PANAJI: While Goa is "very vulnerable" to a large number of climate-change impacts, it must lead the way in sustainable development and with vision and innovation emerge as a model not only for India but also for the rest of the world, said Nobel peace prize laureate Rajendra Kumar Pachauri on Saturday.
Pachauri was delivering the keynote address at the first Matanhy Saldanha memorial lecture on the subject 'Environment: A gift to mankind to be sustainably used and conserved for future generations'.
Pachauri said Goa, being a coastal state, is vulnerable to the impact of climate change which is leading to sea level rise as a result of the melting of ice bodies across the globe. There is also thermal expansion of the oceans.
The inter-governmental panel on climate change, which Pachauri chairs and which won the Nobel peace prize in 2007 along with former US vice-president Al Gore, has in its fifth assessment report found that average sea level rise across the globe has been 19cm since the beginning of the last century up to 2010.
Said Pachauri, "Now that's a substantial amount and if we don't mitigate the emissions of the greenhouse gases, then on the basis of this scenario that does not take into account any mitigation activity, we could get sea level rise up to 98cm. That would be a very serious outcome for a state like Goa."
He added that before submergence can take place, every time there is a storm surge and coastal flooding, because of the higher level of the sea, the extent of damage would be disproportionately higher.
Pachauri said that we need to be concerned about the beauty of Goa. "We have enjoyed the beautiful landscape and the sea in Goa. Surely, children and grandchildren who are yet to come, should also have the same benefit and that would be sustainable development," he said.
Pachauri said that Goa must develop as a model of sustainable development not only as an example to India but to the whole world. There are challenges like high population density, but places like Japan, which have higher population density, have excelled in sustainable development, he said.
Pachauri described the late Matanhy Saldanha as a "Titan" who will always be immortal because of his values, ideals, thoughts and deeds. "What he was able to do in Goa will certainly be respected, remembered and revered throughout the world. It is our primary duty to see that we uphold his values and ideals and spread them far and wide," said Pachauri.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar was the chief guest of the function organized by the Matanhy Saldanha memorial foundation. Saldanha's spouse, environment and forest minister Alina is the managing trustee of the foundation.
