Om Birla for collective effort to bring about lifestyle changes  

Ahead of the 9th G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit (P-20), Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla meets Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad of Bangladesh, in New Delhi on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Framing policies and enacting laws are not enough to deal with climate, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Thursday as he advocated for “collective effort to bring about lifestyle changes”.

Mr. Birla was addressing an event ahead of the two-day, ninth G-20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit (P20).  

While the P20 Summit will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, Mr. Birla was addressing the Parliamentary Forum on ‘LiFE: Lifestyle for Environment’. 

The pre-P20 Summit event, attended by presiding officers of G-20 nations and invited countries, focused on Mission Lifestyle.

“There have also been extensive discussions in the Parliament of India on the topic of lifestyle for the environment and laws have been made. But it is not enough to just make policies and laws on the problem of climate change. Rather we all need to contribute collectively by changing our daily routine,” Mr. Birla said.

Noting that Mr. Modi had presented the idea of lifestyle for environment to the world, he said Mission Lifestyle was a comprehensive approach to environmental protection that inspired everyone to reduce, reuse and recycle.

“That is why today we need to adopt such a lifestyle, such an approach which does not harm our environment. This is the individual and collective responsibility of all of us,” Mr. Birla said.

Canada to skip

However, amid frozen diplomatic ties between India and Canada, Speaker of the Canadian Senate Raymonde Gagne decided to give the P20 summit a miss. 

Mr. Gagne had confirmed his presence earlier. “The Canadian Speaker is not attending the Summit. Schedules keep changing,” a Parliamentary official said.

At a press conference earlier, Mr. Birla had said that he would raise “all issues” during talks when he was asked about the Canadian Parliament being used to make allegations against India about the killing of Khalistani leader Hardip Singh Nijjar.