GIC develops project for climate change awareness among MSMEs

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Institute of Competitiveness (GIC) has developed a project to create awareness among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on climate change. Major initiatives under the project will be a climate change innovation contest to be held at universities, a help desk at industry associations, a communication centre and a research centre to prepare an approach paper. GIC will train consultants and service providers to deliver climate change related services like impact assessment, cost benefit analysis, carbon credit aggregation in MSME consortia. GIC will also develop training modules for government staff at state and central level besides training students on professional level courses.  The project will be implemented in three phases in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and later in 10 states of India. The project recently won an award by a German company, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) at a national competition. In January 2014, India reported 233 deaths in the first 10 days of the year, caused by temperatures upto 4-5 degree lower than the normal seasonal average. Extreme weather events like these have drastically increased in the last years, threatening societies, economies and the eco-system as a whole. Businesses, especially MSMEs, are majorly affected by the impact of a changing climate. Unexpected heavy weather events can cause major damages to their premises and processes, eventually throwing them out of business. However, awareness about these risks among businesses still remains low. Against this background, GIZ had conducted a training of trainers in the end of 2013 that capacitated multipliers to conduct trainings on their own. In continuation of these efforts, GIZ had called for proposals for new to conduct a new series of trainings on climate change adaptation for MSMEs. A national level competition was launched and results were declared on 26 February, 2014. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/GIC-develops-project-for-climate-change-awareness-among-MSMEs/articleshow/31675882.cms