Eight-fold path
Suit Action To Plan For Climate Change
THE eight missions through which the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) is to be implemented are a bit like the Buddhas Eight-fold Path for salvation: seemingly simple but easier said than done. This is not to deny the need for a plan or for setting up institutional mechanisms that promote our development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively. Rather, it is to suggest that unless all this is backed by concrete policy nudges, whether by way of lower taxes or other incentives, it will not suffice. As the action plan recognises, success hinges on the development and use of new technologies that are environmentally friendly and developing institutional mechanisms to make it possible. People must be incentivised to use such technology. Unless that is done there is no reason to believe greater awareness alone will achieve the desired behavioural shift.
Having said that, the decision to set up eight missions with a distinct focus on different aspects of the action plan increasing the share of solar energy in the total energy mix, implementing energy efficiency measures, launching sustainable habitats, ensuring effective water resource management, safeguarding the Himalayan glacier and the mountain eco-system, enhancing green cover, making agriculture more resilient to climate change and setting up a strategic knowledge mission for focused research on climate change is a move forward. Hopefully, the national missions under the respective ministries will frame comprehensive mission documents detailing objectives, strategies, plans of action and monitoring and evaluation criteria by the year end to ensure the exercise moves beyond being a mere statement of intent. The Indian position that climate change must be tackled on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities is perfectly valid. The problem, however, is in defining the shape of these differentiated responsibilities. In some ways the dispute mirrors the disagreement over special and differential treatment for developing countries in the WTO, where again the developed and developing world positions remain poles apart. Except that the reality of climate change staring us in the face gives us even less time to lose when it comes to climate change.