The Indian Ocean Trade Council organised a climate change conference here in Chennai.
Vadamalai Kanda Subburaj Subash, Trade Commissioner of the Indian Ocean Trade Council, told the delegates how climate change posed the biggest threat to Indian Ocean security and how this crisis required collective action, and should serve as a catalyst for the revival of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
The Trade Commissioner highlighted the potential disasters that the world and the Indian Ocean region might have to face in the coming decades. “This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issues concerning the Indo-Pacific. But the threat of an existential crisis due to natural disasters for a number of island States in the region requires a joint plan of action to tackle the current situation,” he said.
Asif Iqbal, president of the Indian Economic Trade Organisation, said: “Climate change is affecting Lesotho as it does any other country — abnormal seasons, rainy when it is not supposed to be, dry winters… it affects the cropping in Lesotho. We hope through Indian collaboration we can create tools to be able to foresee all of that and try to solve the problem from what we see on the maps,” he said.
