India’s plans and policies on Climate Change: A Reflection

By Akhila Nair

India is known for its diversity in culture and tradition but now we can also add the growing risk of climate change to this list. In 2020, the state of Uttarakhand was hit with an environmental tragedy where 51 hectares of land was burnt due to forest fires in multiple districts in the state and resulted in the death of two people. These fires were caused by the heatwaves that had engulfed all of northern India, presumably because of the ongoing climate change. Year 2020 saw cyclones Amphan, Nisarga, and Nivar ravage livelihoods and investments in several parts of India. Amphan, which hit West Bengal, was considered the strongest cyclone to hit the state in over a decade as it claimed 86 lives in the state. The year 2020 saw a staggering 878 number of earthquakes out of which 27 earthquakes were at a magnitude of 5 or above. All these events, as bizarre as they may seem, are directly linked to the global temperature increase and climatic shifts.

Across the globe the phenomena of climate change has been acknowledged, and countries have taken multiple steps and signed various agreements to control these issues but it needs to be seen if proper actions were taken in accordance to those said agreements.The top four emitters in the world are China, the US, the EU and India.

India’s Pledges in International Agreements

The International Agreements are a formal commitment to address the threat of Climate Change with an objective to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations. From UNFCCC (1992) to Paris Agreement (2015 ) India continued to play an active role in global climate negotiations. In the early years of Indian climate policy, starting with the UNFCCC, India identified itself with the Group of 77 developing nations(G77) who wanted developed countries to take action on climate change. They insisted that the developing nations should only take on voluntary commitments conditional to the receipt of financial and technological help from the so called developed nations.

In the Copenhagen Accord in 2010, India pledged to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 20–25% of its 2005 levels in 2020 excluding the agriculture sector. As per estimates before the pandemic, the emissions level were lower by about 9–12% than the set targets.

Of the three targets put forward under the Paris agreement, India has already achieved its first one which was to reduce India’s greenhouse gas emission intensity of its GDP by 33–35% below 2005 levels by 2030. Second target pushes for 40 per cent of India’s power capacity to be based on non-fossil fuel sources. The third target focuses on creating an additional ‘carbon sink’ of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of Co2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030, but the country has not been able to make a proper start towards the target for increasing India’s forest cover.

According to India’s State of Forest Report 2017, India’s current forest and tree cover is about 24 percent and has repeatedly highlighted that it wants to bring its total area under green cover to at least 33 percent.

India and Policies on Climate Change

The publication, “India — Spearheading Climate Solutions” by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change mentions the key actions which India has taken in various sectors towards combating climate change.

The government of India has touted schemes such as- National Plan on Climate Change; National Clean Air Programme; Swachh Bharat Mission; Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana; Namami Gange policy, etc, saying that they are helping India reach its climate goals.

National Clean Air Policy Programme

In April 2018, the environment ministry released a draft of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) with a goal “to meet the prescribed annual average ambient air quality standards at all locations in the country in a stipulated time frame.” It is a long-term, time-bound, strategy to tackle the air pollution problem in a comprehensive manner with targets to achieve 20% to 30% reduction in Particulate Matter concentrations by 2024 keeping 2017 as the base year. Under NCAP, 122 non-attainment cities have been identified based on the Air Quality data from 2014–2018.The measures include strengthening the monitoring network, reducing vehicular/industrial emissions, and increasing public awareness.

Swachh Bharat Mission

The mission was Launched on 2nd October, 2014 with a concept to provide basic sanitation facilities like toilets, solid and liquid waste disposal systems, village cleanliness, and safe and adequate drinking water supply to every person.

The Centre has approved the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural) with an estimated central and state budget of Rs 52,497 crore and will be implemented on a mission mode between 2020–21 and 2024–25.

Namami Ganga Policy

The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was established on 12th August 2011. This mission is supported by the State level Programme Management Groups (SPMGs) in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Under the National Ganga River Basin Project, the World Bank has approved a loan of $ 600 million for development of Infrastructure projects along river Ganga. India had also joined hands with Germany, they officially sealed an accord of ₹900 crores. Further the EU has pledged the assistance of 120 million to the state of Uttarakhand, where the river originates.

India is ranked at 10th place in the ‘Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2021’, released on 7th December 2020 with an overall score of 63.98.Besides this According to data compiled in IQAir AirVisual’s 2019 World Air Quality Report, India has twenty-one of the world’s 30 cities with the worst air pollution. As the air quality index (AQI) level exceeded 800, a public health emergency was declared in certain parts of New Delhi, as this reading was more than three times the “hazardous” level.

India has signed various agreements and have made many commitments but the extreme slow pace towards achieving its goals makes us wonder if those agreements were just for show.

In her budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs 2869.93 crore for the ministry, out of which only Rs 470 crore was allotted to control pollution. In the last budget session, the climate change action plan was allotted Rs 40 crore and that has been reduced to Rs 30 crore for the year 2021–22. This reduction in budget came as a big surprise, as citizens were looking for a jump in budget allocation to meet their climate change objectives. The government should have given equal importance to the environment budget along with other budget segments. Climate Change is a sad reality lurking in our faces and people need to take this more seriously.