SHILLONG: German Deputy Consul General based at Kolkata, Jurgen Thomas Schrod was in Shillong on July 9-10 to explore possibilities of working on climate change adaptation and mitigation. While in Shillong, Schrod also visited Bethany Society and met up with the city’s intellectuals and opinion makers at Asian Confluence on Sunday.
His meeting with Chief Minister Mukul Sangma had to be cancelled as the former had to reschedule his visit to Mawshynrut due to inclement weather. However, Schrod said he would visit again to meet the CM.
Schrod also met up with some editors and shared the purpose of his visit. The German Government is organising a Visitor’s Programme of the Federal Foreign Office in Germany on the topic of “Post COP 21 – Climate Policy for 2050”. This programme scheduled for October this year will look at chances and challenges of climate change for journalists, civil society, think-tanks and representatives of ministries.
Germany is one of the countries with a ‘Green’ Political Party with a commitment to the environment. The visitors would be given an insight into the German Government’s contribution towards implementing the Paris Agreement (Post COP21) and would also visit the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the UN Campus in Bonn where the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Innovation Centre are located.
Later Schrod, who was staying at the Heritage Hotel, was given a guided tour of the 98-roomed Tripura Castle by Pradyot Manikya Debbarma. The castle built in 1923 was completed in 1939. Schrod had a taste of the history of Tripura royalty when he sat on a chair dating back to 1911 when King George VI was invited to the Delhi Durbar and all the recognised gun salute sovereign princes were gifted a chair each. It may be mentioned that the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) has been working in Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Mizoram on climate change adaptation and mitigation.
