Making climate favourable at the local level
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to blow away the perennial issues of greenhouse gas emissions, the state is set to go down to lower-rungs of power to address climate change effectively.
The State Directorate of Environment and Climate Change (DoECC) is zeroing in on the strategies to encourage carbon-neutral initiatives in all sectors at the local level itself.
“The state is giving high priority to address the issue of climate change. The said projects will be taken up during the 2019-20 plan period. Along with that there is also a plan to revise the Kerala State Action Plan on climate change,” said an officer with the DoECC.
The officer said while revising the action-plan priority will be given to take up carbon neutral initiatives in all sectors. The other idea is to urge the local bodies to chalk out a climate assessment plan for their respective area of jurisdiction.
State Climate Change Cell
In February, DoECC had decided to set up a State Climate Change Cell for the effective management, implementation, coordination and monitoring of climate change activities. It will work on the proposals to be submitted to the Centre for funds related to climate change activities.
The initiative was followed by another decision in October in which the Local Self-Government Department directs the local bodies to constitute a working group for ‘biodiversity management, climate change, environmental protection and disaster management’.
The working group will associate with the respective biodiversity management committee for preparing People’s Biodiversity Register and update it by documenting the invasive species and other organisms in their respective areas.
“The working group will play a major role in making the state a climate resilient one. It will spearhead the programmes meant to make the local body carbon neutral,” reads an excerpt from the directive.
Meanwhile, it is learnt the Environment Department has plans to convert this working group into a cell and entrust it with activities to fight climate change and make their areas a carbon-neutral one.