Stimulating Green Growth in India:Policy Architecture

Green Economy for Poverty Reduction: Innovation and Scale

17th Poverty Environment Partnership (PEP) Meeting

K. Vijaya Lakshmi

Development Alternatives

Feb 6th-9th,2012Orcha,(M.P) India

Development Alternatives

India’s Development Trajectoryessential focus: economic growth and poverty

alleviation• Pre – 1970

– Asset Creation & Redistribution • 1970s and 1980s

– Income and Employment Generation

• 1990s– Liberalization and Globalization – Environment Awareness and Integration

• Post 2000– Towards Inclusive Growth– Climate Awareness and Integration

Poverty Alleviation – Key Findings

• India made steady progress in alleviating poverty, but not enough to achieve the MDGs

• High levels of inequality based on caste and gender -exacerbate the poverty of vulnerable groups– Inequalities structural in nature, keeping groups trapped, making

them unable to take advantage of economic growth

– Culturally rooted systems perpetuate inequality

– Women within lower groups are the worse affected

• Agriculture sector brought down levels of poverty from 55% in early 1970s to about 35%today

• Balance needed between Agri sector and productive employment in nonagricultural sectors (Kirit Parikh)

• Reaching the poorest, the marginalized and the most vulnerable

Impact of Climate Change on India

• 700 million rural population directly depended on climate sensitive sectors and natural resources

• Low adaptive capacity

• 2.7- 4.3°C temperature increase over India by the 2080s (IPCC, 2007)

• Changes in rainfall pattern

• India's 7,517 km coastline will be particularly hard-hit by storm surges and sea-level rise

• Increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts and floods creating food security risk

Emerging Challenges and Imperatives

• Steering a Rapidly Developing Economy– Macro-economic Issues– Globalisation and International Trade

• Integrating Poor and Vulnerable Communities– Internal Security and Inclusive Growth– Migration and Trans-boundary Issues

• Arresting Ecosystems Degradation and Climate Change

Current Policy Responses

• By Government– Central Government

• PM’s Advisory Council and NAPCC• 12th Five Year Plan, 14th Finance Commission• Announcement of Voluntary Emissions Intensity Reduction• Nuclear Energy?

– State and Local Governments• State and Local Governments’ Action Plans

– Role of the Judiciary• Traditionally very proactive – tending to judicial activism

Current Policy Responses

• By Other Indian Stakeholders– Private Sector– Civil Society Organisations– Research and Academic Institutions– Media

Climate Change (CC) concerns in Indian planning process

Climate change integrated planning

Planning process is guided by the principles of sustainable development

Initiatives such as renewable energy installations; introduction of green / bio fuels; enhancing afforestation etc

India released its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)

India has been assessed as the Best CDM country

Forest cover is increasing, by 0.8 million hectares a year neutralizing 11% of India’s annual GHG emissions

State of the Environment (SOE) Scheme

Environment protection as monitorable targets

Participatory management and Eco-development (People’s Biodiversity Registers, JFM,SFM)

Climate change integrated planning

Extension of conservation and management programmes to fragile or vulnerable ecosystems

Budgetary Regulations (indicator)

Reforms in the energy and power sector

Awareness, training, capacity Building, Research

Development of Institutional frameworks

Relative Expenditures on Major Adaptation Schemes by Thematic Area

Expenditure on adaptation to climate variability

Addressing Energy Security And Climate Change, Ministry of Environment & Forests Ministry of Power, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India October 2007

Thrust Areas of Policies

• Energy Security– Access to Energy– Energy Efficiency– Diversification of resources

• Food Security– Increased Production / Yield– Integrated Farming Systems– Efficient Irrigation Systems– Weather / Crop Insurance

• Natural Resource Conservation– Afforestation – Integrated Management of Resources– Participatory

• Disaster Management– shift from R & R to mitigation and preparedness

• International Cooperation– collaborative research– mechanisms for technology transfer– REDD +

Policy implications of Climate Change

Policy imperatives for the energy intensive sectors such as, agriculture, industry, transport :

• Inclusion of risk assessment and vulnerability studies in national infrastructure planning;

• Integration of climate change scenarios into decision making at local, regional, and national levels;

• Development of adaptation options such as ensuring high design standards for new infrastructure to protect against extreme events;

• Integration of emissions reduction and climate change adaptation strategies into policies that seek to promote industrial growth, urban and rural development

• Trade policy• Alternate sources of energy

National Action Plan on Climate Change 8 Missions, 2 of which are focus on ‘Mitigation’ and 5 on ‘Adaptation’

54

10

21

114

Water Conservation

Provision of Irrigation facility toLand Owned bySC/ST

Rural Connectivity

Land Development

Any Other activity

Case StudyMNREGA potential towards Climate Change Mitigation &

Adaptation

Source: nrega.nic.in/presentations/PMOprese20-07-07.ppt available as on 15 June 2010

Choice of works (in %) under NREGA from initiation up till March 2007

27%

16%

3%

13%

16%

9%

6%

8%

1%

Flood Control and Protection

Water Conservation and WaterHarvesting

Provision of Irrigation facility to LandOwned by SC/ST/BPL/ IAYBeneficiaries

Rural Connectivity

Land Development

Others

Drought Proofing (Afforestation &Plantation)

Micro Irrigation Works

Renovation of Traditional Water bodies

Various kinds of work under water conservation under NREGA

Source: Ministry of Rural Development available

Post Kyoto 2012 Focus

• Energy Efficiency and Emission targets well set to reach 25% target

• NAPCC as a Key vehicle of NAMA implementation

– If designed and implemented well, a great opportunity to realise policy to practice connect

Actions taken to reach 25% target

• Renewable Energy Certificates Trading mechanism - 5 trading sessions have taken place

 

• Promotion of off grid renewables under RGGVY • National Solar Mission call for batch 2 of phase 1 has been made. • Invited bids for 350 MW PV capacity under solar mission                     • MNRE invited bids for the second batch of solar power projects

under the Phase I of the (JNNSM).

• Projects selection through reverse bidding wherein developers shall offer discounts on the base tariff of Rs 17.91 per kWh. 

     

Actions taken to reach 25% target…contd

Role of technology,innovation & international regime

• REC, JNNSM and PAT allow registration of projects under CDM.

• Feasibility Studies carried our for industries and lighting (LED) using Japanese technology

• Delhi Metro Project was financed by JBIC. - Mitsubishi was instrumental in supplying technology for this

project.

Proactive Measures at National Level

• Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) – 127 labs on climate change & impacts in different sectors

• Expert Group on a low carbon strategy and inclusive growth – to recommend for prioritized actions in Electricity, Transport, Industry, Oil & Gas, Buildings and Forestry

• Carbon Tax on Coal to fund Clean Energy• Perform, Achieve and Trade Mechanism for Energy

efficiency• Assessment of Impacts of Climate Change on Water

Resources, Agriculture, Forests and Human Health• Bachat Lamp Yojana as CDM Program• State level actions

India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF)

• IIIF will use Rs.5000 Cr to foster inclusive innovation• Focus: innovative models for poverty alleviation • Priority areas:

- Health - Rural communications, - Agriculture, - Animal husbandry and - Green energy. - Should largely be invested in Gender Inclusive

innovations

What is Inclusive Development ?

Development that :

• Reduces poverty

• Enables all groups of people to contribute to:

- creating opportunities

- sharing the benefits of development and

- participating in decision making

Innovation to Empowerment&Inclusivity

• Innovation to empowerment is not a natural

transformation. It requires: - strategic interventions

- convergence of commitment

- shift in paradigms

- forging of new alliances

- unleashing of innovations

- an unprecedented opportunity is waiting for new alliances