Shaping the climate change agenda in India: NAMA and MRV
This paper argues that India’s actions towards climate change mitigation and the domestic monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are fast evolving as key parts of the country’s climate policy in order to address the growing concerns on climate change.
As the largest developing country with about one sixth of global population and as a leading economy in South Asia, India has a key role in addressing the climate change issues. The country’s growing fossil fuel consumption and increasing carbon emission are key factors that necessitate considerable efforts towards climate change mitigation. The various Five Year Plans and the specific actions prescribed under the National Action Plan for Climate Change formed subsequent to the Bali Action Plan gives significant importance to the domestic mitigation actions in the country. The country has developed national missions for addressing climate change concerns; measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) mechanisms apart from various policies that promote energy efficiency and energy conservation. All these developments indicate that the despite the domestic contentions regarding certain aspects of international climate change debate especially the international consultation and analyses and recommendations for international MRV, India has been taking various steps domestically towards addressing the climate change concerns. Some of the innovative mechanisms promoted by the country for energy conservation and energy efficiency, and the domestic MRV measures proposed indicate that India has been paying significant attention towards developing an efficient climate change policy. The paper argues that India’s actions towards climate change mitigation and the domestic monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are fast evolving as key parts of the country’s climate policy in order to address the growing concerns on climate change.