UP to bridge research and policy gaps for climate action

Lucknow-With an aim to bridge the policy and research-level gaps in the domain climate action, the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of Uttar Pradesh, organized a workshop on Thursday.

The workshop that aimed at transforming research findings into policy, witnessed members of the academia from across the State presenting their evidence based scientific climate policy suggestions before policy makers.

The event was graced by Dr. Arun Kumar Saxena, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department, who inaugurated the workshop.

Mr. Manoj Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department was the Guest of Honour at this workshop which witnessed some insightful presentations. The inaugural session was also graced by Smt. Mamta Sanjeev Dubey, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Department, U.P. Forest Department; Shri Ashish Tiwari, Secretary, Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Prof. Anil Kumar Gupta, Head of the Department, National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi; Shri K.P. Dubey, Chief Conservator of Forests; and Mr. Kirtiman Awasthi, Senior Advisor, GIZ was present. In the workshop, officials from various departments of the state as well as I.I.M. Lucknow, CIMAP, N.B.R.I. Research institutes like Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaology, Central Institute for SubtropicalHorticulture, Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, Central Agroforestry Research Institute, Bhimrao Ambedkar Institute and Banaras Hindu University and Vasudha Foundation, AEEE, and NABARD among others.

The objective of the workshop was to bring together the gap between the research community and policy makers in order to enhance development of evidence-based policies.

In his inaugural address, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) Dr. Arun Kumar Saxena, highlighted the objectives of the workshop while giving information about the climate change action plan of Uttar Pradesh State formulated by the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The Minister urged all the participating officials to ensure that the findings of the research presented in the workshop are included in the policies formulated by the department, so that the State gets prepared for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Giving information about the approval of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for the establishment of the proposed Climate Change Knowledge Centre in the State under the Strategic Knowledge Mission of the Climate Change Action Plan of of Uttar Pradesh. He informed that soon the State Level Climate Change Knowledge Centre will be functional in the Gomti Nagar office of Environment Directorate, Uttar Pradesh. The knowledge centre will develop communication materials for climate change awareness and networking with national and international technical institutions.

It was informed by the Hon’ble Minister that as part of the initiative under the Uttar Pradesh State Knowledge Network, the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change will also develop a social networking platform, Shelter, for the people of the State. This is proposed to be done in collaboration with Tattva Foundation, Lucknow and Gorakhpur Environment Action Group.

The platform will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to exchange personalized climate change related information in regional languages.

Further, Mr. Manoj Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change highlighted the importance of research in the field of climate action and the importance of research findings in the policies by highlighting the causes, effects and need to understand climate change.

A presentation was made by Mr. Ashish Tiwari, Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department to explain the perspective of the workshop, the procedure for its organization etc.

Prof. Anil Kumar Gupta, Head of the Department, National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi, delivered a presentation on “Resilience and Sustainability”.

Further, Mrs. Mamta Sanjeev Dubey, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of the Department, UP and Mr. Kirtiman Awasthi, Senior Advisor, GIZ also presented their views regarding localization of climate change.

Technical sessions were organized after the inaugural session. In the 1st Technical Session, presentations were made by Vasudha Foundation and Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), New Delhi on Localization of Climate Change; Climate Smart Agriculture by IIM Lucknow; Climate Finance by NABARD; Effects of Climate Change on Subtropical Horticulture by ntral Institute for Subtropical Horticulture; Round the year climate resilient fodder production system by Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute; Climate and suitable medicinal and aromatic plants for Uttar Pradesh by CIMAP; Role of urban forest in mitigating air pollution and climate change by NBRI; A presentation on climate sensitive agroforestry was made by Birbal SahniInstitute of Palaeology, Wetlands of Uttar Pradesh and Policy Gap and Central Agroforestry Research Institute.

In the second technical session, Tattva Foundation gave a presentation on the Shelter App being developed by them. This was followed by presenations monsoon on soil nutrient availability in tropical grassland and multivariate drought analysis for temperature homogeneous regions of India: Lessons from the Gomti River Basin by researchers from Banaras Hindu University, and Effects of aerobic on chemoheterotrophic bacteria by Bhimrao Ambedkar Institute.

This was followed by a panel discussion on “The Way Forward for Strategic Knowledge and Research Needs on Localization of Climate Action”. The panel discussion included Mr. Manoj Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department; Shri Ashish Tiwari, Secretary, Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Prof. Anil Kumar Gupta, Head of the Department, National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi; Mr. Kirtiman Awasthi, Senior Advisor, GIZ, Dr. Shiraz Wajih of Gorakhpur Environment Action Group, Dr. Sumana Bhattacharya of IORA; IIT Kanpur Prof. Vaibhav Chaudhary, Prof. Ambedkar University. Narendra Kumar and Ms. Seema Singh of Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre.