Jairam: Must involve people in climate draft
Noting that India is “most vulnerable country” to climate change, environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was “put together” by experts who thought “they knew what the country knows best.” The minister pitched for involving common people in drafting policies in that regard.
The action plan was released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008. The plan identifies eight core “national missions” and outlines existing and future policies and programs addressing climate mitigation and adaptation.
“It (the Action Plan) was put together by a large number of experts sitting in Delhi, thinking that they knew what the country knows best for climate change,” Mr Ramesh said.
Noting that adaptation to climate change has to be a community-driven process, Mr Ramesh said the common people should be involved in drafting policies in this regard. “But now we are actually reverting the process and putting together elements of the plans based on daily experience of people and community who are actually facing impacts of climate change,” the minister. “It cannot be a government mandated pro-cess. Elected panchayats, self-help groups and various NGOs have to be involved in drafting government policies on how to deal with the threat,” he added.
He maintained that there was no country in the world which was as severely affected as India and identified four major dimensions of climate change faced by the people including water security and variation in monsoon pattern.
Renowned agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan also shared similar views and said that common and differentiated impact of climate change at various level need to be studied.
The minister also informed that the first assessment report on the impact of climate change on four sectors, including agriculture and water, in the country’s four climatic hot spots like the Himalayas and the North East, would be released on November 16.
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