Sustainability should be a major focus for all development initiatives: Nobel Laureate Prof Arthur Riedacker

Prof Arthur Riedacker, Honorary Professor INRA, France; Chair of OIKOS Institute called upon for people’s involvement in national preparedness for response on climate change initiative. He was delivering his noble seminar on “Because of climate change we are no longer alone in the world!” yesterday at Amity University Gurugram. Food security is intensely dependent upon climate change and thus calls for major initiative actions in the agriculture sector. Among other things rapid action plan for reducing use of pesticides and use of chemical fertilizers is required to affect the impact of agriculture processes on climate change. Prof Arthur was also of the view that while the advance nation of the world are increasingly putting in place technology to reduce carbon dioxide flow to atmosphere, the developing countries also need to become more sensitive to this challenge. He discussed about the context of climate change with different impacts on crops in the world. During his interaction with the Vice Chancellor, Prof P B Sharma, Prof Arthur Riedacker also discussed on the alarming issues such as rise in population, exodus of rural population towards urban cities and in their opinion that need to be planned. Sustainability should be a major focus for all development initiative in the nation. Prof Arthur recommended that major research initiatives at the universities should focus on 17 Sustainable Development Goals of UNDP. He expressed his happiness that Amity University Gurugram Campus has been awarded LEED Platinum Certificate for energy efficiency and environment sustainability in design, operation and maintenance. In AUG every single drop of water is efficiently utilized, and waste water is recycle for sanitation and horticulture needs further energy sufficient building design is supported by smart campus management system and in house solar power generation around 500 KV. AUG also has a SAFAR air quality monitoring station and its ACOAST is engaged in studies on Air Quality Monitoring modelling, analysis and impact on climate change. The noble lecture was convened by Prof Rajendra Prasad, Director, Amity Institute of Biotechnology (AIB) along with Dr Machiavelli, Dr Munindra, Prof PCS Devara, Dr Kushagra at Amity University Gurugram. The lecture was attended by students and faculty members of the university.