Cement, Energy and Environment

Sustainable Agriculture and Strategic knowledge for Climate change with the approved funding under sectoral outlays. (c) & (d) During the 12th Five Year Plan, a new thematic scheme on "Climate Change Action Programme" has been approved to build capacity and support implementation of relevant actions at the national and state level. Other environmental in itiative during the 12th Five Year Plan include the low carbon strategy for sustainable development. ********** GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 188 TO BE ANSWERED ON 11.03.2013 Global Warming *188. SHRI GOPINATH MUNDE: Will the Minister of Environment and Forests be pleased to state: (a) Whether the abnormal weather conditions resulting in tsunami, excessive rains and drought in various parts of the country are the impact of global warming ; (b) if so, the details thereof along with the names of the regions in the country most affected by climate change; (c) Whether the Government proposes to launch a scheme to increase forest cover to address the problems arising due to global warming; and (d) if so, the details thereof along with the funds allocated for the purpose, Statewise? Answer Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment and Forests (Shrimathi Jayanthi Natarajan) (a) to (d) A statement is laid on the Table of the House. Statement referred to in reply to Part (a) to (d) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 188 by Shri Gopinath Munde regarding Global Warming (a) to (d) There is no direct and clearly established cause and effect relationship between global warming on the one hand and natural phenomenon like tsunami, and extreme weather events such as excessive rains and draught on the other. While a degree of variability in extreme weather phenomena including rainfall has been noticed, these phenomena cannot always be related to global warming. Government has conducted a scientific study to assess the impact of climate change on four key sectors of India in four climate sensitive regions of India namely the Himalayan region, the Western Ghat, the Coastal Area and the North-East region and published the assessment results in the report titled "Climate Change and India : 4X4 Assessment - A Sectoral and Regional Analysis for 2030s" in 2010. As per the report, annual temperature and precipitation for all the regions is projected to increase for 2030s with respect to the base year 1970. The occurrence of drought is projected to be more pronounced for those areas of various regions that have either projected decrease in precipitation or have enhanced level of evaporation and transpiration. All regions show an increase in the incidence of flood varying from ten per cent to thirty per cent of the existing magnitudes. Government is ·implementing the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) which includes Green India Mission (GIM) as one amongst the eight National Missions. The GIM focuses, inter alia, on increasing the forest and tree cover on an area of 5 million hectares and improving quality of forest cover on another 5 million hectares area, and enhancing eco– system services such as carbon sequestration , biodiversity and hydrological services. While resources for implementing the Mission are part of the agreed outlay of the 1 zlh Five Year plan, Rs. 49.94 crore has been released, in the interim to 21 states for preparatory activities including capacity building of implementing entities at the state level. Details of funds released to the state governments are given in Annexure-1. 50 j