Document lists highly vulnerabile areas

Armed with a stimulus from the Centre, the State is all set to launch a long-term programme to develop resilience to climate change. The Ministry of Forest, Environment, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has approved the Kerala State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC), strengthening the hands of the State in taking up a slew of climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.

The five-year package envisages a budget requirement of Rs.1,170 crore for projects in eight key sectors, namely agriculture and animal husbandry, fisheries and coastal ecosystem, forest and biodiversity, water resources, health, energy, urban front, and transport and tourism.

Committee appproval

Institute for Climate Change Studies Director Keshav Mohan, who was in New Delhi recently to attend a meeting at MoEFCC, said the SAPCC for Kerala was endorsed by the national steering committee on climate change, based on the recommendations of an expert committee. He said the sector-wise projects would have to be prepared and submitted to the nodal agencies for approval and funding.

Prepared by the Department of Environment and Climate Change, the plan document for Kerala seeks to address the negative consequences of climate change and reduce the associated risks.

It also aims at integrating climate change strategies into the development planning process.

The State plan identifies Alappuzha, Palakkad, Wayanad, and Idukki districts as climate change hotspots in Kerala, with a high degree of vulnerability to natural hazards such as flood and drought and impact on biodiversity and human life.

Climate scenario

According to the projected climate change scenario, the atmospheric temperature across Kerala would rise by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. It estimates that if the sea level rises by one metre, 169 sq km of the coastal region surrounding Kochi would be inundated.

The report estimates that paddy production in the State would drop by six per cent with each degree rise in temperature.

The SAPCC predicts an increase in the frequency and intensity of forest fires, biodiversity and habitat loss, species migration, and increasing man- animal conflict due to climate change.

It foresees a decline in fish stocks.

Climate change could also lead to the emergence of new and unfamiliar infections, posing new challenges for disease control in Kerala, the document says.