Co-author: Bhawani Singh Maurya
2 min read
India had recently faced its hottest recorded heat wave in over a century. Despite droughts, the region also faces the worst impacts of climate change, brought about by extreme weather resulting in floods, and damage to livelihoods and wildlife. In response to these events, India has set clear targets for GHG mitigation, and has diverted its resources to focus on climate mitigation. Far more needs to be done to adjust to the effects of climate change, to avoid worsening the situation and create mutually benefiting scenarios from these effects. Focus needs to be drawn towards climate adaptation.
India’s growing philanthropic market has seen approximately USD $9 billion in funding given to a variety of causes. A study on climate finance by India Climate Collaborative (ICC) states that philanthropic contributions to addressing climate change are insufficient, it reflected that in 2019, less than 2% of philanthropy focused on climate mitigation and even less on climate adaptation and resilience.At the recent Conference of Parties (COP26), India had pledged to achieve ‘net-zero’ carbon emissions by 2070. The country had also announced enhanced targets for carbon emission reduction and renewable energy deployment.
In order to achieve these targets, a NITI Aayog estimate indicates that the sector will require approximately $4.5 trillion to meet its infrastructure gaps. Existing climate finance volumes are insufficient to meet this goal, and will need to be supplemented with budget revenue, international climate finance and private investment. Considering the above gap, there is a need to increase the number of domestic philanthropic givers and raise awareness on the opportunities available to galvanise more climate philanthropy.
In a flurry of firsts, AVPN will be convening a series of events (Climate Solution Case Studies; Climate Champions Video profiles and Capacity Building Workshops) in an effort to increase the number and diversity of philanthropists that are giving in India and to increase the amount of funding allocated to climate action.
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