INDIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE

India’s concerns and actions towards climate change appear in its policies by early 1997 itself when it officially accepted the idea of sustainable development. Since then, several sectoral initiatives have been take by the country. By 2008, India had launched its eight national missions on climate change. Over the time, India has not only played a very dynamic role at the international fora but it has also taken appreciable domestic efforts in this direction10—

NAPCC: A major component of India’s domestic actions against climate change is the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). In March 2016, the PM’s Council on Climate Change (PMCCC) directed the missions under the NAPCC to enhance their ambition in respect of adaptation, mitigation and capacity building and reprioritize them, besides recommending the setting up of some new missions in addition to the existing eight:

(i) Considering the adverse impacts that climate change could have on health, a new ‘Mission on Climate Change and Health’ is currently under formulation and a National Expert Group on Climate Change and Health

has been constituted.

(ii) The proposed ‘Waste-to-Energy Mission’ will incentivize efforts towards harnessing energy from waste and is aimed at lowering India’s dependence on coal, oil and gas for power production.

(iii) The ‘National Mission on Coastal Areas’ (NMCA) will prepare an integrated coastal resource management plan and map vulnerabilities along the entire (nearly 7000-km-long) shoreline.

(iv) The ‘Wind Mission’ seeks to increase the share of wind energy in the renewable energy mix of India. It is likely to be given an initial target of producing about 50,000–60,000 MW of power by the year 2022.