MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)
(a) & (b) India is committed to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030 as per Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under Paris Agreement. India is on track to meet Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) targets under Paris Agreement. The Forest Survey of India estimates carbon stock of forest by using National Forest Inventory data collected during forest inventory and forest cover area following the guidelines given by United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The carbon stock for 2021 has been estimated to be 7204 million tones which is 79.4 million tonnes more than the assessment of 2019. Thus annual increase is 39.7 million tonnes, which is 145.6 million tonnes CO2 equivalent.
In totality, India has already achieved 1.97 billion tonnes of additional carbon sink as compared to the base year of 2005.
The remaining target can be achieved by increasing forest and tree cover of the country through implementation of various Central and State sponsored schemes. The Central Government schemes are mainly comprised of Green India Mission (GIM), National Afforestation Programme (NAP), Compensatory Afforestation Funds under
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), afforestation activities under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), Green Highway Policy 2015, Policy for enhancement of Urban Greens, National Agro-forestry Policy and Sub-mission on Agro-forestry (SMAF), National Bamboo Mission and National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture. In addition to above, State and UT Governments have their own afforestation and reforestation programmes. Almost every State has activities under social forestry, which largely focuses on tree planting in the areas outside forests.
(c) India has not endorsed the said declaration, due to reference to trade as an area in the Glasgow Declaration on Forests and Land Use in November 2021.
(d) Various schemes are being implemented by the Central and State Government/Union Territory Administration for increase in forest and tree cover in the country. These include the National Afforestation Programme (NAP) and Green India Mission (GIM) being implemented by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Afforestation activities are also taken up under various programmes/funding sources such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Compensatory Afforestation Funds under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).
Afforestation activities are also taken up under various schemes of State Government /UT Administration. National Mission for a Green India (GIM) is one of the ongoing Missions outlined under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. It aims at protecting, restoring, and enhancing India’s forest cover and responding to Climate Change through plantation activities in the forest and non-forest areas.
(e) India submitted its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) under Paris Agreement to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). One of the goals under NDC is to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO 2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. Further, India, as a part of the National Statement delivered at the 26th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP-26) to UNFCCC in Glasgow, United Kingdom in November 2021, has made the following further announcements:-
(i) India''s non-fossil energy capacity to reach 500 GW by 2030.
(ii) India will meet 50 percent of its energy requirements with renewable energy by 2030.
(iii) India will reduce its total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now to 2030.
(iv) India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45 per cent by 2030, over 2005 levels.
(v) By 2070, India will achieve the target of net-zero emissions.
(f) India is not behind on achieving any international environmental agreement.
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