The Current Scenario and Way Forward
The response to climate change has to be through both adaptation and mitigation. We must adapt our societies to prepare for some climate change risks. Adaptation delivers many immediate and future benefits but has its limits. Improving ecosystem resilience and helping local communities is a low-regrets path to successful adaptation, especially in India. Opportunities for implementing low-regrets adaptation measures emerge, for example, by reducing water use via drip irrigation and water recycling; enhancing water harvesting and water storage; planting drought-resistant crop varieties; enabling cities to cope with increasingly frequent extreme weather events; building new infrastructure to protect coastal cities from sea-level rise; using more porous materials for berms/footpaths in urban settings; improving land governance and ensuring the security of land tenure; boosting disaster-relief preparedness; building social protection systems and safety nets; raising skill levels for better absorption of new technologies, and involving stakeholders from the outset in planning processes.
The key to effective adaption lies in empowering individuals and communities and backing assurances with financial and technological resources. The two-way flow of information and perspectives is vital. Vulnerable local communities should have the opportunity to present their grassroots perspective to policymakers. In turn, scientific information needs to be couched and shared in a simple manner appropriate to the local context. Local institutions need to have a meaningful dialogue with scientists, government officials, policymakers, and community members. Huge gaps in climate change knowledge-sharing persist and have led to adaptation information not reaching the most vulnerable communities. This should be corrected.
What is India doing for climate change?
- India is taking actions to fulfill its pledge made at the Copenhagen Summit in 2009 to bring down the emission intensity of its GDP by 20-25% by 2020 over 2005 levels.
- India’s per capita carbon emission footprint is small. It has recently doubled its clean energy tax on coal, set up a National Adaptation Fund and assigned funds for mega solar projects as also for solar parks on canal banks
- India hopes to significantly enhance the share of renewable energy in electricity generation from 6% to 15% of its energy mix by 2022;
- India’s plans to generate 175 GW of electricity from new and renewable sources of energy by 2020, including 100 GW from solar energy.
