Stating that climate change is both an environmental issue and an economic cost and development issue, the Economic Survey 2010-11 has revealed that expenditure on adaptation-oriented schemes have doubled over the past decade.
Adaptation schemes are initiatives that help the nation to face the impact of climate change. Expenditure on these has increased impressively from 1.45 per cent of the GDP in 2000-01 to 2.82 per cent of the GDP during 2009-10, the Survey said.
“Various studies indicate that key sectors impacted by climate change are agriculture, water, natural ecosystem, biodiversity and health. This is happening precisely at a time when India is confronted with huge development imperatives,” the Survey said.
The strategy for enhancing the country's adaptive capacity to climate variability is reflected in many of the social and economic development programmes, the Survey said. Such programmes pertain to crop improvement and research, poverty alleviation and livelihood preservation, drought proofing and flood control and forest conservation among others.
India's determination in addressing climate change is evident from an indicative target of increasing energy efficiency by 20 per cent by 2016. This is now supplemented by the domestic mitigation goal of reducing emissions intensity of the GDP by 20-25 per cent of the 2005 level by 2020 through proactive policies.
Energy efficiency
Studies in respect of a low carbon strategy are underway as one of the key pillars of the 12th Five-Year Plan. India is trying to diversify the energy fuel mix through steps such as setting up of 20,0000 MW of solar power generating capacity by 2022, doubling the present 3 per cent share of nuclear power in the energy mix over the next decade, putting in place a major market-based programme to stimulate energy efficiency, the Survey said.
Besides, the country is imposing clean energy cess on coal for funding R&D of clean energy technologies, even though coal will continue to play a key role in our future energy strategy. It is also aggressively expanding the use of natural gas in power production. The country has been pursuing aggressive strategies for forestry and has launched a new programme on coastal zone management to address the adaptation challenges facing over 300 million people who live in vulnerable areas near the coast.