Time has come to focus on climate change, says official

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Aug. 25 (EMN): Senior Advisor and Head, Policy Coordinator and Programme Management (PCPM) division, Department of Science and Technology (DST) Dr. Akhilesh Gupta shared that climate change will have serious consequences and the time has come to focus on climate research and other adaptation measures in order to address the issues.

This observation was made during an online interaction with Manipur’s young state-level media fellows on climate change reporting on Wednesday.

The interaction was jointly organised by the media working group on climate change (MWGCC), media resource centre, Manipur and Manipur state climate change cell, Directorate of Environment.

‘The journalists also have a big role to play while addressing the climate issues. They must go to places and report to educate the people. After all climate change is a global issue but its impact is local,’ Dr. Akhilesh said. He informed that the DST started the climate change programme in 2009-2010 through the state climate change cells across 25 states besides supporting many programmes.

According to the organisers, the basic idea of the programme is to build the capacity of the media fellow recipients and intending applicants / young journalists for the State level Media Fellowship Programme on Climate Change Reporting. It also targets to make more understanding of climate facts and reporting in simple common language.

This month, interaction will be more towards three sub-thematic key points, such as global-national-regional climate policy, community / citizen responsibility towards climate action, and needs for strengthening of knowledge networks.

Dr Nisha Mendiratta, Head, Climate Change Division of DST, Abdhesh Gangwar, formerly senior programme director of Centre for Environment Education, also participated in the interactive programme with media fellows.

In the second session, Irengbam Arun, Media advisor to Chief Minister, Manipur; Khogendra Khomdram, president Editors Guild Manipur and editor, The Sangai Express (Manipuri), Pradip Phanjoubam, Editor, FPSJ Review of Arts and Politics, and Salam Rajesh, honorary member of ICCA (Indigenous Territories and Community conserved Areas) Consortium have their comments and observation and the session was moderated by Coordinator Sobhapati Samom of MWGCC.

Joint Director Dr. T Brajakumar of Directorate of Environment and Climate Change, Manipur and Principal Investigator, State Climate Change Cell, Manipur gave the closing remark in the day’s interaction.