Jammu: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday called for the formation of a specific department which will study climate change in Jammu and Kashmir, stressing that the climate response has now become a “compulsion” for the Union Territory, underlining the urgent need for a structured and institutional approach to address climate change.
Replying to the discussion on Demands for Grants in the Assembly here, he said last year’s extreme weather events, including heavy rains and drought-related losses, have made it clear that climate change can no longer be treated as a peripheral issue.
Referring to the statement of CPI(M) legislator M Y Tarigami, Abdullah mentioned that he spoke about the introduction of a separate climate budget since the commencement of the Budget session early this month, and even moved a cut motion on this matter during the grants discussion.
“If seen from one perspective, climate response has become a compulsion for us. Just look at the situation last year — the damage caused by heavy rains and the losses due to drought. In this context, how we can adapt our budgeting process to address climate change is an important question. We have created a fund for this purpose and have also placed a corpus in it for climate change mitigation,” the chief minister said.
He stated that as suggestions come from Tarigami and others, the government will consider them.
“But first, I believe we must assign responsibility for climate change to a specific department. As of today, no department has a defined responsibility to carry out an exercise on climate change. In my view, before even framing a climate budget, at the very least we should assign a department the responsibility to study what climate change actually is, whether it is affecting J&K, and if so, how its impacts can be reduced,” Abdullah said.
He noted that once a comprehensive assessment is carried out and institutional responsibility is clearly defined, the government would move towards targeted budgetary interventions to strengthen climate resilience across sectors.
Tarigami has been advocating the introduction of a separate climate budget for Jammu and Kashmir, stating that the region is ecologically more fragile and vulnerable to adverse climatic conditions than most other parts of the country.
“As far as this region is concerned, it remains more affected by adverse climatic conditions than other areas,” Tarigami had said, urging the government to recognise climate change as a governance priority and allocate dedicated resources to mitigation and adaptation measures.
