Odisha needs Rs 30,000 cr to implement climate plan for 2015-20

Initial estimates include Rs 19,757 cr to be sourced from state budget, rest may come from national missions, external aid

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A budget of over Rs 30,000 crore is required for implementing the second phase of Climate Change Action Plan in Odisha, covering the period 2015-20 to combat the challenges of climate change.

As per preliminary assessment, Rs 30,821.08 crore needed to be spent across the sectors identified as priority for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Odisha had pioneered the formulation of the state level action plan on climate change in 2010.

The initial estimates include Rs 19,757.44 crore to be sourced from the state budget while the balance of Rs 11,063.64 crore may come from the national missions and external aid.

The sector wise fund requirement is approximated at Rs 791.10 crore for agriculture sector, Rs 773.15 crore for coast and disaster risk management. Rs 749.46 crore for energy, Rs 396.59 crore for fishery and animal resource development, Rs 3646.20 crore for forest, Rs 142 crore for health, Rs 5 crore for industry, Rs 27.50 crore for mining.

For transport, urban development, waste management and water resources sectors, the budget requirement is estimated at Rs 21 crore, Rs 1,475 crore, Rs 80 crore and Rs 22,714.08 crore respectively to implement the climate change action plan.

"It is only a tentative figure. The fund required will be calculated only after the finalisation of the draft State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC). We will soon seek suggestion from the stakeholders on the draft plan", said a government official.

In the first plan, the budget for climate change has increased from Rs 1,700.17 crore during 2012-13 to Rs 2,184.35 crore in 2013-14 and to Rs 3,207.26 crore in 2014-15.

The draft SAPCC 2015-20 outlines 56 specific actions that are likely to enhance the climate resilience. The action plan also recommends 34 green house gas reduction strategies towards reducing global warming. It also indicates 10 actions that are aimed both at enhancing climate resilience and greenhouse gas emission.

A carbon foot printing study was also conducted by state in 2014 with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). The carbon footprint study indicates that the state has net emissions of 98.525 megatons of Co2-equivalent ( baseline year 2012). The per capita emissions of the state is 2.35 tonnes, which is higher than the national average of 1.7 tonnes estimated as per 2007 baseline.

"Earlier , in the first SAPCC, 11 sectors were identified as focused sectors for climate change adaptation and mitigation. In SAPCC (2015-20), a new sector - Waste to energy has been added as the focused sector", said Ashok Kumar Singha, managing director, CTRAN Consulting Limited, the facilitating agency for SAPCC.