PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ON WORLD STANDARDS DAY CELEBRATIONS ON 14TH OCTOBER 2009 AT NEW DELHI

Dr R A Mashelkar, CSIR Bhatnagar Fellow, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, Additional Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, DG, Bureau of Indian Standards, ADG, Bureau of Indian Standards, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is my pleasure to be present here with you on the occasion of celebrations of World Standards Day. This year’s theme is ‘Tackling climate change through standards’.

Today, climate change is being talked about by almost every­one – business, government and society at large. While, no one event can be conclusive evidence of climate change, certain global happenings like—prolonged droughts, intense heat waves, violent windstorms, wildfires and frequent floods which are indicative of a changing climate.

Some changes in climate can be attributed to natural cycles and disturbances in the earth’s climate system but the general warming trend over the last century is human induced through increased green house gas emissions during various industrial processes, burning of fossil fuels, and land-use change.

The climate change threat is a worrying scenario for the future - a concern for our grand children or rather great grand children. It will affect us all, although developed industrialized world has mainly contributed to it. Climate change is no respecter of national boundaries. Climate change and warming may lead to less fish in the sea, less fresh water, less food, less rain forest, fewer glaciers, less plants and animals’ species. It may also impact public health further, by increase in diseases such as thermal stress, respiratory diseases & diseases spread by mosquitoes etc. Harmful effects of climate change, with rise in temperature are likely to affect our agricultural production with reduction in total crop cycle duration and lower yield per unit area.

To tackle many Inter-related effects of climate change, all the countries need to take actions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The key to UNFCCC are the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibility under which the developed countries who caused global warming and the developing countries like India, who would be the major victims have to cooperate. India as a responsible major country is playing its own role in this global cooperative regime and Prime Minister is him-self chairing the National Council on Climate Change, to underscore the importance of climate change impacts on our national developments.

On the sustainable development path to be taken by our country, we would need to conserve our resources, including fossil fuels and promote energy efficiency. As renewable energy assumes a crucial role for adaptation to climate change, new technologies for conservation of water, drought proofing agriculture, more accurate modeling of monsoons etc. would be required. In this backdrop, standards assume great importance in the dissemination of new technologies, new business methods, good management and conformity assessment practices, making them an invaluable source of knowledge and technological know-how.

Impact on the environment can be reduced by efficient use of energy and other natural resources, increased use of renewable raw material, increased reuse, recycling and recovery, greater use of non-conventional energies like solar and wind, use of alternative bio-fuels, CNG etc. Standards have actively propagated use of new energy-generation and efficiency-enhancing technologies like CFLs, involving green buildings, solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, hybrids and combined cycle energy systems, which can become the engines of growth for this century, while efficiently combating climate change.

I am glad that as the National Standards Body, the Bureau of Indian Standard’s commitment in increasing the effectiveness of their procedures and initiatives for identifying national as well as market needs and opening new work areas has led to the formulation of a number of Indian Standards on these aspects. For example, standards on CFLs and bio-diesel have already been formulated while those on CNG are in advanced stages of development. I’m happy to note that standards for energy efficiency in electrical appliances and buildings and their labeling system have been initiated in the country. The total expected savings by these are likely to be more than 11,000 million kWh annually in the first 5 years of their operation.

I’d like to make use of this forum to stress on the fact that although many low-carbon technologies exist which have the potential to significantly reduce global emissions, we still need more enabling frameworks like pertinent technical standards and specific policy responses to support their rapid deployment.

We have a shared responsibility to ensure sustainable development. Companies can develop and deploy technologies and products that are more environmentally- friendly than today, and incorporate environmental considerations into their operations and procedures. Citizens can do their share by embracing a lifestyle that considers the environment and limits resource consumption in their daily lives.

As such, this framework involving both policies and standards needs to be developed in coordination with, and integrated within other public policies, such as those dealing with energy management, urban planning, and economic development. Public education, awareness raising and the development of new competencies will also be required. This assumes strong and long-lasting cooperation between all stakeholders, which is a challenge that is not to be underestimated. Only under these conditions will the current sense of urgency related to the climate-change-challenge be translated into actions at the appropriate scale by all concerned.

I realize that this change will take some time, but by leveraging effort, I am in no doubt that technical standards can play a more pivotal role in achieving a low carbon and sustainable energy future.

I call upon the stakeholders present here to collaborate in drawing a future framework, which will facilitate research, development and demonstration of clean energy technologies combating climate change and their economic implementation.

I wish all success for the seminar and hope that the discussions here would guide us in effective Standards Formulation and efficient policy related to climate change at the national level.

I once again wish you all on the occasion of World Standards Day.


THANK YOU

MOS India Meeting with MOS Uganda

The Minister of State of Agriculture, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Professor K.V. Thomas meeting the Minister of State for Agriculture of Uganda, Mr. Rwamirama K. Bright, in New Delhi on October 08, 2009.