On the first-ever ‘International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies’, Let Me Breathe brought together a variety of clean air champions from startup founders to young activists and UN Environment Programme ambassadors/patrons to have a conversation on clean air solutions for India.
The panel was led and moderated by Ms. Dia Mirza, Actor, Producer, UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador & United Nations Secretary-General Advocate for Sustainable Development Goals.
The panelists for the event included Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma (Founder Paytm & Patron, Clean Air with UNEP); Ms. Archana Soreng (Young Activist & Member United Nations Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change); Mr. Anirudh Sharma (Founder – Graviky Labs), and Mr. Tamseel Hussain (Founder of letmebreathe.in).
Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma said, “An agenda of sustainability should be involved in all corporate agendas.”
He added, “Atmanirbhar Bharat, we need to bring policies that champion entrepreneurship in the area of sustainable transport.”
According to Dia Mirza, stories are so important to bring about change and action.
She further says, “Most of the time when we speak about air pollution, we often restrict it to urban areas, we don’t talk about how it impacts indigenous communities.”
When decision-making power is given to women in indigenous communities, I’ve seen it myself how it helps in forest conservation and subsequently in improving the air around us,” said Ms. Archana Soreng.
Anirudh Sharma said, “Tons of pollution from industries is coming to us and we enable sustainable products out of it. Imagine if your t-shirt is printed from air pollution that could have been otherwise harmful for the environment.”
According to him, there’s a need for bringing art, science and technology on to the same platform to fight air pollution.
Tamseel Hussain said, “2020 is really about blue skies and more importantly how can it be covered from states other than Delhi, Punjab, Haryana.”
“One of the reasons I started championing environment as an issue 14 years ago, was a desire to make this conversation more mainstream. Nothing makes me more happier than seeing it happen now!” said Dia.
Talking about Carbon labelling, Anirudh Sharma said, “companies are finding out the environmental cost & impact of things we consume. So that we take a decision after knowing where a product comes from & how it impacts our environment.”
