Shankar IAS: Summary of India And Climate Change | Environment for UPSC CSE PDF Download

INDIA'S POSITION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

• India’s per capita emission levels will never exceed that of the per capita emission levels of developed countries-PM India
• India cannot and will not take on emission reduction targets India will continue to be a low-carbon economy (World Bank study). India's primary focus is on “adaptation ", with specific focus for "mitigation India has already unveiled a comprehensive National Action Plan on Climate Change.
• Only those Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAS) can be subject to international monitoring, reporting and verification that are enabled and supported by international finance and technology transfer.
• India wants a comprehensive approach to Reducing Emissions from Deforestation & Forest Degradation (REDD) and advocates REDD+ that includes conservation, afforestation and sustainable management of forests
• India advocates collaborative research in future low-carbon technology and access to intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) as global public goods.

CURRENT CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS IN INDIA
India’s CO₂ emissions per capita are well below the world’s average.(1.02 metric ton)

India's National Communication (NATCOM) to UNFCCC has consolidated some of the observed changes in climate parameters in India
(i) Surface Temperature

• At the national level, increase of 0.4° C has been observed in surface air temperatures Over the past century.
• A warming trend has been observed along the west coast, in central India, the interior peninsula, and north-eastern India.
• Cooling trends have been observed in north-west India and parts of south India.

(ii) Rainfall

• While the observed monsoon rainfall at the all- India level does not, show any significant trend, regional monsoon variations have been recorded 
• A trend of increasing monsoon seasonal rainfall has been found along the west coast, northern Andhra Pradesh, and north-western India (+10% to +12% of the normal over the last 100 years) 
• while a trend of decreasing monsoon seasonal rainfall has been observed over eastern Madhya Pradesh, north-eastern India, and some parts of Gujarat and Kerala (-6% to --8% of the normal over the last 100 years).

(iii) Extreme Weather Events
The states of West Bengal and Gujarat have reported increasing trends, a decline has been observed in Orissa

(iv) Rise in Sea Level
Sea level rise was between 1.06-1.75 mm per year. These rates are consistent with 1-2 mm per year global sea level rise estimates of IPCC.

(v) Impacts on Himalayan Glaciers

• Recession of some glaciers, has occurred in some Himalayan regions in recent years, the trend is not consistent across the entire mountain chain.
• It is accordingly, too early to establish long-term trends, or their causation, in respect of which there are several hypotheses.

Current Indian government expenditure on adaptation to climate variability, exceeds 2.6% of the GDP.

(i) AGRICULTURE

• Two risk-financing programmes support adaptation to climate impacts.
• The Crop Insurance Scheme- supports the insurance of farmers against climate risks, and the Credit Support Mechanism- facilitates the extension of credit to farmers, especially for crop failure due to climate variability.

(ii) FORESTRY

• India has a strong and rapidly growing afforestation programme. 
• Forest Conservation Act of 1980, which aimed at 'stopping the dealing and degradation of forests through a strict, centralized control of the rights to use forest land and mandatory requirements of compensatory afforestation ion in case of any diversion of forest land for any non- forestry purpose.

(iii) WATER
The National Water Policy (2002) stresses that non-conventional methods for utilization of water, including inter-basin transfers, artificial recharges of groundwater, and desalination of brackish or sea water, as well as traditional water conservation practices like rainwater harvesting, including roof-top rainwater/harvesting, should be practised to increase the utilizable water resources

(iv) COSTAL REGIONS
In coastal regions, restrictions have been imposed in the area between 200m to 500m of the (High tide line) special restrictions have been imposed in the area up to 200m to protect the sensitive coastal ecosystems and prevent their exploitation.

(v) HEALTH

• The prime objective present of health programmes is the surveillance and control of vector borne diseases such as Malaria, Kala-azar, Japanese Encephalitis, Filaria and Dengue.
• Programmes also provide for emergency medical relief in the case of natural calamities, and too train and develop human resources for these tasks.

(vi) DISASTER MANAGEMENT

• The National Disaster Management programme provides grants-in-aid to victims of weather related disasters, and manages disaster relief operations.
• It also supports proactive disaster prevention programmes, including dissemination of information and training of disaster-management staff.

(vii) INDIA'S NATIONAL ACTION PLAN ON CLIMATE CHANGE

• The National Action Plan hinges on the development and use of new technologies.
• The implementation of the Plan would be through appropriate institutional mechanisms suited for effective delivery of each individual Mission's objectives and include public private partnerships and civil society action.

(i) NATIONAL SOLAR MISSION

• The National Solar Mission is a major initiative of the Government of India and State Governments to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India's energy security challenge.
• To establish India as a global leader in solar energy The Mission will adopt a 3-phase approach remaining period of the 11th Plan and first year of the 12th Plan (up to 2012-13) as Phase 1, the remaining 4 years of the 12th Plan (2013-17) as Phase 2 the 13th Plan (2017-22) as Phase3.
• There will be an evaluation of progress, review of capacity and targets for subsequent phases,

Mission targets are:

• To create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022.
• To ramp up capacity of grid-connected solar power generation to 1000 MW within three years -by 2013; an additional 3000 MW by 2017 through the mandatory use of the renewable purchase obligation by utilities backed with a preferential tariff.
• To create favourable conditions for solar manufacturing capability, particularly solar thermal for indigenous production and market leadership. By 2022
• To promote programmes for off grid applications, reaching 1000 MW by 2017 and 2000 MW 
• To achieve 15 million sq. meters solar thermal collector area by 2017 and 20 million by 2022. 
• To deploy 20 million solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022.

(ii) THE NATIONAL MISSION FOR ENHANCED ENERGY EFFICIENCY (NMEEE):

• To strengthen the market for energy efficiency by creating conducive regulatory and policy regime.
• Mission Goals - Market-based approaches to unlock energy efficiency opportunities
• Four New Initiatives to Enhance Energy Efficiency:
  (i) Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT)
  (ii) Market Transformation for Energy Efficiency
  (iii) Energy Efficiency Financing Platform (EEP)
  (iv) Framework for Energy Efficient Economic Development (FEEED)

(iii) NATIONAL MISSION ON SUSTAINABLE HABITAT

• To promote sustainability of habitats through improvements in energy efficiency in buildings, urban planning, improved management of solid and liquid waste, modal shift towards public transport and conservation through appropriate changes, in legal and regulatory framework. 
• It also seeks to improve ability of habitats to adapt to climate change by improving resilience of infrastructure, community based disaster management and measures for improving advance warning systems for extreme weather events.

(iv) NATIONAL WATER MISSION (NWM) MISSION OBJECTIVES

• Ensuring integrated water resource management for Conservation of water, minimization of wastage and equitable distribution both across and within states. 
• Developing a framework for optimum water use through increase in water use efficiency by 20% through regulatory mechanisms with differential entitlements and Pricing, taking the National Water Policy (NWP) into consideration.

(v) NATIONAL MISSION FOR SUSTAINING THE HIMALAYAN ECOSYSTEM
The most crucial and primary objective of the mission is to develop a sustainable National capacity to continuously assess the health status of the Himalayan Ecosystem and enable policy bodies in their policy-formulation functions and assist States in the Indian Himalayan Region with their implementation of actions selected for sustainable development

(vi) NATIONAL MISSION FOR A GREEN INDIA

• Increased forest/tree cover on 5 million hectares (ha) of forest/non- forest-lands and improved quality of forest cover on another 5 million ha of non-forest/forest lands’ (a total of 10 million ha)
• Improved ecosystem services including biodiversity, hydrological services, and carbon sequestration from the 10 million ha of forest/ non-forest lands mentioned above

(vii) NATIONAL MISSION FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE (NMSA): 
The NMSA has identified 10 key dimensions for adaptation and mitigation:

• Improved Crop Seeds, Livestock and Fish Culture 
• Water Efficiency
• Pest Management
• Improved Farm Practices
• Nutrient Management
• Agricultural Insurance 
• Credit Support
• Markets
• Access to Information
• Livelihood Diversification

(viii) The National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC)

• Formation of knowledge networks among the existing knowledge institutions engaged in research and development relating to climate science and facilitating data sharing and exchange through a suitable policy framework and institutional support
• Establishment of global technology watch groups with institutional capacities to carry out research on risk minimised technology selection for developmental choices.
• Development of national capacity for modelling the regional impact of climate change
• Establishing research networks and encouraging research in the areas of climate change impacts on important socio-economic sectors Building alliances and partnerships through global collaboration in research & technology development

(ix) National Bio-Energy Mission

• To boost power generation from biomass, a renewable energy source abundantly available in India launched during the 12th Five-Year Plan, will offer a policy and regulatory environment to facilitate large-scale capital investments in biomass-fired power stations. 
• It will also encourage development of rural enterprises. It will also propose a GIS-based National Biomass Resource Atlas to map potential biomass regions in the country adopt a two phase approach, spanning the 12th Plan in Phase and the 13th Plan in Phase 2.

• (INCCA) was launched in October 2009 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in an effort to promote domestic research on climate change, and build on the country's climate change expertise. 
• Consists of over 120 institutions and over 250 scientist country wide is aimed at bringing in more science-based policy-making, based on measurement, monitoring and modelling.
• Reports prepared by the INCCA will form a part of India's National Communication (Nat Com) to the United. Nations framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) INCCA First Assessment INCCA prepared the Country's greenhouse gas (GHG) emission data "India: Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2007" in 2010. Which said the country's emissions grew by 58 per cent during 1994 to 2007
• INCCA Second Assessment 'Climate Change and India: A 4x4 Assessment' (4 regions and 4 sector) A 4x4 Assessment' addresses the impact of climate change in 2030s to the natural resources and livelihoods of the people in the four climate sensitive regions of Himalayan region, North- East region, the Western Ghats and the Coastal plains for the 4 key sectors of Agriculture, Water, Health and Natural Ecosystems and Biodiversity using a regional climate model (PRECIS).

Impacts Agriculture

• Upto 50% reduction in maize yields
• -35% reduction in rice yields (with some exceptions)
• Rise in coconut yields (with some exceptions);
• reduced apple production 
• Forests and natural ecosystems Increased net primary productivity

National Communication (NATCOM) to the UNFCCC has been initiated in 2002 funded by the Global Environment Facility under, its enabling, activities programme through the United Nations Development Programme, New Delhi.

To communicate the following information to the Secretariat of the Conference of Parties:

• A national inventory of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removal by sink of all GHGs not controlled by the Montreal protocol (what is Montreal protocol)
• A general description of steps taken or envisaged by the Party to implement the Convention 
• The Ministry of Environment and Forests ( MoEF) is implementing and executing agency of the project base year 1994 Creation of reliable and comprehensive database for all output produced through the establishment of a Data Centre' (DC) The areas of energy, industrial processes, agriculture land use and land use change and forestry (LULUCF) and waste. 
• The gases to be inventoried include carbon dioxide methane, nitrous oxide, hydro fluorocarbons, per fluorocarbon and sulphur hexafluoride released from various anthropogenic sources of the base year 1994.
• Strengthening of the ecology security is one of the goal of the MGNREGA. MGNREGA is designed to strengthen the ongoing effort for water harvesting, watershed management, and soil health care and enhancement.

• The Integrated Energy Policy was adopted in 2006- Promotion of energy efficiency in all sectors, Emphasis on mass transport, Emphasis on renewables including biofuels plantations Accelerated development of nuclear and hydropower for clean energy
• Focused R&D on several clean energy related technology

The Rural Electrification Policy, 2006
It promotes renewable energy technology where grid connectivity is not possible or cost effective.

ENERGY CONSERVATION BUILDING CODE

• Was launched in May, 2007, which addresses the design of new, large commercial buildings to optimize the buildings' energy demand based on their location in different climatic zones 
• Compliance with ECBC norms is voluntary at present but is expected to soon become mandatory.

Green Building

• Buildings are one of the major pollutants that affect urban air quality and contribute to climate change 
• The aim of a green building design is to:
  (a) Minimize the demand on non-renewable resources and maximize the utilization efficiency of these resources when in use, and Maximize reuse and recycling of available resources
  (b) Utilization of renewable 'resources It costs a little more to design and construct a green building. However, it costs less to operate a green building 
• Building system designed in a way to efficiently use HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning), lighting, electrical, and water heating.
• Integration of renewable energy sources to generate energy onsite.

Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA)

• GRIHA is a Sanskrit word meaning- Abode'. GRIHA has been conceived by TERI and developed jointly with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.
• The green building rating system devised by TERI and the MNRE is a voluntary scheme to help design green buildings and, in turn, help evaluate the 'greenness' of the buildings.
• GRIHA is a rating tool that helps people assess the performance of their building against certain nationally acceptable benchmarks and is suitable tor all kinds of buildings in different climatic zones of the country building is assessed based on its predicted performance over its entire life cyde-inception through operation.
• The stages of the life cycle that have been identified for evaluation are: Pre-construction stage, Building operation and maintenance stage

GRIHA rating system consists of 34 criteria categorized under 4 categories

• Site Selection and Site Planning 
• Conservation and efficient utilization of resources, 
• Building operation and maintenance, and 
• Innovation points: It means that a project intending to meet the criterion would qualify for the points 
• Different levels of certification (one star to five stars) are awarded based on the number of points earned.
• The minimum points required for certification is 50.

• In March 2007 the conduct of energy audits was made mandatory in large energy- consuming units in nine industrial sectors.
• These units, notified as "designated consumers” are also required to employ "certified energy managers", and report energy consumption and energy conservation data annually.

(i) MASS TRANSPORT

• The National Urban Transport Policy emphasizes extensive public transport facilities and non motorized modes Over personal vehicles.
• The expansion of the Metro Rail Transportation System in Delhi and other cities (Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur, etc)

(ii) CLEAN AIR INITIATIVES

• Introduction of compressed natural gas (CNG) in Delhi and Other Cities, 
• Retiring old, polluting vehicles; and 
• Strengthening of mass transportation.
  (i) Some state governments provide subsidies for purchase and use of electric vehicles.
  (ii) For thermal power plant, the installation of electrostatic precipitators is mandatory.

(iii) PROMOTION OF ENERGY SAVING DEVICES

• The bureau of Energy efficiency has introduced THE BACHAT LAMP YOJANA
• A program under which households may exchange incandescent lamps for CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) using clean development mechanism (CDM ) Credits to equate purchase price.

(iv) PROMOTION OF BIOFUELS

• The Biodiesel Purchase Policy mandates biodiesel procurement by the petroleum industry.
• A mandate on Ethanol Blending of Gasoline requires 5% blending of ethanol with gasoline from 1st January, 2003, in 9 States and 4 Union Territories.

(v) INDIAN SOLAR LOAN PROGRAMME

• In April 2003, the United Nations Environment Programme ("UNEP") initiated a, three year Programme, credit facility in Southern India to help rural households finance the purchase of Solar Home Systems.
• Canara Bank and Syndicate bank, along with their eight associate Regional Rural Banks, partnered with LTNEP .assistance with technical issues, vendor qualification and other activities to develop the institutional capacity for this type of finance.

(vi) NATIONAL INITIATIVE ON CLIMATE RESILIENT AGRICULTURE (NICRA)

• The ICAR has launched National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) during 2010­11 with an outlay of Rs.350 crores for the XI Plan.
• This initiative will primarily enhance the resilience of Indian Agriculture covering crops, livestock and fisheries Strategic research on adaptation and mitigation 
• Technology demonstration on farmers' fields to cope with current climate variability 
• Sponsored and competitive research grants to fill critical research gaps 
• Capacity building of different stake holders the project is focusing on crops like wheat, rice, maize, pigeon pea, groundnut, tomato, mango and banana; cattle, buffalo and small ruminants among livestock and both marine and freshwater fish species of economic importance

(a) The major research themes are

• Vulnerability assessment of major production zones 
• Linking weather based agro-advisories to contingency planning
• Assessing the impacts and evolving varieties tolerant to key climatic stresses (drought, heat, frost, flooding, etc)
  (i) Evolving adaptation and mitigation strategies
  (ii) Continuous monitoring of greenhouse gases
  (iii) Studying changes in pest dynamics
  (iv) Adaptation strategies in livestock
  (v) Harnessing the beneficial effects of temperature in inland and marine fisheries
  (vi) Seven major research institutes of the ICAR will work in unison to evolve coping technologies with Central Research Institute for Dry land Agriculture (CRIDA), Hyderabad as the lead centre.

• The BSE-GREENEX Index is a veritable first step in creating a credible market based response mechanism in India, whereby both businesses and investors can rely upon purely quantitative and objective performance based signals, to assess "carbon performance
• G-Trade Carbon Ex Ratings Services Private Limited (gTrade) is a company based in India, which has co-developed the BSE-GREENV Index in close association with the BSE. Includes the top 20 companies which are good in terms of Carbon Emissions, Free-Float Market Capitalization, and Turnover.
• Cap Weighted Free-Float Market Capitalization weighted Index comprising from the list of
• BSE-100 Index. 1st October, 2008 (Base Date) with the base index value of 1000. rebalanced on a biannual basis i.e. end of March and September quarters. 
• The September quarter review will be based on the fresh set of carbon emission numbers and the March quarter review will be based on the existing carbon emission numbers but latest financial data.