The recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emission Gap Report (2014) has recognized India as being one of the countries on track to achieve its voluntary pledges.
Subsequent to the NAPCC, in 2009 all the state governments were requested to prepare State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC). So far, 31 states have prepared and submitted SAPCC documents.
India’s total renewable power installed capacity as on 31 December 2014 has reached 33.8 GW. Wind energy continues to dominate this share accounting for 66% of installed capacity, followed by biomass, small hydro power, and solar power.
As per Census of India 2011, around 1.1 million households are using solar energy to meet their lighting needs and an almost similar number meets cooking energy needs from biogas plants.
India’s renewable energy sector is driven primarily by the private sector. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission launched in January 2010 seeks to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by creating policy conditions for its diffusion across the country. Installed capacity of Indian solar power in 2013-14 was 2647 MW.
Some of India’s major immediate plans on renewable energy include scaling up cumulative installed capacity to 170 GW that includes 100 GW of solar power by 2022 and establishing a National University for Renewable Energy.
India introduced a clean energy cess on coal in 2010. This cess on coal which feeds the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) has been increased from `50 to `100 per tonne in Budget 2014-15. Total collection so far (till 2014-15) under the Fund is `17,084.45 crore (Budget Estimates—BE) and 46 clean energy projects worth `16,511.43 crore have been recommended for funding out of the NCEF till September 2014.
At present, NABARD is the only NIE in the Asia Pacific Region. In its capacity as NIE, NABARD has generated several feasible proposals on climate change adaptation, five of which, amounting to US$ 7.3 million, have been submitted to the Adaptation Fund.
The Adaptation Fund Board has recently sanctioned the first set of two projects submitted by NABARD with an outlay of US$ 3.2 million for promoting climate resilient agriculture systems in West Bengal and enabling the fisheries sector in Andhra Pradesh.
NABARD has sanctioned a pilot project of 21 crore on climate change adaptation in Maharashtra to develop knowledge, strategies, and approaches that will enable vulnerable communities to adapt to the impending impacts of climate change.
Under NABARD Infrastructure Development Assistance, it is financing green investments in solar power generation and improvement of electricity distribution networks which includes India’s first 1MW canal-top solar power project in Gujarat.
Further, as a follow-up of its announcement in Budget 2014-15, a ‘National Adaptation Fund’ with an initial corpus of `100 crore has been set up to support adaptation actions to combat the challenges of climate change in sectors like agriculture, water, and forestry.
Simultaneously, there have been a number of actions on the domestic front to create carbon markets. An important one is the Perform, Achieve & Trade (PAT) scheme which is being implemented for the designated industries under the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency.
The PAT scheme covers 478 plants (designated consumers) in eight energy-intensive industrial sectors accounting for one-third of total energy consumption. The target for reduction in average specific energy consumption under PAT is 4.05% during PAT Cycle 1 (1 April 2012 to 31 March 2015).
