PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
*****
FIRST TIME A CHAPTER ON CLIMATE
CHANGE TO BE INCLUDED IN THE
FORTHCOMING ECONOMIC SURVEY OF
INDIA;CHANGE IN LIFE STYLE AND
LIVELIHOOD SECURITY REQUIRED TO
DEAL WITH PROBLEM OF CLIMATE
CHANGE
New Delhi: January
14, 2012
Shri R.Gopalan, Secretary, Department of Economic
Affairs, Ministry of Finance said that in order to deal with the issue of
Climate change and with the consequences,
we will need not only enormous resources but also changes in our lifestyle
especially among the better –off and livelihood security for the less well off.
Shri Gopalan was delivering the Inaugural Address at the Workshop on Climate Change Financing
here today. The workshop was jointly organized by the Climate Change Finance
Unit of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance along with
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The inauguration of the Workshop
was also attended by Mr Patrice Coeur-Bizot, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP
Resident Representative, Dr Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser(CEA), Ministry
of Finance, Shri J.M Mauskar, Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment and
Forest, Government of India and Dr Dipak
Dasgupta, Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance among others.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr
Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance said that the problem
of global commons has been around not just today, but also earlier. The
challenge is for building knowledge and cooperative institutions, he added.
Judiciously placed, at the brink
of launching India’s 12th Five Year Plan and post Durban Conference,
this workshop marked the second initiative of the recently set-up Climate
Change Finance Unit in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance
in bringing together policy makers, Members of Parliament(MPs), professionals and academicians to deliberate
on a range of issues on Climate Change Financing, spread across the four sessions
of the workshop. The consultations would
provide important inputs for the chapter focused on Climate Change in the
forthcoming Economic Survey of India, as for the first time ever, an entire
chapter would be devoted on this subject. The sessions focused on national
priorities for addressing climate change, the role of private sector in
generating funds to enable a lower carbon trajectory; and the role of the state
and civil society in ensuring equitable and sustainable outcomes that do not pass
on mitigation and adaptation costs to vulnerable communities. A key outcome of
the workshop was better understanding of
the financial issues related to climate change, at the domestic and the
international level.
Shri Mauskar, Special Secretary,
Ministry of Environment and Forests explained that India will encounter high
cost in taking necessary steps for climate change mitigation and
adaptation. He said that some financial
mechanisms may enable mitigation costs to be borne by the private sector but
this will be eventually passed on to the consumers. However the cost of
adaptation needs to be borne entirely by public finances, making global
financial transfers (grants, low interest loans) highly relevant, he added.
Participating in the scientific
frontiers session, Dr. R.K.Pachauri, Director General,TERI as well as Dr B.Mungekar,
Member of Parliament(Rajya Sabha) stressed the key issues of equity and
using knowledge to deal with climate change.
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DSM
Source: Finance Ministry
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