Climate change Authority is born in Uttar Pradesh(November3,2014 ,Monday)

November3,2014was a red letter  for Uttar Pradesh.The Cabinet of the state government took the momentous decision of constituting Climate Change Authority.It was my privilege, as the Principal Secretary, Environment of UP,  to present this proposal for the approval of the cabinet.

                   The Authority as constituted  , is a society under the Societies Registration Act.It has  an Apex Committee at the top , headed by the Chief Minister of UP.There will be four experts nominated by the state government on this Apex committee,two on climate change mitigation , and two on climate change adaptation .Two NGOs , working in the field of climate  change ,will also find a place on this Apex  committee.

                        There is  a governing body headed by the Chief secretary of the state,with  senior civil servants and Heads of Departments , working in the departments having relevance in the field of climate change.There will be an Executive committee , headed by the Director of environment of UP.

                      Climate changes cause floods,droughts ,cyclones etc.,with increasing frequency and intensity, causing enormous hardships to farmers,especially the small and marginal farmers.We need to reduce and check global warming by large scale greening, having more and more solar/wind/nuclear energy, improving energy efficiency and increased use of organic fertilizers.We need to work in a coordinated manner to mitigate the effects of climate change through technology , information , flood protection , agro met advisory services and creation of appropriate infrastructure.Climate change Authority will do all these things .It will also obtain national and international support and resources .It will build capacities of the government departments , NGOs and the society.

The secretariat of the Climate Change Authority will be in the Directorate of Environment of UP .It has been approved to have a corpus of Rs 20 crores .

                    I congratulate  all those who have made it possible.It is a praiseworthy step, and I hope , it will go a long way to  achieve the purpose for which it has been set up.

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Lucknow:The Uttar Pradesh government today decided to constitute a climate change authority, besides approving state bio-diversity policy and setting up of modern schools.The decision was taken during a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.(Economic Times, November3 ,2014).