This project presents strategies for raising funds towards assisting the Central and State Governments in India to implement the State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC) in an effective and efficient manner.
Background
The Government of India, in 2008, released the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), which marks the country’s initial attempt at preparing a deliberate and coordinated national response to global warming. The NAPCC identifies climate adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation measures to simultaneously advance India’s development and climate change-related objectives. The action plan was constituted from detailed plans submitted to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, and consists of eight national missions. This study at developing strategies to raise funds in order to assist the Central and State Governments in India to implement the State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC) in an effective and efficient manner. It makes a detailed comparative assessment of select SAPCCs and some of the sectoral strategies therein with the corresponding national missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The views of experts regarding challenges and opportunities to raise resources for implementation of the SAPCCs have been distilled and presented as high-level strategies. This report also provides an analysis of various institutional arrangements for Centre-State disbursement of funds for climate change based on expert evaluations.
Approach
States were divided into six categories based on their economic profile – State Gross Domestic Product (SGDP) and Per-Capita Income. Other criteria for categorizing states that might be relevant in this context, such as mitigation profile, vulnerability to climate change were considered, but could not be applied due to lack of uniform data across all States. The categorization of states was done primarily to facilitate our understanding of state-specific challenges and ease of assessment, given the short timeframe for the study. Based on a National Consultation Workshop organized by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and international best practices in developing sub-national climate action plans, the project team developed a set of criteria against which the Plans of all the six selected States were evaluated. The criteria were developed mainly from the perspective of raising finances and are by no means an exhaustive list to evaluate the design of the Plans.
Findings
Most states fail to clearly define targets for their proposed actions. Karnataka and Orissa have not defined targets for any of their proposed strategies. For states that have made an attempt at setting targets, these have not been consistently set across sectors. Although States have made an attempt to come up with cost estimates for their proposed actions, there are inconsistencies in the estimates and most experts (including some consultants who have drafted the Plans) felt that the estimates are not robust and credible. Orissa is the only State that has identified sources of funding for each of their proposed actions. Although some states have provided a prioritized list of actions, there is a lack of assessment of options based on a set of objective criteria.
Implications
The findings from this study will provide valuable inputs to enable both national and sub-national governments in better understanding some of the issues with the current State Plans and developing effective strategies when they start implementing some of these activities. Further, it will provide actionable insights to State Governments for a meaningful engagement with various actors to better target state-specific requirements.