The centre, attached to the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico, teamed up with the university’s Centre for Remote Sensing and Department of Economics to launch its eighth international congress on “Climatic change, territorial classification, and socio-economic crisis” here on Monday. So far, the congress was organised in Latin American countries and Spain.

At the end of the three-day conference, experts from various parts of the world would come out with a set of recommendations focussing on action plan for countries to deal with climate change through suitable policies aimed at sustainable development.

M. Sudhakar, Advisor, Ministry of Earth Sciences, New Delhi, who inaugurated the congress, said there was widespread awareness of the negative fallout of climate change and that researchers and experts had to throw light on the ways to handle the environment crisis. The Centre had been providing substantial funds for research projects with assured deliverables to society. The question was whether the realisation of irreversible damage to environment would prompt countries to scale down their pace of economic growth. Mr. Sudhakar saw a solution in simplifying lifestyles to reduce pollution. Initiatives were under way to create the desired pact by educating children to create environment consciousness, Mr. Sudhakar said and added that there would be a huge demand for environmental professionals after a few years ago, Mr. Sudhakar said.

Vice-Chancellor K. Meena, who presided over the programme, said that inter-disciplinary approach would lead to better dissemination of the results of environmental researches in society. She released the abstract volume of the proceedings and said the deliberations at the brain-storming sessions and expert interactions would be converted into recommendations.

Viewing the issue from industry perspective, the chairperson of Confederation of Indian Industry — Tiruchi zone said that while industrial development was a must for economic progress, a lot needs to be done to undo the damage caused to the environment. On their part, industries were making attempts to reduce carbon emission through green technologies, she said.

Pedro Francisco Rodriguez Espinosa, Professor at NPI, CIIEMD, emphasised that the environmental awareness alone was not sufficient and that research findings must be oriented towards remedial action. CII Tiruchi zone chairperson Rani Muralidharan was present.