SHILLONG, July 5: Policymakers, academicians, bureaucrats and experts from multi-lateral agencies representing 14 G20 countries will converge at the two-day conference “Nature Solves: A New Framework for Our Sustainable Future” beginning in Shillong on Thursday.
The Meghalaya Basin Management Agency is hosting the event in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) as the Think20 (T20) Secretariat under India’s G20 Presidency.
Meghalaya is highly susceptible to climate change due to its unique geography, ecology and socio-economic conditions. The state’s mean annual temperature has increased by 0.5 to 1.0 degrees Celsius in recent decades, leading to crop failures, reduced productivity and loss of biodiversity. Rapid industrialisation and unregulated development driven by deforestation made the state vulnerable to climate change.
It is in this context that the conference is being organised. Think20 serves as the G20’s official engagement group, fostering collaboration among think-tanks and high-level experts to address policy issues relevant to G20.
Asked how Meghalaya will gain from this event, Joram Beda, Commissioner and Secretary, Planning Department, said the government will demonstrate a programme, called payment of ecological service under which forest conservation is incentivised.
He said once the world gets to known this initiative, international agencies will partner with Meghalaya to promote and preserve environment.
This sub-national dialogue will bring together domestic and international stakeholders to deliberate and devise solutions to key themes, issues, and policy questions to further a nature-positive transition, he added.
The forum will identify pathways and new self-sustaining networks for further collaborative actions to ensure a nature-positive economic development for the region and beyond.
The conference aims to convene both domestic and international stakeholders to deliberate and devise solutions for promoting a nature-positive transition with the potential for replication worldwide.
The participants will exchange ideas and collaborate on complex local and global challenges, including green growth, women-led development, climate finance, nature-based solutions for climate action and the interplay with green transitions and the future of work.
With over 60 speakers from various countries, the conference is expected to generate discussions and recommendations that will contribute to the finalization of “Meghalaya Manifesto”, a policy framework for nature-positive solutions to combat climate change.
Eminent members of the multilateral and think-tank community, including Shombi Sharp, United Nations Resident Coordinator in India, and Federico Salas Lotfe, Ambassador of Mexico to India, will also be in attendance.
During the discussions, there will be panel discussions on Grassroots level Response towards Ecosystem Enhancement and Nurturing (GREEN) Meghalaya – Payment for Ecosystem Services”, calling Nature-Based Solutions for Synergising Biodiversity and Climate Action, Adaptation and Food Security – Climate Smart Agriculture etc.
Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma will also attend the conference. Keynote addresses will be delivered by Chief Secretary DP Wahlang, Joint Secretary (G20) at the Ministry of External Affairs, Eenam Gambhir and T20 Chair and President of the Observer Research Foundation, India, Samir Saran.
