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The TERI-CNN IBN survey provides fresh insights as United Nations General Assembly is expected to adopt a new set of goals in September 2015
New Delhi, February 6: About 54 per cent people say that environmental protection and conservation is the most important area to achieve sustainable development, followed by economic development (31 per cent) and social security (15 per cent). About 42 per cent believed that financial and technological collaborations would drive the sustainable development agenda, followed by peace, security and governance, and equity and differentiated responsibility (27 per cent & 29 per cent respectively).These were some of the findings of the TERI-CNN IBN survey, which was released at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS) 2015, held here today. The three-day Summit brought together a range of luminaries, including Heads of State, Nobel Laureates and thought leaders to deliberate on ‘Sustainable Development Goals and Dealing with Climate Change’, the theme this year. The survey assumes significance as the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is expected to adopt a new set of goals in September 2015.
The TERI-CNN IBN survey revealed that:
Employment/skill development and education are the two important ways to eradicate poverty.
To combat climate change, more than 30 per cent of the respondents said that ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns and promoting/restoring sustainable use of ecosystems are most important, followed by practices such as implementing carbon reduction initiatives and promoting energy efficiency.
The corporate sector has been identified to play an important role in promoting sustainable development. According to the survey, 33 per cent of the respondents indicated that the corporate sector should invest in energy efficiency, followed by 25 per cent indicating that the corporate sector should invest in PPPs to attain SDGs and 27 per cent felt that corporates should move away from fossil fuels and invest in cleaner fuels.
The respondents were asked to rank the stakeholders according to their role in decision making to achieve sustainable development. Rank 1 was allotted to Government, Rank 2 and Rank 3 was given to Corporate and Institutions respectively. Finally, Rank 4 and Rank 5 were allotted to Civil Society and NGOs.
The focus of climate change action should be on “more research on human-induced climate change”, which was ranked 1 by maximum number of respondents, followed by rank 2 and 3 respectively to climate mitigation and climate adaption.
In the ranking of key areas which are critical to achieve gender equity, Rank 1 was allotted to education and Rank 2 and Rank 3 were given to awareness and
employment respectively. Rank 4 and Rank 5 was allotted to access to credit and access to energy respectively.
Conserving/restoring forests were identified to be the most important environmental area that needed attention, followed by halting land degradation and preventing biodiversity loss.
Renewable energy was identified as the most critical area to improve energy access and efficiency, followed by off-grid solutions, energy efficient solutions and nuclear energy respectively.
