Tamil Nadu to introduce climate change policy exclusively for educational purposes: Stalin

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 4 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin announced on Tuesday that his government will introduce a climate change policy exclusively for educational purposes, and establish ecology clubs in all schools statewide. He was speaking at the Tamil Nadu Climate Summit 3.0 organised here.
"Our government plans to educate people about climate change through the Education Department. In all schools across Tamil Nadu, ecology clubs will be established. The Tamil Nadu government will introduce a 'Climate Change Policy' exclusively for educational purposes," Stalin said.
"Awareness of climate change will be promoted by students. Training will be provided to staff in various government departments to help them address climate change. Special training will be given to the agriculture and water resources departments, as they are significantly affected by climate change," he added.
The chief minister said that people should be aware of climate change and its consequences to effectively address the challenge.
"If we need to address climate change, people from all sections of society must understand what climate change is, its effects, how we need to confront it, and how we should adapt to it. We need to create awareness about this issue. If this happens, our society will have a better understanding of climate change, and resilience will be built to recover from natural disasters," he said.
"Especially last year, floods occurred in Dubai, China, Brazil, Germany, and Spain. There were also forest fires in Los Angeles. We must remember these events. We cannot forget the landslide in Wayanad or even the smaller landslide that occurred in Tiruvannamalai in our state. Although these incidents happened in different countries and states, the primary reason for all of them is climate change. We have to face this reality. To do so, we first need to understand the seriousness of the problem," Stalin said.
Tamil Nadu's climate change mission document says that with a high dependency on natural resources the State is under constant threat of climate change and its negative impacts.
"Events in the past show that there is a high probability of an increase in climate-related natural hazards, with high frequency and intensity, which would result in a potential threat of natural disasters directly linked to climate change. The Government of Tamil Nadu is crafting many
solutions to leapfrog the State to a greener, cleaner, more resilient State. Efforts are being taken by the State to draft plans that are not merely mitigative in nature, but will also pave the way for the transformation of the economy underpinning 'Affordability, Sustainability and Scalability as the key elements," it said. (ANI)