(a) whether the Government is providing financial support for research on climate change;
(b) if so, the details of financial support provided by the Government during the period from 2015 to 2021, year-wise; and
(c) the number of research papers funded as well as undertaken by the Government which were published during the last five years?
MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI BHUPENDER YADAV)
(a) to (c): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
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Statement referred to in reply to part (a) to (c) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 271 due for the reply on 06.08.2021 by SHRI DILIP SAIKIA and SHRI RAMESH CHANDER KAUSHIK regarding Research on Climate Change.
(a) and (b) The Government stands committed to addressing the global collective action problem of climate change through multilateralism and resolute domestic actions, including, improving the understanding of the subject through various research endeavours. The Government is fully aware that research and knowledge generation are critical aspects of the fight against climate change.
Climate change is a cross-cutting issue spanning various Ministries/ Departments and institutions under them. Research on climate change is mainly sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Sectoral aspects of climate change are also studied by different Ministries/Departments concerning sectors like agriculture, water resources, human health, power, renewable energy, transport, urban, etc. Further, a large number of Universities and government research institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Central and State Universities and their departments also carry out climate change related research. Thus, any estimate of the funds provided for climate change research for a vast developing country like India can only be indicative and not exhaustive. The details of the financial support provided by the Government for some important climate change research endeavours are in Annexure.
(c) Indian Scientists are making tremendous efforts to understand various facets of climate change through research activities. As an illustrative example, during the last five years, over 1500 research papers related to climate change have been published under research sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology, 482 research papers under research in the National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), 270 research papers under MoES and 42 papers by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE). Furthermore, India Meteorological Department (IMD) brings out publications on Climatological Normals, State Climatological Summaries, Disastrous Weather Events, Marine Climatological Summary Charts, and Climate Diagnostics Bulletin published monthly and season-wise.
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