Rajya Sabha debates on steps to combat climate change

On Thursday, the Rajya Sabha began a brief debate titled “Serious Effects of Global Warming and the Need for Remedial Steps to Tackle it.” Tiruchi Siva of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Pramod Tiwari of the Congress, and Santhosh Kumar P of the Communist Party of India (CPI) all proposed the resolution.

The DMK MP said that Tamil Nadu has made certain policy announcements and will become carbon neutral by 2027. According to him, renewable energy sources would be used to generate electricity by 2030.

Congress MP from Gujarat, Amee Yajnik recommended for modernising pollution monitoring systems and conducting proper monitoring of industrial emissions.

Aawhar Sircar of the Trinamool Congress said coastal states would be most affected by the rising sea levels. He said West Bengal’s Sundarbans served as an illustration of how nature managed the sea. He cited the annual cyclones and claimed that mangrove plantations were the only thing that kept Bengal from being submerged by the sea. “We have pleaded (to the Centre) again and again throughout this year that we need to replant mangrove saplings, but there was no reply,” he said.

Amar Patnaik of the BJD offered advice on how to deal with climatic concerns, he said “we have to move from security to resilience.”

According to BJP member Sudhanshu Trivedi, India is now the second-largest nation in terms of use of solar energy for water heating and third largest nation in terms of solar cell capacity.

John Brittas, Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP from Kerala said that the issue of climate change should be beyond the scope of the nation or the States. “We should not be setting the agenda by saying that we have a solution for everything. As a nation, we should be very clear that we are paying for the greed of humans, especially the developed countries and capitalists,” he said.