Context: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has launched the “In Our LiFEtime” campaign at a side event of the COP 27 in Egypt.

“In Our LiFEtime” campaign

• Launched by: The National Museum of Natural History(NMNH) under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

• Aim: To encourage youth between the age of 18 to 23 years to become message-bearers of sustainable lifestyles.

• Features: The campaign gives a global call for ideas from youth across the world who are passionate about living environmentally conscious lives.

• It encourages youth to submit their climate actions that contribute to lifestyles for the environment within their capacity. These practices should be sustainable and scalable, hence the practices would serve as good practices that can be shared globally. 

• Significance: The campaign is a great way to encourage youth to become ambassadors of sustainable lifestyle practices and grow into leaders that lead the way in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management.

What is the concept of LIFE?

• LIFE stands for LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment).

• The concept of LiFE was introduced by the Prime Minister —at COP26 in Glasgow on 1 November 2021.

• It aims to nudge individuals and communities to practice a lifestyle that is synchronous with nature and does not harm it. Those who practice such a lifestyle are recognised as Pro Planet People.

• On 5 June 2022, on World Environment Day, India furthered the vision of LiFE by launching the LiFE Global Movement inviting academicians, researchers and start-ups across the world to think about specific and scientific ways in which the full potential of collective action can be harnessed to address the environmental crisis. 

About Mission LIFE

• Mission LiFE seeks to translate the vision of LiFE into measurable impact. 

• Aim: It is designed with the objective to mobilize at least one billion Indians and other global citizens to take individual and collective action for protecting and conserving the environment in the period 2022–28. 

• Within India, at least 80% of all villages and urban local bodies are aimed to become environment-friendly by 2028.

• Duration: The mission is a 5-year programme.

Strategy: The Mission LiFE aims at following a three-pronged strategy 

• Nudging individuals to practise simple yet effective environment-friendly actions in their daily lives (demand), 

• Enabling industries and markets to respond swiftly to the changing demand (supply) and 

• Influence government and industrial policy to support both sustainable consumption and production (policy).

Implemented by: The mission will be incubated, curated and piloted by NITI Aayog and subsequently implemented by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

• Significance: Mission LiFE emboldens the spirit of the P3 model, i.e. Pro Planet People, as it is premised on the basic principles of ‘Lifestyle of the planet, for the planet and by the planet’.

India’s contributions against Climate Change: The annual per capita carbon footprint in the country is only about 1.5 tons, compared to the world average of 4 tons per year.

• India has the fourth-largest capacity for renewable energy in the world. 

• India is ranked fourth in wind energy and fifth in solar energy. India’s renewable energy capacity has increased by about 290 % in the last 7-8 years. 

• India has also achieved the target of 40% of the electric capacity from non-fossil-fuel sources nine years ahead of the deadline.