The Meghalaya Climate Change Centre, MBDA organized the core group workshop for finalizing the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) at Vivanta Meghalaya, Shillong today, under the Chairmanship of Dr Joram Beda IAS, Commissioner and Secretary, Planning, Investment Promotion and Sustainable Development Department, Govt of Meghalaya and Director General, Meghalaya Climate Change Centre.
This project funded by MoEFCC, Govt of India, aims that “the SAPCCs should be a policy document of the States outlining the major initiatives and strategies reflecting the commitments and proposed actions in the state to tackle the vulnerabilities and impacts of climate change across the socio-economic sectors. It should reflect the policy directions and strategies of the state for climate actions”. In his keynote address, Dr Beda also emphasized that the State envisages to mainstream climate actions to set forth the low carbon development agenda that will focus on source sustainability, increased forest cover and renewable energy development.
Other speakers at the Inaugural function were Smt. Matsiewdor War Nongbri IAS, Secretary to the Govt of Meghalaya, Revenue and Disaster Management; Shri H.C. Chaudhary IFS, PCCC (RT and Climate Change) and Shri ABS Swer, Director (A), MBDA. The technical sessions was broadly represented by senior officials (including Directors) and technical experts from all relevant departments and agencies (from Agriculture, AH & Veterinary, Fisheries, Water Resources, Health & Family Welfare, C & RD, SRES, MBDA, MSPCB, Power, MNREDA, Horticuature, DMR, Commerce and Industries, Urban Affairs, Tourism, MSWWDA, Soil and Water Conservation, SCEP, SDG Cell among others). The workshop also witnessed substantial representation and interactions from the KHADC, JHADC and GHADC (represented by their Secretary, Jt. Secretary, Chief Forest Officer, Law officers etc). A broad representation was also seen from academia with sectoral experts from IIM-Shillong, ICAR-NEH and NEHU. NABARD was also represented by the DGM and AGM, who provided a detailed overview of the climate financing opportunities.
The discussion centered on both climate adaptation and mitigation actions, including both rejuvenation of critical sources of water supply and of polluted urban stretches of our rivers. The meeting ended with the recommendation to complete the fine tuning of the different climate actions of the Departments, within this month, before submission to the Chief Secretary led State Level Steering Committee, before onward submission to MoEFCC.