· "Focus must be on frequency of coastal storms"

· Integrated Coastal Zone Management Centre to be set up

CHENNAI: The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are of importance to Tamil Nadu too as they warned of impacts such as the rise in sea level, which could inundate vast stretches of the coast in south Asia, M.S. Swaminathan, chairman, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, said on Sunday.

Every State should have an interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder climate management group to continuously monitor the situation, he said during a talk on `Managing climate change is everybody's business," as part of a media workshop on `Facing the Challenges of Global Warming,' organised by MSSRF and The Hindu Media Resource Centre to commemorate World Earth Day.

Climate change was not just an environmental issue but also a developmental issue as it could affect the poorest countries the worst.

Citing the key findings of the Sir Nicholas Stern report on global warming commissioned by the U.K. government, Professor Swaminathan said the issues which needed to be focussed upon by Tamil Nadu included increased frequency of coastal storms, higher mean temperature, more frequent droughts and sudden flash floods.

Only collaborative action by the government, the community and individuals could mitigate them.

It was essential to train climate managers at gram panchayat levels.

A state-level Land Use Advisory Service should also be established to counsel farming families on mitigating the adverse impact of reduced precipitation and higher temperatures.

This called for development of a drought code, a flood code and a good weather code to enable rural families to minimise hardship caused by aberrant monsoons.

Impact on yield

A mean rise of one to two degrees in air temperature could decrease rice yield by about 0.75 tonnes per hectare in normal zones and 0.06 tonnes per hectare in coastal regions.

A rise of 0.5 degrees in winter temperature could reduce wheat crop duration by seven days and decrease yield by 0.45 tonnes per hectare, he said. The MSSRF was establishing an Integrated Coastal Zone Management Centre near Chidambaram. It would have a capacity building centre for the management of climate change, Professor Swaminathan said.