There is no need to constitute any specific apex organisation at the national level to tackle climate change or to enact a law to set legally binding targets in mitigation and adaptation actions at this moment, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Asked if the government would constitute a "National Council for Climate Change" as a national-level apex organisation to tackle global warming and climate change, Union Minister of State for Environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey said India's actions are undertaken through the National Action Plan on Climate Change and its missions that are anchored and implemented through various ministries, departments, and state action plans.
"Further, there is the Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement (AIPA) which oversees the implementation of India's NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) under the Paris Agreement.
"Other entities and authorities are designated as necessary from time to time to undertake specific actions to address climate change. Hence, there is no need at this time to constitute any specific apex organisation or enact a law," Choubey said.
NDCs are national plans to help achieve the global goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees as compared to the pre-industrial average. Countries hope that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
To a question by PMK MP Anbumani Ramadoss who sought to know whether the government has any policy proposal "to enact the Climate Change Act to set legally binding targets in mitigation and adaptation actions", Choubey replied, "No sir." "It may be noted that the commitments and responsibilities of developing countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement for mitigation and adaptation require fulfilment by the developed countries of their commitments to provision of financial resources and transfer of technology," he said Choubey.
Further, economic and social development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of developing countries, Choubey added.
The minister said that however, in keeping with its commitment to addressing climate change, India has undertaken specific goals under the provision of the Paris Agreement enunciated through its Nationally Determined Contributions.
"The necessary facilitation towards achieving these goals as appropriate is undertaken through extant administrative and legislative means and provisions. It is through such means that India has fulfilled its pre-2020 voluntary pledge as well as being on track to achieving its NDC," he said.
