Mobilising funds key to meeting climate change goals

Lack of clarity about how the govt would find the finances to achieve the sustainable development goals

The need to find money to achieve the ambitious targets under the Paris climate change agreement and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) was the key focus of the 2015-16 Economic Survey. The Survey acknowledged the lack of clarity, as yet, about how India would find the finances to achieve the goals it has set out for itself.

It noted, "What is more important is the mobilisation of the funds needed for realising the bold targets envisaged under both and to have a clear action plan for implementation… successful implementation of the Paris Agreement, the SDGs and the ambitious targets set out in the INDCs (intended nationally determined contributions) will require huge financial resources which cannot be met through budgetary sources alone."
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The section on climate change and sustainable development did not resonate much in the first part of the Survey, which is seen to have a greater imprint of the chief economic advisor (CEA). A paragraph in that section mentioned that climate change and other resource scarcities would require greater efficiencies in the way fertilisers, power and water are used. The theme of efficient use of resources dominated the small prescriptive bits in the related areas of health and education as well, even as the survey bemoaned the substantially low investments in the social sector.

The Survey devoted a large part of the section to merely describing the Paris climate change agreement and the actions India has committed to undertake under it. In that, it shied away from a candid analysis of the state of play in the area of environment-energy or the agreement itself, contrary to the rest of the survey. It made the requisite and exaggerated acknowledgment of the government's loud claims that climate justice and the principle of sustainable lifestyles had been emphasised in the Paris agreement and that the International Solar Alliance was a huge achievement.

It detailed the two areas where the National Democratic Alliance government has done much better than or built upon the previous United Progressive Alliance regime - enhanced focus on solar power and the energy-efficiency mission of the power ministries. It gave a miss to the other action plan that is central to India's climate change targets for the Paris agreement, but has failed to take off so far - forestry.

The Survey pointed out, as the CEA has emphasised before, that India would have to ensure that global and domestic green finance also provides for clean coal technologies in future - a battle India partially lost in the Paris agreement. "Green finance should not be limited only to investment in renewable energy, as, for a country like India, coal-based power accounts for around 60 per cent of installed capacity. Emphasis should be on greening coal technology," it said.

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WHAT THE SURVEY SAYS

• For successful implementation of the Paris Agreement, the SDGs and the ambitious targets set out in the INDCs, the govt will require huge financial resources which cannot be met through budgetary sources alone
   
• Climate change and other resource scarcities would require greater efficiencies in the way fertilisers, power and water are used
   
• Green finance should not be limited only to investment in renewable energy