New Delhi : A day after being dropped from the high-level panel on climate change, environmentalist and director general of Centre for Science and Environment Sunita Narain Friday said it is the prime minister’s prerogative to choose who he wants in his team.
The Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change was reconstituted Wednesday, dropping Narain and industrialist Ratan Tata.
“He has chosen not to appoint me. That is completely his prerogative. We will continue to work on the issues of climate change. We will continue to make our views known,” Narain told reporters Thursday.
“I see no difference. When I was inside the council, I was also outside the council. Because all I did inside the council was to say what I was saying outside in any case,” she said on the sidelines of CSE’s Annual Media Briefing on Climate Change here.
“It is a choice that has been made. It is a wise choice that they have made. We have already welcomed it….I am very clear. It is no difference to us,” she said.
The 18-member committee, which has Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairperson and eight ministers as members, will help in formulation of action plans in assessment, adaptation and mitigation of climate change as well as periodically monitoring key policy decisions.
The members include External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu along with the cabinet and foreign secretaries among other officials.
TERI chairperson R.K. Pachauri, Nitin Desai and retired diplomat Chandrasekhar Dasgupta have been retained as the non-government members.