SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE INDIAN CONTEXT

In the past two decades, the key environmental challenges in India have been sharper. The State of the Environment Report by the MoEF clubs the issues under five key challenges faced by India—

(i) Climate Change,

(ii) Food Security,

(iii) Water Security,

(iv) Energy Security, and

(v) Managing Urbanisation.

Climate change is disturbing the natural ecosystems and is expected to have substantial adverse effects in India, mainly on agriculture (on which 58 per cent of the population still depends for livelihood), water storage in the Himalayan glaciers which are the source of major rivers and groundwater recharge, sea-level rise, and threats to a long coastline and habitations. Climate change will also cause increased frequency of extreme events such as floods, and droughts. These in turn will impact India’s food security problems and water security. As per the Second National Communication submitted by India to the UNFCCC, it is projected that the annual mean surface air temperature rise by the end of the century ranges from 3.5°C to 4.3°C, whereas the sea level along the Indian coast has been rising at the rate of about 1.3 mm/year on an average. These climate change projections are likely to impact human health, agriculture, water resources, natural ecosystems and biodiversity.

Concerned of the threats imposed by climate change and pressures on natural resources, sustainability and environment are increasingly taking centrestage in the Indian policy domain. India has been part of 94 multilateral environmental agreements. India has also voluntarily agreed to reduce its emission intensity of its GDP by 20–25 per cent over 2005 levels by 2020, and emissions from the agriculture sector would not form part of the assessment of its emissions intensity. Indian economy is already moving along a lower carbon and sustainable path in terms of declining carbon intensity of its GDP which is expected to fall further through lower carbon strategies. It is estimated that India’s per capita emission in 2031 will still be lower than the global per capita emission in 2005 (in 2031, India’s per capita GHG emissions will be under 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 eq.) which is lower than the global per capita emissions of 4.22 tonnes of CO2 eq. in 2005).

Together with the national efforts in different sectors, India also recognises that rural areas are equally prone to stress and pressures from natural resource exploitation. In this context, schemes for rural development and livelihood programmes are very relevant. A vast majority of the works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are linked to land, soil, and water. There are also programmes for non- timber forest produce-based livelihood, promotion of organic and

low-chemical agriculture, and increased soil health and fertility to sustain agriculture-based livelihoods. These schemes help mobilise and develop capacities of community institutions to utilise natural resources in a sustainable manner and their potential can be further developed.

Along with efforts to incorporate sustainability in the rural development process, India is increasingly making efforts to integrate the three pillars of sustainable development into its national policy space. In fact, environment protection is enshrined in our Constitution (Articles 48 A and 51A]). Various policy measures are being implemented across the domains of forestry, pollution control, water management, clean energy, and marine and coastal environment. Some of these are policies like Joint Forest Management, Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment, Coastal Zone Regulation Zone, Eco Labelling and Energy Efficiency Labelling, Fuel Efficiency Standards etc. Over a period of time, a stable organisational structure has been developed for environment protection.