The country’s economic survey report extols that India is on track to make an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tons through tree and forest cover by the target year 2030, with a carbon sink of 1.97 billion tons of CO2 equivalent having already been created from 2005 to 2019
By Salam Rajesh
Despite being one of the fastest-growing economies in the World, India’s annual per capita carbon emission is only around one-third of the global average. The vision and goal of achieving Net Zero carbon emission by the target year 2070 guides the country’s interventions for high and robust economic growth, which is inclusive and environmentally sustainable.
This prerogative of the Government of India in addressing the climate change concerns, locally in global context, is spelt out in strong terms in the Department of Economics Affairs (DEA)’ fiscal year 2023-2024’s Economic Survey under the broad heading, ‘Climate Change and Energy Transition: Dealing with Tradeoffs’ as part chapter of the volume.
The country’s economic survey report extols that India is on track to make an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tons through tree and forest cover by the target year 2030, with a carbon sink of 1.97 billion tons of CO2 equivalent having already been created from 2005 to 2019.
The target outlined is in tune with the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), and other international commitments, which seeks to achieve the greening of 30 percent of the total global land surface area by the target year 2030. The Convention on Biological Diversity too seeks to achieve the objectivity of the 30×30 agenda to meet much of the deadline on biodiversity recovery to address environmental and climate crises.
The DEA assessment noted that a recent report by the International Finance Corporation recognized India’s efforts to achieve committed climate actions, highlighting that the country is the only G20 nation in line with the 2-degree centigrade warming.
The strategy to meet the deadlines on climate change concerns is being worked out in two broad platforms – climate mitigation and climate adaptation measures. The baseline is again in two framework, the one involving scientific inputs and the other a broad canvas to rope in all relevant stakeholders – government agencies, scientific institutions, communities, Indigenous peoples, and individuals.
According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), climate change adaptation refers to actions that help reduce vulnerability to climate change’s current or expected impacts, such as weather extremes and hazards, slow onset events like sea-level rise, biodiversity loss, or food and water insecurity.
A wide range of activities on ground looks at these perspectives, right from regenerating forests and grasslands, revitalizing mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass landscapes, rejuvenating watersheds and bringing springs and rivers to life. The current impetus is on roping in Indigenous peoples and local communities as vital partners in achieving these goals.
The Initial Adaptation Communication of India estimated that the total adaptation relevant expenditure was 5.60 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during 2021-2022, growing from a share of 3.7 percent in 2015-16, indicating integration of climate resilience and adaptation into development plans, the report noted.
This reflects the importance that the Government of India is placing on adaptation action and, at the same time, is reflective of the significant pressure on domestic resources, the DEA report stated while stressing that an increase in adaptation finance flows to India would ease the resource constraint and enable the country to meet its long-term sustainable development and economic growth objectives.
An interesting aspect of the DEA survey on climate action indicated the relevance of wetland ecosystem restoration and rejuvenation to achieve the set goals by 2030. The UN platform pays great emphasis on wetland ecosystem restoration as a major step in increasing the volume of carbon sinks across the globe in meeting the goal to minimize carbon emissions.
Emphasizing that wetland restoration and conservation can be an important adaptation measure in the country, the survey report noted that wetlands provide a buffer and other coping strategies to protect against storm surges and flooding on the one hand while urban wetlands help absorb excess rainfall, protecting cities.
Moreover, mangroves as vital wetlands are a natural coastal barrier that traps sediment and prevents coastal erosion, which strengthens the shoreline. In addition, many wetlands sustain local communities by supporting fisheries, agriculture, livestock, and the production of fuel. They are a part of the solution to food security issues that may be affected by climate change. India has, therefore, adopted wetland and mangrove conservation as a priority, the report said.
On this note, the Government of India had increased the number of wetlands designated as Ramsar sites of international importance to expand the area coverage under wetlands to achieve much of the country’s Net Zero emission goals.
Yet, in all of these initiatives to tackle the climate crisis, the DEA survey report explicitly cites that the lack of access to adequate and affordable financial resources remains a significant constraint for developing countries in implementing their climate commitments.
The report pointed out that the Standing Committee on Finance, a body under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), had estimated that resources ranging between USD 5.8 trillion to USD 11.5 trillion are required till 2030 to meet the targets set by developing countries in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and other commitments.
The UN Adaptation Gap Report 2023 further estimated the adaptation costs in developing countries to be 10 to 18 times greater than the current international adaptation finance flows of USD 21.3 billion, which in itself is a staggering amount.
The DEA survey report noted that the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement mandate that developed countries must provide financial resources on a grant or concessional basis and provide access to technologies for the developing countries to enable their climate actions well within the target years in order to avoid ‘climate catastrophe’.
It may be mentioned here that the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) for India outlines strategies to enhance the sustainability of the country’s development path. Based on the principles of achieving high economic growth while also improving the ecological sustainability of India’s developmental path, the NAPCC includes nine national missions covering solar, water, energy efficiency, forests, sustainable habitat, sustainable agriculture, sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, strategic knowledge for climate change, and the recently added mission on human health.