National Action Plan for Climate Change

In News: National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) is a Government of India’s programme launched in 2008 to mitigate and adapt to the adverse impact of climate change.

• Aims at fulfilling India’s developmental objectives with focus on reducing emission intensity of its economy.
• The plan will rely on the support from the developed countries with the prime focus of keeping its carbon emissions below the developed economies at any point of time.

The 8 missions under NAPCC are as follows:

Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission: Aims to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by creating the policy conditions for its deployment across the country.

• Under: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
• The initial target of NSM was to install 280 GW solar power by 2022. This was upscaled to 100 GW in early 2015.
• Immediate Aim: Focus on setting up an enabling environment for solar technology penetration in the country both at a centralized and decentralized level.
• Also reduce the cost of Solar Power Generation in the country through
  • Long term policy
  • Large Scale deployment goals
  • Aggressive R&D- Tie local research with international efforts
  • Domestic production of critical raw materials, components, and products, as a result, to achieve grid tariff by 2022.

National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency: Aims to strengthen the market for energy efficiency by creating a conducive regulatory and policy regime and has envisaged fostering innovative and sustainable business models for the energy efficiency sector.

• Under: Ministry of Power
• Based on the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.
• NMEEE consists of four initiatives to enhance energy efficiency in energy-intensive industries:
  • Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT): Assigns targets to energy-intensive industries and also allots energy saving certificates (Escerts). These certificates are tradable amongst the candidates who have either breached their targets or remained unsuccessful in achieving them.
  • Market Transformation for Energy Efficiency (MTEE) promotes the use and adoption of energy-efficient equipment.
  • Energy Efficiency Financing Platform (EEFP) encourages financial institutions and investors to support energy efficiency initiatives.
  • Framework for Energy Efficient Economic Development (FEEED) promotes energy-efficient initiatives by hedging against investment risks.

In order to hedge the financial institutions providing loans for the energy efficiency projects against credit risks, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency has also institutionalised two funds namely “Partial Risk Guarantee Fund for Energy Efficiency” and “Venture Capital Fund for Energy Efficiency”. Both these funds have been launched under “Framework for Energy Efficient Economic Development” component of the NMEEE.

• NMEEE 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.
  • Innovative measures to make energy efficient appliances/products in certain sectors more affordable.
  • Creation of mechanisms to help finance demand side management pro-grammes 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:

• Under Ministry of Urban Development
• Objectives:
  • To reduce the energy consumption and hence the risk of climate change due to the urban settlement pattern.
  • The mission envisages a shift to Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) in the design of new commercial buildings as well as solid and liquid waste management.
  • The mission also covers under its ambit, the water resource management as well as drinking water management.
  • One of the most important plan under the mission is to pave the way for a shift to public transport.
  • The research and development is an important component of the mission to promote the wastewater use and sewage utilisation along with waste management.
• 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
• 4 flagship missions or programmes of the Ministry of Urban Development
  • Atal Mission on Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) – Focus is on:
    • Water supply
    • Sewerage and septage management
    • Stormwater drainage to reduce flooding
    • Non-motorized urban transport, an example would be cycling.
    • Green space/parks
  • Swachh Bharat Mission
  • Smart Cities Mission: To promote cities that provide core infrastructure and give a decent quality of life to its citizens, a clean and sustainable environment and application of Smart Solutions.
  • Urban Transport Programme

National Water Mission: A comprehensive programme for equitable distribution of water across the country as well as for enhancing the capacity-building process for the management of over-exploited blocs.

• Under: Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
• Focused upon tackling the issues related to water availability and pollution which is owed to global warming and climate change.
• The mission promotes research and development
• Timely review of National Water Policy is also proposed.
• The mission while promoting the traditional water conservation system, also promotes the expeditious implementation of multipurpose water projects. It has a target of increasing water use efficiency by 20%.
• The convergence of various water conservation schemes for a better outcome and implementation of water resource management programs via the MNREGA route with the participation of the elected representatives of the over-exploited water blocs is central theme of the mission.
• The program has focused on decentralised approach which is reflected in its plan of “basin level” integrated water resource management and sensitization of the urban local youths. The National Water Mission also has an identified goal of putting a comprehensive water resource database in the public domain. The onus of implementation lies on the Ministry of Jal Shakti.

National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem:

• Under: Department of Science and Technology.
• Created to protect the Himalayan ecosystem.
• Mandate: To evolve measures to sustain and safeguard the Himalayan glaciers, mountain ecosystems, biodiversity and wildlife conservation & protection.

Green India Mission

• Under Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
• GIM puts ―greening in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation. Greening is meant to enhance ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and storage (in forests and other ecosystems), hydrological services and biodiversity; as well as other provisioning services such as fuel, fodder, small timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs).
• The Mission aims at responding to climate change by a combination of adaptation and mitigation measures, which would help:
  • Enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests and other ecosystems
  • Adaptation of vulnerable species/ecosystems to the changing climate
  • Adaptation of forest-dependent communities
• The objectives of the Mission are:
  • Increased forest/tree cover on 5 m ha of forest/non-forest lands and improved quality of forest cover on another 5 m ha (a total of 10 m ha)
  • Improved ecosystem services including biodiversity, hydrological services and carbon sequestration as a result of treatment of 10 m ha
  • Increased forest-based livelihood income of about 3 million households living in and around the forests
  • Enhanced annual CO2 sequestration by 50 to 60 million tonnes in the year 2020

National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture: Seeks to transform Indian agriculture into a climate-resilient production system through suitable adaptation and mitigation measures in domains of both crops and animal husbandry.

• Under: Ministry of Agriculture
• To achieve objective to fight against climate change, NMSA have the following multi-pronged strategy:
  • Promoting integrated farming system covering crops, livestock & fishery, plantation and pasture based composite farming for enhancing livelihood opportunities, ensuring food security and minimizing risks from crop failure through supplementary/ residual production systems;
  • Popularizing resource conservation technologies (both on-farm and off-farm) and introducing practices that will support mitigation efforts in times of extreme climatic events or disasters like prolonged dry spells, floods etc.
  • Promoting effective management of available water resources and enhancing water use efficiency through application of technologies coupled with demand and supply side management solutions;
  • Involving knowledge institutions and professionals in developing climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies for specific agro climatic situations and promoting them through appropriate farming systems.

National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change

• Under: Department of Science and Technology
• Seeks to build a vibrant and dynamic knowledge system that would inform and support national action for responding effectively to the objective of ecologically sustainable development
• This Mission strives 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.

Source: PIB