EU joins India-led Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure

The 27-member European Union has joined India's Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) initiative.

CDRI was launched in 2019 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the UN Climate Change Summit.

It is an international collaborative platform involving the public and private sector, aiming to promote the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks in support of sustainable development.

"Accepting India's invitation, the European Union (EU) has officially on-boarded as a member of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), following its endorsement of the charter of the CDRI earlier," an EU statement said.

It said that climate-related extreme events are increasing globally, and COVID-19 pandemic has further reinforced the need for robust disaster preparedness and investment in renewable energy, green infrastructure, energy and resource efficiency, large-scale retrofitting, renovation projects and the circular economy.

The CDRI is a welcome initiative to help tackle these objectives in a multilateral approach, which will help the implementation of the Paris Agreement, through both global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and enhanced climate change adaptation action, the statement said. Ambassador of the European Union to India Ugo Astuto said they are happy to join CDRI.

"We are happy to join CDRI, an initiative fully aligned with the objectives of the European Green Deal and of the recently adopted EU Strategy on Adaptation. We wish to make adaptation smarter, swifter, more systemic and to step up international action. We look forward to exploring synergies and combining forces with CDRI in this respect," he said

"Increased resilience, including the development of sustainable and resilient infrastructure, is also a key priority under the EU-India strategic partnership," he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure through video conference on Wednesday and said the importance of the CDRI is "more evident" than ever.

He had called for sustained and concentrated efforts to mitigate climate change.

( With inputs from ANI )