After creating a company to implement climate action and a fund to finance them, Tamil Nadu has a bouquet of plans against climate change, including taking up two cities – Rameswaram and Rajapalayam – as ‘carbon neutral’ cities, giving e-autorickshaws to 500 women self-help group and creating 1,000 ‘climate clubs’ to spread awareness of the perils of climate change among students and youth.  

Read also: TN sets up first ever SPV to professionally manage three critical natural conservation missions 

This was disclosed by Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forests, Government of Tamil Nadu, at a workshop on ‘Deep Electronification Pathway’, organized here by the Vasudha Foundation, a Delhi-based think-tank.  

Further, she said the government intends to do a ‘green indexing’ of the 28 districts in the state, as well as 21 municipal corporations, to find out where each stands in terms of its ‘green’ credentials.  

Also read:TN ropes in Eric Solheim for advice on climate action

Observing that Tamil Nadu generates 4 lakh tonnes of e-waste every year, Sahu said that six e-waste handling facilities would come up in the state. These facilities would recover metals such as copper, silver and gold from the waste. 

Read more: TN signs MoU with UNEP for implementing urban cooling programme in the State 

Sahu, who has been in charge of The Tamil Nadu Small Tea Growers’ Industrial Co-operative Tea Factories’ Federation Ltd, Conoor, noted around 250 tea factories in the Nilgiris using firewood for energy. The state government intends to move them using solar power. For starters, the government has taken up the Kaikatti tea factory. 

Registered with SEBI 

The recently-set-up Tamil Nadu Green Climate Fund would be registered with the market regulator, SEBI, so that there is a “structured mechanism by which private partners can come.” The process of registration is at the final stages, Sahu said. 

Tamil Nadu seeks to get ₹1,000 crore into the fund, with a green-shoe option of a similar sum. The government has committed ₹100 crore as its contribution and the fund manager would be Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Finance Corporation. Several countries have sent delegations to look at what the state is doing regarding climate action, she said, implying that the state saw no problems getting money into the fund. Further, the state government’s investment promotion arm, Tamil Nadu Guidance Bureau, would have a ‘Green Cell’ within it to give single window clearance to all green projects. The Fund would support any green project such as wind, solar, and green hydrogen, Sahu said. 

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