National Action Plan For Climate Change (NAPCC)

A new study, An Evaluation of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, released by the Centre for Development Finance, IFMR, and IIT Madras provides analyses and individual assessment cards that evaluate the design of the eight climate missions of India. This study evaluates the design of the eight climate missions of the country as developed by individual ministries using the principles laid out in the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) of the Prime Minister’s Council.

In this backdrop, it is apt to have a look at National Action Plan on Climate Change.

• Over 487 million people without access to electricity(2005)
• 80.4% of the population is below the $2 per day poverty level, and 34.3% below the $1 per day level (1990-2005).
• India needs GDP growth of 8%+ over the next 25 years to lift the bottom 40% of her citizens to an acceptable level of economic & social well being. This is not possible without increased energy use.

On June 30, 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released India’s first National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) outlining existing and future policies and programs addressing climate mitigation and adaptation.  The plan identifies eight core “national missions” running through 2017 and directs ministries to submit detailed implementation plans to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change by December 2008.

1. National Solar Mission seeks to deploy 20,000 MW of solar electricity capacity in the country by 2020. The first phase (2010-12) is currently underway during which 1,000 MW are planned to be installed.
2. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency creates new institutional mechanisms to enable the development and strengthening of energy efficiency markets. Various programmes have been initiated, including the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) mechanism to promote efficiency in large industries, and the Super-Efficient Equipment Programme (SEEP) to accelerate the introduction of deployment of super-efficient appliances.
3. National Mission on Sustainable Habitat promotes the introduction of sustainable transport, energy-efficient buildings, and sustainable waste management in cities.
4. National Water Mission promotes the integrated management of water resources and increase water use efficiency by 20.0 per cent.
5. National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem establishes an observational and monitoring network for the Himalayan environment so as to assess climate impacts on the Himalayan glacier and promote community-based management of these ecosystems.
6. National Mission for a ‘Green India’ seeks to afforest an additional 10 million hectare of forest lands, waste lands and community lands.
7. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture focuses on enhancing productivity and resilience of agriculture so as to reduce vulnerability to extremes of weather, long dry spells, flooding and variable moisture availability.
8. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change identifies challenges arising from climate change, promotes the development and diffusion of knowledge on responses to these challenges in the areas of health, demography, migration and livelihood of coastal communities.

Source: 12^th Five Year Plan approach Paper

Principles Of NAPCC

• Protecting the poor through an inclusive and sustainable development strategy, sensitive to climate change
• Achieving national growth and poverty alleviation objectives while ensuring ecological sustainability
• Efficient and cost-effective strategies for end-use Demand side management
• Extensive and accelerated deployment of appropriate technologies for adaptation and mitigation
• New and innovative market, regulatory, and voluntary mechanisms for sustainable development
• Effective implementation through unique linkages – with civil society, LGUs, and public-private partnerships