Sustainable Development Goal/SDGs

Kumar Deepak

UNDP
CSRA

India has shared a comprehensive role in designing & shaping out Agenda 2030. Our National Development Targets must be an image to Sustainable Development Goal/SDGs. India’s commitment to SDGs has been firm & effective even before SDGs were not fully operational. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision ‘Collective Effort, Inclusive Growth’ sets the core of India’s Development Agenda. Implementing Agenda 2030 in a fast track mode, Government has released a draft of ‘Three Years Action Agenda’ covering years 2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20. Government is on its advance stage of 15 years vision which will incorporate a seven year strategy. Complete Document is being prepared in consultation with State’s Governments as India firmly believes in ‘Cooperative Federalism’. Reflecting India’s commitment to SDG Agenda at the highest levels of the Government, Indian Parliament organized several forums including South Asian Speakers’ Summit in Feb 2017. These forums have central focus on End Poverty, No Hunger, Gender Equality, and Climate Change & Resource Mobilization for SDGs.
Implementing SDGs Agenda, the Government has initiated series of National Programmes. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana/PMJDY which is one of the largest programmes of financial inclusion globally. By leveraging PMJDY, Aadhaar (Biometric Identity System) & Mobile Communication, Government of India has disbursed a cumulative amount of USD 25 Billion to 329 Million beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer.

Further Narendra Modi’s Government has been working effectively on strengthening decentralization which has brought an ecosystem of cooperative & competitive federal governance. State Governments are the central stakeholders of moving SDGs forward & they are playing a comprehensive role in accelerating our national development agenda. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Movement) & Skill Development have brought radical transformation in the mind setup of common man, were the recommendations of three sub-groups of chief ministers of States on diverse themes which define how current Government of India is understanding cooperative federalism as a key contributor to implement SDGs effectively.
India’s commitment to Paris Climate Agreement in the Nationally Determined Contributions/NDC submitted before UNFCCC is one of the bold documents to act on SDGs 13 of Climate Action. India has set a voluntary target to reduce carbon emission by 20-25% of the National GDP on 2005 level. India’s binding commitment to reduce carbon emission by 33-35% of the GDP on 2005 level by 2030 should be seen as a prospective of advanced implementation of Agenda 2030. Government’s firm commitment of proposing a carbon sink system of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonnes of CO2 by 2030 through additional forest & tree cover, tapping renewable energy etc could be seen as a step forward to implement Climate Action Agenda properly & effectively.

The responsibility for overseeing SDG implementation has been assigned to the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), which is the premier policy think tank of the Government and is chaired by the Prime Minister of India. NITI Aayog has mapped the goals and targets to various nodal ministries as well as flagship programmes. State Governments are also engaged in developing roadmaps for achieving the SDGs with several of them having already published their plans. Draft indicators for tracking the SDGs have been developed and placed in the public domain by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation for wider consultation.



SDGs 1
End Poverty in ALL Its Forms Everywhere

• SDGs 8 (Decent work & Economic Growth) provides one of the key armaments for fighting poverty. One way it generates employment that empowers households by uplifting their purchasing power to access basic services food, clothing, housing, education & health. Other way it helps Government to generate revenues to finance social spending. India has continued its economic reforms to achieve sustained accelerated growth. The reforms have included fiscal consolidation, regulating inflation, effective governance at all level, accelerated infrastructure development (SDGs9), and curbing corruption (SDGs 16), Aadhaar Act, Insolvency & Bankruptcy Act, Goods & Services Tax/GST, & further liberalization of FDI as well as closure of sick Public Undertaking Units/PSUs. Government’s integrated & cumulative economic & finance policy measures have shifted India’s growth engines which brought India among the group of fastest growing economies globally. India’s GDP grew by 7.9% & 7.1% during the fiscal year 2015-16 & 2016-17 respectively. Growth has brought additional revenues in Government’s hands to sustain high-level of social spending that directly addresses poverty. 
• A significant strategy for achieving this goal is to generate meaningful employment by enhancing agriculture infrastructure capability, productive assets & entrepreneurship based livelihood opportunities. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) is the world’s largest ‘Direct Benefit Transfer’ of cash based programme which has provided employment to a large section of marginalized & unorganized labourers (SDGs 8) during last year. It has been a paradigm shift to reduce extreme poverty & enhancing capabilities of purchasing power in rural areas as well as developing infrastructure. The benefits have largely been reaped women (SDGs 5) & disadvantaged section of society (SDGs10). Din Dayal Upadhyay Antyodya Yojana- National Livelihood Mission provides skilled employment to marginalized communities.
• Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana & Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Vima Yojana offer access to life & accident insurance to over 130 million subscribers for nominal annual premiums. In addition Atal Pension Yojana, & the National Social Assistance Programme provide pensions to workers, widows & disabled persons.
• In the area of education, there is a National Mission to access quality primary education to all. The Right to Education entitles a legal framework for all children (6-14 yrs) to access free & compulsory education without discrimination & inequality whatsoever.
• India is committed to ensure ‘Housing for All’ by 2022. Enabling the achievement of the target Prime Minister Housing Scheme is facilitating direct financial benefit to the beneficiaries.
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana is a paradigm shift for the rural marginalized households accessing LPG Connection for cooking. This Programme was launched in 2016 & so far 3.3 crore of eco-friendly cooking LPG connections have been disbursed to the poorest of poor.
• Providing adequate safe drinking potable water as well as sanitation is always important. Pradhan Mantri Rural Drinking Water Programme has been playing a pivotal role in providing 40 litres of drinking water per capita on daily basis. PMRDWP has successfully covered 77% rural households.

The objective of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ is to exempt India from Open Defecation by 2019. Over the last two years more than 39 million households’ toilets have been constructed. More than 193000 villages & 531 Cities have successfully ended the practice of open defecation.

:- Global Targets 

1.1) By 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere (living on < $1.25/Day)

1.2) By 2030, reduce at least half of the proportion of men, women & children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimension as per National definitions.
1.3) Implement nationally appropriate social protection systems & measures for all, including floors, by 2030 achieve substantial coverage for the poor & the vulnerable.
1.4) By 2030 ensure that all men & women in particular the poor & vulnerable have equal rights to economic resources as well as access to basic services, ownership & control over land & other forms of poverty, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology & finance services including micro-finance.
1.5) By 2030, build resilience of the poor & the vulnerable & reduce their exposure to climate related extreme events & other social, economic & environmental adversities & disasters.

(1.a) ensure significant to end poverty in all its dimensions, mobilization of resources from diverse sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to facilitate adequate & predictable means for developing countries, in particular Least Developed Countries, to implement programme & policies.

(1.b) Create sound policy framework at the national, regional & international levels based on pro-poor & gender-sensitive development strategies, to support accelerated investment in poverty eradication actions.


Sustainable Development Goals/SDGs 13

• Climate Action   

Goal 13 focuses on ‘Urgent Action’ necessary to ‘Combat Climate Change & its impact’ incorporation both climate change mitigation & climate change adaptation.
Targets;
13.1 Strengthen resilience & adaptive capacity to climate related hazards & natural disasters in all in all countries;
13.2 Integrate Climate Change into national policies, strategies & planning;
13.3 Improve education, awareness raising & human institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction & early warning.
India is currently world’s fourth largest energy consumer & third biggest carbon emitter. India is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate to climate change impacts as well.
India’s Preparedness on SDGs 13:
The Government took measures to work towards Nationally Determined Contributions/NDC on mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology & capacity building. These policy measures should be considered as our national obligation to alleviate mass poverty but also to the challenges of food security & nutrition, universal access to education & health, gender inequality & woman empowerment, water & sanitation, energy, employment, sustainable cities & human settlement, and the means to achieve sustainable development goals.
Core driver of India’s NDC is the National Action Plan on Climate Change/NAPCC. The NAPCC consists of eight National Missions, viz; Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, National Water Mission, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, National Mission for a Green India, and the National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change.
Apart from these initiatives GoI set up National Clean Energy Fund in 2010 to finance & promote clean energy initiative along with allocation of resources on clean energy research.
Government has an ambitious target of installing 175 GW renewable energy plants till 2022 in the wake of Paris Climate Agreement & achieving the voluntary target of 20-25% carbon emission reduction of its GDP on 2005 level by 2020.

It is significant to distinct the aspirations of SDGs & the natural phenomenon of climate change. In the case of sustainable development, the core goal is poverty alleviation whilst balancing environmental imperatives while in the case of climate change mitigation & adaptation action lie at the heart of the issue. It is important to deal with India’s energy poverty lies at the heart of achieving SDGs Aspirations for poverty reduction & removal of social & economic inequality.
To successfully advance the economic and social pillars of the SDG agenda in the country, while remaining cognisant of its environmental imperatives,
India must adopt a nuanced approach towards climate action. It must protect its right to provide lifeline energy to its poor, as it transitions from a low-income agrarian society, to a middle-income industrialised country. At the same time, India’s targets for expanding its renewable energy capacity as committed in its NDC & its taxes on consumption of petrol, diesel and burning of coal all indicate that it is firmly committed to combating climate change and reducing the energy intensity of its economy. Lifestyle energy consumption is therefore up for grabs as are further measures such as introduction of a tax on corporate emissions as possible policy instruments to strengthen India’s climate action.

It is in India’s interest to be propositional as it seeks to protect its ‘lifeline’ objectives and encourage the developed countries to be more ambitious in their green agendas that will offer more carbon space to the rest. While the challenges of poverty and energy access go hand in hand, vulnerability to climate change is also felt more severely by the poor. Enhancing adaptation action in the country and progressively transitioning to a green economy will both increase India’s ability to meet the SDGs while also display international leadership on climate change.

• Climate Finance:

Not only Government of India is considering threats of climate change, corporations too have started realizing the significance of sustainable development. In early 2015, 213 companies pledged to increase country’s renewable energy potential to 266 GW over the next five years to reduce significantly our overall dependence on fossil fuel. Financial institutions too have committed to invest in green projects to the tune of 78 GW- the Government expects an investment of around $ 200 Billion. Despite our Government’s efforts overall, our capacity to make significant strides with regards to climate change is largely dependent on international agreement. One of the major constrains emerging out after such agreement is our access to finance.


According to the UNFCCC, ‘climate finance’ refers to “local, national or transnational financing, which may be drawn from public, private and alternative sources” to tackle the effects of climate change.

Copenhagen Conference on Climate set a ‘Green Climate Fund’ of $ 100 Billion up to 2020. The Paris Agreement once again notes the figure of US$ 100 billion as the ‘floor’ to climate finance efforts
& a transparency mechanism has been established at COP 21 which will work towards monitoring the progress towards that figure. While short term commitments have so far been fulfilled through the development assistance route adopted by developed countries it is still unknown how long-term commitments would be met. Apart from the bilateral agreements and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) route, the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the only other credible institutional arrangement, which can be seen as a viable source for long-term climate finance. Established at COP 16, GCF is an operating entity of the Financial Mechanism of the Convention and will “support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing country Parties”. The other source of funding through the Financial Mechanism, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), has limited capacity.

As per United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates, to build ‘green infrastructure’ and to invest in low-carbon projects that will restrain global average temperature from rising more than two degrees centigrade above pre-industrial levels, nearly US$ 1 trillion of additional investment will be required annually up to the year 2030.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) reckons that the prevailing global policies and market structures are incapable of guiding investments towards low-carbon and energy efficient avenues at the speed and scale required.21 According to IEA estimates investments in energy supply and energy efficiency alone will require US$ 53 trillion (US$ 39 trillion for energy supply and US$14 trillion for energy efficiency) up to 2035 to enable the world to adhere to a two-degrees-centigrade emissions path.

In the next fifteen years, the global economy will need an estimated US$ 89 trillion in infrastructure investments (India itself needs US$ 1 trillion over the next five years to bridge its infrastructure deficit). A further US$ 4.1 trillion will be needed for incremental investment in low-carbon transitions to stay within the two-degree-Celsius temperature rise limit agreed internationally. Thus while the challenges of development and climate change are highly convoluted, it is imperative that climate finance does not become a substitute for development finance, and must be seen as ‘additional finance’.

Going forward, India’s climate policy and development policies are going to be shaped by three interlinked documents: the Paris Agreement (COP21), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda and the Indian NDC submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). All three affect India’s national ambitions to grow infrastructure, ensure sustainable development and maintain economic growth. Financing is also an unanswered question that is an undercurrent to all three agendas, i.e. whether the global financial architecture can respond to the needs of this new development paradigm.

For the mobilisation of long-term finance, the COP must converge the conversations that take place at Basel on global banking norms, with those that take place at the climate conventions. Basel III must be modified to include an exception for green investments and to improve the flow of funds towards climate-related projects in developing countries. In addition, developed countries must refrain from enforcing blanket restrictions on coal projects. Not only is it unfair to expect developing economies to industrialise through sources other than coal, when most developed economies today followed this path, it is a counterproductive proposition as it denies developing countries the opportunity to transition from inefficient coal based power to cleaner coal based generation technologies. The World Bank has also restricted loans for building coal-fired power plants since 2013; and in November 2015, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) agreed to limit most state financing to ‘ultra-super critical plants,’ which burn less coal to produce the same amount of electricity.

Kumar Deepak