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The Tamil Nadu government has taken a big leap in climate action by setting up the first ever Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) – Tamil Nadu Green Climate Company – to professionally manage three critical natural conservation missions – Tamil Nadu Climate Change, Tamil Nadu Green and Tamil Nadu Wetlands. Interestingly, the development comes three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi committed to India achieving net-zero carbon emission by 2070.
“May be… I have not heard about it,” said a senior State government official when asked if Tamil Nadu could be the first State to set up such an SPV, and announce such a mission.
The SPV’s authorised capital will be ₹5 crore. The State Environment Secretary will be the company’s chairperson and MD, and top officials from the departments of finance, energy, municipal administration, agriculture and forests will be members.
The SPV’s mission includes planning, execution and monitoring of the State-wide programme for the climate change adaptation and mitigation, wetlands mapping and restoration, enhancing the forest and tree cover of the State to 33 per cent front the present 23.27 per cent over the next ten years. It will create strong policy support for climate change, cutting across all sectors of governance, said a government order (GO) issued by Environment Secretary Supriya Sahu.
It will devise strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, benchmarking of industries to move towards green manufacturing and promote eco-friendly technologies towards a sustainable future. It will also develop collaborations and strengthen community engagement to build long term commitment for a net zero carbon future for Tamil Nadu, the order said.
The State Finance Minister announced the three missions while presenting the revised budget for 2021-2022 and said that the government will launch Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission to focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation activities with a total outlay of ₹500 crore.
Tamil Nadu Wetlands Mission
The Tamil Nadu Wetlands Mission will identify and map 100 wetlands in 5 years and restore the ecological balance with focus on livelihood options at a cost of ₹150 crore. The Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission will focus and take action on climate change adaptation and mitigation activities, he said.
The GO says that the State government is crafting many solutions to leapfrog the State to a greener, cleaner and more resilient State. Efforts are being taken by the State to draft plans that are not merely mitigative in nature, but which will also pave the way for the transformation of the economy underpinning affordability, sustainability and scalability as the key elements.
The State’s focus will be based on many interventions, including sustainable agriculture, climate resilience, water resources and forest & biodiversity, coastal area management.
The State will restore degraded forest areas by undertaking tree planting and soil moisture conservation efforts, plant tree species in farm lands with suitable agri-silviculture model, plant in public lands like community lands, the order said.
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