Odisha Chief Secy Calls For Aggressive Targets To Tackle Climate Change

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra has said that we all have to act urgently with aggressive targets to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“Life on earth is now under the threat of all-ending catastrophe because of fast-increasing carbon and other green house emissions. We have to act urgently with aggressive targets for keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius failing which life on earth will face catastrophe soon,” Mahapatra said.

He was addressing a two-day national workshop on ‘Climate Change — New Age Revolution’ organised here. It was organised under the joint collaboration of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, and India office of Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), a Germany-based foundation.

Mahapatra said the effects of climate change were already visible. “The frequency of summer and winter cyclones, increasing intensity of cyclones, erratic ways of nature, rapidly melting glaciers etc are the distinct indications. Odisha started working to tackle climate change since the last 10 years,” he said.

He assured that the state would provide all possible support for implementation of the action plan that would be prepared with expert inputs from the workshop.

Civil society activists from Delhi, Bhopal, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai and Meghalaya, among others, along with IIT and JNU professors participated in the deliberations.

Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director General of TERI, Sovik Bhattacharaya, senior expert from TERI, and Pankaj Pradhan of KAS also addressed the valedictory session.