In recent times, if we go back to a timeline of 10-12 years, extreme weather conditions are causing havoc, breaking record all over the world, affecting millions of lives in this planet, on a greater frequency than before.  Some of these phenomena had been a cause of disruption to different business sectors including Energy as well. 2011 Tsunami causing Fukuyama disaster forced a closure of Nuclear reactors in Japan and made everyone to think differently on the issue of unforeseen safety challenges in generating electricity.

Climate change is one of the three mega challenges globally which is changing the way business and economy works. International forums such as the Climate Change Summit and programmes seek to address and create awareness of the impacts of economic developments on the environment. Much still needs to be done at the sub-regions, regions, sectorial and international levels and requires participation at all levels- both government and private sectors. Funding continues to be an issue, as changes require a huge investment in research and development. It could be seen as “short term pain for longer term benefits” for without the planet there will be no future for the next generation.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the main international agreement on climate action. It was one of three conventions adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. To date, it has been ratified by 195 countries. It started as a way for countries to work together to limit global temperature increases and climate change, and to cope with their impacts.

The Kyoto Protocol legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. The Protocol’s first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012. The second commitment period began on 1 January 2013 and will end in 2020.

Both the Kyoto and The Montreal Protocol address two of the most significant issues of the 21st Century – Stratospheric ozone decline and Climate Change, yet the Montreal is now classed as a much more successful global treaty than the Kyoto, which is mostly due to having US ratification. Kofi Annan, former UN General Secretary described it as “perhaps the most successful international agreement to date”.

The Paris Agreement is the latest climate agreement entered into force 4 November 2016 after the conditions for ratification by at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions were met. All EU Countries ratified the agreement.

India in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) in COP 21, declared to adopt a path of low carbon future. Among other measures, which are directly related to the energy industry, are as follows:

To reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 level.

 To achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030 with the help of transfer of technology and low cost international finance including from Green Climate Fund (GCF).

National Environmental Policy of 2006 defines the broad policy framework on climate change and environment. The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) provides a sharper and intensive focus and is currently implemented through number of national missions. National Electric Policy, Energy Conservation Act, National Policy for Farmers and Integrated Energy Policy are various policy frameworks which supplement environment policy to promote sustainable and low carbon growth, in India.

When policies are in place, achieving the environmental targets however stringent it might be, should be possible, only if implementation is on track. Major concern today is that the country is on a high growth path, demand like that of energy is growing. It is very difficult to stay on such economic growth path in a low emission environment friendly way, especially with a huge population.

India is a country which largely depends on agricultural sector which in turn depends on rainfall pattern and availability of water resources. IPCC report clearly shows that food and agricultural sectors are most vulnerable to global warming and climate changes (IPCC, 2011). India also has a diverse ecosystem across the regions and need different adaptation perspective for different areas (CSE, 2012). A ministry of environment and forest (MOEF) study shows that projected annual temperature rise in India by 2030 will range from 1.7 Deg C to 2 Deg C.

 

Adaptation challenges here mainly are,

  • 5% of the India population lives below the poverty line as defined by the Rangarajan committee in 2014. Poor people are more vulnerable to climate change due to health and food issues.
  • Also India’s much of population including low income group depends on agriculture and natural resources like forestry, where degree of sensitivity to global warming is high (CSE, 2012)
  • Infrastructure development is not very robust. Especially roads are bad in coastal area or wherever there is more rainfall. Remote villages still have no roads, health care and electricity. In case of natural disaster (example Aila cyclone in Sunderban area of India and Bangladesh), losses were huge due to absence of proper infrastructure in place.
  • National action plan on climate change (NAPCC) focuses on some areas of climate change but lack any comprehensive adaptation plans for global warming. Government policies are mainly on sustainable livelihood and poverty alleviations. Main challenge is to integrate these with adaptation (RITU KUMAR, 2008).
  • Although expenditure on climate change adaptation has increased in India in recent years but it is still inadequate. (Ravindranath et al, 2014)

 

Adaptation to global warming is still in a very preliminary stage in India and do not feature much in its mitigation measures for climate change. Since India is next only to Bangladesh in vulnerability index to climate change, growth and development should include adaptation to climate change. Risk at different levels should be assessed and strategic adaptation plans need to be developed at national policy level with international collaborations.

But on the other side, it is advantageous to have been a developing nation as a delayed start of high growth enables India to be on guard and adopt steps and measures for a low carbon growth, learning from mistakes of developed nation.