PM unveils national action plan on climate change

DAMAGE CONTROL: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday unveiled the much-awaited national action plan.

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Keywords: G8 Summit, Manmohan Singh

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday unveiled the much-awaited national action plan to combat climate change on Monday.

The plan outlines setting up of eight missions, namely — Solar, energy conservation, sustainable habitats, agriculture, water, Himalayan ecosystems, and Green India Project.

For instance, the solar energy mission will work with the private sector for R&D while the Green India project, backed by a Rs 7,500-crore corpus, will aim at greening 6 million hectares over a period of 10 years to negate the impact of deforestation for urban needs.

The domestic plan, which will be circulated at the upcoming G8 summit in Japan, reiterated India’s international stand that it believes in "common and differentiated responsibility" and, therefore, will wait for developed countries to cap their emissions that are several times higher.

“Climate change will undermine national development effort. It will affect livelihood and health. We have a responsibility to bequeath our children a world, which is clean, safe and productive,” Manmohan Singh said. “Action plan incorporate India vision to sustain development and step to implement it,” he added.

The plan also emphasises that instead of carbon cuts or caps on industry, its focus is on "avoidance of emissions."

There has been growing international pressure for India to set targets to combat climate change.

India already spends 2.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product on climate variable events.

The report underscores the need for technology innovations so as to reduce energy usage and have fair and equitable global regime for technology transfers.

The plan framed by a 22-member experts on climate change reiterates that maintaining a high growth rate is essential for increasing living standards of the vast majority of people who remain vulnerable to global warming and specify eight missions to tackle threats.

(With PTI input)