The Modi-government, ahead of crucial UN meet on global warming in Peru, reconstituted a high-level advisory group on climate change by droppimg industrialist Ratan Tata and environmentalist Sunita Narain.
TERI director general R.K. Pachauri, retired diplomat Chandrasekhar Dasgupta and economist Nitin Desai has been retained as non-government members of the 18-member PM’s Council on Climate Change.
The UPA government in 2007 has constituted the panel on climate change.
According to a statement issued by the environment ministry, the new council headed by PM Modi will evolve a synchronized response to issues associated with climate change at the national level.
An oversight is also provided for formulation of action plans in the area of assessment, adaption and mitigation of climate change and monitor crucial policy decisions, at regular intervals.
The government has also inducted the coal ministers and urban development into the council which were not there in the earlier council.
The council members constitutes Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj, Prakash Javadekar, Arun Jaitley,Uma Bharati, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Jitendra Singh, Piyush Goel and Radha Mohan Singh.
Nripendra Misra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister is the member convenor of the panel.
CSE director general Sunita Narain hoped that the council will work towards developing an ambitious national plan on climate change, and assured all support to the team.