As a major initiative of the National Solar Mission under the NAPCC, renewable energy certificates (REC) seek to address the mismatch between availability of renewable energy sources and the requirement of the obligated entities to meet their renewable purchase obligations. The value of an REC is equivalent to 1 MW hour of electricity injected into the grid from renewable energy sources. As per the Renewable Energy Certificate Registry of India, a total of 16,58,593 solar RECs were issued till January 2015.
The just concluded 20th session of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 20) in December 2014 in Lima, Peru, was an important milestone as it came out with a ‘Lima Call for Climate Action’ after long deliberations and intense negotiations.
With less than a year left to conclude the deal in Paris later this year, nations are working hard towards finalizing the agreement by December 2015 at the COP 21 session in Paris.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) is one of the two operating entities under the financial mechanism as per Article 11. It funds projects in energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable urban transport, and sustainable management of land use, land-use change and forestry and climate-smart agriculture.
Recently, thirty donor countries pledged US$ 4.43 billion for the GEF-6 cycle (July 2014 – June 2018). India has received an allocation of US$ 130.58 million under this, of which US$ 87.88 million is for climate change mitigation focal area.
Till date, India has accessed US$ 477.3 million of GEF grant of which US$ 284.2 million is for climate change mitigation projects and US$ 10 million is for climate change adaptation projects.
The GEF also manages two separate adaptation-focused funds under the UNFCCC— the Least Developed Countries Fund and the Special Climate Change Fund— which mobilize funding specifically earmarked for activities related to adaptation.
The GCF is also an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the Convention set up in 2011.
Significant progress has been made towards operationalizing the GCF. Some of the breakthrough decisions adopted include: 50:50 allocation for mitigation and adaptation over time; maximizing engagement with the private sector through a special Private Sector Facility of the Fund; and the intention of defining the Fund’s gender action plan soon.
As of date, US$ 10.2 billion in grants has been pledged to the GCF. The GCF is currently structured into two themes— mitigation and adaptation and one modality which is the Private Sector Facility. With this, the GCF is now ready for business.
