Climate plan has several holes: NGO
Mumbai: Greenpeace activists, who have been lobbying for mandatory fuel-efficiency norms, say the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC), prepared and made public by the Prime Ministers Climate Council recently, is a welcome first step but the devil lies in the details of the plan.
The plan says India will now have eight national missions to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in order to adapt to and mitigate climate changes. They include increasing the share of renewable energy, implementing fuelefficiency norms, creating an integrated water resource management system, sustaining the Himalayan glacier and mountain ecosystem, creating and sustaining carbon sinksup and making agriculture sustainable to climate changes.
This is a positive shift from growth-at-all-costs to stating that national objectives should be met through a low carbon growth path in a sustainable manner. The national solar mission is ambitious, says Vinuta Gopal, Greenpeace climate campaigner.
However, Gopal added that there were several loopholes in the plan. The NAPCC states that these projects will be implemented by ministries and should be completed by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan. The ministries must draw up detailed plans and submit them to the PM by December. However, the plan has not mentioned which ministry will hande each mission, she says.
According to policy adviser to Greenpeace S Krishnamoorthy, the energy efficiency and sustainable habitat missions were non-starters as they did not have clear targets.
The urban transportation mission has been talked about for some time and it will be good if we get down to its implementation. The plan is completely silent on implementation mechanisms, says Gopal. Krishnamoorthy added that the key to developing a low carbon pathway was dependent on how much coal can be reduced in our energy mix. This can be achieved only if, besides expanding renewables, we also achieve clear savings or efficiency targets, he says.
Greenpeace activists also said the plan targets were not as high as they should have been. The project envisages conservation of 10,000 MW of
energy by 2012 but a mere replacement of incandescent bulbs with currently available CFL technology will save 12,000 MW, and this can be achieved by 2010, Brikesh Singh. Greenpeace climate campaigner.
energy by 2012 but a mere replacement of incandescent bulbs with currently available CFL technology will save 12,000 MW, and this can be achieved by 2010, Brikesh Singh. Greenpeace climate campaigner.
He added that the main bone of contention with the efficiency plan was that it focussed on voluntary efforts and market mechanisms. This will not achieve the kind of targets, which should be met. It is difficult to understand why more emphasis is not being placed on mandatory efficiency standards in the national mission, said Singh.
GREEN CHECK: The NGO recently launched a fuel-efficiency campaign