Climate action must align with goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’: Bhupender Yadav
Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav explained India’s stand on climate change negotiations in the midst of geopolitical disruptions
India’s overarching goal of Viksit Bharat 2047 (becoming a developed country by 2047) is of paramount importance and the country’s climate actions should align with that, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said, explaining India’s stand on climate change negotiations in the midst of geopolitical disruptions. But India will continue to be the voice of the Global South, he added. Excerpts from an email interview on the eve of World Environment Day:
India is developing its first adaptation (making communities, people, and livelihoods climate-proof) strategy. What will it be its focus and how will it help address the impact of extreme weather events?
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, our efforts are to ensure Viksit Bharat is a Green Bharat, and a climate resilient country. With that aim in mind, India is currently in the process of formulating its first comprehensive National Adaptation Plan (NAP), a strategic initiative to enhance the country’s resilience to climate change. NAP represents a major step forward in aligning adaptation planning with India’s national development priorities and global climate commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. The core objective of the NAP is to protect lives, ecosystems, and livelihoods by supporting: understanding of current and future climate risks and vulnerabilities ; identifying medium- and long-term priorities for climate adaptation ; and establishing systems, policies, measures and capacities to ensure strengthened adaptation planning, budgeting and implementation.
The US has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement. The outcome of the Baku COP was disappointing for many developing countries. What are your expectations from COP 30 in Brazil?
The UNFCCC is a multilateral forum which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with a stronger goal to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. There have been many setbacks to the resolve to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, but the resolve stays. India will continue to work responsibly with the world, as the voice of the global south, in meeting whatever challenges emerge on the way to a greener tomorrow.
As regards expectations from COP 30, India’s asks would be as articulated in Article 4.7 of the UNFCCC, i.e., economic and social development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of the developing countries. No proposed strategies should foreclose the possibilities of accelerated social and economic development for developing countries. The principle of CBDR-RC (common but differentiated responsibilities -- respective capabilities) should be reinforced.
India’s overarching goal of Viksit Bharat 2047 is of paramount importance and accordingly, climate actions of India should align with the goal of Viksit Bharat.
How will you undo or address these setbacks to climate talks?
India would strive to achieve the following outcomes from the forthcoming COP 30 in Brazil:
On mitigation: Uncompensated climate change mitigation by developing countries would slow down their economic growth. Many required technologies based on resource endowments of developing countries do not yet exist, or are too expensive. Through the COP decisions, the availability of green technologies needs to be enabled by developed countries.
On finance: The COP 29 decision on finance (new collective quantified goal on finance as it is called in Paris Agreement parlance) dilutes the previous obligation and responsibility of developed country Parties to provide financial resources to developing countries. The decision has not addressed the important factor “provision of funds”. This needs to be addressed. The Finance Roadmap must place developed country Parties’ obligation to provide financial resources to assist developing country Parties.
On adaptation: COP 30 would have a heavy agenda on adaptation. The COP 28 decision on Global Goal on Adaptation in 2023 had set seven targets with respect to thematic areas (agriculture, water, health, ecosystems and biodiversity, infrastructure, poverty and livelihoods, and cultural heritage). The Work Programme initiated in 2023 to develop indicators to track progress is expected to be concluded at COP 30.
Ultimately, decision-making within the UNFCCC should be based on consensus, with every decision at the COP adopted unanimously. Negotiations must be transparent, inclusive, and driven by the parties involved.
Do we have any quantification of how much climate finance will be needed to effectively implement this strategy?
India’s Initial Adaptation Communication to the UNFCCC had estimated a cumulative adaptation expenditure of ₹56.68 trillion (around $680 billion) under a business-as-usual scenario by 2030. Factoring in climate-induced damages and developmental needs, this could rise to ₹72 trillion ($864 billion) . A detailed sectoral costing exercise is currently underway under the NAP process to refine these sector-by-sector estimates, but early preliminary findings reaffirm that several billion dollars will be spent over the next decade alone to operationalize planned incremental technologies and actions to build long-term resilience.
How have we made the environment and forest clearance system efficient and fast in recent years?
Following methods have been adopted for making environment and forest clearance systematically: launching of PARIVESH 2.0 portal with decision support system and linked with Gati Shakti ; bringing reforms to make processes objective and less cumbersome ; creating a system of ICMC (inter ministerial coordinating and monitoring committee at central level) and FRCM (Fortnightly Review and Coordination Meeting at Regional levels) to crease out the issues and give impetus to decision making. As a result, time taken in both environment and forest clearance have come down significantly.
The India State of Forest report 2023 has captured increase in forest and tree cover but also flagged degradation of primary forests. How do you think we can reduce loss and degradation of primary forests?
Although there is a net increase in dense forests in the country, there are areas where the dense prime forests have been affected with degradation. This may be due to encroachment, illicit felling and in northeast region, due to shifting cultivation. And to a lesser degree, due to unregulated grazing, natural causes like storms and landslides, and alsotitles given under Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006. This may be addressed by taking up stringent protection measures added with effective community involvement, and also by regulating shifting cultivation in case of northeastern region.
Already degraded areas can be restored by taking up site-specific soil and moisture conservation measures, protection of the area and encouraging growth.
How will Green Credit Programme work with private agencies on afforestation? What results are you seeing already from the programme? Who will have rights over the plantation once raised?
In order to take forward the ‘LiFE’ - ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ movement announced by the Prime Minister; the Green Credit Program (GCP) has been launched to incentivize voluntary environmental actions.
The Green Credit Rules, 2023, have been notified by the Ministry IN October 2023. GCP encourages public sector undertakings to undertake voluntary eco-restoration and tree plantation activities in degraded forest lands and earn Green Credits. Under the programme, degraded forest lands are being restored through the funding received from the public sector undertakings. A dedicated online GCP Portal has been developed where entities and other stakeholders can register themselves to participate in the program, including selection of land parcels, making payment of fund, and receiving green credits.
As on date, a total of 2,399 degraded land parcels across 17 states, covering approximately 57,000 hectares, have been identified for eco-restoration. Out of these, 981 parcels measuring over 26,000 hectares have been selected by 24 PSUs for eco-restoration. The plantation on the selected land parcel have started in 2025.
The tree plantation activities under the GCP does not confer any ownership or usufruct rights to the applicant over the land or the plantations
The ministry has also initiated a stakeholder consultation process to further expand the scope of the program.
Despite several efforts by the government including a national clean air programme (NCAP), why do you think we are not able to meet air quality safe standards in many cities?
To address air pollution in the country, MoEFCC has launched National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in January, 2019 which a cross sectoral programme and focuses on implementation of clean air action plans at national, state and city level for source specific mitigations through coordinated actions by the central government ministries, state government and its agencies, municipal corporations and city level agencies. National level plan includes the action plans of different ministries/ departments of government of India for convergence of schemes/ programmes. NCAP aims to improve air quality in 130 cities in 24 states/UTs by engaging all stakeholders.
Further, several schemes launched by Union Government have contributed to address the problem of air pollution in the country.
-- Swach Bharat Mission 2.0, Smart City Mission, AMRUT and PM E-Bus Sewa by Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs on convergence of schemes)
-- FAME-II, PM E-DRIVE on E-mobility by Ministry of Heavy Industries on implementation of
-- SATAT and City Gas Distribution Network by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on status of implementation of
-- Nagar Van Yojana by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
-- Vehicle scrapping policy and phasing out of old vehicles by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
-- National Bio-enregy Programme and Green Hydrogen Mission by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
-- National Mission on use of Biomass and implementation of pollution control measures by Ministry of Power
Several other measures such as leapfrogging from BS-IV to BS-VI norms for fuel and vehicles since April, 2018 in NCT of Delhi and from 1st April, 2020 for rest of the country, Ban on 10-year-old diesel vehicles and 15-year-old vehicles in Delhi NCR, shifting of brick kilns in Delhi- NCR to zig-zag technology, notification and implementation of emission norms for industrial sectors, have also contributed towards reduction of air pollution in Delhi NCR and adjoining areas.
The Modi government introduced market-based Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations for waste categories, viz. plastic packaging, e-waste, battery waste, waste tyres, used oil, End-of-life vehicles and C&D waste. 12 identified Single-Use Plastics (SUP) having high littering potential and low utility were banned from 1st July, 2022.
Through concerted efforts of central and state governments under NCAP, 97 cities out of 130 cities have shown improvement in air quality in terms of PM10 concentrations in FY 2023-24 as compared to base levels of 2017-18. 55 cities have achieved a reduction of 20% and above in PM10 levels in 2023-24 with respect to the levels of 2017-18. Further, 18 cities conform to national ambient air quality standards in terms of Particulate Matter concentrations during FY 2023-24.
