The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has turned down the state government’s application for Rs 1,000 crore to conduct four assessment studies on climate change and a solar energy project.
The ministry said it “does not have any schematic provision for supporting such proposals for state governments from the available budget for the climate change project”.
It has directed the state to include these projects in the State Action Plan for Climate Change (SAPCC),funding for which would be decided in the course of finalisation of the 12th year plan.
Gujarat had enlisted The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) to conduct these assessment studies,which were:
*Climate Change Implications on Crop Growth in Gujarat
*Assessing climate change impacts on vector-borne diseases in humans over the Gujarat region
*Assessment of Climate Change Impact on Sea Level Rise (SLR) over the Gujarat Coast
* Study of the Carbon Footprint based on the Lifestyle Patterns in Gujarat through Involvement of Youth and Women,and
*A proposal from the Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA) for solar energy.
When contacted,however,TERI officials said they were disheartened by the slow pace and were not aware of the current status of these projects.
“It has been over a year and,frankly,we do not have much idea about the status of these projects. We knew the MoEF does not have much resources to finance all the state studies,and it’s a wonder Gujarat went to the MoEF when they should have gone directly to the Finance Ministry or the Planning Commission,” said a senior TERI official involved with various states as well as the Centre in developing climate change action plans.
Gujarat has been slow in submitting its action plan even though a separate Climate Change Department (trumpeted as the first in Asia) was set up three years ago. The latest reports show that only half of the 28 states have submitted their action plans while Gujarat and other states like MP,Maharashtra and Bihar have already missed the March 31 deadline. Other states,much smaller ones like the North-Eastern states,for example,already have.
TERI officials said they are currently carrying out assessment studies for Gujarat’s neighbour,Maharashtra,which should be ready by next year.
The nature of the five projects Gujarat proposed,which have obviously not started,indicate the state has hardly even started assessing the present or future impacts of climate change,much less taken steps to mitigate them. This is in spite of a second deadline of end-September for submitting the SAPCC.
The state’s Climate Change Department would include these projects in the state’s action plan as directed by the ministry,an official at the secretary level who did not wish to be quoted said. The official also declined to commit any time-frame to the submission of the action plan,saying only that “it is in the process”.
Principal Secretary (additional charge) of the Climate Change Department,Rajiv Gupta,could not be contacted.
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