Union Minister Chairs High Level Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Mr. Mullappally Ramachandran chaired the High Level Round Table-3 on Promoting Integration of Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation into Development for Green Growth at the 4th Asian Ministerial Conference being held in Incheon, Republic of Korea. Initiating the discussion, the Minister said that India has been on the forefront of climate change negotiations since the inception of UNFCC in 1992. Recalling the speech of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh delivered at the time of unveiling Indian National Action Plan on Climate Change the minister stated that “we have the moral responsibility to bequeath to our children a World which is safe, clean and productive.”

The Minister stated that despite the commonalities of DRR and CCA, there are divergent institutional structures, policy frameworks and strategic interventions, which need to be brought closer to each other. He emphasized on the need to understand the implications of the future climate change projections for the current risks and vulnerabilities and accordingly these are factored into the policies and programme developed for reducing the risks of disasters. He stressed upon the need for use of indigenous knowledge and experience along with serious research work for developing new technologies.

The issue and concern expressed in this High Level Round Table are summarized as under:

The world has warmed up by about a centigrade during the past 100 years and this has already impacted plant, animal and human life on the earth. There is a definite trend of increasing climate and water related natural disaster all over the world and particularly in the Asian-Pacific, causing sufferings to millions of people.

The huge uncertainties about the future trends about the precise nature of climate change in local, rural and urban areas require considerable research on future climate change in local areas.

As the global warming has become an irreversible process we have to live with it by adaptation to climate change. Although countries in Asia-Pacific has adopted its own action plans but capacity and resource crunch are major challenges to implement it.

The Incheon Declaration which proposes to adopt a Regional Road Map on Integration of Climate Change Adaptation with Disaster Risk Reduction is laudable but technical and scientific issues in this document need serious considerations. Our Action Plan must be actionable.

The Ministers of Various Nations are deliberating the issue of Disaster Risk Reduction through Climate Change Adaptation at great length at the three day conference that concludes tomorrow.

Source-PIB