Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) in its Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report published in 2015 states that increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions together with other anthropogenic drivers such as aerosols, land cover and solar radiation are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since mid-20th century.

To cater to this the Indian government launched National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2008, which outlines India’s strategy to meet the challenge of Climate Change.

Two of the eight National Missions, i.e., National Solar Mission and National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency relate to mitigation of emissions and include ambitious programmes aimed at generating solar power and conserving energy.

Energy Efficiency mission envisages setting norms for achieving energy efficiency with perform, achieve and trade scheme. Further, public and private sector entities participate in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol, which helps in reducing emissions.

These initiatives have the effect of reducing carbon emissions. In addition, the government has initiated a range of policies and programmes to respond to the challenge of climate change. Some of them are:

a) More than five times increase in renewable capacity from 35 GW (upto March 2015) to 175 GW by 2022.

b) National Solar Mission scaled up five-fold from 20 GW to 100 GW by 2022. Kochi Airport is the World’s first airport to fully run on solar power.

c) Solar powered toll plazas envisaged for all toll collection booths across the country.

d) Green energy corridor projects being rolled out to ensure evacuation from renewable energy plants.

e) Nationwide campaign for energy conservation launched with the target to save 10 per cent of current energy consumption by the year 2018-19.

f) Smart Cities Mission to develop new generation cities by building a clean and sustainable environment.

g) Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) is a new urban renewal mission for 500 cities across India.

h) ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ (Clean India Mission) to make country clean and litter free by 2019 and promote waste management.

i) Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles (FAME India) to promote faster adoption and manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles.

j) Under ethanol blending programme, the government has scaled up blending targets from 5 to 10 per cent to promote blending of ethanol with petrol and its use as an alternative fuel.

k) Leapfrogging to BS-VI emission norms by 1st April 2020.

l) Eight-fold increase of coal cess in a short span of two years.

m) Initiation of project green ports to make major ports cleaner and greener