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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12 November 2022

COP 27 - Sharm El-Sheikh

Delivering for people and the planet From 6 to 18 November, Heads of State, ministers, and negotiators, along with climate activists, mayors, civil society representatives and CEOs are meeting in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh for the largest annual gathering on climate action. The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – COP27 – builds on the outcomes of COP26 to deliver action on an array of issues critical to tackling the climate emergency – from urgently reducing greenhouse gas emissions, building resilience, and adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, to delivering on the commitments to finance climate action in developing countries. Faced with a growing energy crisis, record greenhouse gas concentrations, and increasing extreme weather events, COP27 seeks renewed solidarity between countries, to deliver on the landmark Paris Agreement, for people and the planet. Read more: https://unfccc.int/cop27

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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

Let’s wake up, and smell the jasmine

N. Dilli Babu remembers those days — not so long ago — when he ferried jasmine buds plucked from his farm in gunny bags to the market early in the morning. By the time he reached his customers, he often found that some of the delicate flowers had lost their freshness, forcing him to discard the wilted buds. The jasmine farmer doesn’t need to throw away his flowers anymore. Since late 2020, Babu has been using a container called the Tan90 Cold Storage Box, which preserves the buds for longer hours. “The Tan90 chiller box keeps the jasmine buds fresh,” the farmer from Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvallur district in southern India says. Buds harvested every morning are sold in the wholesale market in Koyambedu in Tamil Nadu’s capital, Chennai. Babu stores the unsold flowers in the box, with the buds plucked in the evening. The next morning, these fragrant white buds — used for religious rituals, adornment and a host of other reasons — are taken to the market along with that day’s harvest. Dilli Babu no longer incurs the daily loss of around ₹200 caused by unsold and discarded jasmine buds. The price of his 50-litre container, which can hold 6-10 kg of jasmine buds, is ₹1,850. Each 1-litre cooling panel in the box costs ₹150, and can last up to three years or so. “Now, there is zero waste,” he says. India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world. According to government figures, its horticultural production in 2020-21 was 331 million tonnes. According to the National Horticulture Database (Second Advance Estimates) published by the National Horticulture Board, the area under floriculture production in India in 2019-20 was 305 thousand hectares with a production of 2,301 thousand tonnes loose flowers and 762 thousand tonnes cut flowers. A large part of the produce, however, goes waste because of reasons such as inadequate cold storage and refrigerated transport facilities. Estimates of the annual wastage figures vary from 16 per cent to 40 per cent. Proper storage of farm produce is a problem that many farmers face. There was a time when Babu used basic insulated boxes lined with ice to store the buds. But, he says, the buds often wilted before they could be sold. The cold storage facilities that are available come with their share of problems. For one, many are expensive and most small and marginal farmers cannot afford them. Second, they are energy-intensive. For instance, unlike Tan90 boxes, which do not use ice, many regular storage boxes require it in large quantities. Ice, in turn, entails the use of power. The daily operation cost of ice is about ₹4 per kilo, Tan90 co-founder Soumalya Mukherjee points out. The contents stored in Tan90 boxes are chilled and preserved by panels or cassettes filled with phase change materials (PCM), which absorb and release heat during the process of melting and freezing. The PCM panels are frozen in deep freezers and then placed inside the boxes and bags to preserve perishables such as fruits, vegetables, flowers, meat and fish. The Tan90 cooling process consumes less power, Mukherjee states. For one, the panels take 6-8 hours to freeze, as against the 18-20 hours that most regular cooling panels take, he says. The Tan90 panels can maintain their temperature for 20 hours or more when they are inserted in the insulated box. The boxes can also be used to transport perishable goods in unrefrigerated vehicles, which consume 50% less power than reefer trucks, he adds. The Tan90 Thermal brand of portable cooling boxes and bags, produced in a factory in Chennai, is the brainchild of Dr Mukherjee (see interview) and two other former students of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) — Dr. Rajnikant Rai and Dr. Shiv Sharma. Their Chennai-based start-up, called Tan90 Thermal Solutions Private Ltd, was incorporated in 2019. Tan90 is a mathematical term for a value that is infinite or undefined — like the potential of this innovation. “While PCMs are not new, the Tan90 Thermal’s innovation lies in the PCM’s ingredients. Our PCMs freeze faster in deep freezers, thereby saving power. They also maintain the products stored in the boxes/bags at required temperatures for a longer period,” Rai says. Farmer Dilli Babu’s box maintains a temperature range of 4-12 degrees Celsius. The buds stay fresh for 8-12 hours at night and for 6-8 hours during the day. ECO-FRIENDLY INNOVATION Innovations such as the storage box are helping drive achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), set up by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 for a “better and more sustainable future”. By enhancing a farmer’s income, it focuses on SDG 2 on zero hunger, with the lens on the role of the farmer in sustainable development. “If a farm is not economically sound or not resilient to external shocks, or if the well-being of those working on a farm are not considered, then a farm cannot be sustainable,” states SDG target 2.4.1. By saving power, Tan90 also takes a step towards SDGs on climate action. As part of efforts to promote clean energy technology capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Facility for Low Carbon Technology Deployment (FLCTD) — a joint initiative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Indian Government’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency and the Global Environment Facility — has been holding an “Innovation Challenge”. It awards ideas that deal with waste heat recovery, pumping systems and motors, space conditioning, industrial IoT (Internet of Things), industrial resource efficiency and electrical energy storage. Award-winning innovative ideas include an instant milk chiller that allows milk to be chilled at source, reducing spoilage and increasing farmer income, an energy efficient solar pump and a solar based atmospheric water generator (2021). So far, 59 innovations have been supported, of which 19 have completed monitoring and verification and 12 are already being commercialised, says René van Berkel, UNIDO Representative & Head, Regional Office in India. “These are diverse, including solutions for cold chain, irrigation pumping, as well as industrial heat recovery and resource efficiency. They have emissions reduction and Indian ingenuity and entrepreneurship in common and provide innovation specific co-benefits, for example reduction of post-harvest losses, reduced air pollution and/or improved productivity.” Tan90 won the challenge in 2019 for its storage box. “Such solutions are important baby steps that need to be scaled up in order to reduce emission in the food supply chain,” says FLCTD National Project Manager Sandeep Tandon (see interview). The FLCTD, van Berkel explains, is a prime example of an innovation partnership for a clean and low carbon future. “It provides comprehensive support to Indian innovators acting as a technical sounding board, facilitating industry connections and part funding for deployment, monitoring and evaluation and providing recognition.” EXPANDING CUSTOMER BASE Among others who have benefited from the solution is retired army Major V.P. Sharma, who grows organic greens, vegetables and fruits in Puducherry. “Ours is a B2C [business-to-consumer] company with the delivery concept of ‘harvest to home’ in six hours. It was a challenge to keep the greens fresh from the farm gate to the customer’s home gate,” says Sharma, the co-founder of Gratitude Farms Private Ltd. He adds that after he met Mukherjee at a conference, he decided to try out the storage boxes. “We found the greens and other vegetables stored in them remained fresh for several hours.” In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tan90 Thermal is looking at extending the storage concept to the pharmaceutical sector, with their Tan90 Biological Ampule Sample Carrier transporting test samples at required temperatures. Through different partnerships and projects with Industry and the government of India, UNIDO works towards inclusiveness, sustainability, productivity and innovation in and by the manufacturing sector, van Berkel stresses. This is what the UN’s SDG 9 largely deals with, he says, and it has an impact on other SDGs — such as climate, energy and environment (SDGs 7, 12 and 13), decent work (SDG 8), cities and communities (SDG11) and empowerment (SDGs 5 and 10). “These partnerships are effective in pivoting replicable new approaches that deliver tangible benefits to select clusters or sectors, and can be scaled up to assist India to achieve the SDGs, for example through implementation of energy efficiency in MSMEs, safe and environmentally sound management and disposal of medical waste and introduction of alternatives to DDT for control of vector borne diseases,” he adds. Credits: Writer: UN/Nitya Varadarajan/Word Wide Media Photographs: Kannan Srinivasan (Tiruvallur) and Word Wide Media (Chennai) The Facility for Low Carbon Technology Deployment (FLCTD) is a joint initiative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the Indian Government’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency and the Global Environment Facility. FLCTD is being funded by the Global Environment Facility.

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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

24 March 2023

International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Today, we pay tribute to the victims of the transatlantic slave trade. The evil enterprise of enslavement lasted for over 400 years. Millions of African children, women and men were trafficked across the Atlantic, ripped from their families and homelands -- their communities torn apart, their bodies commodified, their humanity denied. The history of slavery is a history of suffering and barbarity that shows humanity at its worst. But it is also a history of awe-inspiring courage that shows human beings at their best – starting with enslaved people who rose up against impossible odds and extending to the abolitionists who spoke out against this atrocious crime. And yet, the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade haunts us to this day. We can draw a straight line from the centuries of colonial exploitation to the social and economic inequalities of today. And we can recognize the racist tropes popularized to rationalize the inhumanity of the slave trade in the white supremacist hate that is resurgent today. It is incumbent on us all to fight slavery’s legacy of racism. The most powerful weapon in our arsenal is education -- the theme of this year’s commemoration. By teaching the history of slavery, we help to guard against humanity’s most vicious impulses. By studying the assumptions and beliefs that allowed the practice to flourish for centuries, we unmask the racism of our own time. And by honouring the victims of slavery, we restore some measure of dignity to those who were so mercilessly stripped of it. Today and every day, let us stand united against racism and together build a world in which everyone, everywhere can live lives of liberty, dignity and human rights. [END]

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Press Release

24 March 2023

World Meteorological Day

On this World Meteorological Day, humanity faces a difficult truth: climate change is making our planet uninhabitable. Every year of insufficient action to keep global warming below 1.5°C drives us closer to the brink, increasing systemic risks and reducing our resilience against climate catastrophe. As countries hurtle past the 1.5°C limit, climate change is intensifying heatwaves, droughts, flooding, wildfires and famines, while threatening to submerge low-lying countries and cities and drive more species to extinction. This year’s theme -- The Future of Weather, Climate and Water Across Generations — compels us all to live up to our responsibilities and ensure that future generations inherit a better tomorrow. That means accelerating actions to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C through scaled-up mitigation and adaptation measures. It means radically transforming our energy and transportation systems, breaking our addiction to fossil fuels and embracing a just transition to renewable energy. It means developed countries providing a revolution of financial and technical support to developing countries as they mitigate emissions, adapt to a renewable future, build resilience against extreme weather events, and address the loss and damage resulting from climate change. And it means living up to the promise made last World Meteorological Day to ensure that early warning systems against climate disasters cover every person in the world. Thirty countries have now been identified for accelerated implementation this year. 2023 must be a year of transformation, not tinkering. It’s time to end the relentless -- and senseless -- war on nature, and deliver the sustainable future that our climate needs and our children and grandchildren deserve. [END]

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Press Release

24 March 2023

Secretary-General: Glaciers Largest Freshwater Reservoir on Planet, But Threatened by Global Warming

My thanks to President Rahmon for Tajikistan’s leadership in putting the global focus on preserving the world’s glaciers. Glaciers are critical to all life on earth. Over centuries, they carved out the landmasses we call home. Today, they cover 10 per cent of our world. Glaciers are also the world’s water towers. They represent the largest reservoir of fresh water on the planet -- supporting our nutrition, health, economies and energy production. And nearly 2 billion people -- one out of every four people on earth -- live in areas where glaciers and seasonal snowmelt supply their water. But, these silent giants are facing a rude awakening. Human activity is driving our planet’s temperature to dangerous new heights. Global warming is a global warning that we are on the wrong track. And melting glaciers are the canary in the coalmine. Antarctica is losing an average of 150 billion tons of ice mass every year. The Greenland ice cap is melting even faster -- losing 270 billion tons per year. To put that in perspective, that combined total ice melt in just one year is the equivalent of a wall of ice fully five metres high, covering my entire home country of Portugal. And consider the vast mountainous glaciers in nearly every continent. In Asia, for example, 10 major rivers originate in the Himalaya region, supplying freshwater to 1.3 billion people living in its watershed. President Rahmon has long warned about the devastation from melting glaciers on communities and people alike. We’ve already seen how Himalayan melts have worsened flooding in Pakistan. As glaciers and ice sheets continue to recede over the coming decades, major Himalayan rivers like the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra will feel the impact -- seeing their flows reduced. On top of that, rising sea levels combined with saltwater intrusion will decimate large parts of these huge deltas. In fact, a new compilation of data released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned that global average sea levels have already risen faster since 1900 than over any preceding century in the last 3,000 years. Unless we reverse this trend, the consequences will be catastrophic. Low-lying communities and entire countries could be erased forever. We would witness mass movements of entire populations -- and fierce competition for water and land. And disasters would accelerate worldwide -- including floods, droughts and landslides. Losing these giants would be a giant problem for our world. We must do more than sound the alarm on this emergency. All countries must act as one to protect people and communities alike: by investing in climate-resilient buildings, infrastructure and water pipelines, as well as policies that conserve precious water resources and their ecosystems for the future; by building institutional capacities and integrating risk reduction measures to ensure that every person in the world is protected by life-saving early warning systems against hazardous climate or weather events by 2027. By strengthening our research, data and monitoring capabilities on current and projected changes in snow and glacier cover to help shape plans, strategies and priorities to reduce and better manage the impact of climate change on glaciers; and above all -- by limiting global warming to the 1.5°C rise to avert the worst impacts of climate change. We urgently need to reduce emissions, enhance adaptation measures and ensure climate justice. And developing countries must have the resources to adapt and build resilience against climate disaster. Let’s stop global warming in its tracks. Let’s help all countries build more resilient futures. As we look ahead to the International Year for Glaciers’ Preservation in 2025, let’s act now to mobilize greater political, private and public will to conserve our glaciers and all they give to us. [END]

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Press Release

24 March 2023

Secretary-General: ‘Bring the Water Action Agenda to Life’

I thank the Netherlands and Tajikistan for co-hosting, and the President of the General Assembly for his critical role. Water is humanity’s lifeblood, from the food we eat to the ecosystems and biodiversity that enrich our world to the prosperity that sustains nations, to the economic engines of agriculture, manufacturing and energy generation to our health, hygiene and survival itself. Water is a human right -- and a common development denominator to shape a better future. But water is in deep trouble. We are draining humanity’s lifeblood through vampiric overconsumption and unsustainable use and evaporating it through global heating. We’ve broken the water cycle, destroyed ecosystems and contaminated groundwater. Nearly three out of four natural disasters are linked to water. One in four people lives without safely managed water services or clean drinking water. And over 1.7 billion people lack basic sanitation. Half a billion-practice open defecation. And millions of women and girls spend hours every day fetching water. I see four key areas to accelerate results and change the present situation. First -- closing the water management gap. Governments must develop and implement plans that ensure equitable water access for all people while conserving this precious resource. And I also call on countries to work together across borders to jointly manage water. One of my proudest achievements as Prime Minister of Portugal was signing the Albufeira Convention on water management with Spain 25 years ago. The Convention is still in force today. We see similar initiatives in Bolivia and Peru and elsewhere. And I urge all Member States to join and implement the United Nations Water Convention. Second -- massively investing in water and sanitation systems. The proposed SDG [Sustainable Development Goals] Stimulus and reforms to the global financial architecture aim to increase investment in sustainable development. International financial institutions should develop creative ways to extend financing and accelerate the reallocation of Special Drawing Rights. And Multilateral Development Banks should continue expanding their portfolios on water and sanitation to support countries in desperate need. Third -- focusing on resilience. We cannot manage this twenty-first century emergency with infrastructure from another age. This means investing in disaster-resilient pipelines, water-delivery infrastructure, and wastewater treatment plants. It means new ways to recycle and conserve water. It means climate and biodiversity-smart food systems that reduce methane emissions and water use. It means investing in a new global information system to forecast water needs in real time. It means covering every person in the world with early warning systems against hazardous climate or weather events. And it means exploring new public-private partnerships across our work. And fourth -- addressing climate change. Climate action and a sustainable water future are two sides of the same coin. We must spare no effort to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and deliver climate justice to developing countries. I have proposed to the G20 [Group of 20] a Climate Solidarity Pact in which all big emitters make extra efforts to cut emissions, and wealthier countries mobilize financial and technical resources to support emerging economies. Earlier this week, I presented a plan to supercharge efforts to achieve this Climate Solidarity Pact through an all-hands-on-deck Acceleration Agenda towards reducing emissions. We don’t have a moment to lose. This is more than a conference on water. It is a conference on today’s world seen from the perspective of its most important resource. This conference must represent a quantum leap in the capacity of Member States and the international community to recognize and act upon the vital importance of water to our world’s sustainability and as a tool to foster peace and international cooperation. From water as a key driver across economies and policymaking to the recognition of water and sanitation as a human right. From the integration of water and climate policies to an innovative approach in the use of water in food production. Now is the moment for game-changing commitments to bring the Water Action Agenda to life. Thank you very much. [END]

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