NEW DELHI (AMN) The Government of India has undertaken several steps to understand the phenomenon of Climate Change. A Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change has been constituted to coordinate national action for assessment and adaptation of climate change.
Minister of State for Earth Sciences Prithviraj Chavan in a written reply to a question by Dr. M. Thambidurai and G. M. Siddeshwara in Lok Sabha on Wednesday said that a National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was released by the Prime Minister on 30th June 2008. Under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, it was proposed to establish a permanent institutional mechanism that will play a development and coordination role. NAPCC outlines eight missions in specific areas of Solar Energy, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Eco-system, Green India, Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic knowledge for Climate Change.
The minister also said that there was no conclusive evidence to attribute all observed weather and climate variability to the increased concentrations of Green House Gases (GHGs) and associated global warming and their projections to the future.
He however said that gradual increasing trend in respect of surface temperature (maximum and minimum) across the globe was found to be in line with the rise of GHGs over the recent decades.
Daily mean temperature over the country is found to be increasing more or less at the same rate as the global mean (0.52oC since 1901). Spatial pattern of trends in the mean annual temperature shows significant positive (increasing) trend over most parts of the country except over parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar, where significant negative (decreasing) trends were observed.
