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Climate Talks and India –
Domestic Lessons and Opportunities
M ore than 180
nations coming together for collective action on climate change in
Paris, the 21st
Conference of Parties for climate change in Paris has marked a strong
political will from the developed and developing nations to act on
climate change. The climate conference has provided a unique opportunity
for India to showcase its action plans on low carbon development and
climate change adaptation.
India is confronted with a challenge of bringing in
sustained wellbeing for all its 1.25 billion citizens amidst increasing
threats and uncertain impacts of climate change. With a high level of
exposure and vulnerability, India cannot afford to take climate response
action lightly.
At the international stage, India has taken the bull
by the horns. We have defined a fairly ambitious target and brought
together alliances for promoting a greener and prosperous future for the
poorest countries along with itself. India has already announced its
climate commitments in its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
(INDCs). Setting ambitious targets, India has committed to bringing down
its greenhouse gas emissions unconditionally and has also pledged to
substantially increase its share of renewable energy by 2030. India has
committed to reduce emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35% by 2030
using 2005 levels as a baseline.
The commitment of institutional and financial support
to the International Solar Alliance (launched by India and France in COP
21) by housing its secretariat is a strategic one. It indicates India’s
leadership and demonstrates its commitment to leverage investments for
renewable energy for itself and other countries in the same predicament.
India has committed to install 175 gigawatt of
renewable energy by 2030, 100 gigawatt of which comprises solar energy
to be installed by 2022. With an immense push for clean energy sources,
India has committed to achieve about 40% cumulative electric power
installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030.
Understanding that the climate change – energy debate cannot be complete
without looking at the inter-relationship of climate change and sectoral
GHG emissions, India has initiated processes to decouple various
economic sectors from carbon emissions ranging from enhancing energy and
resource efficiencies, creation of carbon sinks through afforestation
and finally reduction in fossil fuel consumption.
In order to fulfill these targets, several
opportunities and challenges that emerge for India on the domestic
development front have been identified to address some of these issues:
1. Progress on Low Carbon Development Pathway
• Energy Efficiency:
With technological efficiencies being demonstrated in the largest energy
guzzling sectors, the next obvious step is to ensure that energy
intensive sectors are mandated and facilitated to adopt these in a
manner that they not only provide mitigation gains but contribute to
local and national economic development. Tax benefits and fiscal
incentives will be needed along with changes in public procurement to
encourage cleaner production systems while regulations and closure
support to brown (and black) industries by way of hefty cleaning up
charges, reskilling the old work force, helping them move to greener
technologies will be imperative.
• Clean Energy1:
Reaching the target of 175 gigawatt of renewable energy by 2022 is a
challenging target that India has defined for itself. The big barriers
in this case are financial viability, bankability issues and
infrastructure development for affordable storage technologies and
affordable transition to smart grid systems. The following are some
actions that can promote such development:
- Explore new instruments such as green bonds, new
equity and synthesised products with which to raise financing and
enable risk sharing and mitigation in renewable energy projects.
- Enhance research in innovations in localised
smart grids and incentives for decentralised production and
distribution of solar and other renewable energies. This will require
technology partnerships that side step IPR barriers both from
international and national knowledge centres and industry.
- Expedite energy information systems that provide
easily usable, integrated and easily accessible database on solar
radiation, technology choices and up to date information on available
resources.
- Roll out a comprehensive capacity-building
programme on emerging technology, regulatory, legal and financing
issues. State nodal agencies also need resources and training to work
with other state agencies to ensure speedy clearances of renewable
energy projects.
• Carbon sink- forest
cover: India’s INDC has committed
to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2
through additional forest and tree cover2.
This would require average annual carbon sequestration to increase by at
least 14% over the next 15 years relative to the 2008-2013 period. With
the Green India Mission expected to deliver 50-60% of the required
total, India needs to provide further detail on how it plans to achieve
the rest. The INDC notes the importance of financing to address
implementation challenges.3
Despite the large number of Centrally Sponsored
Schemes such as National Afforestation Programme (NAP), Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Integrated
Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), National Bamboo Mission (NBM) and
under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority
(CAMPA), 13th Finance Commission Grant, the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MoEF) is faced with a lack of funds and is considering asking
the private sector including industries to help with the task of
rehabilitating degraded forests so that India can reach its 27-year-old
target of increasing the area under forests to 33%.4
Considering the huge challenges in restoration of
degraded forests, it is felt from experiences that only government’s
efforts may not suffice in the rehabilitation of degraded forests. The
government will have to work with all stakeholders, including community
groups, civil society and industries, in afforestation and
rehabilitation of degraded forest lands.5
2. Adaptation and Resilience Building
Stating the vulnerability climate change poses on
different sectors in the country, India’s INDCs have identified the
importance of enhancing investments in development programmes in sectors
and areas vulnerable to climate change, particularly agriculture, water
resources, health and disaster management. Adaptation and resilience
strategies will benefit from the opportunities offered by the
commitments for fulfilling Sustainable Development Goals, under the
framework for the 2030 Global Sustainable Development Agenda signed in
September this year.
• Integration of
adaptation into development planning:
Proactive actions are required for integrating adaptation into
developmental planning from village up to state level and climate
proofing development programmes for climate change resilience and
adaptation. Apart from this, an assessment and review of policy must
ensure measuring the components of climate resilience and adaptation.
• Leverage and direct
finance towards sustainable development:
Estimates tell that for India to achieve the
Sustainable Development Goals, it would require finance of the order of
USD 14 trillion till 2030. The trends in public finance will only cater
to half of what is required which leaves a huge gap in fulfilling
finance for development needs. There are various opportunities for
plugging the gap:
India will need to improve its tax to GDP ratio,
which is 17% now and plugging the erosion of tax revenues at home
through international cooperation to close the resource gap.
Apart from the ODA that is expected by India, it is
important to look for capitalising on the private finance to result into
sustainable development. This would require an enabling environment that
incentivises investments in development needs and hence direct the use
of private finance in the country.
Further, global finance market including blended
finance, green bonds are opportunities that India should explore for
investing in sustainable development ventures.
The implementation of both mitigation and adaptation
activities will therefore define the course of India’s actions and
commitments.
The availability of carbon space and the capability
of the country to ensure that the poorest are brought into the
development centre stage has been our bargaining card for the equity and
dynamic CBDR arguments at the international stage. However, at the
domestic front, we are still to set in place structural systems that
will create an environment that facilitates the mainstreaming of
technological interventions and adaptation models such that these become
the new norm. We also do not yet see projected environmental benefits
from the technological shifts translating into clear economic, social
and human development gains – especially for those in the lowest income
bracket.
It is now critical that domestic processes for
climate action are prioritised such that national and local benefits of
environment protection, livelihood security and disaster resilience and
affordable low carbon sustainable development pathways are experienced
by the public at large.
q
Zeenat Niazi
zniazi@devalt.org
Harshita Bisht
hbisht@devalt.org
Endnotes
1 Unleashing
the Potential of renewable energy in India, 2010, Sargsyan et al
2 India’s
Intended Nationally Determined Contributions
3 http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/10/5-key-takeaways-india%E2%80%99s-new-climate-plan-indc
4 MoEF
Pressnote
5 http://www.livemint.com/Politics/FDDxjD4WMVfO472aNhhQPI/Govt-may-ask-private-sector-to-chip-in-to-increase-forest-co.html
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