High-level committee to finalise action plan on climate change

The process of finalizing the State Action Plan (SAP) on climate change for Orissa got further impetus with the government constituting a High Level Co-ordination Committee (HLCC) headed by the chief secretary, Tarunkanti Mishra.

The secretary, forest and environment department of the Orissa government has been nominated as the member convener of the committee.

The committee has development commissioner (DC), Agricultural Production Commissioner (APC), secretaries in the departments of finance, fisheries, housing and urban development, steel and mines, agriculture, water resources, revenue and disaster management, energy, commerce and transport, health and family welfare, industry and managing director of Orissa State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) as its members.

The chief minister Naveen Patnaik has approved a proposal to this effect, sources said.

The Draft Action Plan (DAP) will undergo sectoral discussions and inter-sectoral consultations before being finalized. It would then be submitted to the government for approval. “The World Bank has roped in experts of international repute to carry forward the process of framing the SAP on climate change. It would be finalized by the end of April 2010 as scheduled”, Bhagirathi Behera, director, environment department, Orissa government told Business Standard.

Sources said, the experts who have been roped in by the World Bank to assist the government in its endeavor to frame the SAP, included Mala Rao of Indian Institute of Public Health, Anil Markandeya (scientific director, Basque Centre for Climate Change), Atul Agarwal (Transport specialist in the World Bank), K P Nyati (expert in sustainable mining initiatives), Arivudai Nambi (Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai).

The experts would hold discussions with different sectoral groups from March 25-31, 2010. On the advice of DFID and World Bank, the government has already formed nine sectoral committees that would work on nine different impact areas of climate change.

These areas include health and social vulnerability, energy, transport, agriculture, urban development, water resources, coastal and disaster, mining and forest among others. Meanwhile, eleven working groups headed by the secretaries have held one round of discussion with the experts from March 1-6.