Mission LIFE, the lifestyle mass movement to promote environmental consciousness launched by India, can address the need for sustainable development, according to Assistant Secretary-General Ligia Noronha. “We see Mission Life as an opportunity to use consumption as a lever for a better tomorrow through aligning with sustainable lifestyles”, she said on Monday at the UN headquarters at a special event commemorating Mission LIFE.

Mission LIFE was launched last year by  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to promote lifestyle changes and individual and community action to promote sustainable development and fight climate change.

India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj said that Mission LIFE “aligns perfectly with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and it is a testament to how individual responsibility can foster a sustainable future for the entire planet”. 

It has significance while the COP28 Climate Summit is taking place to tackle the problem of global warming, she said..

Mission LIFE adds “a synergy of individual choices and global collaboration” as “an important force in addressing environmental challenges”, the senior UN official said.

The “powerful endorsement” by Guterres of the initiative has “the potential to inspire change well beyond national borders, encouraging a worldwide movement towards more sustainability practices”, Kamboj said.

Noronha said that a survey showed that “more and more citizens align their lives to concerns about climate change, and concerns with issues of sustainability” and added, “I think we need to draw all of these together to really build a Mission LIFE around a collective movement that can push this forward”.

Noronha raised several questions such as how much of what kind of consumption is possible to live in harmony with nature and a pollution-free world; what kind of norms are needed to ensure equity and fairness and value to the consumer, and how to address the issue of the very unequal pattern of consumption in the world.

(SAM)