India TEEB aims to recognize, demonstrate, capture and optimize the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services and targets policy actions at the national and state levels. It also aims for improvements in business assessments and disclosure, and improved citizen awareness of the issues involved. Please see below for the Ambassador’s speech at the stakeholder consultations on TEEB India.
Mr. Jairam Ramesh and the Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development, Mr. Erik Solheim, signed a letter of intent on collaboration on biodiversity in Novemeber 2010. Click here to read more.
The Ambassador’s speech:
Honourable Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Mr. T. Chatterjee, Secretary, and Mr. M.F. Farooqui, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment of Forests, Mr. Roberto Zagha, Country Director, World Bank, Mr. Pavan Sukhdev, CEO, GIST Advisory, Dr. Ashok Khosla, Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is a priviledge for me to be here. In November last year, a letter of intent on cooperation between India and Norway on biodiversity was signed by you, Sir (Minister Jairam Ramesh) and the Norwegian Minister of the Environment and International Development Mr. Erik Solheim, in connection with the establishment of a Centre for Biodiversity Policy and Law in Chennai. I believe this is an example of how our dialogue and cooperation within environment can be set in connection with key issues under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Thank you very much for the invitation to address this important event. Mr. Pavan Sukhdev and his TEEB team have given us an expanded toolbox for managing biodiversity, and now it is time to use the new tools and the new approaches.
The work of the TEEB project has a huge potential, and now it’s time to focus on integrating the recommendations into national policy. Many countries, including my own country, are preparing for national TEEB follow-up activities, and we will all look to India for inspiration and advice for follow-up in Norway.
The findings from TEEB are also tools for identifying synergies between climate change and biodiversity and more generally for mainstreaming of biodiversity and ecosystem services into sectoral policies, development plans and budgets as well as for use in the business sector.
New knowledge on the broad range of values from ecosystem services and biodiversity is important, but I would still like to underline our moral and ethical responsibility for the biodiversity. We need however more economical facts for why biodiversity matters.
The world cannot afford politics as usual – not at a moment when the biodiversity challenge we face is so great and the consequences of inaction are so dangerous. Biodiversity loss is my loss and your loss. It is a drain on our economies and it reduces the quality of our lives. It is clear that healthy ecosystems are fundamental to sustainable development.
Norway gives high priority to the Convention on Biological Diversity. We achieved good results in Nagoya, and the next Conference of the Parties is to be held here in India in 2012. India is a key player at the international biodiversity scene, and we are proud to have collaboration with India in this field.
A good progress in national implementation of TEEB is important for the next conference of the parties to the CBD. The project from the World Bank “Ecosystem valuation and Wealth Accounting” is another building block in this work. Norway is a partner in this project as we were a partner in the international TEEB project.
The TEEB project has stimulated the environment sector to think outside the box and from a new perspective. This is important and we have to continue to build new partnerships and new approaches to improve biodiversity management at all levels.
We are planning our own TEEB follow-up in Norway and I do hope that our countries can establish a platform and share experiences during the processes. I want to congratulate India for the TEEB-India project which is important at all levels from local to global. India is taking the lead in the road from Nagoya to COP11 here in India.
Good luck with the project!
Thank you very much.