‘Set up climate change management fund with Nabard at the helm’

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) should be groomed to supervise and control a dedicated climate change management fund. It is ideally suited, too, since 28 per cent of its cumulative disbursements are linked to climate change adaptation and mitigation, says VK Bhosale, General Secretary, All-India Nabard Employees Association.

National entity Nabard has already been accredited as the first ‘national implementing entity’ of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) established under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

It is therefore, a ‘national legal entity’ recognised by the UNFCCC board as meeting specific fiduciary standards. It bears full responsibility for overall management of the projects and programmes financed by the GCF. It also has all financial, monitoring and reporting responsibilities, Bhosale added.

The purpose of the GCF is to make a significant and ambitious contribution to global efforts towards attaining the goals set by the international community to combat climate change.

In the backdrop of the need to promote sustainable development (which is included in the corporate mission of Nabard, too) the Fund is expected to promote a paradigm shift towards a low-carbon and climate-centric development model, Bhosale pointed out.

India has set out an ambitious target in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution at the Paris Climate Change Conference of reducing emissions intensity of GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030 compared with 2005-level.

It has announced that it would create 40 per cent of its cumulative electricity generation capacity from renewable resources with an additional sink of 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.

According to Bhosale, these initiatives call for huge financial resources.

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