II. Low Carbon Pathways and Climate Policy
A. Preparation of Climate and Environment Action Plans for various Districts of India
B. GHG Platform India
The GHG Platform – India is a collective civil-society initiative providing an independent estimation and analysis of India’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across key sectors such as Energy, Waste, Industry, Agriculture, Forest and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sectors. The platform includes notable institutions such as CEEW, CSTEP, ICLEI South Asia, Vasudha Foundation, and WRI India. The platform was jointly conceptualised by Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation and Vasudha Foundation. Vasudha foundation also acts as the Secretariat of the Platform.
The platform currently hosts national estimates for GHG emissions from 2005 to 2015 by accounting CO2, CH4 and N2O gases. The platform provides sub-national GHG emission estimates as well. The platform also undertakes relevant analytical assessments to inform policy design and evaluation. The database produced and maintained by the platform is available in the public domain to enable third-party use, which is actively encouraged.
GHG Platform India draws its inspiration from a similar civil society initiative in Brazil, the “System for Estimation of Emissions of GHG” (SEEG). It is an excellent example of South-South Cooperation, where in the India Platform has been enriched by the Brazilian experience and benefited from their technical inputs.
C State Climate Action Plans
D. Indian Climate Environment and Development Platform
E. Mapping of policies of Indian States from a Climate Lens (2015-2017) (Assessing India’s Preparedness to address Climate Change)
Vasudha Foundation in collaboration with Heinrich Böll Stifstung Foundation (HBF) is worked on addressing India’s preparedness on Climate Change. The project focused on whether India is in a position to address the various aspects of climate change and tests whether its policy framework addresses issues that arise out of dealing with climate change by examining two major reports, IPCC AR5 and the New Climate Economy Report. Phase 1 of the project looked at the national policies and schemes in line with the recommendations from IPCC AR5 and New Climate Economy: India Chapter. Phase 2 of the project focused on the state of preparedness of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Madhya Pradesh. Vasudha Foundation created a comprehensive database capturing all the strategies from the State Action Plan on Climate Change and other government schemes that deal with climate change, environment, and sustainable development along with their budgetary allocations. The findings of the second phase were compiled in report titled ‘Policy Framework and Preparedness for Implementing Measures to Effectively Deal with Climate Change- An Analysis of four states in India’. The report also identifies possible gaps in the preparedness and comes up with a set of recommendations to address the possible gaps.