India will face severe stress as a consequence of climate change caused by global warming, but the attitude of the government to the looming crisis is lackadaisical.
NEW DELHI: India will face severe stress as a consequence of climate change caused by global warming, but the attitude of the government to the looming crisis is lackadaisical.
At the last meeting of UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), India was represented by an official of Indian embassy at Paris, said IPCC Chairman RK Pachauri. He said, China had sent 10 specialists who actively participated in deliberations and dominated the meet.
Lamenting India’s casual attitude, Pachauri said while we must be responsible members of global community and develop forward looking policies. He agreed that developed countries, responsible for most of the emissions that are causing global warming should bear a “commensurate level of discomfort”. However, while aiming at an 8-9% economic growth rate, India needs to find energy-efficient ways and keep emissions low.
There is a multiplicity of departments and agencies dealing with matters like energy and there is no coherent approach. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has just one joint secretary to look after climate change, among many other things, and he was not present at the IPCC meet because foreign trips are seen as ‘jaunts’. “Old attitudes continue and the system has just not responded to the situation,” said Pachauri.
Although details of how India would be affected by climate change would come only in the second instalment of IPCC report in April, certain outlines were clear. Pachauri said the country would face higher temperatures, more heat waves, extreme precipitation, frequent droughts, melting and disappearance of glaciers and rise in sea level.
IIET to be set up
The government has decided to set up an Indian Institute for Environment Technology with public-private partnership, said Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal here on Monday.
As a country developing at 9 per cent growth rate, India would see construction in a big way and this was the first sector that needed to be addressed. Calling the decision “a huge initiative” for development of technology, Sibal said energy and environment would be a thrust area at the upcoming meeting with European Union.
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