Karnataka framing policy on sustainable development

Karnataka is formulating a new policy to address sustainability issues and challenges in consultation with industry, a minister said Thursday.

"The key challenge is to strike a balance between development and sustainable use of natural resources. We are framing a new policy to ensure that socio-economic development will not be at the cost of environment and the fragile ecosystem," Forest, Environment and Ecology Minister Ramnath Rai said at a conference on 'Indian Life Cycle Assessment and Management' here.

State Industries Secretary M.N. Vidyashankar said the policy would be ready by December 2014 to address sustainability issues and challenges with participation from all stakeholders, including industry, NGOs and social activists.

"In view of various pressures from regulator, market and consumer, the need of the hour is to align our development with sustainable practices. We do not have any study on cost of compliance unlike in the US where the cost of enforcing safety norms and protective measures for sustainable growth is estimated to a whopping $3 trillion annually," he said.

Lamenting that Bangalore had a high content of organic waste, while other cities across the state were burdened with construction and demolition waster, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board chairman Vaman Acharya said managing such a waste had become a challenge due to lack of awareness to protect the environment and the state's natural ecosystem.

As a national forum to bring global discussions on life cycle assessment and management, the conference organisers - Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have called for contributions for listing in the India directory to be released in December 2014.