States’ climate action plans to be approved soon

February 23, 2015 01:41 am | Updated April 02, 2016 05:49 am IST - NEW DELHI:

The Union Environment Ministry will soon approve plans from various States to tackle climate change and an additional Rs.150 crore has been sought in this budget for the National Adaptation Fund.

Official sources said of the 31 States and Union Territories that had submitted plans, 23 were approved and the rest would be passed shortly. However, the Centre does not propose to fund any of these State action plans and it is basically an articulation of their vision. These will be linked to national climate change missions on adaptation and funds could also come from the Green Climate Fund. It’s more a wish list of the States’ intentions, the official said.

There has been criticism that the country’s adaptation plans are not adequately funded or coordinated. The Centre is also looking at fine-tuning coordination of the various national missions on climate adaptation and setting up a mechanism for that purpose.

Eight missions

After a review by the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, it was decided to scale up actions in adaptation and mitigation nationwide.

There are eight missions under the National Action Plan for Climate Change launched in 2008, but most of the missions got off the ground only in 2014 due to financial issues. It will be a while before there is some visible impact, the officials said.

Puducherry has, however, submitted its State action plan for funding to the World Bank. Some States, including Uttar Pradesh which is already affected by changing weather patterns, have not submitted their plans yet. Uttar Pradesh is working on the plan and recently had consultations with Central officials.

The government is considering dovetailing the State action plans with some of the national missions and some funds can be given to the States from the National Adaptation Fund. The fund is in the process of being approved by the Ministry of Finance and after that the States can apply for finance for climate action.

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