National Action Plan on Climate Change
India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) outlines existing and future policies and programmes directed at climate change mitigation and adaptation.
These National Missions will be institutionalised by respective ministries and will be organised through inter-sectoral groups that include, in addition to related Ministries, the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission, experts from industry, acade¬mia and civil society. The institutional structure will vary depending on the task to be addressed and will include the oppor¬tunity to compete on the best management model.
The Nodal Ministry for each Mission has been tasked to evolve specif¬ic objectives spanning the remaining years of the 11th Plan and the 12th Plan period 2012–2013 to 2016¬–2017. Appropriate indicators and methodologies will be developed to assess both avoided emissions and adaptation benefits.
The NAPCC recommends a minimum share of renewable energy in the national grid of 5% in 2010, subsequently to be increased by 1% every year to reach 15% by 2020.
Energy Supply is dealt with through the National Solar Mission, which aims to make solar electricity cost-competitive with coal power and increase the share of solar energy in the energy mix by developing new solar technologies, both photovoltaic and solar thermal. The Mission recommends implementation in three stages, leading to an installed capacity of 20,000 MW by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan in 2022. It also sets the objective of establishing a solar research centre, increased international collaboration on technology development, strength¬ening of domestic manufacturing capacity and increased government funding and international support.
The Indian Solar Mission is a large-scale solar energy programme that will run from 2010 to 2022. Given the major policy focus of the Indian government to provide wider energy access in rural areas, the project promotes electricity generation from both small- and large-scale solar plants. The plan’s long-term aim is to make solar energy competitive with fossil-based energy.
The Solar Roadmap establishes specific installed capacity targets for three different periods of three and four years. It sets specific goals for increasing use of solar thermal technologies in urban areas, industry and commercial establishments.
Under Phase One of the National Solar Mission, a reverse auction mechanism and rapidly falling solar PV module prices brought down the delivered cost of electricity from solar PV by more than half in three years.
Under Phase Two of the Solar Mission, a capital subsidy in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) allows project developers to finance their projects and sell electricity at the fixed price.
In January 2008, the federal minister responsible for renewable energy announced that the Indian government would provide a subsidy for solar power plants to help develop renewable energy infrastructure. The subsidy consisted of INR12 (USD0.19) per kWh for solar photovoltaic power and INR10 (USD0.16) per kWh for solar thermal power fed to the electricity grid. A maximum capacity of 10MW from each Indian state and 5MW per developer was eligible under the scheme. Investors were not eligible. Developers sell electricity to state-run utilities and the incentives are paid to them based on the tariff the utilities provide. The incentives, for a period of 10 years, are over and above any financial assistance provided by the states.
The power tariff for projects under phase two has been fixed as INR5.45 (USD0.09) per kWh. Half of the projects in Phase Two will have domestic content and be technology neutral.
The government has also made available following incentives for solar power
• Import of plant and machinery for the construction of solar power projects is exempted from Additional Custom Duty and the total custom duty has come down from 9.35% to 5.15%
• Goods required for manufacturing of solar cells and modules have been exempted from Additional Custom Duty and the total custom duty has come down to 9.35%
• Excise duty exemption for all machinery required to set up a solar power generation project or facility
• Basic customs duty on solar lantern/lamps has been reduced from 10% to 5%
The Solar Mission also stimulates national R&D by providing innovation subsidies and scholarships to at least 1,000 young scientists and engineers, and by launching specific pilot projects aligned with the Mission’s targets.
Key targets of the National Solar Mission:
• To create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20GW of solar power by 2022
• To ramp up utility grid-connected solar power including rooftop generation to 1,100MW by 2013, 10, 000MW by 2017 and 20,000MW by 2022 through the mandatory use of the renewable purchase obligation by utilities backed with a preferential tariff
• To promote programmes for off-grid applications, reaching 1,000MW by 2017 and 2000MW by 2022
• To achieve 15m m2 solar thermal collector area by 2017 and 20m m2 by 2022
• To deploy 20m solar lighting systems for rural areas by 2022
• Phase Two of the National Solar Mission has a target of 9,000MW grid-connected and 800MW off-grid solar power by 2017
Energy demand is addressed via two programmes:
The National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) is likely to achieve about 23m tons oil-equivalent of fuel savings in coal, gas, and petroleum products by 2014-15, along with an expected avoided capacity addition of over 19,000MW. The CO2 emission reduction is estimated to be 98.55m tons annually. Building on this, the Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme, a market-based mechanism, seeks to accelerate and incentivise energy efficiency in the large energy-intensive industries and envisages energy saving of 6.6m toe by 2014-15.
National Mission on Sustainable Habitat: The Plan seeks to promote energy efficiency as an essential component of urban planning. It calls for extending the Energy Conservation Building Code, and emphasises urban waste management and recycling, including power production from waste.
REDD+ and LULUCF aspects of the climate action plan are addressed through the National Mission for a Green India, which sets the following targets for 2022. Increased forest/tree cover on 5m ha of forest/non-forest lands and improved quality of forest cover on another 5m ha of non-forest/ forest lands (a total of 10m ha); Improved ecosystem services including biodiversity, hydrological services, carbon sequestration from the 10m ha of forest/non-forest lands mentioned above; Increased forest-based livelihood income of about 3m households, living in and around the forests; Enhanced annual CO2 sequestration by 50m to 60m tonnes in the year 2022.
The plan also calls for stronger enforcement of automotive fuel economy standards, using pricing measures to encourage the purchase of efficient vehicles, and providing incentives for the use of public transportation.
The National Mission on Strategic Knowledge of Climate Change calls for the establishment of a Climate Science Research Fund, improved climate modelling capacities and increased international collaboration.
Other missions include the National Water Mission to improve efficiency in water use by 20% through pricing and other measures; the National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, with targets for biodiversity, forest cover and other ecological conservation in the Himalayan region; and the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, supporting adaptation to climate change in agriculture by developing climate-resilient crops and adapting agricultural practices, as well as the expansion of weather insurance mechanisms.
