The two-day long World Conference on Environment concluded with new hopes and challenges for tackling the current scenario of Environmental Damages & Climate Change and laid stress on the tools that need to bring into service for indulgence of environmental justice by different courts and tribunals across the world with an aim to give a better and healthy tomorrow for the generation next.

The conference was organised by India’s premier watch dog on Environment, the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The Hon’ble President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee along with the Hon’ble Minister of Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India Shri Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Hon’ble Chairperson of National Green Tribunal, Shri Swatanter Kumar inaugurated the function at Vigyan Bhavan on March 25th, 2017.

 The Supreme Court Justices, Chief justices of various High Courts, Union cabinet ministers, distinguished invitees, professors and other experts from across India and abroad participated in the conference, chaired the technical sessions and delivered their speeches.   

Hundreds of law graduates from different universities and institutions from across the country showed their active participation during the two-day conference at Vigyan Bhavan.

The Constitution and Environmental Law under diverse global jurisdictions were the leading themes that were actively discussed during the event.

The Hon’ble President Shri Pranab Mukherjee said that 19 per cent deaths are being caused by cancer worldwide which is directly related to environmental damages by the various factors. He further added that children are the worst sufferers of adverse impact of pollution and there was an urgent need to find an out-of-box solution to reduce the threat of environmental degradation in and across the globe.

He also mentioned that environmental factors are directly or indirectly responsible for an estimated 24 per cent of the global burden of disease in terms of healthy life years lost and 23 per cent of all deaths.

The Hon’ble President urged the delegates from across the world to come out with tangible and concrete solutions on certain uncertainties like to what extent environmental degradation should be permissible for developmental prospects and what natural resources would remain for generation next.

He concluded his speech by quoting Mahatma Gandhi’s famous sayings, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed” and thus we must respect the limited resources given by the Mother Nature.

The Hon’ble Minister of Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley resonated the similar views presented by the Hon’ble President Shri Pranab Mukherjee and laid stress on environmental protection.  

The conference witnessed 10 informative and attention-grabbing technical sessions on various subjects.

The primary session started with the key subject, “Paris Agreement-2015” which was presided over by the Hon’ble President of the Constitutional Council of France and Former Prime Minister of France Mr. Laurent Fabius. It was co-chaired by the Hon’ble Judge of United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, Lord Robert John Anderson Carnwath and the Hon’ble Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice Madan B. Lokur.

The speakers at the session were Dr. Saiful Karim, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, Australia; Dr. Armin Rosencranz, Professor Jindal Global Law School, Haryana, India; Ms. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Director-Division of Environmental Law and Conventions, UNEP, Kenya; Mr. Benoit Mayer, Assistant Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Ms. Lavanya Rajmani, Research Professor, Centre for Policy Research, India.

They discussed about the severity of climate change and how different governmental, judicial and social institutions will have to align together with the same mindset in order to reduce the environmental damage done due to periodic climate change.

They also talked about climate justice, a developed expression derived from climate change. Climate justice is a wide terminology that is being used for framing global warming as an ethical and political issue, rather than one that is purely environmental or physical in nature.

Mr. Benoit Mayer gave his presentation on the Law of Responsibility: Obligation to pay adequate reparation where he talked about the correlation between special rules and general norms. He mentioned that special rules are ways and means to promote compliance to general norms and so, they must be taken on.

The technical session on Water Pollution under the leadership of Hon’ble Justice Shri Sanjay Kishan Kaul went off extremely well as they deliberated on various factors that pollute and degrade water quality. The speakers of this session were Hon’ble Justice Dr. Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, East Africa Court of Justice, Tanzania; Ms. Denise Antolini, Associate Dean, William S. Richardson School of Law, Hawaii, U.S.A; Dr. Ruud Schotting, Professor, Uttrecht University, The Netherlands; Mr. Alberto Simon Schvartzman, Technical Director Sao Francisco River Basin Committee, Brazil and Dr. H.P. Rajan, Former Dy. ES, International Seabed Authority, India.The other technical sessions for the day, March 25^th 2017 were on subjects like Forest, Wildlife & Biodiversity, Municipal Solid Waste, Environment & Public Health and Air Pollution.

On the concluding day of the conference, March 26^th 2017, topics that were discussed during the technical sessions were: Climate Change, Innovative Approaches to Environment, Remediation & Restoration; Economics, Environment & Clean Technology.

The session on Climate Change was chaired by the Hon’ble Justice Shri Deepak Gupta, Supreme Court of India, co-chaired by the Hon’ble Justice Thanarerk Nitisenee, Vice President, Supreme Court of Thailand. The speakers who deliberated on the topic were Hon’ble Justice Michael D Wilson, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii; Mr. Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan, Professor, Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria; Mr. Ben Boer, Professor, Wuhan University, China; Hon’ble Justice Bambang Hery Mulyono, Vice Chief Justice of Court of First Instance of Surakarta, Indonesia and Ms. Rohini Pande, Professor Harvard Kennedy School, U. S.A.

Contemplating over the issue being raised by the constant use of natural resources for building developmental and infrastructural projects, Justice Shri Deepak Gupta highlighted that it is the need of the hour that climate change should be fought in the National Interest of the country and interest of International Humanity.

Hon’ble Justice Michael D Wilson said that fighting climate change is a powerful imagery. He also said that judges must be equipped for the legal issues of the Anthropocene (relating to or denoting the current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment) as they are the frontline of the climate.

Moreover, Mr. Muhammed Tawfiq Ladan termed climate change as cross-border factor that creates vulnerability and it should be the responsibility of the states and the government to reduce the risk of climate change within and outside the native boundaries.

Mr. Ben Boer & Justice Bambang Hery presented their papers on Climate Change, Human Rights & Principles of the Environment Rule of Law & REDD+ & the Role of the Court in Indonesia respectively.

(REDD+ stands for countries' efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks).

A panel discussion was held on Role of Courts & Tribunals with Special Reference to the National Green Tribunal of India chaired by The Hon’ble Justice of Supreme Court of India, Shri Ranjan Gogoi. The panelists were Hon’ble Justice Ms. Shushila Karki from Nepal, Hon’ble  Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Bhutan, Justice Shri Tshering Wangchuk, Hon’ble Chief Justice of Bangladesh, Justice Shri Surendra

Kumar Sinha, Lord Robert John Anderson Carnwath, Judge, U. K Supreme Court, Hon’ble Justice Antonio Hermab Benjamin, National High Court of Brazil, Hon’ble Justice Mr. Brian Preston, Chief Judge, Land & Environment Court of NSW, Australia, Hon’ble Justice Songkram Vattanarat, Vice-Presiding Judge, Ang, Thong Provincial Court, Thailand, Hon’ble Justice Liu Shanshan, Judge No.2 Criminal Division, Supreme People’s Court of China, Hon’ble Justice Tan Sri Idrus Harun (Judge, Court of Appeal, Malaysia), Hon’ble Justice Dr. P. Jyothimani (Judicial Member, National Green Tribunal, India) & Justice Shri P. S. Rao, Expert member, National Green Tribunal, India. The panel was moderated by Ms. Irum Ahsan, senior counsel and Project leader, ADB, Philippines.

The valedictory session was attended by the Hon’ble Union Minister for Home Affairs of India, Shri Rajnath Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy & Mines, (Independent Charge), India, Shri Piyush Goyal; Hon’ble Justice Shri Swatanter Kumar, Shri Ranjit Kumar, Solicitor General of India, Shri Ranjit Kumar and Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, India, Shri Ajay Narayan Jha.

While addressing the valedictory session, Shri Rajnath Singh said that pollution and climate change are adversely affecting people of all age groups and these are also going to have a serious impact in the future and hoped that the plans undertaken in the national & international interest will become more determined over time.

Hon’ble Minister of State for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy & Mines, (Independent Charge), India, Shri Piyush Goyal quoted Steve Jobs, ‘Let's go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday' and it is the time that human beings must be aware of that climate change is a challenge caused by humans only and ultimately it has to be resolved by them only.

The two-day long World Conference on Environment has raised certain significant questions that need to be discussed by the legislators, executives and the judiciary to re-structure their strategies and plans to combat the new and unforeseen challenges caused by the environment pollution and climate change.

Authored by-
Rashmi Singh
Associate Editor & Manager Operations 
India Eye IHRO