The first meeting of the Meghalaya State Council on Climate Change and Sustainable Development was held in the city on Thursday.
Additional Development Commissioner P Sampath Kumar made a presentation on sustainable development goals (SDGs), which were formulated by the United Nations and adopted by the Government of India recently, highlighting the targets and initiatives taken by the State so far.
Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said as a responsive State, the government had already taken up a number of initiatives and action plans designed to ensure sustainable development in Meghalaya. An action plan on climate change, which has been approved by the Centre, is among the several measures that the State has taken to assess the impact of global climate change on Meghalaya.
Sangma said the Millennium Development Goals have now been converted into SDGs and indicated that even before these targets were formally announced, the State had launched a number of initiatives aimed at sustainable livelihoods.
“The effects of climate change are being felt all over the world and Meghalaya is not out of it. To ensure that efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change are successful, livelihood opportunities will have to be sustainable and resilient,” Sangma said. as he emphasized on ‘convergence’ to achieve the sustainable goals.The State has set up Meghalaya Basin Development to facilitate an institutional mechanism for convergence of various development initiatives to address critical gaps.
A presentation by Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and the Nodal Officer for Climate Change Management S Ashutosh focused on the various aspects of climate change management.
The State government, in collaboration with several institutes, is conducting studies on identification of climate vulnerability hot-spots in Meghalaya using high resolution climate projections (IIT Gandhinagar), assessment of the impact of climate change on forests and biodiversity of Meghalaya (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore), Carbon Footprint Study of Meghalaya (CII Godrej Green Business Center, Hyderabad) and impact of climate change and adaptation to it: Perception and Traditional Knowledge of the People in Rural Areas of Meghalaya, said Ashutosh.
Some of the initiatives that the State has taken are setting up of enterprise facilitation centres to promote self-employment and sustainable enterprises, creating last mile connectivity through MGNREGS and Megha-LAMP project and also the innovative programme of black topping of rural roads scheme.
MGNREGS is being leveraged to encourage village employment councils to create sustainable livelihoods for the bottom poor, besides organizing women self-help groups.