Year End Review: Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change - Part-1

Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)

• MoEFCC is the nodal agency for planning, co-ordination and overseeing the implementation of India’s environmental and forestry policies and programmes.

KEY INITIATIVES OF MoEFCC

1. Lifestyle for Environment – LiFE

• The concept of Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) was introduced by Indian Prime Minister during UNFCCC - Conference of Parties (COP25) at Glasgow in 2021.
• LiFE is an international mass movement to protect and preserve the environment by replacing the prevalent 'use-and-dispose' economy with a circular economy.
• Approach of LiFE Campaign
  • Focus on individual behaviours - Make life a mass movement (Jan Andolan) by focusing on behaviours and attitudes of individuals and communities
  • Co-create globally - Crowdsource scalable ideas from the best minds of the world
  • Leverage local cultures - Leverage climate-friendly social norms, beliefs and daily household practices of different cultures
  • Pro-planet people - LiFE plans to leverage the strength of social networks to influence social norms surrounding climat

2. Long Term-Low Emission Development Strategy (LT-LEDS)

• At the 27^th UN COP27 in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, India submitted the long-term low emission development strategy to the UNFCCC.
• The Paris Agreement of the UNFCCC states that all parties should strive to formulate long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategies, taking into account their common but differentiated responsibilities.
• India’s LT-LEDS - India’s LT-LEDS was launched to transition to a low emissions pathway.
• The LT-LEDS has been prepared in the framework of India’s right to an equitable and fair share of the global carbon budget.
• Objectives - The strategy focuses on
  • Rational utilisation of national resources with due regard to energy security
  • Increased use of biofuels, especially ethanol blending in petrol
  • Maximizing the use of green hydrogen fuel to drive the low carbon development of the transport sector
  • Expanding its nuclear power capacity by at least three-fold in the next decade
• Significance - The LT-LEDS aims to go beyond India’s nationally determined contributions (NDC) and builds on India’s Panchamrit (five nectar elements) pledges at COP26 of the UNFCCC.
• It is in consonant with India’s five-decade journey to being carbon neutral by 2070 - a commitment made by India at COP 26.
• India’s LT-LEDS rests on 7 key transitions to low-carbon development pathways - electricity systems, transport systems, urbanization, industrial systems, CO2 removal, forestry, economic and financial aspects of low carbon development.

3. In Our LiFEtime campaign

• National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), under the MoEFCC and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), jointly launched “In Our LiFEtime” campaign at COP 27.
• Aim - To encourage youth between the ages of 18 to 23 years to become message bearers of sustainable lifestyles.
• It tends to foster responsible consumption patterns and influence the lifestyle choices of the younger generations to make them Pro-Planet-People.

4. Promoting Circular Economy - Waste-to-Wealth

• Significance - The Waste-to-Wealth Mission or Mission Circular Economy is bound to create new business models and employment opportunities, thereby integrating the informal sector.
• It will result in moving away from mindless consumption to mindful utilisation and will help achieve the vision of Mission LiFE - Lifestyle for Environment.
• Efforts - The country is emphasising on Mission Circular Economy through policies and promoting projects such as
  • Plastic Waste Management Rules
  • e-Waste Management Rules
  • Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules
  • Metals Recycling Policy, etc.
• To expedite the transition of the country from a linear to a circular economy, 11 committees have been formed for 11 focus areas such as scrap metal, Li-ion batteries, electronic wastes, etc.
• The Indian Railways has set a target of becoming net zero carbon emitter by 2030.
• Regulations on market based Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle have been notified for 4 categories of wastes - plastic packaging waste, battery waste, e-waste and waste tyre.

5. National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

• The National Clean Air Program (NCAP) was launched in 2019 to address air pollution in around 122 cities.
• These cities are referred to as non-attainment cities (NACs) as they did not meet the national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for 2011-15 under the National Air Quality Monitoring Program (NAMP).
• The NCAP has set a target of reducing key air pollutants PM10 and PM2.5 by 20-30% in 2024 taking 2017 as the base year.
• An overall improvement in ambient air quality has been observed in 95 cities during 2021-22 as compared to 2017.
• MoEF&CC has launched “PRANA”, a portal for monitoring implementation of NCA
• The Swachh Vayu Survekshan guidelines for ranking of cities under NCAP has been issued to cities.

To know about Part-2, click here

Reference

PIB | Year End Review: Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change