India on Sunday said it looked forward to the leadership of G7 nations to ensure an effective fight against the triple challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.

Union Minister for Environment Bhupender Yadav said protecting and restoring ecosystems could help the globe reduce the extent of climate change and cope with its impacts.

Speaking at the Plenary Session at the G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and Environment in Sapporo, Japan, he said it was important that the world addressed issues related to climate change in tandem with environmental action, holistically.

”We do hope that this is at the core of deliberations of this meeting of the Climate, Energy and Environment Ministers of the G7 Countries,” he added.

He said climate change, desertification and biodiversity loss were deeply interlinked and pose existential challenges to humanity. In response to these challenges, Rio Conventions have made remarkable progress, through a consensus driven approach, based on principles, he said.

The Union Minister said India in its Presidency of G20, for example, has taken this approach and embedded mitigation and adaptation deeply across priority areas of arresting land degradation, accelerating ecosystem restoration, and enriching biodiversity.

He said the approach promoted a sustainable and climate resilient blue economy; encouraging resource efficiency and circular economy; with Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) as a cross-cutting theme, thus mainstreaming climate change, and addressing the impacts in an ambitious, decisive and action-oriented manner.

Yadav said India has been part of providing solutions, while it historically has not been part of any of the problems. He said India has rather taken strong domestic actions, set challenging ambitious targets for itself and was also steering international actions through various initiatives.

He said India’s approach has been focused on the convergence of the issues related to Climate Change, Biodiversity loss and pollution. This has reflected in taking up initiatives based on specific interventions through International Solar Alliance (ISA), Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), Lead IT.

The Union Minister said India has also focused on action by all, including individual and community actions through Mission LiFE. Changing individual and community behaviour alone could make a significant dent in the environmental and climate crises.

Yadav said the recently launched International Big Cat alliance, on the occasion of 50 years of Project Tiger, was rooted in the fact that conserving big cats and their habitats could secure some of the most important natural ecosystems on Earth leading to natural climate change adaptation, water, and food security for millions of people, and provide livelihood and sustenance to forest communities.

He said it would be important to ensure a country-driven approach along with the principles of equity and CBDR-RC to undertake decisive action. At the same time the voice of the global South needed to be recognised for a truly global leadership of G7 and to receive valuable inputs towards implementation of G7 initiatives.