States must endorse a holistic approach to development where economic revival is planned in consonance with their ability to mitigate climate change and achieve SDGs
The Coronavirus pandemic has caused economic disruptions and shutdowns in many countries across the world. Imposition of nationwide lockdowns, layoffs in the workforce and restrictions on non-essential travel have minimised market output and affected foreign trade significantly. The lurking threat to all vital elements of human life has also become prominent in the form of job losses, disruption in water supply and access, dwindling food production and distribution, and threats to health and well-being. The COVID-19 outbreak is not just an economic but a humanitarian and environmental crisis. This has impeded India’s contribution towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were put forth in 2015 with an objective to eradicate poverty, safeguard the planet and ensure peace and prosperity for all by 2030. Moreover, the response to climate change has also lost traction globally with the postponement of the Conference of Parties (COP26) to 2021.
While India continues to grapple with these challenges, the contagion has offered two key learnings that can be leveraged for addressing climate change domestically in coherence with our SDG commitments. First, the COVID-19 response mechanisms provide an exemplary account of the role of cooperative and collective action between national and sub-national governments for containing the spread of the epidemic. Second, it showcases how proactive structural changes —including the creation of health infrastructure, enforcement of guidelines and regulatory actions — can enhance the resilience of a system to effectively respond to a crisis situation.
Third, the pandemic shows that society can adjust fast in the face of a crisis. Thus far, climate change is not seen as a crisis. While the COVID-19 curve is likely to flatten eventually, the impacts of climate change will continue to rattle different parts of the country through severe hydro-meteorological events, ranging from the deadly cyclone Amphan to the wrecking floods in Assam and Bihar being witnessed this year. The aforementioned learnings likewise reinforce the need to adopt a bottom-up approach, involving sub-national entities, including State and local governments to step up stringent action for mitigating the impacts of climate change in harmony with the Central Government’s commitments at the domestic and global milieu. As the key lever of climate action in the States, the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC), nears completion of the first phase of its implementation, this year invigorates hope for States to ratchet up their SAPCC ambition under the direction of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Taking cognisance of the convergent nature of issues and the associated social impacts unveiled by the contagion, countries around the world are rallying towards “green recovery” — a road not taken earlier.
The ongoing revision of SAPCC offers a unique opportunity to States to experience “green recovery” that addresses multiple threats synergistically through the integration of strategies (to absorb shocks from the pandemic), by enhancing climate resilience (impacts of climate change) and safeguarding sustainable development (threat to people and inclusive action). This is critical to ensure that incremental actions towards greening the post-COVID recovery as well as the economy are not just reactive to the immediate crisis but are sustained well beyond the revival of the State’s economy. The SAPCCs inherently cater to a myriad SDGs, most noteworthy of which would be SDG 13 on Climate Action. The SDGs have passed the baton of enforcing sustainable and inclusive developmental trajectories to all countries and under this ambit there is enormous potential for States to incorporate the SDGs within their SAPCC narratives and vice-versa. Through their sectoral interventions that navigate across agriculture, energy, industries, health, employment and resource conservation strategies catering to water, forestry, biodiversity and so on, the SAPCCs can be potentially linked to several SDGs.
The recent TERI study, based on content analysis and rapid assessment technique, mapped out the linkages that existed between all the 33 SAPCCs and the 17 SDGs. As anticipated, the prominent linkages witnessed between SAPCC strategies and the SDGs corresponded to sustainable agriculture (zero hunger, SDG two), renewable and efficient energy (affordable and clean energy, SDG seven), sustainable urban landscapes (austainable cities and communities, SDG 11) and capacity-building (partnership for the goals, SDG 17) followed by complementarities with other SDGs. These include good health and well-being, clean water and sanitation, industry innovation and infrastructure, responsible consumption and production and life on land.
Interestingly, linkages with targets resonating with other crucial SDGs such as quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, justice and strong institutions, were infrequent and exceptional for a limited number of SAPCCs. Specific congruencies with SDG 4, which included integrating the climate change module in the education curriculum, were witnessed in the States of Chhattisgarh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu (TN), while States such as Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep underlined SDG 4 as necessary for building adaptation capacities, resilience and public awareness.
With respect to gender equality, the SAPCC of Himachal Pradesh identified the gender component of climate action strategies and missions, such as in the Green India Mission. Kerala was another State, which in its SAPCC, took cognisance of the indispensable role of womenfolk in forest and resource management. Tripura’s SAPCC demarcated the role which women play in promoting social capital and resilience-building of communities through their Self-Help Groups. SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) has immense potential to contribute towards a greener economy through green jobs under climate action strategies within the SAPCCs.
Gujarat’s SAPCC has advanced on this goal for creating green jobs through activities pertaining to afforestation, renewable energy-installation, waste to bio-fuel programmes, to name a few. Other SAPCCs, such as those of Uttar Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Island and Madhya Pradesh, have iterated the need to bolster employment under the sectors of fisheries, industries and forestry to foster sustainable growth and development. SDG 14 (Life below water) and SDG 16 (Peace, justice and strong institutions) have seen limited linkages as only coastal SAPCCs would correspond to the former and the need to build institutional effectiveness and accountability was underscored only in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Further, the SDG India Index 2019 rankings have classified States based on their performance. The National Indicator Framework (NIF), prepared by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), is the backbone of SDG rankings and elucidates how the climate action agenda can be upscaled. The NIF spans over enhancing adaptive capacity of States, morbidity due to climate extremes, reduction in emissions, meeting the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) targets and integrating climate change module in the education curricula. Therefore, persisting congruencies between the two agenda and the NIF overlap the aspiration of a green economy, where an integrated framework of mutually co-benefitting governance for planning and implementation is a requisite.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his recent address at the India Global Week 2020, reiterated the need for reviving an India which is sustainable. He also mentioned his vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat that is self-sustaining and self-generating and which reinforces the need for greening the recovery as well as the economy. Following suit, UP has already started a “One District, One Product” initiative to harness local traditions, art and enterprise; reiterating the need to go local. This, if successful, will have a positive effect and encourage SDG commitments. States must endorse a holistic approach to include strategies in the SAPCC wherein green recovery measures are planned in consonance with their ability to mitigate climate change and achieve SDGs.
Strategies need to be devised across sectors that will make India’s economic recovery sustainable and climate-proof. However, devising such effective green strategies as the economy recovers would also demand one to assess how “greenness” is defined and measured, as that remains woefully unaddressed at present.
(Pruthi and Raj are Research Associates and Pahuja is, Fellow, TERI)
