PM's climate change council reconstituted

The Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change was reconstituted Wednesday, days ahead of a crucial UN meet on global warming in Peru.

While TERI chairperson R.K. Pachauri, Nitin Desai and retired diplomat Chandrasekhar Dasgupta were retained as the non-government members, environmentalist and director general of the Centre for Science and Environment Sunita Narain and industrialist Ratan Tata were dropped from the council.

An official statement said the changes were made in an effort to better coordinate action on related issues.

The 18-member council, which has Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairperson and eight ministers as members, will help in formulation of action plans in assessment, adaptation and mitigation of climate change as well as periodically monitoring key policy decisions.

The members include External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu along with the cabinet and foreign secretaries among other officials.

The environment, forests and climate change ministry will assist the Prime Minister's Office in facilitating the work of this committee. The advisory body had not met for the past three years.