During CoP 17 of UNFCCC with the representation of over 20,000 delegates from about 200 countries, the world discussed three major issues of climate change i.e. commitment period of Kyoto protocol, the process of action on binding regime-as equity and, the future course of actions on Cancun and Bali action plans.
As mountains are the early indicators of climate change, we observed that the issues of vulnerability and climate impact in the mountains as a collective and strong voice was missing at Durban.
Through consistent efforts and common voices the world leaders’ call for climate adaptation and mitigation actions by the country governments, and this we could see through development of actions plans by countries. The plans in Himalayan region are aimed at reducing the vulnerabilities and make the communities more resilient to the impact of climate change.
Let’s take example of action plans developed by the state governments in 11 mountain states of India and the process they followed. The Indian government’s guidelines say that each state government should develop a robust and appropriate action plan through a process of vulnerability assessment and consultation for climate proofing.
By going through the draft action plans available, the areas of major concerns are related to the processes followed in developing them like; cursory vulnerability mapping, subjective consultation processes, no public discussions on plans, poor thematic coordination and least priority given to these plans by the politicians and policy makers. http://bit.ly/MbFkKY
