CHENNAI: As it readies for the UN climate change conference at Lima, the Centre is tapping the expertise of Indian scientific institutions, the latest being the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai. Union minister Prakash Javadekar was closeted with scientists and strategists of the foundation on Saturday to educate himself on on greenhouse emissions, climate change and their impact on agriculture and livelihood to counter claims of developed countries at Lima.
The developed countries, especially US have been claiming that emission was high in China and India but were refusing to scale down their lifestyle to cut emissions, Javadekar said. Data put out by developed countries about emissions in developing countries seemed to vary from time to time, he added.
"I am going to present that the world should come together to fight climate change. We are going to drive our government's agenda - clean air, clean energy, and clean water. There should be a joint collaborative research to save the Earth and we will not need intellectual property rights in that case." India will launch an exclusive satellite for studies related to environment, forests and climate change, he said.
When M S Swaminathan said he has been advocating a biogas plants at plantations, the minister said that people did not like to stir dung manually. "They find it demeaning. We need to design a simple machine to stir the dung for biogas plants," he said.
Lauding the Green Revolution scripted by Swaminathan, the minister said, "The Green Revolution should continue. We should go forward with all science and technology available for farming."
He also visited the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM), established by the ministry in partnership with Anna University. R Ramesh, director of the centre, explained research studies such as mapping of sediment cells, national assessment of shoreline change, offshore wind energy and delineation of coastal ecologically sensitive areas.
