The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) is a policy document prepared by the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change. It has been prepared keeping in mind that India's economic need to tap its natural resources needs to be tempered with the need to maintain ecological balance.

 The NAPCC is guided by the principles of -

• Protection - of the poor and vulnerable sections of society through what is termed as an inclusive development strategy,
• Achieving national growth - through a qualitative change and economic direction that enhances ecological sustainability,
• Demand side management,
• Better technology - that looks into aspects of mitigation or adaptation,
• Market mechanism - that rewards sustainable development,
• Inclusivity- that invites linkups with civil society and local government institutions

It was found necessary to establish eight national missions which not only espouse to these principles but will form the core of the overall national mission. The technical document, which forms part of the NAPCC, discusses the way forward for each of these missions.

These missions are:

1.The National Solar Mission aims to increase share of solar energy in India's energy mix. This is to be done by not only increasing R & D efforts but also by promoting decentralised distribution of energy by creating cheaper and more convenient solar systems. Over the 11th and 12th plan period it aima to deliver atleast 80% coverage for all low temperature and 60% coverage for medium temperature applications of solar energy in urban areas. There is an emphasis on manufacturing solar panels at the local level. In the long term the aim of the mission would be to tie up local research with international efforts.

2.The National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency builds on the 2001 Energy Conservation Act. This mission will look at ways to create a market based mechanism to enhance cost effectiveness of improvements on energy efficiency. This would also mean finding ways to shift to energy efficient products; further, the creation of mechanisms that promote demand side management will also be looked into under this mission. Switching to cleaner fuels, commercially viable technology transfers, capacity building needs etc will be the way forward for this mission.

3.The National Mission on Sustainable Habitat has a manifold agenda. It looks at energy efficiency within buildings and also at waste disposal from these buildings. Another important aspect of this mission is to better the public transport system. In addition, it will promote energy efficiency in the residential and commercial sectors and also work towards management of solid waste through recycling and improvement of the urban transport system

4.The National Mission on Water will be mounted to ensure better integrated water resource management. This would lead to water conservation, less wastage of water, equitable distribution of water. The mission will also come out with a framework to improve water efficiency by 20%, through regulatory and pricing mechanisms. It sees the issue of ground water management and use as important. It also sees the need to study the management of surface water as it not only indicates the status of the environment but also has huge economic impacts. Improving water storage capacities and protecting wetlands form an important aspect that will be looked into by this mission.

5.The National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem has been created, to protect the Himalayan ecosystem. The mandate of this mission is to evolve measures to sustain and safeguard the Himalayan glaciers and mountain eco-systems.

6.The National Mission for a Green India has the mandate of reviving degraded forest land. It will focus on increasing forest cover and density and conserving biodiversity. The way forward would entail reducing fragmentation of forests, enhancing private public partnerships for plantations, improving schemes based on joint forestry management etc.

7.The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture will devise strategies to make Indian agriculture less susceptible to climate change. It would identify and develop new crop varieties; more importantly it would use traditional and modern agricultural techniques to achieve its stated mission goal. This mission sees dry land agriculture, risk management, access to information and use of biotechnology as areas of intervention.

8.The National Mission for Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change will identify challenges and requisite responses to climate change. This will be done through open international collaboration and would ensure sufficient funding for this research. This mission would also be entrusted with the dissemination of new knowledge created. It will focus on the following themes:

• Research in key areas of climate science like monsoon dynamics, aerosol science etc,
• Global and regional climate modeling,
• Observational networks,
• Creation of research infrastructure

As per the NAPCC, each mission comes under a ministry and these missions will have an institutional set up. The missions will have to determine objectives spanning the 11th and 12th plan periods. 

The NAPCC also looks at other initiatives underway to address climate change these include different energy generating technologies like super critical technologies which give higher efficiencies than normal coal burning thermal power plants, use of natural gas etc. The need for technology transfer and capacity building forms part of the other initiatives mentioned. There is also mention about international cooperation under the aegis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

The challenges faced by the various national missions are expanded on in the respective documents. These also detail the strategies chosen to meet these challenges, and set goals for themselves. A brief explanation of these follows.

1. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission

Governing ministry: Ministry for New and Renewable Energy

Challenges: 

• Reducing absolute cost of solar to bring it down to coal. 
• Ensuring scalability

Strategies

• Promotion of already proved and commercially viable solar heating systems by making solar water heaters mandatory in buildings 
• Using solar as an off-grid solution to provide power to the power deprived poor through the remote village electrification programme
•  Creating conditions for research and application in the field of solar technology. 

Goals: With the structure provided by the mission it is hoped that by the end of the third phase, 2022, India should have installed 20,000 MW of solar power. 

2. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency.

Governing ministry: Ministry of Power.

Challenges: Development with energy efficiency as a key criterion

Strategies 

• Create demand for energy efficient products by spreading awareness about their efficacy, amending government policy etc
• Ensure adequate supply of energy efficient products, goods, and services by forming a cadre of energy professionals, labeling end use equipment etc
• Create financing platforms that will create risk guarantee funds, financial derivatives of performance contracts etc
• Formulate well thought out evaluation and monitoring mechanisms to capture energy savings in a transparent manner
• Overcome market failures through regulatory and policy measures.

Goals: Energy, Efficiency, Equity and Environment

3. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture 

Governing ministry: Ministry of Agriculture

Challenges: Reduced yields, impacts on acreage and land holding utilisation, direct damages to crop and infrastructure 

Strategies 

• Strengthening agricultural insurance, develop system based on GIS and remote sensing to map soil resource and land use. 
• Providing information on off-season crops, collation of information on block level data on agro-climatic variables, and preparation of state-level agro-climatic atlases. 
• Development of strategies to evolve low input agriculture by creating crops with enhanced water and nitrogen use efficiency. 
• Nutritional strategies for managing heat stress in dairy animals and developing salt tolerant and disease resistant fish and prawns

Goals

• Use of micro irrigation systems 
• Promotion of agricultural techniques like minimum tillage, organic farming and rain water conservation
• Capacity building of farmers and other stakeholders 
• Production of bio-fertilizer, compost along with a subsidy regime in line with chemical fertilizers 
• Strengthening of national agricultural insurance scheme Strengthening of self help groups

4. National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem  

Governing ministry: Ministry for Science and Technology 

Challenges: 

• Himalayan glaciers and the associated hydrological consequences 
• Biodiversity conservation and protection 
• Wild life conservation and protection 
• Traditional knowledge societies and their livelihood 
• Planning for sustaining of the Himalayan Ecosystem.

Strategies:

• Human and knowledge capacities - Trained personnel are required who can capture, store and apply knowledge relating to vulnerability and changes in this region
• Institutional capacities - On creating capability to conduct long term observations, studies to understand and warn of changes in the Himalayan eco-system 
• Capacities for evidence based policy building and governance - The mission will also create a platform for Himalayan states and the centre to interact with various bodies 
• Continuous self learning for balancing between forces of Nature and actions of mankind - This will be done by creating strong linkages with community based organisations etc.

Goals: establishing of a modern centre of glaciology, standardisation of data collection to ensure interoperability and mapping of natural resources in the area, identification and training of 100 experts and specialists in the area relevant to sustaining the Himalayan ecosystem

National Mission for a Green India

Governing ministry: Ministry of environment and Forests

Challenges: Impacts of climate change and climate change variability

Strategies:  

• Enhance carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests 
• Enhance the resilience of vulnerable species and ecosystems to adapt to climate change 
• Enable forest dependent communities to adapt to climate variability.

Goals

• Double the area to be taken up for afforestation 
• Increase greenhouse gas removals by India's forests 
• Enhance resilience of forests and ecosystems falling under the mission.

National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change  

Governing ministry : Ministry of Science and Technology

Challenges: need for a strong strategic knowledge system on climate change

Strategies: 

• Develop regional climate science 
• Assess various technological scenarios along with alternatives 
• Leverage international cooperation.  

The efforts undertaken here would feed into the Indian National Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) which is a stock taking exercise conducted every two years as part of the national obligations under UNFCCC. 

Goals: Creation of a data generation and sharing system by

• Mapping resources on knowledge relevant to climate change 
• Identifying knowledge gaps and creating groups that look at global technological trends to select and test technologies 
• Creating a network of institutions 
• Creating new centres dedicated to climate research within existing institutional framework.

National Mission on Sustainable Habitat

Governing ministry: Ministry of Urban Development

Challenges: 

To make urban areas more climate friendly and less susceptible to climate change Need for a multi-pronged approach to not only mitigate climate change but also to adapt to it

Strategies:

• To create and adopt a more holistic approach to solid and liquid waste management that will ensure their full potential for energy generation, recycling and reuse, and composting is tapped
• To encourage alternative transport systems that not only mitigate climate change but can also adapt to vagaries of climate 
• To provide the right environment for adoption and creation of technologies that mitigate climate change To encourage community involvement to ensure sustainable development.

Goals:

These are grouped as follows:

• Energy Efficiency 
• Creation of one building code for the entire nation 
• A system to enforce these laws and provide incentives 
• Establish financial incentives based on green rating 
• Water and solid waste management 
• reduced need for pumping of water proper treatment of waste water and use of better designed toilets 
• conversion of solid waste into energy 
• Urban Transport 
• strengthen the urban transport system through a mix of promotional, regulatory and fiscal measures 
• reduce fuel consumed per passenger travel by the provision of pedestrian path ways with trees and bicycle paths 
• Promote use of natural gas and alternate and renewable fuels 
• Establish fuel efficiency standards for new and existing vehicles 
• Urban planning 
• Comprehensive urban renewal - implementing master plan proposals etc 
• Sustainable and energy efficient urban design 
• Better enforcement of Urban Development Plan Formulation and Implementation (UDPFI) guidelines.

National Water Mission

Governing ministry: Ministry of Water Resources 

Challenges:

• Policy and institutional framework 
• Surface water management 
• Ground water management 
• Domestic and industrial water management 
• Efficient use of water for various purposes 
• Basin level planning and management.

• Review the network of hydrological, automatic weather and automated rain gauge stations so that data can be collected on mountainous river flow, wetlands etc 
• Expeditiously implement water projects in climate sensitive regions 
• Need to promote water purification and desalination techniques 
• Enactment of a bill for the regulation and management of groundwater 
• Research in water use efficiency in industry, agriculture and domestic sectors 
• Providing incentives for water neutral and water positive technologies 
• Review national water policy be reviewed to include integrated water resources management, evaporation management and basin level management
• Provide guidelines for different water users in the context of basin-wise situations

Goals:

• Water data base in the public domain and the assessment of impact of climate change on water resource 
• Promotion of citizen and state action for water conservation, augmentation and preservation 
• Focused attention to over-exploited areas 
• Improving water use efficiency by 20% 
• Promotion of basin level integrated water resources management

It has been assessed that for the mission there would be need of Rs 60,445 crores for the 12th Plan.

Though some of these documents are drafts they all indicate India's desire to not only work towards mitigating climate change but also prepare its economy, resources and people to adapt to climate change.

Download the documents below: