Summit sets climate, energy pledges

World leaders and experts at the World Sustainable Development Summit in New Delhi have pledged to reach sustainable development goals to fight climate change and to switch to clean and green energy.

At the three-day summit that ended on Friday they called for a global effort to reduce carbon emissions and the production of fossil fuels, for green growth, and to seek global finance for a climate-resilient world.

The issues at hand are particularly important for developing and least developed countries after the pandemic, fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the rise in food and energy prices, the meeting was told.

The Prime Minister of Tunisia, Najla Bouden, said, "These are all challenges which can, in the absence of rapid and collective response, undermine the efforts of the international community in the implementation of the sustainable development goals and further widen the gap between North and South, between ambition and achievements."

Vice-President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo, who addressed several sessions of the summit, called for a focus on the principles of equity and justice at forums such as the G20 and at United Nations Climate Change Conferences, commonly known as COPs. It is impossible for many developing countries to achieve sustainable development goals without financing, he said.

Addressing the final session, Hardeep Singh Puri, India's federal minister for housing and urban affairs, said the three crises of food, fertilizer and fuel remain the chief challenges as India takes on the G20 presidency this year.

Puri said all the crises have a strong link to sustainable development, and referred to the commitment of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi at COP26 in Scotland in 2021 to reduce its carbon emissions as related to GDP by 45 percent by 2030.

Nitin Desai, chairman of the governing council of the Energy and Resources Institute, which hosted the summit, said it had brought together a wide range of people engaged in sustainable development.

It drew ministers from across the world, other top government representatives, political leaders and chiefs of international organizations.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.