The Vice President of India, M. Hamid Ansari has said that we need to move towards implementing a framework of sustainability that synthesizes both the human and the environmental elements of security for sustainable human development. He was delivering the 6th Prof. Moonis Raza Memorial Lecture, here today, organised by the Prof. Moonis Raza Memorial Trust.Speaking about Prof. Moonis Raza, the Vice President said that his work blurred the boundary between traditional human geography and environmental science, synthesizing both natural and socio-economic elements of geography, and its impact on the human landscape. A Muslim by birth, a Marxist by orientation and an agnostic in matters metaphysical, Moonis sahib was acutely aware of the sociological imperatives of the Indian scene, he added.The Vice President said that sustainable development cannot be achieved by technological solutions, political regulation or financial instruments alone. We need to change the way we think and act, he added.
The Vice President said that the human security approach is tied intrinsically to the idea of sustainable human development, which envisions not only generating economic growth but distributing its benefits equitably, regenerating the environment rather than destroying it, and empowering people rather than marginalizing them. It is increasingly apparent that approaches to development, based merely on economic values are insufficient, he added.The Vice President said that the articulation of views by some members of the new Administration in the United States has raised questions on the future of sustained global action on climate change and may put at risk the immediate goals and commitments to mitigating climate change impact and promoting sustainability. He further said that the developing shift in the global system, from an outward-looking to a more inward-looking stance, would also create challenges for strengthening global cooperation. It is sad to conclude that the travellers of spaceship earth continue to be mired in conflicts of narrow self-interest and are yet to reach a consensus on how to change the disastrous trajectory we are on, he added.