The state will soon come out with its own “Policy and Action Plan for Climate Change” and launch a mission for achieving environment protection and carbon neutrality.

This was stated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal while speaking at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit-2009 organised by The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) at Delhi today.

“In Himachal, environment is not a matter of discussion in closed chambers, it is a living heritage and for us its degradation is a sacrilege,” he said.

He said the state would shortly organise a national-level seminar on “Status of Glaciers” with other Himalayan states to study climate changes in the the Himalayan region.

Dhumal said all departments have been asked to carry out their energy and environment audits and introspect on actions and policies for mitigation and adaptation measures.

He said an Environment Master Plan was being prepared to record Green House Gas emissions for assessing carbon footprints and also lead sectoral guidelines for environmental protection. “The carbon footprint per capita of Himachal has been assessed at 0.4 tonne per capita in comparison to the national-level of 1.05 tonne per capita,” he stated.

“We will soon be launching a community led assessment, awareness, advocacy, active and action programmes for environment protection and carbon neutrality,” he sated.