The government is preparing the ground for public consultation on developing a climate adaptation and mitigation strategy for the State.
The steering committee on climate change, chaired by the chief secretary, has cleared a proposal to revise the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC). Officials said the revision process had been set in motion, with the focus on reassessing the vulnerable sectors. The Department of Environment and Climate Change (DoECC) is carrying out the exercise with the assistance of the Institute of Climate Change Studies (ICCS) and other agencies.
“The draft plan is expected to be ready by the year end. It will form the base document for public consultation on formulating the appropriate response,” says Dr. George Chackacherry, Director, ICCS.
A consultative workshop and sectoral-level discussions have already been held with various departments and agencies and efforts are on to update the facts and figures in the original document.
The current SAPCC that was approved by the Centre in 2015 envisages a budget requirement of ₹1,170 crore for projects to mitigate the impact of climate change in Kerala.
The five-year project had identified eight key sectors for intervention, namely agriculture and animal husbandry, fisheries and coastal ecosystems, forests and biodiversity, water resources, health, energy, urban front and transport and tourism.
The plan had listed Alappuzha, Palakkad, Wayanad and Idukki as climate change hotspots with a high degree of vulnerability of natural hazards like drought and floods, impacting on biodiversity and human life.
The plan, however, remained bogged down due to the lack of coordination between departments. The SAPCC had also come in for criticism from civil society organisations and stakeholder communities who felt that the absence of public consultation reflected a bureaucratic approach to tackling climate change.
“The revision process will follow a participatory approach. We have planned a series of discussions with civil society organisations and representatives of various communities,” says Dr. Chackacherry.
There are indications that the vulnerable sectors would be re examined to reflect the emerging threats posed by climate change. Reliable sources said the climate change hotspots were likely to be determined for each sector.
