Study Evaluating the Design of Eight Missions of India's National Action Plan on Climate Change Recommends Major Changes in Mid-stream Reviews

CHENNAI, July 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

A New Study, an Evaluation of India's National Action Plan on Climate Change, Released by the Centre for Development Finance, IFMR, and IIT Madras, Provides Analyses and Individual Assessment Cards that Evaluate the Design of the Eight Climate Missions of India 

This study evaluates the design of eight climate missions of the country developed by individual ministries using the principles laid out in the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) of the Prime Minister's Council. This report aims to provide policy makers, academicians, researchers, civil society groups and others a snapshot of the climate missions as perceived by the experts in the country at this time. It is hoped that the outputs will inform the government so that appropriate mid-stream corrections may be made. The results of the study will also be useful to hone the country's strategic thinking in the long-term economic development for climate change.

The study is based on interviews conducted on a large number of experts, specific in domains to the climate missions. The report presents cross-cutting issues related to the design of the mission documents, identifies the tensions that run through them, and the key strengths, challenges and weaknesses of individual missions as evaluated by the experts.

Furthermore, detailed qualitative assessment cards have been produced for each mission using the following criteria: (1) Goals and targets, (2) Consistency with the principles set forth by the Prime Minister's Council, (3) Technology features, (4) Research & Development, (5) Institutional arrangements, (6) Financial instruments, (7) Collaborations and partnerships and (8) Potential barriers to implementation.  

The findings are numerous and detailed and can be found at http://www.indiaclimatemissions.org/

A few examples are given below:

• Examples of strengths include the commendable goal of setting up databases in the public domain in the National Water Mission and the National Mission on Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem; several innovative mechanisms in the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency; and the fact that the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission has raised the ambition of solar energy for individual states and the country as a whole.
   
• Examples of weaknesses include the fact that the national mission on sustainable agriculture ignores the challenges faced by poor and marginal farmers; demand management of water has not been prioritised in the design of the National Water Mission; and there is insufficient focus on off-grid potential in the National Solar Mission, which could have provided energy services directly to the poor and led to development benefits.

• Examples of challenges to successful implementation include the need for coordination among different ministries and the various institutional mechanisms within each; lack of capacity in several domains to implement the missions effectively; fragmented authority between the centre and states; and politicization and the absence of inter-disciplinary expertise in key positions.

The eight assessment cards and the full report may be read and downloaded from the following site: www.indiaclimatemissions.org

Sujatha Byravan, lead author of the report said, "Climate change is a problem that will be here with us for a very long time and these missions are India's initial attempts at setting climate policy. We hope the missions will remain dynamic and responsive to recommendations from experts and lessons from implementation. Mid-stream corrections will have to be made and incorporated into future plan documents."

Sudhir Chella Rajan, co-author added, "Climate change could very well turn out to be India's biggest development challenge in the 21^st century. The NAPCC missions are therefore of paramount importance in the policy domain and accordingly need to be subject to review and revision as necessary."   

About the Authors:

Drs. Byravan and Rajan are founders of the Climate Resilience Initiative.

Sujatha Byravan, senior researcher at CDF, focuses on climate change. Her experience and interests are in climate change, environmental policy, science and technology and development. Previously, she was The Director and President of the Council for Responsible Genetics at Cambridge, Massachusetts, a science-based organisation fostering education, policies and campaigns on the social, ethical and environmental implications of new genetic technologies. Prior to this she was Director, Fellows Program at LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) in their international secretariats in New York and London. She has been published extensively and has numerous awards to her credit.

Sudhir Chella Rajan  is the professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Dr. Rajan's interests are in the broad areas of environment and political theory, particularly in the context of climate change, energy and transport policy. He was previously a senior fellow at the Tellus Institute, Boston, and Director (Operations and Asia), International Energy Initiative, Bangalore.

Primary Media Contact: Sujatha Byravan, sujatha.byravan@ifmr.ac.in, 91-9444915752

Secondary Media Contact: Sudhir Chella Rajan, scrajan@iitm.ac.in, 91-9444008430