Prepare Climate Action Plans for TN, not just for Chennai: Experts

CHENNAI: Noting how the impacts of climate change are more local, environmental experts urged the State government to prepare Climate Action Plans for all the districts in the State as was done in the case of Chennai recently. They also highlighted the shortcomings in the Chennai Climate Action Plan, and said these should be addressed while preparing plans for other districts.

Prabhakaran Veeraarasu, an environmental activist part of the organisation Poovulagin Nanbargal, pointed out how Chennai was mentioned five times in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which is an international report.

“As this is a global level report, they could not mention all cities in Tamil Nadu. But climate change effects are felt in all parts of the State. The effects of climate change are local, and district-level studies and action plans should be prepared,” he opined.

Meanwhile, the Environment Department has initiated measures to prepare climate action plans to attain zero-carbon emission for the Nilgiris and Coimbatore.

Deepak Bilgi, mission director of Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission, said that the District Climate Change Missions were constituted to prepare district-level climate action plans. “District level action plans will be prepared in a few months. The plans will have details about vulnerabilities and mitigation measures,” he said.

When asked whether climate action plans for cities would be prepared, he said that decision should be taken by the government. However, he added, district action plans would cover the cities in districts concerned.

Even while welcoming the Chennai Climate Action Plan, Prabhakaran Veeraarasu pointed out that the plan failed to address the measures to be taken to protect people from climate change vulnerability.

“For instance, vulnerabilities due to heatwaves have been discussed in the plan but there is no detail on how to protect vulnerable populations. While talking about sea level rise and vulnerability of slum areas, the action plan proposes relocation as a solution. This will lead to ousting the vulnerable population from the city,” he explained.

Moreover, he added, the draft action plan did not have any mention of women and children. “After we raised the issue, the action plan had one sentence mentioning women and children. Issues of this section of the population have not been addressed.”

Also, while the action plan has proposed construction of storm water drains across the city to mitigate flooding, there is no proposal to restore the city’s natural drains such as the Adyar and Cooum rivers.

“Restoring the rivers will not only help control floods but also ensure drinking water security. In the draft action plan, details about two thermal plants which would go underwater due sea level rise was mentioned. But, the final action plan has omitted the details of vulnerable thermal plants,” a statement said.

Despite assurances given by Environment Secretary Supriya Sahu on making the Chennai Climate Action Plan public, the document is yet to be released in public domain.