This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard India Country Manager Pooran Chandra Pandey
Best Organizational Source: Ministry of Programme Implementation and Statistics
Over the years, climate change data sets have raised the need for India to capture climate emissions data as a part of its overall economic development process. Since 1972 it has collected climate data by sub-regions and incorporated this information into its national development plans executed by a Planning Commission under the chairmanship of its Prime Minister.
The Ministry of Programme Implementation and Statistics has continued to collate, collect, and analyse climate and emissions data. This has provided India with a rich climate data bank, statistics, and need-based climate analysis produced annually with support from its national metrological office in collaboration with academic institutions and think tanks. India has substantially improved the quality, rigour, and reliability of its emissions data.
National climate think tanks, such as the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and The Energy Research Institute (TERI), contribute to national and international climate policies by bringing out annual climate emissions and environmental assessment reports. It may be worth mentioning that many climate scientists from India have led and continue to contribute to IPCC reports, among others, with the late Dr. R. K. Pachauri (who headed TERI) winning Nobel Peace Prize with then-U.S. Vice President Al Gore back in 2007.
There appears to be a bit of ambiguity with respect to constitutionally distributed responsibilities and obligations between the federal and sub-regional governments. For instance, the word ‘environment’ does not figure into any of the three constitutional information list categories: federal, sub-regional, and concurrent. Since forests (widely interpreted as environment) fall into the federal list and water and sanitation issues fall under the state list, this causes opaqueness and a side stepping of issues between the federal and the sub-regions.
In the development of national action plans, only sovereign climate data is eventually leveraged and used. However, it is well acknowledged that work on climate and emissions data continues to be a work in progress and thus, stands in need of continuous improvements.
Quality and reliability of the climate emissions data produced by the country:
Rating: *** Good
Four Stars (****): Outstanding
Three stars (***): Good
Two stars (**): Fair
One star (*): Poor
Contact:
Bhupender Yadav, Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change
Telephone: +91-11-24695132
Email: mefcc@gov.in