In October 2005 UK Environment Minister Elliot Morley and A. Raja, Indian Minister of Environment and Forests, signed the first formal agreement launching the UK-India SDD in London. This builds upon the joint 2004 Prime Ministers’ Joint Declaration which recognised the need for partnership ‘Both our countries recognise that co-operation is essential to deliver the progressive global agenda set by the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Millennium Declaration. We will initiate regular high-level dialogue to share experience on how we can overcome social, economic and environmental challenges, and bring real quality of life improvements for people in both our countries and around the world’.
View the Joint Statement (PDF, 720kb).
A number of areas were identified for co-operation but it was later agreed that the Dialogue should focus on four, jointly identified, key areas; Natural Resource Management, Sustainable Consumption and Production, Wildlife Crime and Corporate Social Responsibility. Preliminary activities and/or areas of work under each of these theme has been agreed.
The purpose of each workstream is to develop a focused and strategic dialogue on sustainable practices. We do this by partnering on research projects, training programmes, awareness raising workshops and developing best practices. Annual Ministerial meetings on the Dialogue provide high level political support and an opportunity to set strategic direction. The Dialogue aims to develop ideas on further areas where joint UK-India partnership could help achieve sustainable development whilst not impacting continued growth.
The Dialogue is lead by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, India. The UK-India SDD aims to foster a strong partnership between Government, the private sector, NGOs and civil society representatives by involving actors from all these sectors.
For more information about the dialogue or project proposals please contact Arif Hussain – a-hussain@dfid.gov.uk
Gordon Brown visit to India
20-21 January 2007
Gordon Brown visited India in January. After the success of Bali climate change was high on the Prime Minister’s agenda during his visit to India. He recognised that climate change was ‘already having pervasive and prolonged consequences for ecosystems, food and water supplies and indeed human life itself’ and that ‘environmental degradation is intensifying the competition for natural resources that has set off a new scramble for access to oil, water, forests, fish, and other natural resources’. Creating better management of natural resources is a key area for the UK-India SDD.
India and the UK also agreed that an urgent global effort is required to meet the MDGs. MDG 7 is focused on environmental sustainability which is a key element of the SDD and current projects plans include helping poor communities adopt more sustainable management practices for natural resources.
India and the UK also agreed on the agreed on the importance of more representative and effective international institutions to address global challenges. The UN Commission for Sustainable Development, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank all do important work on sustainable development issues and their work informs and relates to the work we do under the dialogues e.g. UNEP work on Sustainable Consumption and Production.
David Miliband visit to India
21 – 25 January 2007
David Miliband visited India in January. The visit was recorded in his blog. During his visit he announced the second phase of key Indian climate change adaptation project, and spoke at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2007. He spoke about the role of the media in communicating environmental messages at the event around Wildscreen India and the launch of the UK Environmental Film Fellowships on wildlife crime and visited Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai to look at the short-term action taken immediately after the floods there last year.
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