GREEN GROWTH PUSH
The emphasis on green growth represents an economic strategy geared towards sustainable development, prioritizing the minimization of adverse environmental effects. The underlying idea of green growth posits that economic expansion and progress can persist while concurrently mitigating detrimental impacts on the environment, including the challenges posed by climate change.
Highlighted as one of the seven key focal points in the Union Budget 2023-24, the green growth initiative outlines a growth strategy that targets several objectives, including:
- Facilitating a transition towards environmentally conscious industrial and economic practices
- Promoting sustainable agriculture with a minimal ecological footprint
- Encouraging the adoption of sustainable energy sources
- Diminishing the carbon intensity of the economy
- Creating substantial opportunities for employment in the green sector
Here are the component elements of the Budget’s Green Growth push:
Green Hydrogen Mission: The recently launched National Green Hydrogen Mission, with an outlay of Rs 19,700 crores, will facilitate transition of the economy to low carbon intensity, reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports, and make the country assume technology and market leadership in this sunrise sector
India aims to reach a target of an annual production of 5 MMT of green hydrogen by 2030
Energy Transition: The Budget has provided Rs 35,000 crore for priority capital investments towards energy transition and net zero objectives, and energy security by Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.
Energy Storage Projects: To steer the economy on the sustainable development path, Battery Energy Storage Systems with capacity of 4,000 MWH will be supported with Viability Gap Funding. A detailed framework for Pumped Storage Projects will also be formulated.
Renewable Energy Evacuation: The Inter-state transmission system for evacuation and grid integration of 13 GW renewable energy from Ladakh will be constructed with investment of Rs 20,700 crore including central support of ` 8,300 crore.
Green Credit Programme: For encouraging behavioural change, a Green Credit Programme will be notified under the Environment (Protection) Act. This will incentivize environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals and local bodies, and help mobilize additional resources for such activities.
PM-PRANAM: A new “PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth” will be launched to incentivize States and Union Territories to promote alternative fertilizers and balanced use of chemical fertilizers.
GOBARdhan scheme: 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme will be established for promoting circular economy. These will include 200 compressed biogas (CBG) plants, including 75 plants in urban areas, and 300 community or cluster-based plants at total investment of Rs 10,000 crore, the FM said.
Bhartiya Prakritik Kheti Bio-Input Resource Centres: The FM has proposed to facilitate over the next three years 1 crore farmers to adopt natural farming. For this, 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres will be set-up, creating a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network.
MISHTI: Building on India’s success in afforestation, ‘Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes’, MISHTI, will be taken up for mangrove plantation along the coastline and on salt pan lands, wherever feasible, through convergence between MGNREGS, CAMPA Fund and other sources.
Amrit Dharohar: Wetlands are vital ecosystems which sustain biological diversity, the FM said. The government will promote their unique conservation values through Amrit Dharohar, a scheme that will be implemented over the next three years to encourage optimal use of wetlands, and enhance bio-diversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities and income generation for local communities.
Coastal Shipping: Coastal shipping will be promoted as the energy efficient and lower cost mode of transport, both for passengers and freight, through PPP mode with viability gap funding
Vehicle Replacement: Replacing old polluting vehicles is an important part of greening our economy. In furtherance of the vehicle scrapping policy mentioned in Budget 2021-22, I have allocated adequate funds to scrap old vehicles of the Central Government. States will also be supported in replacing old vehicles and ambulances
4. Way forward
“Green growth” has been listed among the seven priorities of the Budget for 2023-24. This is a welcome move, considering that acceleration in economic development is as vital as ensuring energy security and meeting climate-action goals. These objectives, obviously, are hard to meet without transition to clean and renewable energy and improvement in energy-use efficiency in all sectors — industry, agriculture, services, transportation, buildings, equipment, and others. Fortunately, the Budget seems to make an earnest bid to take care of most of these imperatives, aiming ultimately to foster an environmentally conscious lifestyle
Source: Indianexpress
