’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign — the world’s largest. We also responded to the social and economic impact of the pandemic, working to ensure everyone, especially the most marginalised, had access to social safety nets and that households and businesses stayed afloat. We combatted malnutrition and food insecurity, and continued to respond to the unprecedented disruption faced by children and adolescents impacted by school closures. And we didn’t lose sight of the greatest existential threat of all, continuing to partner with the Government of India in responding to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and rising levels of pollution. Throughout the year, we remained focused on ensuring that the recovery was gender-sensitive and that gender equality was at the centre of all of our initiatives.

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31 July 2022

A global movement to foster kindness

The sun is still to rise over Kerala’s Manchadikkari Village, but N.S. Rajappan is wide awake. The 69-year-old villager, whose legs were paralysed after he contracted polio as a child, crawls down to the Meenachil River and slides onto a boat. Then, for 17 hours, he collects plastic waste from the waterways of Vembanad Lake. He has done this almost daily for the last five years. “And he plans to continue to work every day, spreading kindness to the natural world around him, one plastic bottle at a time,” reads a chapter in a book called ‘Kindness Matters’. For thousands of students in India and others across the world, Rajappan is a beacon of hope. Many, like him, are making efforts — small or big — for a better world. Rajappan’s story is one of 50 such accounts in the collection, published in November 2021. The story reinforces the need for kindness, which is at the heart of a global movement led by the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) MGIEP (Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development). The book is a part of the #KindnessMatters Campaign, which was launched in 2018 by UNESCO MGIEP and seeks to mobilise the world’s youth to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by all UN members. The SDGs include action to end poverty and hunger, for gender equality, quality education and clean water and sanitation. The campaign started on October 2, 2018 – an important date and year on the calendar for principles of kindness. The apostle of peace, Mahatma Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, and 2018 marked the start of celebrations to mark his 150th birth anniversary. The year also commemorated the birth centenary of South African leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Nelson Mandela. The campaign focuses on youth and was launched with youth activities across India, South Africa and Pakistan. Indian youth groups marked the day with a mass blood donation drive in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, food distribution and educational sessions for unprivileged children. The campaign invited participants to submit their accounts of kindness — anything from helping an animal in need to donating a blanket — to a storyboard on the UNESCO MGIEP website. So far, 1.2 million kind acts have been recorded from youth across 150 countries. To give the youth opportunities to acquire the social and emotional skills that promote coexistence, UNESCO MGIEP organised the first World Youth Conference on Kindness in New Delhi in August 2019. Centred on the theme ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: Gandhi for the Contemporary World’, it highlighted the role of compassion in achieving the SDGs. The Sanskrit words ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ mean the world is a family. The conference provided young global thought leaders with an engaging platform to help them develop their social and emotional capacities and build momentum to celebrate World Kindness Day on November 13. Introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement (WKM), a coalition of international NGOs, November 13 focuses on the power of positivity every year. The second world conference was held in October 2020, with the focus on ‘Kindness for Peaceful and Sustainable Coexistence’. On October 2, 2021, UNESCO MGIEP and Faze Media (Canada), a media group, hosted the third World Youth Conference on Kindness on the theme ‘Achieving with Kindness’. The free, three-hour virtual conference celebrated the collection of more than 1 million stories of how kindness for self, others, and nature helps achieve the SDGs. Thirty-five young people shared powerful stories on how their deeds of empathy, mindfulness and compassion had transformed themselves and their communities for sustainable and peaceful societies. YOUTH POWER The kindness movement has been drawing the youth in India, too. In April 2021, students from 107 schools across the country joined the global campaign. Since then, the schools have collected over 100,000 stories of kindness from students, teachers, parents, and alumni and submitted them to the UN. Clearly, schools have been looking at lessons taught not just in classrooms. “Teaching Science and Mathematics is not the only job of an educationist,” says Jyoti Arora, Principal, Mount Abu Public School, Delhi. “We have to empower students to build a caring and sharing society. How do we do this? By fostering an environment of kindness, where everyone respects each other,” she explains. From early 2020, the school has been organising a slew of activities to inculcate kindness among students. To begin with, it found that most students associated kindness with donations. Educational online sessions were conducted to broaden this definition. “Kindness can be anything — from watering a tree to feeding a stray animal,” Arora stresses. No act of kindness is too small or too big. For Priya Tripathi, a student of Grade IX, it translated into helping a friend who had met with a road accident and had to be taken to a hospital. “The timely treatment helped her recover fast,” Tripathi says. For Tanishka Johar, a Grade VI student at the same school, kindness is about regularly feeding street dogs in her neighbourhood and planting saplings. “These small acts of kindness give me a huge sense of achievement,” she says. The school has set up the post of Kindness Leader in the Student Council. Just outside the school campus, it has erected a Wall of Kindness where anyone can place anything — from warm clothes and utensils to pencil boxes — for others to pick up. During daily attendance, students are asked to relate acts of kindness. The school compiles a monthly list of such deeds by students. Those who score the highest on the kindness barometer win the title of Kindness Ambassadors. “This motivates others to add to their kitty of kindness stories,” Arora says. The school has also proved that kindness is contagious. “It has had a ripple effect. We saw the movement turn into a tsunami,” Arora recalls. Seeing the benefits of the #KindnessMatters Campaign among her students, she gave a presentation to the Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private Schools, an association of 1,500 schools across India, in April 2021. Of these, 107 signed up for the UNESCO MGIEP campaign. THE LARGER PICTURE The late South African Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, had once said, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” This is the crux of the kindness campaign, which highlights the need for people to be kind to themselves, to those around them and, effectively, to the world. “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” By creating connections that strengthen the culture of kindness, the campaign provides young people with an empowering platform where they share stories of compassion, and reflect how these can be used to address global challenges such as climate change, migration, diversity and social inclusion. Many of the stories on the site, for instance, are about cleaning up one’s immediate environment. Scores of Indian students have contributed to the storyboard. In the slums of Bhubaneswar, the capital of the eastern state of Odisha, doctors and interns from the Kalinga Institute of Dental Sciences organised awareness campaigns about hand hygiene and social distancing, said one message on the site. A youth posted a message from Kolkata, in the eastern state of West Bengal, about distributing rations to people in COVID-19 times. A school student from the western Indian state of Maharashtra wrote to say that she made cards especially to thank her teachers — describing them as Corona warriors. Acts of kindness continue to pour in. But that’s not surprising, for neuro-scientific studies have found that human beings are inherently kind. And altruistic or kind behaviour engages brain networks associated with rewards. The campaign hopes to capitalise on this biological need to build positive change. Kindness is a trait that is wired in the human brain, says Nandini Chatterjee Singh, Senior Programme Officer, UNESCO MGIEP. “Research shows that practising kindness releases oxytocin, a neurotransmitter that plays an integral role in forming social bonds and trust, and thus contributes to happiness. Being kind also increases serotonin, which helps regulate mood and stay positive. Kindness is highly beneficial as a practice,” she adds. The campaign also underlines the role of other platforms focusing on kindness. Take Alina Alam, who was invited to speak at the 2021 World Youth Conference on Kindness. Alam runs a chain of cafes — called Mitti Café — that are wholly managed by people with physical and mental disabilities. “When a business invests in kindness, the ROI [return on investment] is high,” she says. Mitti Café started as a zero capital start-up in 2017. Almost 90 per cent of the café’s infrastructure came from donations — from spoons, cups and plates, to second-hand ovens. As the project gained traction, Alam rolled out the Mitti Social Initiative Foundation, which trains adults with disabilities and helps them find employment. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation launched its Karuna Meal Campaign, which seeks to feed two million people in need. “The idea came from a person with cerebral palsy. He used to live on the road before becoming a part of the Mitti family,” Alam says. Kindness is not just building bridges but also instilling confidence among people. “We expect Governments, NGOs, and corporations to make a difference. The truth is, we need to look inwards and bring incremental change in our lives,” says musician Ricky Kej, who launched the #KindnessAnthem at the #KindnessConcert as part of the 2019 World Youth Conference on Kindness. “We need to know that with each small act of kindness we create a huge positive impact,” Kej adds. The anthem was created by musicians from four continents. Among the organisations that hope to take the campaign further is the WKM. “When UNESCO put out kindness as its goal, I jumped with joy. Here was a powerful, global organisation that says kindness matters to SDGs. It was in direct alignment with the work we were doing,” WKM President Nirmala Mehendale says. As part of the #KindnessMatters Campaign, WKM conducted workshops at the 2021 conference and added 20,000 kindness stories to MGIEP’s storyboard. After the pandemic, what the world needs is a ‘ kindemic’, Mehendale stresses. After the pandemic, what the world needs is a ‘kindemic’. Kindness advocate Debashis Mohanty will agree. The Odisha youth’s story, posted on the campaign storyboard, focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic. “In this pandemic we have started helping people in every possible way” — providing food to those who need it and distributing groceries, masks and sanitisers, he writes. “Good action (would) give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” Acts of kindness embraced the pandemic-induced lockdown in particular, a period that witnessed untold misery. As the offline and online worlds came together, social media played a key role in helping people reach out to NGOs, lend individual help, or set up crowd-sourced social initiatives to provide food, PPE kits, and other necessities to those in need. Social media enabled people to stay connected and work together — both as individuals and as communities — to support people who needed assistance, in a time when physical liaising was almost impossible. Large numbers of students reached out to people who’d been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and faced financial problems because of loss of jobs and other related issues. India’s national lockdown in 2020 left many daily wage workers without work and food. That was when Delhi’s Modern Public School, in collaboration with Roti (bread) Bank, an initiative by a group dedicated to feeding the poor, started Roti Banks on Wheels to feed families in underprivileged areas. The bus collected food packets from citizens who volunteered to contribute to the service and delivered them to those in need of it. Roti is an Indian staple. UNESCO MGIEP Director Anantha K. Duraiappah points out that the need to contribute, help, support and belong is a fundamental predisposition in human beings, who are inherently kind. “Reflect. Empathize. Be kind,” Duraiappah writes in the foreword to the book Kindness Matters. Reflect. Empathize. Be kind. Building on last year’s success, the 2022 goal is to collect 5 millions acts of kindness and to organise the fourth World Youth Conference on Kindness. A little step, indeed, can lead to a movement, and, thereby, a happier world. As Mahatma Gandhi said: “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” To share your kindness stories, log on to https://kindnessmatters.paperform.co. To know more, log on to https://mgiep.unesco.org/kindness. Credits: Writer: UN/Varuna Verma/ Word Wide Media Illustrations: Ishan Mudgal, Anasua, Tulika Trivedi Pictures: Mount Abu Public School

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31 March 2023

India's Rally for Garbage Free Cities on International Zero Waste Day

The three-week long campaign culminated on 29th March 2023 with Swachhotsav - International Day of Zero Waste: Rally for Garbage Free Cities, organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India, in New Delhi. The event witnessed the participation of hundreds of delegates including city leaders, grassroots organizations, expert institutions, businesses, development partners, and over 300 women from various Self-Help Groups that have pioneered waste management models across the country, who graced the occasion as “Swacchta Doots”. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission—Urban (SBM-U) in 2014 as the world’s largest behavioural change programme in sanitation, guided by the principle of Jan Bhagidari (people’s participation). With the vision of ‘Garbage Free Cities’ that aims to harness scientific management of solid waste, the Prime Minister launched SBM-U 2.0 in 2021, ushering in an era of Jan Andolan (people’s movement) in sanitation. Swachhata has become a foundational tenet in not just every government scheme but also in the way of life of citizens, said the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Shri Hardeep Singh Puri. Organized by the MoHUA in collaboration with UN-Habitat, UNEP, GIZ, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, the event served as a platform to discuss and showcase best practices in the areas of Circularity in Garbage Free Cities (GFC), Women and Youth for GFC, and Business and Tech for GFC. It was held in the presence of the Union Minister Shri Hardeep Singh Puri and the UN Resident Co-ordinator in India Mr Shombi Sharp. The hon’ble minister, who had earlier launched the three-week campaign led by women from across the country, highlighted the importance of ‘Garbage Free Cities’ rally in raising awareness about waste management in the country, as changes in consumption patterns and rapid urbanisation drive up waste generation. Shri Puri lauded the ‘Rally for Garbage Free Cities’ as a women-led movement wherein lakhs of citizens have taken on the responsibility of cleaning their streets, neighbourhoods, and parks. “This first annual International Day of Zero Waste is a call for a whole-of-society transformation in seeing and treating waste as the valuable resource it is through reducing, recycling, and reusing. India is making rapid gains in waste management with Missions like Swachh Bharat and Smart Cities, and now the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ Swachhotsav campaign highlights the importance of women’s leadership in achieving clean cities. We in the UN are privileged to work with the Government of India and partners to tackle the Triple Planetary Crisis through gender equality in waste management, sustainable urbanization and the circular economy,” said Mr Sharp.

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20 October 2022

A new lease of LIFE for climate action

Our world today is in turmoil, facing multiple, mutually reinforcing crises. Even as we mount a fragile recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, war fuels a devastating energy, food, and cost-of-living crisis. And for the first time since it began over 30 years ago, the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report has warned that global human development measures have declined across most countries in the past two years. This comes against the backdrop of the greatest existential threat of all — the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Nine of the warmest years on record have come in the past decade alone. 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. Yet, the window for action is closing fast. Commitments we have now will not keep warming below the 1.5°C target that gives us the best chance of averting catastrophe. With the narrative so focused on geo-politics, the scope for each of us to make a difference as individuals seems increasingly lost. While governments and industry carry the lion’s share of responsibility for responding to the crisis, we as consumers play a large role in driving unsustainable production methods. LIFE, a fresh perspective LIFE, or Lifestyle for Environment, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26 in November 2021, brings a fresh and much-needed perspective. Rather than framing climate change as a ‘larger than life’ challenge, LIFE recognises that small individual actions can tip the balance in the planet’s favour. But we need guiding frameworks, information sharing and the scale of a global movement. Mindful choices cultivated by LIFE animate this spirit — 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 our position as customers and employees to demand climate-friendly choices. Many of the goals of LIFE can be achieved by deploying ‘nudges’, 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; and 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 — the urgent cuts to global emissions we need can only be achieved through widespread adoption of greener consumption habits. And while LIFE is a global vision, India is an excellent place to start. With over 1.3 billion people, if we achieve a true jan andolan here, the momentum generated will be enormous. As India leads, we see the world increasingly follow. India’s track record Today, in Gujarat, from the Statue of Unity, this vision of LIFE is taking flight as a global mission launched by Mr. Modi together with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who has come to India to show his support. The Prime Minister and Secretary-General are calling 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 translating the aspirations of national missions into whole-of-society efforts. 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. The LIFE mission also 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 same applies across countries. LIFE resonates with the global climate justice India has rightfully called for — highlighting enhanced obligations those in developed countries bear, to support climate adaptation and mitigation for those most affected, yet least responsible. The average carbon footprint of a person in a high income country is more than 80 times higher than that of a person in a least developed country. It is common sense and only fair to call on the developed world to shoulder a proportionate share of this transition. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “the world has enough for everyone’s need, but not enough for everyone’s greed.” And there has never been a better time for India’s leadership on climate action, at home and on the international stage. From the Panchamrit targets announced by Mr. Modi 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, we at Team UN India and our 26 entities are proud and committed partners in this mission to help give new lease of LIFE to climate action. Shombi Sharp is UN Resident Coordinator in India. Shoko Noda is Resident Representative, UN Development Programme. Atul Bagai is Country Head, UN Environment Programme

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20 October 2022

Remarks of the United Nations Secretary-General

Professor Chaudhuri, All protocol observed, I am delighted to be here with all of you. This institution is 54 years old, and as it was said, 54 years ago, I was a student at a university in Lisbon, and my school was called, I will say in Portuguese, but you will understand, Instituto Superior Técnico. And my dream at the time was to be a researcher in physics. Now, we don’t control our destiny. We lived in a dictatorship that was at the same time an oppressive colonialist regime. We had fortunately a revolution, and that revolution led to the liberation of the former colonies and to democracy in Portugal. And at that time as a student, I was as a volunteer working in the slums of Lisbon in different areas related to health and education, and I felt the compulsion to get involved directly into politics. And so, I never became a researcher in physics. And I am envious of all those who will be able to contribute to the wellbeing of human kind, to the scientific work that is as necessary as the political work, to make sure that we can live in a better world. And I am very pleased to start this visit to India because I have a double love affair with India. First, because of India’s culture, history, India’s people, its contribution to today’s world, and to the world civilization. And the second reason because my wife was born in Goa. So, with this double love affair, and I am delighted to be here with all of you. Read more: https://india.un.org/en/204001-remarks-secretary-general-united-nations

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26 September 2022

Interview with Soumalya Mukherjee

How did you set up Tan90 Thermal Solutions? It all started during my third year of PhD at IIT Madras. Rajnikant Rai [co-founder of the start-up] was my lab mate with a good hold on chemical synthesis. We found that farmers were suffering from a loss of produce owing to the lack of cost-effective cold storage solutions and decided to look at that. I work on nanoparticles and Rai on chemicals. We decided to go for phase change materials (PCM). At the market place we heard that it takes about 18 hours for PCMs to get frozen and be used for preservation. So, we worked on reducing the freezing time for PCMs so that our panels were economical and preserved horticulture products for a longer period. What was the role of UNIDO? We were a clean technology company and decided to participate in competitions to win cash prizes and take our idea forward. Then we came across the Facility for Low Carbon Technology Deployment (FLCTD) programme, implemented by UNIDO. In 2019, we won the Innovation Challenge held by FLCTD — an open award competition calling for innovative solutions. One of the major problems that we had faced was taking the Tan90 boxes to the market. Customers were not willing to pay for a new product, though they were willing to try it out. FLCTD provided financial assistance of about ₹3 million to conduct free pilots for a year. The FLCTD team did the project due diligence and also did hand-holding. The team from UNIDO helped us to understand the needs of the market segments that we were targeting. Our journey was steady but challenging. And UNIDO helped us to progress. What was the outcome of the initiative? We got lots of feedback from the market that made Tan90 Thermal what it is today. Initially, we had a PCM for only a single temperature range. However, the market was in need of PCMs for a varied temperature range and we expanded our offerings. We also optimised and fine-tuned the box size and the PCM panels. Now we have about 10-15 major retailers across the nation using our products for last-mile or mid-mile transportation. What kind of a role does the private sector have to play in mitigating climate change? The private sector has a huge role to play in mitigating the impact of climate change. The public-private-partnership (PPP) mode can help in a big way. While the public sector or the government concentrates on project implementation, innovation comes from the private sector, such as solar-powered cold storages. In Tamil Nadu, we have partnered with the state government and have given our products to Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs). Similarly, we are working with 10 FPOs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. We are also working with the Shri A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre. How did you meet your funding needs? We participated in various business idea competitions and won prizes. We also got grants from the government and others based on our business idea. An investment of ₹20 million was raised from grants, prize money and private equity. Tata Trust-backed Social Alpha and the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad also funded us. We are also raising about half a million dollars for research and development of new products for Indian and South East Asian markets. We are looking at moving into the pharma segment. We will also set up plants in Hyderabad, Delhi and Mumbai to cater to those markets as transporting the PCMs is uneconomical. You had to tone down your box prices… Pricing is an interesting topic. It is a tug-of-war between the value offered by the product and what the customer is willing to pay. Our competition is ice or dry ice. We have to compete against the low value product. Initially our price point was higher, but it was later aligned with the competition. How does Tan90 Thermal contribute to sustainable development? We are working towards achieving four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals — zero hunger, affordable clean energy, responsible consumption and production, and climate action. Climate change is real. Temperature levels are increasing. This will increase the demand for cooling solutions which in turn will hike the demand for energy. We are now working on a solution for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) segment. Our new PCMs will be integrated with certain devices to give the desired results — for instance reduction in room temperatures. This will be useful for data centres and other applications. In the case of solar cells, proper thermal management is important and the current water-based solutions are costly. We have a PCM for this segment and are testing it out. We see Tan90 Thermal not just as a cooling company but a thermal management company. Cold storage is a small part of our overall plans. We are reducing India’s carbon footprint. Credits: Writer: UN/Nitya Varadarajan/Word Wide Media Photographs: Kannan Srinivasan (Tiruvallur) and Word Wide Media (Chennai)

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Press Release

01 June 2023

United Nations World Oceans Day

Message of UN Secretary-General António Guterres The ocean is the foundation of life. It supplies the air we breathe and food we eat. It regulates our climate and weather. The ocean is our planet’s greatest reservoir of biodiversity. Its resources sustain communities, prosperity and human health around the world. Humanity counts on the ocean. But can the ocean count on us? We should be the ocean’s best friend. But right now, humanity is its worst enemy. Human-induced climate change is heating our planet, disrupting weather patterns and ocean currents, and altering marine ecosystems and the species living there. Marine biodiversity is under attack from overfishing, over-exploitation and ocean acidification. Over one third of fish stocks are being harvested at unsustainable levels. And we are polluting our coastal waters with chemicals, plastics and human waste. But this year’s World Oceans Day reminds us that the tides are changing. Last year, we adopted an ambitious global target to conserve and manage 30 per cent of land and marine and coastal areas by 2030, as well as a landmark agreement on fisheries subsidies. At the United Nations Ocean Conference in Lisbon, the world agreed to push for more positive ocean action. A global, legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution is under negotiation. And in March, countries agreed to the historic High Seas Treaty on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Realizing the great promise of these initiatives requires collective commitment. Sustainable Development Goal 14 -- to conserve and sustainably use the ocean’s resources -- hangs in the balance. This World Oceans Day let’s keep pushing for action. Today and every day, let’s put the ocean first. [END]

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Press Release

01 June 2023

We cannot advance climate change adaptation without disaster resilient infrastructure

It is a pleasure to be here with you in Lisbon and let me begin by appreciating the warm welcome of the Government of Portugal. We are together today to explore how Industrial Property can boost innovation and support the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. We are at an all-hands-on deck moment. In spite of being at a moment in history, where we have never been so envolved as a world, we find halfway to 2030, poverty and hunger are growing again. Conflicts are proliferating, divisions are widening, and the climate crisis is escalating. We are not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. In fact, only about 12 per cent of goals are on track. 30 per cent have seen no movement or even reversed. But it is not too late to turn the tide. And we are determined to do just that. Industrial Property is a key element in our joint efforts to generate new ideas and solutions to accelerate progress across all SDGs. We need to drive key transitions across climate and biodiversity, energy, food systems, education, jobs, and social protection as well as digital connectivity. We cannot mitigate climate change without clean and efficient energy technologies, sustainable transport, low-carbon production and nature conservation and restoration. We cannot advance climate change adaptation without disaster resilient infrastructure, as well as data and nature-based solutions. We cannot tackle the risk of diseases without a combination of affordable medicine, genomics, diagnostics and immunology underpinned by greater access and affordability. We cannot address rampant food insecurity without more widely available heat resistant crops, green fertilizers, and climate-smart technologies. And we cannot achieve biodiversity conservation and restoration without better tools and data to support monitoring and decision-making, and new technologies that improve the sustainability of our production and consumption patterns. The United Nations is ready to deepen our collaboration with the intellectual property system and we count on each of you to mainstream the SDGs in your areas of work. Together, we must better align the promise of innovation and industrial policy with tangible progress toward sustainability and equality to drive transformative change on a global scale. Allow me to share four quick reflections. First, we must build systems where the benefits of science are shared fairly and equitably. Science and technical knowledge are the foundation for a prosperous and secure future. But that remains theoretical if its benefits remain inaccessible to most people across the world. The paradox we face is that those who stand to benefit the most from the latest advances in renewable energy, medicine, agriculture often face the biggest barriers in accessing them. A case in point is the grotesque inequities we witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Long after vaccines and therapeutics were widely available in rich countries, the pandemic continued to wreak havoc across many developing countries. That is why investing in mechanisms for more efficient and effective technology transfer and strengthening existing mechanisms such as the Technology Facilitation Mechanism at the United Nations is so important. Second, science and innovation ecosystems must become more inclusive and representative. This means breaking down the barriers that hold all of us back Chief among these barriers is the lack of access to affordable financing which inhibits the ability of developing countries to contribute meaningfully in research, development, technology and innovation. Intellectual Property is now the most valuable asset class on the planet and yet establishing IP value and harnessing the economic potential and Benefits of IP assets remains the domain of developed economies. Women make up under a third of the workforce across science, technology, engineering, and maths and even less in cutting edge fields like Artificial Intelligence. We must do more to promote women and girl scientists everywhere to unleash our world’s enormous untapped talent. Third, we must break down the siloes between the science community, policymakers and the private sector and work much more closely together. At the United Nations, we are committed to strengthening this inter-disciplinary collaboration and form new partnerships to share knowledge, for example through the annual Multi-stakeholder Forum on STI for the SDGs. As a practical example, the Secretary-General’s recently published policy brief for a Global Digital Compact calls for the development of multilevel and interoperable standards for data quality, measurement and use – in full respect of intellectual property rights – to enable safe and secure data flows and advance towards a more inclusive global economy. Fourth, we must reconsider the balance between incentivizing creativity and facilitating technology diffusion. Transfers of ‘green’ and decarbonization technologies for climate adaptation and mitigation strategies are becoming especially urgent for Least Developed Countries. This is a matter of justice – and self-interest. LDCs have accounted for barely 1% of total CO2 emissions, but suffered nearly 70% of worldwide deaths caused by climate-change disasters over the past 50 years. The deserve our solidarity – and more importantly, they deserve our investments. In practice, this could mean extending more flexibilities in the context of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to facilitate greater access to clean energy technologies. Furthermore, we could better align the international framework applicable to IPRs with the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities” set out in the UNFCCC. Such steps – combined with tailored national IP regimes – would go a long way in better aligning the multilateral trade regime with international climate change agreements. By harnessing the power of industrial property, we can unlock the potential of ground-breaking technologies, advance inclusive growth, and achieve greater equality. This conference is a critical opportunity to do just that. [END]

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