The National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) is a Government of India program launched in 2008 to mitigate and adapt to the adverse impact of climate change.
- Aims at fulfilling India’s developmental objectives with a focus on reducing the emission intensity of its economy.
- The plan will rely on the support from the developed countries with the prime focus of keeping their carbon emissions below the developed economies at any point in time.
The NAPCC has the following components as mentioned below:
National Solar Mission
- Governed by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
- It was launched in 2010 with the primary aim of achieving grid parity by 2022 and with coal-based thermal power by 2030.
- Aims to increase the share of solar energy in India’s energy mix.
- It takes the measures of increasing R&D efforts, promoting decentralized distribution of energy by creating cheaper and more convenient solar power systems.
- Emphasis on manufacturing solar panels at the local level and to tie up local research with international efforts.
- Seeks to reduce the absolute cost of solar energy to bring it down and make it affordable.
Functions and Goals
- Making solar water heaters mandatory in buildings to promote the already proven and commercially viable solar heating systems.
- The remote village electrification program uses solar power as an off-grid solution to provide power to the power-deprived poor.
- Creating conditions for research and application in the field of solar technology and supporting & facilitating the already ongoing R&D projects.
- The ultimate objective is to develop a solar industry in India, capable of delivering solar energy competitively against fossil fuel options.
- It is hoped that by the end of the third phase, 2022, India will have installed 20,000 MW of solar power.
National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
- Governed by the Ministry of Power.
- Based on the Energy Conservation Act, of 2001.
- It creates a market-based mechanism to enhance the cost-effectiveness of improvements on energy efficiency. Switching to cleaner fuels, commercially viable technology transfers, capacity building needs, etc are the way forward for this mission.
- Development with energy efficiency as a key criterion.
Functions and Goals
- Spread awareness about the efficacy and efficiency of energy-efficient products and create demand.
- Ensure an adequate supply of energy-efficient products, goods, and services by forming a cadre of energy professionals.
- Create financing platforms that can make risk-guarantee funds and financial derivatives of performance contracts.
- Formulate well-thought-out evaluation and monitoring mechanisms to capture energy savings transparently.
- Overcome market failures through regulatory and policy measures.
- Key areas to work on are Energy, Efficiency, Equity, and Environment.
National Mission on Sustainable Habitat
- Governed by the Ministry of Urban Development.
- Manifold agenda mission because it looks at energy efficiency within buildings, waste disposal from these buildings, and better the public transport system.
- Plans to make urban areas more climate-friendly and less susceptible to climate change by a multi-pronged approach to mitigate and adapt to it.
Functions and Goals
- To create and adopt a more holistic approach to solid and liquid waste management, ensuring their full potential for energy generation (conversion of solid waste into energy), recycling, reusing, and composting.
- To encourage alternative transport systems establish fuel efficiency standards and reduce fuel consumed per passenger travel by the provision of pedestrian pathways.
- To provide for the adoption and creation of alternative technologies mitigating climate change and to encourage community involvement in it.
- Creation of one building code for the entire nation.
- A system to enforce law and order.
- Establish financial incentives based on green rating.
- Reduce the need for pumping of water, proper treatment of wastewater, and use of better-designed toilets.
- Promote the use of natural gas and alternative & renewable fuels.
- Comprehensive urban renewal master plan proposals with sustainable designs.
- A master plan is a dynamic long-term planning document that provides a conceptual layout to guide future growth and development.
- Better enforcement of Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (UDPFI) guidelines.
National Water Mission
- Governed by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation.
- Ensures better-integrated water resource management leading to water conservation, less wastage, equitable distribution forming better policies.
- Looks into the issues of groundwater and surface water management, domestic and industrial water management, improvement of water storage capacities, and protection of wetlands.
Functions and Goals
- Review and data collection on the network of hydrological, automatic weather, and automated rain gauge stations.
- Expeditiously implement water projects in climate-sensitive regions.
- Promotion of water purification and desalination techniques.
- Enactment of a bill for the regulation and management of groundwater sources.
- Research in water use efficiency in industry, agriculture, and domestic sectors.
- Providing incentives for water-neutral & positive technologies.
- Review National Water Policy to include integrated water resources management, evaporation management, and basin-level management.
- Water database in the public domain and the assessment of the impact of climate change on water resource
- Promotion of citizen and state action for water conservation, augmentation, and preservation.
- More focused attention to over-exploited areas.
- Improving water use efficiency by 20% through regulatory and pricing mechanisms.
National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem
- Governed by the Department of Science and Technology.
- Created to protect the Himalayan ecosystem. The mandate is to evolve measures to sustain and safeguard the Himalayan glaciers, mountain ecosystems, biodiversity, and wildlife conservation & protection.
Functions and Goals
- Human and knowledge capacities- appointing trained personnel who can capture, store, and apply knowledge relating to vulnerability and changes in the region.
- Institutional capacities- creating the capability to conduct long-term observations, and studies to understand and warn of changes in the Himalayan ecosystem
- Evidence-based policy building and governance- creating a platform for Himalayan states and the Centre to interact with various bodies.
- Continuous self-learning for balancing between forces of Nature and the actions of mankind by creating strong linkages with community-based organizations.
- Establishing a modern center of Glaciology, and standardization of data collection to ensure interoperability and mapping of natural resources in the area.
- Identification and training of experts and specialists in the area relevant to sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem.
National Mission for Green India
- Governed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
- It has the mandate of reviving degraded forest land with a focus on increasing forest cover & density and conserving biodiversity.
- Works towards reducing fragmentation of forests, enhancing private-public partnerships for plantations, improving schemes based on joint forestry management, etc.
- Makes plans to tackle the challenges posed by climate change.
Functions and Goals
- Enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests.
- Enhancing the resilience of vulnerable species and ecosystems to adapt to climate change.
- Enabling forest-dependent communities to adapt to climate variability.
- Double the area to be taken up for afforestation.
- Increase greenhouse gas removals by Indian forests.
- Enhance the resilience of forests and ecosystems falling under the mission.
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture
- Governed by the Ministry of Agriculture.
- It works towards devising strategies to make Indian agriculture less susceptible to climate change.
- It would identify and develop new crop varieties, and use traditional and modern agricultural techniques.
- This mission sees dry land agriculture, risk management, access to information, and the use of biotechnology as areas of intervention.
Functions and Goals
- Strengthening agricultural insurance, develop a system based on Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing to map soil resources and land use.
- Providing information and collation of off-season crops and preparation of state-level agro-climatic atlases.
- Strategies to evolve low-input agriculture with enhanced water and nitrogen-efficient crops.
- Nutritional strategies to manage heat stress in dairy animals.
- Using micro irrigation systems.
- Promotion of agricultural techniques like minimum tillage, organic farming, and rainwater conservation.
- Capacity building of farmers and other stakeholders.
- Production of bio-fertilizer, and compost along with subsidies for chemical fertilizers.
- Strengthening of National Agricultural Insurance Scheme.
National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change
- Governed by the Department of Science and Technology.
- It identifies challenges and requisite responses to climate change. This will be done through open international collaboration and will ensure sufficient funding for this research.
- There is a need for a strong strategic knowledge system on climate change.
Functions and Goals
- Develop regional climate science.
- Leverage international cooperation.
- The efforts undertaken here would feed into the Indian National Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) which is a stock-taking exercise conducted every two years as part of the national obligations under UNFCCC.
- Creation of a data generation and sharing system by mapping resources on knowledge relevant to climate change.
- Identifying knowledge gaps and inspiring from global technological trends to select and test technologies.
- Creating new centers dedicated to climate research within an existing institutional framework.
