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

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January 10, 2023

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.

environment

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

panchamrit

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

  • At the 27th 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.

India’s Updated NDCs

  • Achieving 50% of India’s cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030
  • Reducing emission intensity of GDP by 45% below 2005 levels by 2030
  • Creation of additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover

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.

national ambient air quality standards

To know about Part-2, click here

 

Reference

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

 

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