Enabling Activities for the Preparation of India's Initial National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Introduction: Governments around the world, with a view to taking positive steps to combat climate change, adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. The mandate of the Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would mitigate human induced interference with the climate system. It is stipulated that Parties to the Convention protect the climate system according to their respective capabilities. Central to the Convention is the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", underlined by the notion of equity. In pursuance of the implementation of the provisions of the Convention, a project towards preparation of India's Initial National Communication (NATCOM) to the UNFCCC has been initiated and funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) under its enabling activities programme through UNDP. This project assists India in undertaking the enabling activities to prepare the initial national communication and meet its obligations to the Conference of Parties (COP) in accordance with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and build capacity to fulfill its commitments to the Convention on a continuing basis.

Objectives

The objectives are two-fold:

• To prepare the initial national communication to the Conference of Parties (COP) in accordance with UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
• To build capacity to fulfill its commitments to the Convention on a continuing basis.

The project is being implemented and executed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and is supported by the United Nations development Programme, New Delhi. Winrock International India is the Facilitating Agency.

Strategy

This project falls under the Enabling Activity project supported by the GEF to meet the Climate Change Convention requirements. The project team housed at Winrock International India assists MoEF in implementing the project. Given the national circumstances, the project seeks to include information on:

• Greenhouse gas emissions by sources and sinks emitted from different anthropogenic activities in India in 1994
• Assessment of the likely Vulnerabilities of various sectors due to the perceived climate change
• Existing systematic observation networks and research programmes related to the understanding of current climate and climate change
• Programmes related to sustainable development
• Technological and capacity building needs for more improved communications in the future

MoEF adopted a broad-based participatory approach for implementing the NATCOM project: over 100 institutes/experts are involved in conducting various activities of the project. This wide networking is a strategic collaboration between MoEF and government institutes, research laboratories, the Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management, universities, and NGOs providing depth and robustness to the project. Four hundred and fifty-two researchers are involved, and more than 1,000 have participated in its various workshops.

Distribution of institutions across India 

AGARTALA Tripura University AHMEDABAD Centre for Environment Education Decision Craft Analytics Indian Institute of Management BHOPAL Maulana Azad National Institute of Tech. BANGALORE Indian Institute of Science Institute for Social and Economic Change National Institute for Advance Studies BHUBANESWAR Regional Research Laboratory CHENNAI Central Leather Research Institute Tamil Nadu Agriculture University CUTTACK Central Rice Research Institute DEHRA DUN Forest Research Institute Forest Survey of India Indian Institute of Petroleum Wildlife Institute for Himalayan Ecosystem DELHI Cement Manufacturers’ Association Central Road Research Institute Development Alternatives Indian Agriculture Research Institute Indian Institute of Technology Integrated Research and Action for Development Jawaharlal Nehru University Malaria Research Centre National Council for Cement & Bldg. Materials National Physical Laboratory The Energy and Resources Institute DHANBAD Central Fuel Research Institute Central Mining Research Institute DHARWAD University of Agricultural Sciences GOA National Institute of Oceanography KARNAL National Dairy Research Institute Kolkata Central Glass and Ceramic Research Instt. Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics Jadavpur University LUCKNOW Remote Sensing Application Centre MUMBAI Indian Institute of Technology Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Res. NAGPUR National Envtl Engineering Res. Institute PEECHI Kerala Forest Research Institute PUNE Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology National Chemical Laboratory

Number of researchers involved in various NATCOM activities (452)

Key Outcomes

1. Strengthened human and institutional capacity in India for preparation of initial national communication;
2. Prepared a comprehensive national inventory of GHGs with lower uncertainties to which quality control and quality assurance procedures will be applied to make it transparent, consistent and complete;
3. Reduced vulnerability and uncertainty of emission estimates;
4. Disseminated information about the significance of climate change issues to the Indian public.

 Progress Highlights

Early mounting’ of the project, which comprised 10 training and thematic workshops touching upon the various aspects of the project, provided a good start and overall momentum. The participants included all key stakeholders and project partners. This helped in awareness generation, education, transmitting project expectations and, above all, conveying the project message. These workshops immediately led to 80 subcontracts with various partner institutes.

The outputs of these institutions forming the different components of the national communication (inventory estimation, vulnerability and adaptation, policies and programs relevant to climate change) are being reviewed and put together by technical committees consisting of experts drawn primarily from participating institutions. This medium offered means of consultation, debate and negotiation by these 100 odd institutions across the length and breadth of the country with differing approaches and overlapping interests and expertise. Besides communications and meetings, the network of these institutions has attempted to create a ‘brand’ for the network through a website, emblem, extensive distribution of table calendars and organization of a number of meetings with multiple stakeholders and press releases. The website www.natcomindia.org for the enabling activity data center launched in 2003 provides for the first time in India a common platform for climate change researchers of India.

This project activity ran concurrently with the preparation for the Conference of Parties (COP)-8 in New Delhi and subsequent to India’s accession to the Kyoto Protocol. Also, interest amongst industry in India in climate change has been forming for projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. The timing of the project has also contributed to the success of the project in gluing the network and gaining attention amongst the various stakeholder groups.

Key Partnerships

The broad-based participatory approaches have helped in utilizing the prevailing sectoral and regional expertise in the country on various NATCOM components, and promoting wider research and discussions on inventory development and uncertainty reduction. Coupled with other significant and individual initiatives in these areas and adaptation research in the country, the effort has led to more reliable emission estimates and provided a direction to create a national perspective. Over 100 institutes/experts are involved in conducting various activities of the project. Further induction of new researchers is helping to institutionalize climate change research in India. The country office is also making efforts at sustaining and extending the network to build an institutional framework that could assist the Government of India in meeting continued obligations under the Kyoto Protocol. It is also important to exchange the outputs of this project under the South-South cooperation.