Karnataka's climate plan gathers dust on Centre's shelf

The Karnataka government’s proposal to combat climate change with a Rs 53,000-crore budget for 2020-2030 has been left on the shelf of the Union government for about a year, even as officials and activists warn that a lack of urgency in implementing the action plan will have a detrimental effect on the nature.

In April 2021, ‘The Karnataka State Action Plan on Climate Change — Version 2’ was sent to the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MOEF & CC). The 250-page document provides an in-depth analysis of the climate profile and magnitude of risks caused by climate change as well as the budgetary requirements to take up mitigation measures.

Eleven months later, the state is still awaiting clearance from the ministry. “We have been told that not many states have submitted their action plans. The committee that clears the proposals wants to meet after at least three or four states submit their plans,” a senior government official said.

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Jagmohan Sharma, director general of Environmental Management & Policy Research Institute (EMPRI), confirmed the report was sent. “We are waiting for the approval,” he said.

EMPRI is the nodal institute that brought together scientists to draft the action plan.

Karnataka’s action plan report detailed the adverse impacts caused by the rise in global temperature, including its effect on agriculture, industry, forests and ecology. Among the several warnings of the report was the impact of climate change on vegetation. It said “future climate” in seven districts would “not be suitable for the existing vegetation or forest type and biodiversity”, which will lead to a crisis.

It flagged the need to invest Rs 52,827.4 crore in mitigation measures in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and energy among other sectors. It also suggested several programmes for labourers, welfare of SCs and STs and for rural development.

On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that human-induced actions were leading to more frequent and intense extreme events, causing large-scale damage. The IPCC noted that near-term actions that limit global warming would substantially reduce projected losses and damages related to climate change in human systems and ecosystems.

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A R Vasavi, a social anthropologist who has been working on rural development issues in the villages of Chamarajanagar, said delayed action will directly affect livelihoods. “The adverse impact of climate change on food security is well documented. The vulnerable population will be the most exposed to such disasters; we saw the suffering caused by the pandemic in rural areas,” she said.

She said, “Governments are dependent on the extractive economy, including extractive agriculture, where the amount of resources extracted from nature is completely unsustainable. This can be seen from the efforts to restart mining in greenfields,” she said, adding that such policies were necessary to continue corruption.