Greens want political parties to declare plans for climate mitigation and adaptation

PUNE Experts working in the area of environment conservation on Thursday demanded that political parties preparing for the upcoming state assembly elections declare their plans for climate mitigation and adaptation. They also shared information about the issues that they will be representing in the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference aka COP29 to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan between November 11 and 22 this year.
The Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change (INECC) in association with the Centre for Sustainable Development – Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN), TERRE Policy Centre, and BAIF on Thursday held a press conference to share information about climate challenges (and solutions) in Maharashtra in the context of some key discussion points that will come up in the COP29. The press conference was addressed by Myron Mendes, national facilitator, INECC; Bharat Kakade, president, BAIF; Gurudas Nulkar, professor and director, Centre for Sustainable Development – Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics; Priyadarshini Karve, CEO, CLEAN; and Vinita Apte, founder-director, TERRE Policy Centre.
During the press conference, Mendes said, “Mitigation alone is insufficient. Maharashtra must urgently scale up climate adaptation efforts to protect its people from the worsening impacts of climate change, particularly in the sectors of agriculture, water and energy security, and disaster preparedness.”
The experts also emphasised the need for increased access to climate finance to fund decentralised, locally-led solutions that strengthen resilience on the ground. With the state assembly elections coinciding with the COP29, the experts appealed to all political parties to declare their plans for climate mitigation and adaptation, Mendes said.
Priyadarshini Karve said, “Maharashtra has experienced rapid industrialisation and hence, is the biggest contributor in India’s carbon emissions. Therefore, if we need to reduce India’s carbon emissions, Maharashtra’s carbon emissions also need to be reduced first. Maharashtra has diverse ecosystems like coastal, forest, grassland, and freshwater. We also have communities like tribals, farmers and a few others who are directly related to this ecosystem and are at high risk of climate change impact. Maharashtra is experiencing significant adverse impact of climate change. We need to know what the politicians have thought about climate mitigation and adaptation measures. Hence, we want political parties to come up with an agenda for climate resilience.”
Gurudas Nulkar said that if political parties and leaders come up with a climate resilience agenda, it will certainly help in implementation on the ground.
Meanwhile, considering the growing impact of climate change on Maharashtra, the state climate action cell is in the process of preparing a climate action plan for the state. The environmentalists have given inputs for the same and soon, the action plan will be declared which will help in mitigating the impact of climate change on Maharashtra, Nulkar said.
During the press conference, the environmentalists also mentioned key topics that will be in focus during the COP29 from Maharashtra’s point of view. These include climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction; sustainable agriculture, food and nutritional security; drinking water security, sanitation and irrigation; Nature-based solutions of biodiversity conservation, energy security and equity through decentralised renewable solutions; role of biomass energy in mitigation and equity through decentralised renewable solutions; and role of biomass energy in mitigation and resilience, circular economy and green entrepreneurship etc.