Jammu, February 19 Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Thursday that addressing climate change has now become a "necessity" for the Union Territory, highlighting the urgent need for a structured and institutional approach to tackle climate change.
He also called for the formation of a specific department that will study climate change in Jammu and Kashmir.
Responding to the discussion on grants in the Assembly here, he said that the extreme weather events of last year, including heavy rains and losses due to drought, 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 had spoken about introducing a separate climate budget since the beginning of the Budget session early this month, and even moved a motion to reduce funding on this matter during the grants discussion.
"From one perspective, addressing climate change has become a necessity 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 set aside a corpus for climate change mitigation," the chief minister said.
He stated that the government will consider suggestions from Tarigami and others.
"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 for 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 recognize climate change as a governance priority and allocate dedicated resources to mitigation and adaptation measures.
