Goa Climate Series – An Interactive Climate Action Workshop

On the 23rd of November, Johann Fernandes in partnership with Act for Goa, Prana – Anjuna, Terra.Do and Climate Interactive organised Session 2 of the Goa Climate Series where the audience discussed key components of the draft Goa State Acrion Plan on Climate Change from 2020 – 2030, and modelled it’s impact on mitigating climate change using the En-Roads simulator developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.

The session was attended by 15 people from diverse backgrounds such as tourism, blended finance, Goan based environmental non-profits, photographers, artists, chefs and so on.

To start off with, Act for Goa presented some alarming excerpts from the Goa State Climate Action Plan, a few of which are as follows:
– Goa’s mean annual temperature increased over 1 degree celcius from 1901 – 2018. By 2030’s it could increase by 2 degree celcius
– Goa will start experiencing heat waves beyond 2040’s, as maximum temperatures will increase by about 5 degree celcius towards the end of this century.
– Rainfall in Goa has increased 68% from 1901 – 2015. As we all know, 2021 was the first year that Goa received rain for all 12 months of the year
– Sea level rise in some areas has led to soil erosion, impacted access to sea becahes, disappearance of sea shells and fishes.
– Goa stands to lose a large percentage of its land, including many famous beaches
– The flood vulnerability analysis says that 14.73% of the land is under 15 meter elevation
– A 1 meter rise in sea level can affect 7% of Goa’s population and cause damage to the tune of 8,100 crore.

If you would like to view the entire Goa State Action Climate Change Plan prepared by the Goa State Biodiversity Board, head Here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B32hlItmlgaGa0vm_hBs-yD1qkmTI9Hb/view?usp=drivesdk

Furthermore, using the simulator we learnt that the Goa State Climate Action plan can mitigate temperature rise from 3.6°C at the end of the century to 2.8°C. Goa, however, will still face the worst impacts of climate change at a 2.8°C future and the audience concluded that further action needs to be taken to keep fossil fuels in the ground and to transition the Goan economy to a low carbon economy dominated by renewable energy.

Session 3 of the Goa Climate Series was held on 3rd December at Build3 Villa in Candolim which focused on the role that startups can play to make Goa energy independent and consistent with a 1.5°C future – in alignment with the Paris Goals.

To stay updated on the next session of the series, stay updated on our social media posts on @actforgoa