After Maldives, India Sends Serious Message on Climate Change

Chaired by President M. Nasheed, the Government of Maldives recently concluded the world’s first ever underwater cabinet meeting. The small island nation of Maldives will perhaps be the first country to go under water, if predictions based on climate change models come true.

The underwater meeting was called to raise this concern and put pressure on the West to act NOW, and for a fair deal at COP in Copenhagen this December. A day after the event, extensively covered by the media (View on: CNN | BBC), the Government of India has announced the setting up of a National institute for long-term research on climate change.

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“The data compiled so far by western countries on the melting of the Himalayan glaciers is biased, as its analysis was based on changes in the Arctic glaciers.”, the Central Minister of State for Forests and Environment Jairam Ramesh informed reporters while announcing the need to set up such an institution. The National Institute for Climate and Environmental Sciences (NICES)–as it will be called–will be set up in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

While island nations like Maldives will surely be the first ones to face major climate change impacts, developing countries like India are already experiencing the ‘heat’. The institute will thus be focused on studying the local impacts of climate change and the fallout of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment. The institute will also study the forests in Kerala, Western Ghats in Karnataka, North-East India, Uttarkhand and in the Indo-Gangetic plains of Central India and explore their sink capability.

The Environment Ministry had previously set up an Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) program to study the impact of climate change on socio-economic aspects. With help from ISRO, NICES will build India specific monitoring, measuring and modelling (3Ms) mechanisms to study regional impacts of climate change. The Environment Minister has also informed that ISRO representatives will also be sent to the COP in Copenhagen to develop greater understanding.

The central idea behind NICES is to generate primary climate data in the country so as to minimize the dependency on western sources and develop a real-time knowledge of climate change and its impact on India. The message is clear, climate change is here to stay and is now demanding urgent attention in terms of adaptation and mitigation measures. Time for wondering whether to act is gone and time for action is going each passing second. It is now or never and that is nonnegotiable!

Image by Presidency Maldives courtesy Flickr

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