On 30 June 2008, the Prime Minister released India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). Prepared by the specially constituted Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, the document was intended to provide a concrete road map detailing how India plans to move forward in combating climate change. The Plan, while recognising the immense threat posed by climate change, starts by first and foremost marrying climate change to development concerns in no uncertain terms. The very first line states, “India is faced with the challenge of sustaining its rapid economic growth while dealing with the global threat of climate change.” Thus the goal is development and climate change is a major problem, not least because it could hurt development targets.

The emphasis on development was underlined by the Prime Minister during his speech at the release of the NAPCC, when he said, “Without a careful long-term strategy, climate change may undermine our development efforts, with adverse consequences, across the board, on our people’s livelihood, the environment in which they live and work and their personal health and welfare.” In fact the principles that are outlined in the document, and on which it is based, categorically state this.

The authors also spell out the following objective for India, “Our objective is to establish an effective, cooperative and equitable global approach based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and relative capabilities…we must not only promote sustainable production processes, but equally, sustainable lifestyles across the globe.” This objective is a reiteration of India’s international stand that the developed world must recognize its historical responsibility, stop wasteful emissions and follow the principles of equity.

It is at this point that the NAPCC makes one of its most significant and controversial claims that even as India pursues its development objectives, at no time will its per-capita emissions surpass those of the developed countries.

The approach that the NAPCC proposes India takes is, “a directional shift in the development pathway” that promotes development objectives while also yielding co-benefits (emphasis added) for addressing climate change effectively.” Once again it should be pointed out that climate change benefits are seen only as a byproduct or co-benefit of a sustainable plan to meet development targets and not as a goal in itself.

The NAPCC then sets out eight “National Missions” as the way forward in implementing the Government’s strategy and achieving the National Action Plan’s objective. The focus of these missions, the authors say, is on “promoting understanding of climate change, adaptation and mitigation, energy efficiency and natural resource conservation.”

The missions are:

1. National Solar Mission
2. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
3. National Mission on Sustainable Habitat
4. National Water Mission
5. National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
6. National Mission for a Green India
7. National Mission fro Sustainable Agriculture
8. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change

National Solar Mission

“Our vision is to make India’s economic development energy-efficient. Over a period of time, we must pioneer a graduated shift from economic activity based on fossil fuels to one based on non-fossil fuels and from reliance on non-renewable and depleting sources of energy to renewable sources of energy. In this strategy, the sun occupies center stage, as it should, being literally the original source of all energy”

– Indian Prime Minister on the release of the National Action Plan

Great importance has been given to the National Solar Mission in the NAPCC. This is justified by the fact that India is ideally situated in the equatorial Sun Belt receiving abundant solar radiation the year around. The average solar insolation incident over India is about 5.5 kWh/m2 per day, which means that just 1% of India’s land can meet the country’s entire electricity requirement till 2030.[1] The stated objective of the mission is to increase the share of solar energy and other renewable and non-fossil based energy sources in the total energy mix of the country. This includes nuclear energy as a non-fossil option.

The mission also calls for the launch of a research and development (R&D) programme that, with the help of international cooperation, would look into creating more cost-effective, sustainable and convenient solar power systems.

As can be seen from the adjoining diagram renewable energy currently comprises a very small proportion of our energy sources and solar is responsible for even less.

The NAPCC sets the solar mission a target of delivering 80% coverage for all low temperature (<150° C) applications of solar energy in urban areas, industries and commercial establishments, and a target of 60% coverage for medium temperature (150° C to 250° C) applications. The deadline for achieving this is the duration of the 11^th and 12^th five-year plans, through to 2017. In addition, rural applications are to be pursued through public-private partnership.

The NAPCC also sets the target of 1000 MW/annum of photovoltaic production from integrated facilities by 2017 as well as 1000 MW of Concentrating Solar Power generation capacity.

These efforts are to be backed by R&D to ensure that India develops commercial and near commercial solar technologies. The ultimate aim is to develop a solar industry that is competitive against fossil fuel options within the next 20-25 years.

National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency

This Mission is basically targeted at industry, which, according to the NAPCC, accounts for 42% of the country’s total commercial energy use (2004-2005) and 31 % of total CO2 emissions (1994).

The Government of India already had a number of initiatives to promote energy efficiency in place before the NAPCC such as the star labelling system and energy conservation building code and had also passed the Energy Conservation Act of 2001. In addition to these, the NAPCC calls for:

· Mandating specific energy consumption decreases in large energy consuming industries and creating a framework to certify excess energy savings along with market based, mechanisms to trade these savings. This is aimed at enhancing cost effectiveness of improvements in energy efficiency in energy-intensive sectors.

• Innovative measures to make energy efficient appliances/products in certain sectors more affordable.
• Creation of mechanisms to help finance demand side management programmes by capturing future energy savings and enabling public-private-partnerships for this.
• Developing fiscal measures to promote energy efficiency such as tax incentives for including differential taxation on energy efficient certified appliances.

National Mission on Sustainable Habitat

The aim of the Mission is to make habitats more sustainable through a threefold approach that includes

• Improvements in energy efficiency of buildings in residential and commercial sector
• Management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
• Promote urban public transport

The NAPCC claims that use of energy efficient options could hep achieve 30% electricity savings in new residential buildings and 40% in new commercial buildings. For existing buildings the corresponding savings are 20% and 30% respectively.

The authors call for a wide and diverse range of policy instruments to overcome the barriers to adoption of energy efficient options in residential and commercial sectors, highlight the need for more a more competitive market for energy efficient products and advocate an involving all stakeholders. In addition, they once again stress on the need for technology transfer from developed countries.

With regards to MSW, the Plan suggests some policy reforms such as common regional disposal facilities for smaller towns and villages in a particular region, and integrated system for collection, transport, transfer, treatment and disposal facilities.

Finally, with regards to urban public transport, the NAPCC endorses mass transit such as buses, railways and mass rapid transit systems and the use of CNG, ethanol blending in gasoline and bio-diesel. Hydrogen is something that is mentioned for the future. In addition, the Plan proposes the promotion of costal shipping and inland waterways, increasing attractiveness of railways, introducing appropriate transport pricing measures to influence purchase and use of vehicles in respect of fuel efficiency and fuel choice, tightening regulatory standards in fuel-economy of automobiles.

As with the other Missions, the Plan emphasises the need for R&D for all the components of the Sustainable Habitat Mission.

National Water Mission

According to the NAPCC, out of the 4000 billion m³ of precipitation that India receives annually, only 1000 billion m³ is available for use, which comes to approx. 1000 m³ per capita per annum. Further, by 2050 it states that India is likely to be water scarce. The National Water Mission thus aims at conserving water, minimising wastage and ensuring more equitable distribution through integrated water resource management. It also aims to optimize water use efficiency by 20% by developing a framework of regulatory mechanisms having differential entitlements and pricing.

In addition, the Water Mission calls for strategies to tackle variability in rainfall and river flows such as enhancing surface and underground water storage, rainwater harvesting and more efficient irrigation systems like sprinklers or drip irrigation.

National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem

The NAPCC recognises the Himalayan ecosystem as vital to preserving the ecological security of the country. It consists of forests; perennial rivers which are a source of drinking water, irrigation, and hydropower; rich biodiversity; and is a major tourist attraction. All these are in danger from climate change through increases in temperature, changes in precipitation patterns, drought and glacier melt.

The Plan calls for empowering local communities especially Panchayats to play a greater role in managing ecological resources. It also reaffirms the following measures mentioned in the National Environment Policy, 2006.

• Adopting appropriate land-use planning and water-shed management practices for sustainable development of mountain ecosystems
• Adopting best practices for infrastructure construction in mountain regions to avoid or minimize damage to sensitive ecosystems and despoiling of landscapes
• Encouraging cultivation of traditional varieties of crops and horticulture by promoting organic farming, enabling farmers to realise a price premium
• Promoting sustainable tourism based on best practices and multi-stakeholder partnerships to enable local communities to gain better livelihoods
• Taking measures to regulate tourist inflows into mountain regions to ensure that the carrying capacity of the mountain ecosystem is not breached
• Developing protection strategies for certain mountain scopes with unique “incomparable values”

National Mission for a Green India

This Mission aims at enhancing ecosystem services such as carbon sinks. It builds on the Prime Minister’s Green India campaign for afforestation of 6 million hectares and the national target of increasing land area under forest cover from 23% to 33%. It is to be implemented on degraded forest land through Joint Forest Management Committees set up under State Departments of Forests. These Committees will promote direct action by communities.

The Green India programme suggests:

• Training on silvicultural practices for fast-growing and climate-hardy tree species
• Reducing fragmentation of forests by provision of corridors for species migration, both fauna and flora
• Enhancing public and private investments for raising plantations for enhancing the cover and the density of forests
• Revitalizing and upscaling community-based initiatives such as Joint Forest Management and Van Panchayat committees for forest management
• Formulation of forest fire management strategies
• In-situ and ex-situ conservation of genetic resources, especially of threatened flora and fauna
• Creation of biodiversity registers (at national, district, and local levels) for documenting genetic diversity and the associated traditional knowledge
• Effective implementation of the Protected Area System under the Wildlife Conservation Act and National Biodiversity Conservation Act 2001

National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture

The aim is to make Indian agriculture more resilient to climate change by identifying new varieties of crops, especially thermal resistant ones and alternative cropping patterns. This is to be supported by integration of traditional knowledge and practical systems, information technology and biotechnology, as well as new credit and insurance mechanisms.

In particular the Mission focuses on rain-fed agricultural zones and suggests:

• Development of drought and pest resistant crop varieties
• Improving methods to conserve soil and water
• Stakeholder consultations, training workshops and demonstration exercises for farming communities, for agro-climatic information sharing and dissemination
• Financial support to enable farmers to invest in and adopt relevant technologies to overcome climatic related stresses

In addition, the Mission makes suggestions for safeguarding farmers against increased risk due to climate change. These suggestions include, strengthening agricultural and weather insurance; creation of web-enabled, regional language based services for facilitation of weather-based insurance; development of GIS and remote sensing methodologies; mapping vulnerable regions and disease hotspots; and developing and implementing region-specific, vulnerability based contingency plans.

Finally, it suggests greater access to information and use of biotechnology.

National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change

This Mission will strive to work with the global community in research and technology development and collaboration through a variety of mechanisms and, in addition, will also have its own research agenda supported by a network of dedicated climate change related institutions and universities and a Climate Research Fund. The Mission will also encourage private sector initiatives for developing innovative technologies for adaptation and mitigation.

The Mission includes:

• Research in key substantive domains of climate science to improve understanding of key phenomena and processes
• Global and regional climate modelling to improve the quality and accuracy of climate change projections for India
• Strengthening of observational networks and data gathering and assimilation to increase access and availability to relevant data
• Creation of essential research infrastructure, such as high performance computing

Other Programmes

The NAPCC also describes other ongoing initiatives, including:

Power Generation: The government is mandating the retirement of inefficient coal-fired power plants and supporting the research and development of IGCC and supercritical technologies.

Renewable Energy: Under the Electricity Act 2003 and the National Tariff Policy 2006, the central and the state electricity regulatory commissions must purchase a certain percentage of grid-based power from renewable sources.

Energy Efficiency: Under the Energy Conservation Act 2001, large energy-consuming industries are required to undertake energy audits and an energy labeling program for appliances has been introduced.[2]

Implementation

According to the NAPCC the 8 National Missions are to be institutionalised by “respective ministries” and will be organised through inter-sectoral groups including, in addition to related Ministries, Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission, experts from industry, academia and civil society.

Structure of Institutional Arrangement of NAPCC

Each Mission has been given the task of evolving specific objectives for the remaining duration of the 11^th Plan and the 12th Plan period (through to 2017). These objectives were to be stated in comprehensive documents along with strategies, plans of action, timelines and monitoring and evaluation criteria, which were to be submitted to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change by December 2008. The Council is to periodically review the progress of these Missions and the each Mission is to report its performance publically every year.

The implementation strategy is to be supported by increasing public awareness through a media and communication strategy, civil society involvement, capacity building, curricula reform and awards.

Evaluation

Though it is commonly agreed that the NAPCC represents a significant step forward, in that it is the first systematic attempt by the Government to frame a comprehensive policy framework to deal with climate change, most believe that it is insufficient and lacking in vision and real measurable targets.

One of the strongest criticisms has come from a civil society coalition called Climate Challenge India coalition, which gives the NAPCC “a B+ for effort, and a D for vision”. The coalitions main criticisms are:

• The NAPCC just takes a number of the Government’s existing National Plans for water, agriculture, renewable energy, energy efficiency, etc. and combines them with a few additional ones, rather than formulating a new “well-thought through ‘strategy’ chalking out a discernible low-carbon pathway for India.”
• It relies too much on out of date IPCC projections and not the best currently available climate science, thereby leading to a lack of urgency
• The NAPCC lays blame on developed countries without taking enough ownership for the problem
• It has a lack of clear targets and timetables for action thereby showing a lack of seriousness in the Government’s commitment to dealing with climate change. The only targets are vague like, at no time during its development will India’s per capita emissions surpass those of the developed world.
• There is a lack of focus on forest conservation as opposed to afforestation
• The NAPCC suggests glacier melt might not be caused by climate change and that further study is needed[3]

Other criticisms include:

• Lack of clarity with regards to roles and responsibilities. How is the NAPCC to reach citizens all over India? Who will be responsible for interpretation and translation of the document and its objectives? Who will fund the national outreach/public awareness programmes? These questions and others are not answered
• There has been no stakeholder consultation during the framing of the NAPCC. No opinions were taken from a broader community of experts, citizen’s groups, civil society, etc.
• NAPCC does not adequately analyse regional or global views. It does not mention the deadlock in the international arena on climate change
• Sectoral and ministry-bound approaches (like NAPCC) to problems have till date kept climate change risks out of our national development policies[4]
• Policy is limited by what contributes to the development process and also by political concerns like elections[5]
• NAPCC does not outline a definitive strategy of how to take to eight Missions of the ground[6]
• The Government has not clearly stated how it will finance the plan, it does not talk of any concrete financial mechanisms nor does it set out a budgetary allocation process[7]

Additional Reading:

Full Text of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change

Summary of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change – PEW Center

Prime Minister’s Speech on Release of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change

Assessment of National Action Plan on Climate Change – Climate Challenge India Coalition

FOOTNOTES

• 1.  National Action Plan on Climate Change, pg. 18, 30 June 2008↑
• 2. Summary: India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change; PEW Center on Global Climate Change; http://www.pewclimate.org/international/country-policies/india-climate-plan-summary/06-2008↑
• 3.  Climate Challenge India – Initial Assessment of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change; http://www.csmworld.org/public/pdf/CCI-NAPCC_statement_final.pdf↑
• 4.  Rahul Goswami, Blind Spots in India’s new National Action Plan on Climate Chagne; Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change; http://www.inecc.net/debate/Blind%20Spots%20in%20NAPCC.php↑
• 5.  Climatico: Assessing National climate Policy – November 2008 to February 2009; March 2009↑
• 6.  Tirthankar Mandal; Climate Brief 5: The Action Plan on Climate Change, G8 Declaration and the Accra Climate Change Meet: Points to Ponder; Centre for Trade and Development; August 2008; http://www.centad.org/download/Climate_Brief_5.pdf↑
• 7.  Tirthankar Mandal; Climate Brief 5: The Action Plan on Climate Change, G8 Declaration and the Accra Climate Change Meet: Points to Ponder; Centre for Trade and Development; August 2008; http://www.centad.org/download/Climate_Brief_5.pdf↑