National action plan on climate change (NAPCC) and supporting
mission documents (2008-11)
The
National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) is a policy document prepared by
the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change. It gives the direction which
India needs to take, to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It has been
prepared keeping in mind that India's economic need to tap its natural
resources needs to be tempered with the need to maintain ecological balance.
The
NAPCC is guided by the principles of -
- Protection - of the poor and vulnerable sections of
society through what is termed as an inclusive development strategy,
- Achieving national
growth - through a
qualitative change and economic direction that enhances ecological
sustainability,
- Demand side management,
- Better technology - that looks into aspects of mitigation or
adaptation,
- Market mechanism - that rewards sustainable development,
- Inclusivity- that invites linkups with civil society and
local government institutions
It was
found necessary to establish eight national missions which not only espouse to
these principles but will form the core of the overall national mission. The
technical document, which forms part of the NAPCC, discusses the way forward
for each of these missions.
These
missions are:
1. The
National Solar Mission aims
to increase share of solar energy in India's energy mix. This is to be done by
not only increasing R & D efforts but also by promoting decentralised distribution
of energy by creating cheaper and more convenient solar systems. Over the 11th
and 12th plan period it aima to deliver atleast 80% coverage for all low
temperature and 60% coverage for medium temperature applications of solar
energy in urban areas. There is an emphasis on manufacturing solar panels at
the local level. In the long term the aim of the mission would be to tie up
local research with international efforts.
2. The
National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency builds on the 2001 Energy Conservation
Act. This mission will look at ways to create a market based mechanism to
enhance cost effectiveness of improvements on energy efficiency. This would
also mean finding ways to shift to energy efficient products; further, the
creation of mechanisms that promote demand side management will also be looked
into under this mission. Switching to cleaner fuels, commercially viable
technology transfers, capacity building needs etc will be the way forward for
this mission.
3. The
National Mission on Sustainable Habitat has a manifold agenda. It looks at
energy efficiency within buildings and also at waste disposal from these
buildings. Another important aspect of this mission is to better the public
transport system. In addition, it will promote energy efficiency in the
residential and commercial sectors and also work towards management of solid
waste through recycling and improvement of the urban transport system
4. The
National Mission on Water will
be mounted to ensure better integrated water resource management. This would
lead to water conservation, less wastage of water, equitable distribution of
water. The mission will also come out with a framework to improve water
efficiency by 20%, through regulatory and pricing mechanisms. It sees the issue
of ground water management and use as important. It also sees the need to study
the management of surface water as it not only indicates the status of the
environment but also has huge economic impacts. Improving water storage
capacities and protecting wetlands form an important aspect that will be looked
into by this mission.
5. The
National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem has been created, to protect the
Himalayan ecosystem. The mandate of this mission is to evolve measures to
sustain and safeguard the Himalayan glaciers and mountain eco-systems.
6. The
National Mission for a Green India has the mandate of reviving degraded
forest land. It will focus on increasing forest cover and density and
conserving biodiversity. The way forward would entail reducing fragmentation of
forests, enhancing private public partnerships for plantations, improving
schemes based on joint forestry management etc.
7. The
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture will devise strategies to make Indian
agriculture less susceptible to climate change. It would identify and develop
new crop varieties; more importantly it would use traditional and modern
agricultural techniques to achieve its stated mission goal. This mission sees
dry land agriculture, risk management, access to information and use of
biotechnology as areas of intervention.
8. The
National Mission for Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change will identify challenges and requisite
responses to climate change. This will be done through open international
collaboration and would ensure sufficient funding for this research. This
mission would also be entrusted with the dissemination of new knowledge
created. It will focus on the following themes:
- Research in key
areas of climate science like monsoon dynamics, aerosol science etc,
- Global and regional
climate modeling,
- Observational
networks,
- Creation of
research infrastructure
As per the
NAPCC, each mission comes under a ministry and these missions will have an
institutional set up. The missions will have to determine objectives spanning
the 11th and 12th plan periods.
The NAPCC
also looks at other initiatives underway to address climate change these
include different energy generating technologies like super critical
technologies which give higher efficiencies than normal coal burning thermal
power plants, use of natural gas etc. The need for technology transfer and
capacity building forms part of the other initiatives mentioned. There is also
mention about international cooperation under the aegis of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
The
challenges faced by the various national missions are expanded on in the
respective documents. These also detail the strategies chosen to meet these
challenges, and set goals for themselves. A brief explanation of these follows.
1. The
Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission
Challenges:
- Reducing absolute
cost of solar to bring it down to coal.
- Ensuring
scalability
Strategies
- Promotion of
already proved and commercially viable solar heating systems by making
solar water heaters mandatory in buildings
- Using solar as an
off-grid solution to provide power to the power deprived poor through the
remote village electrification programme
- Creating
conditions for research and application in the field of solar
technology.
Goals: With the structure provided by the mission it
is hoped that by the end of the third phase, 2022, India should have installed
20,000 MW of solar power.
2.
National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency.
Strategies
- Create demand for
energy efficient products by spreading awareness about their efficacy,
amending government policy etc
- Ensure adequate
supply of energy efficient products, goods, and services by forming a
cadre of energy professionals, labeling end use equipment etc
- Create financing
platforms that will create risk guarantee funds, financial derivatives of
performance contracts etc
- Formulate well
thought out evaluation and monitoring mechanisms to capture energy savings
in a transparent manner
- Overcome market
failures through regulatory and policy measures.
Goals: Energy, Efficiency, Equity and Environment
3.
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
Challenges: Reduced yields, impacts on acreage and land
holding utilisation, direct damages to crop and infrastructure
Strategies
- Strengthening
agricultural insurance, develop system based on GIS and remote sensing to
map soil resource and land use.
- Providing
information on off-season crops, collation of information on block level
data on agro-climatic variables, and preparation of state-level
agro-climatic atlases.
- Development of strategies
to evolve low input agriculture by creating crops with enhanced water and
nitrogen use efficiency.
- Nutritional
strategies for managing heat stress in dairy animals and developing salt
tolerant and disease resistant fish and prawns
Goals
- Use of micro
irrigation systems
- Promotion of
agricultural techniques like minimum tillage, organic farming and rain
water conservation
- Capacity building
of farmers and other stakeholders
- Production of
bio-fertilizer, compost along with a subsidy regime in line with chemical
fertilizers
- Strengthening of
national agricultural insurance scheme Strengthening of self help
groups
4.
National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem
Challenges:
- Himalayan glaciers
and the associated hydrological consequences
- Biodiversity
conservation and protection
- Wild life
conservation and protection
- Traditional
knowledge societies and their livelihood
- Planning for sustaining
of the Himalayan Ecosystem.
Strategies:
- Human and knowledge
capacities - Trained personnel are required who can capture, store and
apply knowledge relating to vulnerability and changes in this region
- Institutional
capacities - On creating capability to conduct long term observations,
studies to understand and warn of changes in the Himalayan
eco-system
- Capacities for
evidence based policy building and governance - The mission will also
create a platform for Himalayan states and the centre to interact with
various bodies
- Continuous self
learning for balancing between forces of Nature and actions of mankind -
This will be done by creating strong linkages with community based
organisations etc.
Goals: establishing of a modern centre of glaciology,
standardisation of data collection to ensure interoperability and mapping of
natural resources in the area, identification and training of 100 experts and
specialists in the area relevant to sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem
National
Mission for a Green India
Challenges: Impacts of climate change and climate change
variability
Strategies:
- Enhance carbon
sinks in sustainably managed forests
- Enhance the
resilience of vulnerable species and ecosystems to adapt to climate
change
- Enable forest
dependent communities to adapt to climate variability.
Goals
- Double the area to
be taken up for afforestation
- Increase greenhouse
gas removals by India's forests
- Enhance resilience
of forests and ecosystems falling under the mission.
National
Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change
Challenges: need for a strong strategic knowledge system
on climate change
Strategies:
- Develop regional
climate science
- Assess various
technological scenarios along with alternatives
- Leverage
international cooperation.
The
efforts undertaken here would feed into the Indian National Network for Climate
Change Assessment (INCCA) which is a stock taking exercise conducted every two
years as part of the national obligations under UNFCCC.
Goals: Creation
of a data generation and sharing system by
- Mapping resources
on knowledge relevant to climate change
- Identifying
knowledge gaps and creating groups that look at global technological
trends to select and test technologies
- Creating a network
of institutions
- Creating new
centres dedicated to climate research within existing institutional
framework.
National
Mission on Sustainable Habitat
Challenges:
To make
urban areas more climate friendly and less susceptible to climate
change Need for a multi-pronged approach to not only mitigate climate
change but also to adapt to it
Strategies:
- To create and adopt
a more holistic approach to solid and liquid waste management that will
ensure their full potential for energy generation, recycling and reuse,
and composting is tapped
- To encourage
alternative transport systems that not only mitigate climate change but
can also adapt to vagaries of climate
- To provide the
right environment for adoption and creation of technologies that mitigate
climate change To encourage community involvement to ensure
sustainable development.
Goals:
These are
grouped as follows:
- Energy Efficiency
- Creation of one
building code for the entire nation
- A system to enforce
these laws and provide incentives
- Establish financial
incentives based on green rating
- Water and solid waste
management
- reduced need for
pumping of water proper treatment of waste water and use of better
designed toilets
- conversion of solid
waste into energy
- Urban Transport
- strengthen the
urban transport system through a mix of promotional, regulatory and fiscal
measures
- reduce fuel
consumed per passenger travel by the provision of pedestrian path ways
with trees and bicycle paths
- Promote use of
natural gas and alternate and renewable fuels
- Establish fuel
efficiency standards for new and existing vehicles
- Urban planning
- Comprehensive urban
renewal - implementing master plan proposals etc
- Sustainable and
energy efficient urban design
- Better enforcement
of Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (UDPFI)
guidelines.
National
Water Mission
Challenges:
- Policy and
institutional framework
- Surface water
management
- Ground water
management
- Domestic and
industrial water management
- Efficient use of
water for various purposes
- Basin level
planning and management.
Strategies:
- Review the network
of hydrological, automatic weather and automated rain gauge stations so
that data can be collected on mountainous river flow, wetlands etc
- Expeditiously
implement water projects in climate sensitive regions
- Need to promote
water purification and desalination techniques
- Enactment of a bill
for the regulation and management of groundwater
- Research in water
use efficiency in industry, agriculture and domestic sectors
- Providing
incentives for water neutral and water positive technologies
- Review national
water policy be reviewed to include integrated water resources management,
evaporation management and basin level management
- Provide guidelines
for different water users in the context of basin-wise situations
Goals:
- Water data base in
the public domain and the assessment of impact of climate change on water
resource
- Promotion of
citizen and state action for water conservation, augmentation and
preservation
- Focused attention
to over-exploited areas
- Improving water use
efficiency by 20%
- Promotion of basin
level integrated water resources management
It has
been assessed that for the mission there would be need of Rs 60,445 crores for
the 12th Plan.
Though some of these documents are drafts they all indicate India's
desire to not only work towards mitigating climate change but also prepare its
economy, resources and people to adapt to climate change
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