Environment Min approves projects worth more than Rs 100 crore

Climate related projects worth more than Rs 100 crore which were submitted by five states including Jammu and Kashmir and Mizoram were approved by the Union Environment Ministry today.
The Ministry which held its 9th meeting of National Steering Committee on Climate Change (NSCCC) gave its nod to Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) submitted by Telangana, Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh for funding under the National Adaptation Fund on Climate Change (NAFCC).
"The Environment Ministry held the 9th meeting of NSCCC. The Committee approved the DPRs on adaptation submitted by Telangana, Mizoram, Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya and Chhattisgarh for funding under the NAFCC at a total cost of Rs 108 crore for implementation in these states," an official statement said.

Elaborating about the project in Telangana titled 'Resilient Agricultural Households through Adaptation to Climate Change in Mahbubnagar district', the Ministry said that it will incur a total cost of Rs 25 crore for four years.
Noting that the objective of the project will be to enhance the climate resilient agriculture for improving livelihoods, the Ministry said that it is expected to benefit more than 2,000 farming households of Mahbubnagar district in the state while 30-50 per cent of the beneficiaries will be women and small and marginal farmers.
The Ministry said the project in Mizoram titled 'Sustainable agriculture development through expansion, enhancement and modelling in the state of Mizoram' will be implemented at a total cost of Rs 10.95 crore for three years.

"The overall objective is to enhance resilience of agriculture covering crops, livestock and fisheries through development and application of improved production and risk management technologies," the statement said.

(REOPENS DEL36)
On the recent negotiations on hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)
phase-down in Kigali in Rwanda, Dave said India negotiated like a "superpower" and its announcement to eliminate HFC-23, a potent greenhouse gas with high global warming potential, was welcomed by all countries.
Dave said the answer to climate change is in leading a life with minimum carbon footprint.
"If we want to tackle climate change, then we have to adopt a lifestyle with minimum carbon footprint and this thought should be adopted by the entire world.

"This is Gandhian thought and this is India's thought. During implementation discussion in COP22 this thought should be discussed and it should be taken forward," he said.
Dave said that post-COP22, India needs to move forward rapidly as far as implementation of its climate action plans are concerned.
"We also have to give our account in front of the world. Although we are emitting much less and are on minimum carbon footprint and other countries are much higher than us, but it comes to the self-disciplinary targets we have pledged, we also want to minimise it," he said.
He also said that the three essential components -- forests, tribal forest-dwellers and life forms living in forests -- complement one another.

Noting that tribal forest-dwellers do not destroy forests, he said that colonised thought process which has not changed for the last 60 years needs to be reconsidered.
Earlier, Kozlowski lauded India on the ratification of the Paris agreement on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, saying the country showed to the world its leadership on climate action.
Noting that the EU presented its ratification only a few days after India, he said that "so jointly, our two parts of the world enabled the entry into Force of the Paris Agreement".
Noting that India is a very "important" partner for the EU in pursuing effective international efforts to address the challenges of climate change, he said that in the energy sector, a policy level dialogue between EU and India is already in place and renewable energy is a clearly identified "cooperation priority".

He said that EU also plans to engage with India to pursue the objectives of the International Solar Alliance while in terms of finance, the European Investment Bank has already provided loans and credit lines for more than 1.2 billion euro to support implementation of energy and climate-related projects in India.
"We are extremely interested to expand our EU-India cooperation to other climate-related issues," he said.