Plea on climate change: NGT seeks Centre's response

The National Green Tribunal today sought response from the Centre on a plea against ill effects of climate change and steps taken by the Centre and states to implement the National Action Plan on Climate Change(NAPCC).
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notice to Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF), Ministry of Power and several states while posting the matter for further consideration on January 12.
"Issue notice to respondents," the bench said.
The bench was hearing a petition filed by advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal seeking direction to place on record the relevant material and documents relating to steps taken by Centre and states in order to implement NAPCC.

The plea said, "As a part of the International Commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions in India, the then Prime Minister on June 30, 2008 had released National Action Plan on Climate Change(NAPCC) and said that it reflects the importance the government attaches to mobilising the National Energies to meet the challenge of climate change".
In August 2009, the central government had directed all states and Union Territories to formulate Individual State Action Plan on climate change guided by and consistent with the structure and strategies of NAPCC, it said.

"The idea behind the individual State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) was that individual states and UTs must lay out sector-specific as well as cross sector time-bound priority actions along with indicative budgetary requirements, supplemented with details of necessary institutional and policy infrastructure for operationalisation of actions", it said.

The plea claimed that despite the central government's direction Maharashtra has not drafted its SAPCC.
It further claimed that while preparing the SAPCCs, no states offered a clear, consistent and well argued set of recommendations with either a vision or an action plan.
"There is a conflict of interest between the Central Government and various states of the country and because of the same an important plan like NAPCC has failed to get implemented in its true letter and spirit," the plea said.
On January 30, 2010, the Joint Secretary, MoEF,in a letter to the Executive Secretary of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change had informed that India will try to reduce the emission intensity by 20-25 per cent till 2020 in comparison to the 2005 level, it said.