Even as the government’s annual Economic Survey outlines the importance of climate change and global warming, the Union Budget 2012-13 made no announcement towards climate financing. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made no specific announcement about how the Rs 3,864-crore National Clean Energy Fund is going to be utilised in 2012-13.
The government had set up the Fund in 2010 by imposing a cess on coal at an effective rate of Rs 50 a tonne. At present, going by the government estimates, the budgeted clean energy fund for the coming financial year is Rs 3,864 crore. In 2011-12, while the budgeted amount for it was Rs 3,480 crore, the amount was revised downwards to Rs 3,249 crore.
Last year, an allocation of Rs 200 crore from the fund had been proposed for environmental remediation programmes and another Rs 200 crore for the Green India Mission. This year no specific projects were announced for utilisation of the clean fund.
“This year’s Budget has nothing for the environment sector. No announcement or incentives were announced for green companies. The Budget is also silent on the utilisation of the clean energy fund which can be utilised to mitigate the risks of climate change,” Chandra Bhushan, deputy director of Centre for Science and Environment, said.
Although the expenditure Budget document talks about utilisation of Rs 150 crore from the clean energy fund for the Green India Mission, the finance minister has not mentioned any new project utilising the fund in his Budget speech.
Currently, India is mostly utilising and relying on domestic sources of finance, which are budgetary allocations for various sectors and the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) for financing clean energy projects. The fund was expected to pay for schemes to protect and regenerate forests and clean up polluted sites.
