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Hoping 2021 marks the year of swift recovery from the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called for “global cooperation for building disaster-resilient infrastructure in the face of climate change”. Modi said, “Covid-19 has taught us that in an interdependent and interconnected world, no country – rich or poor – is immune to the effect of global disasters.”
He was speaking at the Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) virtual inauguration. The Prime Minister said the pandemic has shown how the world can come together. “Innovation to address global challenges can come from anywhere,” he said, adding that vaccines have been developed in record time.
Support innovation
Modi called for fostering a global ecosystem that supports innovation. The Prime Minister cautioned that the lessons from the pandemic must not be forgotten. “They apply to not only public health disasters but other disasters as well,” he added. Modi noted that it will take sustained and concerted efforts to mitigate climate change.
Quoting the UN Chief, the Prime Minister said there is no vaccine for climate crisis. He added that countries that are making large investments in infrastructure such as India must ensure that this is an investment in resilience and not in risk.
“As a global cooperation mechanism anchored in the global south, CDRI offers us a suitable platform for advancing this agenda,” he said.
‘Priority areas’
“We are approaching the mid-point of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris agreement, and the Sendai Framework. The expectations from COP-26, to be hosted by the UK and Italy later this year are high. This partnership on resilient infrastructure must play its important role in helping meet some of those expectations,” he said.
Modi also elaborated on key priority areas. First, the CDRI must embody the central promise of the Sustainable Development Goals, he said.
Second, he noted that the nations must take stock of the performance of some of the key infrastructure sectors, particularly health infrastructure and the digital infrastructure, that played a central role during the pandemic. Finally, he said that the notion of “resilient infrastructure” must become a mass movement.
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