Critically comment on the actions taken by India – referred to as the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to address the climate change effects. (200 Words)
Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (under UNFCCC) taken by India to address the climate change effects are:
- Increasing the Solar Energy generation target from 20,000 MW to 100 GW by 2022.
- Increasing carbon tax on coal from Rs 50 to Rs 200 per tonne.
- Raising the excise duty on petrol and diesel to check consumption.
- Price deregulation of Petrol and diesel to reduce subsidy and increase cost thus checking consumption.
- Strictly enforcing BEE star rating scheme for appliances,
- Removing anti-dumping duty on solar panel imported from USA, China.
- Instituting Partial Risk Guarantee fund under framework for energy efficient economic development.
- National air quality index
These steps shows the commitment of India towards UNFCCC despite its status of a developing nation with local commitments to fulfill. But seeing the direction of advancement of global climate change talks and the obligations to submit intended nationally determined contribution targets before the Paris talks (COP21), India needs a more focused approached. It needs to do the sectoral review of emission status and fix sectoral targets while taking their future growth in mind. Simultaneously green technologies should be developed indigenously and procured from where they are available. This would not only meet the global obligations but will also bring more compactness to our climate change mitigation strategy.