India Committed to Combatting Climate Change

Verghese V Joseph

Bengaluru: December 08, 2023 – India has always emphasized that climate change is a global, collective action problem that requires international cooperation to solve. India is a signatory to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as the Kyoto Protocol (KP) and the Paris Agreement (PA). In addition, India is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). According to reports from various sources, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the challenges posed by global warming are primarily the result of cumulative historical and current greenhouse gas emissions from developed countries.

Last week, Union Minister of State for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey stated that although India is not contributing factor to the problem, it has done far more than its share to combat climate change. The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC), which include missions in the areas of solar energy, energy efficiency, water, sustainable agriculture, health, the Himalayan ecosystem, sustainable habitat, Green India, and strategic knowledge for climate change, are just a few of the programs and schemes the Indian government has put in place to combat climate change.

A comprehensive framework for all climate action is provided by the NAPCC. In accordance with NAPCC, thirty-four States and Union Territories (UTs) have created State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCCs), taking into consideration state-specific climate change-related issues. With the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, India has also aggressively taken the lead in fostering global cooperation and has implemented a number of initiatives and activities under these frameworks. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) are developed by nations independently and reported to the UNFCCC in accordance with the terms of the Paris Agreement. In accordance with this, India on August 26, 2022, submitted its updated NDCs, and on November 14, 2022, it submitted its long-term low-carbon development plan.

The Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) carried out studies on the effects of climate change in India as part of its National Communication; these studies are summed up in the chapter on “Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation.” Regional climate models with high resolution were used to analyze climate change scenarios. Forecasts for the years 2020, 2050, and 2080 show that the Indian subcontinent will warm overall.

The Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) conducted studies on the impact of climate change in India as part of its National Communication, which are summarized in the ‘Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation’ chapter. A high-resolution regional climate model was used to analyze climate change scenarios. Simulations for the 2020s, 2050s, and 2080s show that the Indian subcontinent will warm all over.

According to a research on the effects of climate change on agriculture done by Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI)-ICAR, and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), rice yield is predicted to decrease by 6.5% in the next century (2021–2035). Furthermore, a decrease in yield is anticipated for rainfed maize. Another study on the main pulse diseases (pigeon pea and chickpea) carried out by the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, shows that, in a future climate scenario, there will be seasonal variations in the occurrence of blight diseases.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and Government of India launched the flagship network project “National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture” (NICRA) in 2011 to address the challenges of maintaining domestic food production in the face of climate change. The project’s goal is to create and advance climate-resilient agricultural technologies that will benefit the nation’s most vulnerable areas. The project’s results will also assist the districts and regions most likely to experience extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts, floods, and frosts, in adapting to these conditions.

The project’s goals are to:
1) Increase Indian agriculture’s resistance to climate change and variability by conducting strategic research on adaptation and mitigation,
2) To validate and demonstrate climate-resilient technologies on farmer’s fields.
3) To build the capacity of scientists and other stakeholders in climate-resilient agriculture;
4) To develop policy guidelines for the wider adoption of resilience-enhancing technologies and options.
The project’s three main implementation components are capacity building, technology demonstration and dissemination, and strategic research, which are carried out in 151 village clusters within each of the districts that have been identified as climatically vulnerable.

The initiative is being carried out in 446 villages across 28 States and one Union Territory, covering an area of roughly 2,71,605 hectares and housing 2,31,421 households. Farmers were given demonstrations of location-specific, tried-and-true technologies to improve their adaptive capacity and deal with the current climate variability. The interventions are broken down into four categories: crop production, livestock and fisheries, institutional structure creation, and natural resource management.

Temperature fluctuations and unseasonal rains are likely to have a significant negative impact on the horticulture industry. For farmers who plant horticulture crops, the effects of climate change—such as drought, flooding, hailstorms, etc.—can be disastrous. Climate change-related temperature increases are anticipated to have an effect on livestock health and productivity, which will lower output of milk, meat, wool, and draught power.

Climate change, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, has an impact on a variety of crops, natural resources, livestock, and fisheries. In the absence of adaptation measures, climate change projections are likely to reduce rainfed rice yields by 20% in 2050 and 47% in 2080 scenarios, while irrigated rice yields are likely to increase by 3.5% in 2050 and 5% in 2080 scenarios, wheat yields by 19.3% in 2050 and 40% in 2080 scenarios, kharif maize yields by 18 to 23% in 2050 and 2080 scenarios, and kharif groundnut yields are likely to increase by 7% in It has also been discovered that future climate scenarios are likely to benefit chickpea with an increase in produtivity.

In a scenario where climate change occurs in 2050, rainfed sorghum yield is predicted to decrease by 8%. According to projections, mustard seed yields could decrease by up to 7.9% in 2050 and up to 15% in 2080 due to climate change. In scenarios where 2080 occurs, soybean yields are expected to rise by 13% and 8%, respectively.

As part of the NAPCC, the Department of Science & Technology (DST) is coordinating and carrying out two national missions: the National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change (NMSKCC) and the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem. Numerous R&D projects in climate change studies have been funded under both missions in order to evaluate the effects of climate change on industries like agriculture, water, and health and to develop coping adaptation strategies.