ON A GREEN INDIA MISSION
The first national framework on climate change, the NAPCC spells out a number of steps to achieve climate change-related objectives, while simultaneously advancing the country’s development. It proposes eight missions to help the country in mitigating and adapting to climate change
Climate change is one of the most important challenges for sustainable economic development, and India has acknowledged this with the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which was released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 30, 2008. The first national framework on climate change, the NAPCC spells out a number of steps to achieve climate change-related objectives, while simultaneously advancing the country’s development. This action plan is congruent with India’s need to develop on a low carbon energy path without compromising its economic growth or the quality of life for its people.
The NAPCC suggests that India should take “a directional shift in the development pathway” so that the country could use high-end and emerging technologies to leapfrog to a low carbon economy. The NAPCC guidelines make it clear that even as India pursues its development objectives, its per-capita emissions would never exceed those of the developed countries. This augments New Delhi’s international stand on climate change that the developed world should follow the principles of equity while deciding on who caps greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and by how much.
The NAPCC proposes eight missions to help the country in mitigating and adapting to climate change. These eight missions are: National Solar Mission, National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency; National Mission on Sustainable Habitat; National Water Mission; National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem; National Mission for a Green India; National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture; and National Mission for Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change. These national missions are to be institutionalised by the “respective ministries” and organised through inter-sectoral groups that include the Planning Commission, experts from industry, academia, and civil society.
Each mission has been given the task of evolving specific objectives for the remaining duration of the Eleventh Plan and then the Twelfth Plan period (through to 2017).
These objectives have been stated in comprehensive documents, along with strategies, timelines, and monitoring and evaluation criteria, which were submitted to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. The council will periodically review the progress of these missions and each mission would report its performance publicly every year.
In order to participate in these eight missions, the corporate sector will clearly have to do more than just treat climate change as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) issue. In fact, it is important that the corporate organisations recognise climate change as a key environmental condition that will increasingly shape their future corporate strategies. So they have to assess the direct influence of climate change on their functioning and come up with policies to adapt to the potential impacts. Now, the good news, however, is that since mitigation of GHGs has to be done planet-wide, such efforts are also likely to throw up fresh market opportunities for companies.
The Energy and Resources Institute’s Business Council for Sustainable Development (TERI BSCD) has brought out a white paper that gives an overview of the eight missions outlined in the NAPCC. It describes the challenges ahead, government support needed, and the way forward for each mission, and gives pointers to the potential business opportunities therein. It explains costs and co-benefits involved in the missions, besides highlighting the need for the business sector to integrate adaptation and mitigation in corporate planning. This white paper is a good roadmap for the government to formulate enabling policies and incentives to help business and industry in this vital area.