Over the past two decades, the world economy has more than doubled, while over 60% of the world ecosystem was found degraded. Close to 13 million hectares of the world forest disappear every year due to unsustainable practices and green house gas emissions continue to climb, pushing the temperature 2 degrees, exposing the climate to harmful and irreversible changes.
These are just a few of the issues that were discussed in the First Annual Legal Summit on Environment, Forest and Pollution laws organised by Fox Mandal on 30th October in Delhi.
The conference attended by whose who of environmental laws touched upon important issues like the need for a sustained environment policy, the social impact of environmental regulations, revision and implementation of the green policy, role of corporate and other stakeholders in curbing unsustainable practices etc.
The conference started with a welcome address by Som Mandal, Managing Partner of Fox mandal. He recognized the need for having an environmental law practice in law firms in the country.
Mr Mandal said “We believe, as a firm that we need to develop this specialized stream of practice. Internationally this form of practice is now becoming an extremely important and sensitive area.”
The guest of honor, Gurdeep Singh Bahri, renowned constitutional scholar of India said in his speech that “The industries need to widen their ambit of corporate social responsibility beyond green economies. The three important pillars that define environmental sustainability are Economic development, Ecological development and Social development, the government and the corporate sector will have to work together with each other to achieve these three.”
Sridhar Potaraju, Advocate of Supreme Court spoke on Forest laws and forest conservation and mining rights in India. Sudhir Mishra, Head of Environment and Sustainability Law Practice Group at Fox Mandal said in his address “Environment and Infrastructure development are two contradicting issues as a combination and needs to balance the pole position. Environment and Infrastructure needs to be encouraged without compromising either of them
Madhusudan Hanumappa, CEO, Abnaki Infrastructure Application and Infrastructure Development in his address highlighted the importance of social development; he said “We need to develop a comprehensive community development program to ensure social assessment. Political decisions sometimes pose problems for the corporates and that must be handled appropriately.
Mandar Parasnis, Environmental specialist, International Finance Corporation, spoke on the aspect related to legal framework versus safeguards; he said “‘financial issues’ related to safeguards cannot be seen as financial in isolation. It is a mixed bag of financial, reputation, compliance, social, environmental, and ultimately project finance and sustainability.
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