EU joins India-promoted Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

The 27-member European Union has joined India’s Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) initiative, following its endorsement of the charter of the CDRI earlier.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 at the UN Climate Change Summit, the CDRI is an international platform involving the public and private sector, aiming to promote resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks while supporting sustainable development.

Key Highlights

• According to a statement from the EU on Thursday, “climate-related extreme events are increasing globally, and the covid-19 pandemic has further reinforced the need for robust disaster preparedness and investment in renewable energy, green infrastructure, energy and resource efficiency, large-scale retrofitting, renovation projects and the circular economy.”
• In this context, the CDRI is a welcome initiative to help tackle these objectives in a multilateral approach, which will help implementation of the Paris Agreement, through both global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced climate change adaptation action, it said.
• Welcoming India’s leadership of the CDRI, Astuto said, “Increased resilience, including development of sustainable and resilient infrastructure is also a key priority under the EU-India strategic partnership.
• The EU is already exploring how to maximise synergies in its work with the CDRI in its forthcoming project on enhancing climate-smart infrastructure in South Asia. Leveraging tools in research and innovation, like the EU’s Copernicus space data instrument, and trilateral cooperation in Small Island Developing States (SIDS), are also potential fields of collaboration between the EU and CDRI.

SOURCE: Livemint, Economic Times

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