New Delhi, Feb 23 (Inditop.com) The Union government expenditure on measures to adapt to climate change has increased a measly one percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in past four years, a study released here Tuesday said.
The study conducted by NGO Oxfam and the Center for Budget and Governance Accountability found that the government’s expenditure on adaptation to climate change was 1.7 percent of the GDP, contrary to the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) claim of government spending 2.6 percent.
“In fact, based on our study we found that expenditure on adaptation to climate change shows a paltry increase of one percent of GDP from 2006-07 to 2009-2010,” the study found.
The NGO studied over 146 government schemes related to climate change under various ministries over a period of four years.
“However, this one percent rise in infrastructure has been largely due to increase in expenditure on some specific programmes relating mainly to poverty alleviation like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA), in which the expenditure has doubled,” it said.
The study classifies government’s expenditure on adaptation to climate change into two broad area – expenditure towards enhancing human capabilities and towards conservation and management of natural resources.
The study finds that in 2009-10, expenditure towards enhancing human capabilities constituted more than 80 percent of government total expenditure on adaptation on climate change while a meagre 0.5 percent of GDP was spent on conservation of natural resources.
“Sectors that are crucial to any adaptation interventions such as food security, health, rural and urban housing for the poor, and infrastructure for education have received inadequate attention. These sectors need to be integrated into country’s adaptation policy network,” said Nisha Agrawal, chief executive officer of Oxfam India.
The study argued that a National Adaptation Fund should be set up by the government to provide dedicated financial resources to sector that are vulnerable to climate change.
