Three ministries to form a consortium

MUMBAI: Three ministries - earth sciences (MOES), science and technology, and environment, forest and climate change (MOEFCC), are set to form a consortium for climate science, mitigation and adaptation. On Monday, M Ravichandran, secretary, MOES, said that the idea of the inter-ministerial consortium is to avoid duplication of climate-related policy formulation and research, and work cohesively towards climate action and towards realising India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement.

NDC is a climate action plan including targets that are put forth by individual countries to cut emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Ravichandran, who was the chief guest for the 10th anniversary of the Interdisciplinary Programme in climate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (Iit)-bombay, said that the consortium is likely to be in place in the next six months.

“The problem at present is that each ministry is working separately on climate-related issues, be it science, adaptation or mitigation. The prime minister has been consistently of the opinion that these ministries should not work in isolation, so as to ensure that societal issues are being addressed and solutions reach the common man,” said Ravichandran.

He further added, “MOES, DST and MOEFCC will work together along with academia, institutes and national laboratories to have different outcomes. We will discuss the modalities at our next monthly meeting.”

“One of the areas where the three ministries will converge is climate modelling with the aim to create an India-centric climate model,” said Akhilesh Gupta, senior advisor, depart

ment of science and technology.

“Similarly, we can all work together on aerosols and establish an aerosol mission. Urban climate is another important focus area. India will also increasingly be impacted by extreme events and there is therefore a need for more robust work on an early warn

ing system,” added Gupta.

Stating that the PM wants these departments to work for a similar cause, Gupta said, “The centre is spending a lot of money on climate research, but a significant amount of work is happening individually and leading to duplication. There is enough to be done.”