New Delhi: As Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama is going to announce the Budget for the year 2022-23 on Tuesday, the big question is that will the Budget meet the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Climate action in the COP26 conference at Glasgow.
Mr. Chandra Bhushan, one of India’s foremost environment and climate change experts and the President & CEO of the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability, and Technology (iFOREST) said that the budget must take into consideration what PM Narendra Modi said in Glasgow.
“There was debate over climate change adaptation funding. Over the last 6 years, we have seen the impact of climate change at local level. And therefore, we need resources, we need to build capacity, at the local level and FM should consider looking at these issues” he said.At the climate summit – COP26 in November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ‘Panchamrit’ or 5 pledges to mitigate the climate emergency:
India will reach its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030.
India will meet 50 percent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030.
India will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now to 2030.
By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy to less than 45 percent.
By 2070, India will achieve the target of net-zero emissions.
Last year, the Centre has slashed the Environment Ministry’s budget for 2021-2022, from Rs 3,100 crore to Rs 2,869.93 crore.
The allocation to the Ministry is 0.1% of the estimated expenditure of the union government for 2021-22.
The Schemes such as the Climate Change Action Plan (CACP), National Adaptation Fund (NAF), and Integrated Development of Wildlife Habitats (IDWH) suffered major cuts.
The total allocation for CCAP has reduced from Rs 40 crore in the 2020-2021 budget to Rs 30 crore for the new fiscal year
The CCAP is a government programme launched to mitigate and adapt to the adverse impact of climate change.
“Despite the fiscal constraints due to the third year of the pandemic, the upcoming budget is expected to convey the government’s intent to fight climate change” said the expert.
To meet the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the recently-concluded COP26 climate summit, India will need approximately US $1 trillion in additional financing over the next ten years.
Developed countries had committed to a mobilisation goal of US $100 billion per year, by 2020.
The Glasgow Climate Pact noted with deep regret that the goal of developed country parties has not yet been met.
In this regard, the COP26 has requested the Standing Committee on Finance to the UNFCCC to prepare a report in 2022 on progress towards achieving the goal of mobilising the US $ 100 billion per year to address the needs of developing countries.
India’s climate actions have so far been largely financed by domestic resources. According to India’s Third Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the UNFCCC in February 2021, between 2014 and 2019, the Global Environment Facility and Green Climate Fund have provided grants to a total of only US $165.25 million, the corresponding domestic mobilisation amounts to US$1.374 billion.
