A two-day Climate Change Conclave (27th – 28th 2024) which brought together experts from all over India dwelled upon the need for developing foundational models in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for climate modeling in the Indian context, quality control of data and improving climate predictions as well as strengthening interactions with people for better climate adaptation solutions.
“The two missions of DST - National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem (NMSHE) and National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC), have led to significant progress in terms of supporting 19 CoEs and 37 major R&D programs over the years. I believe that we may need to focus more on developing foundational models in AI in the Indian context,” said Secretary Department of Science and Technology (DST) Professor Abhay Karandikar at the conclave organised by DST at IIT Delhi, which tracked the inception, implementation and impacts of DST’s climate change programme and chalked out a way forward for it.
While releasing the draft executive summery of ‘District Level Climate Risk Assessment for India’ he added that indigenous climate models based on data will throw better understanding for addressing climate change. “Collective efforts towards a holistic approach involving researchers from multiple disciplines and a range of stakeholders can help address ongoing challenges of climate change and its effect on agriculture, water and environment,” he pointed out.
Dr. Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Advisor at DST, dwelled upon inception and evolution of DST’s Climate Change Programme, the interventions DST brought about in the National Actions Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) and the process of developing and mentoring climate change science and adaption R&D programmes all over the country.
Stressing that climate solutions were about securing the future for generations to come, Dr Gupta urged communities to come together and not just analyse the problems but work collaboratively towards solutions.
Dr. Anita Gupta, Head of the Climate, Energy and Sustainable Technology (CEST), DST, emphasised on the urgency for solutions to the climate change problem given that 40% of the world's population was already vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. She outlined how DST’s two missions under NAPCC were working towards such solutions by supporting R&D programmes throughout the country. She also spoke about Mission Innovation, a global initiative launched in 2015 for clean energy solutions in which DST was participating.
Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Director of IIT Delhi, highlighted the efforts of the Centre of Excellence on climate change modelling at IIT Delhi in innovative mitigation technologies like coal-to-methanol conversion, blue hydrogen production, and carbon capture and storage.
Several other climate change experts from IIT Delhi, IIT Bhubaneshwar, Banaras Hindu University, University of Delhi, Kashmir University, IIT Mandi, IIT Guwahati, CSTEP Banglore, IISc, University of Allahabad, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, India Meteorological Department, ICRISAT, the DST Centres of Excellence as well as DST officials participated in the meeting.
The experts spoke about climate change modelling challenges, Climate Change and aerosols, sustainable Himalayas, climate and human health, extremes and urban climate and spoke about a way forward that included increasing the range of data through traditional as well as nontraditional methods, improving understanding of processes and involving people for sustainable solutions.
A quiz session also conducted by Dr Susheela Negi and Dr Swati Jain, scientists from DST engaged young researchers in exchanging their current state of knowledge on climate change.
From Left: Dr Swati Jain, Scientist DST; Dr Shyamasree Dasgupta, IIT Mandi; Prof. N H Ravindranath, IISc; Prof. Saroj K. Mishra, IIT Delhi, Dr Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser DST; Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, DST; Dr. Anita Gupta, Head CEST DST; Dr Susheela Negi, Scientist ‘F’ DST & Dr. Anamika Barua, IIT Guwahati.
