Context

Climate change has a long-lasting impact on natural resources, economic activities, food security, health, society, and physical infrastructure and society in general. More than half of India’s population of one billion people lives in rural areas and their livelihoods depend on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, and forestry. Hence, climate change adaptation measures are of national importance in order to ensure the protection of rural livelihoods, to preserve the country’s natural resources, and to foster sustainable development.


Objective

The Indo-German Environment Programme in Rural Areas (IGEP-RA) supports the Indian Government in key activities reacting to climate change such as the policy formulation and the introduction of new concepts, strategies, technologies, and methodologies to cope with climate change.


Approach

The programme works at the central level with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), and the Ministry of
Development of North Eastern Region (MoDONER). The programme comprises three components: the Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Areas of India (CCA-RAI), the Umbrella Programme for Natural
Resource Management (UPNRM) and the Climate Change Adaptation – North Eastern Region of India (CCA-NER). All of these components promote the introduction of aspects of climate change adaptation into state policies and mechanisms. They aim to reduce climate change risks and to enhance the adaptive capacities of all the actors involved.


Some of the key activities are:

• Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Areas:

The CCA-RAI provides policy support to the Government of India for integrating climate change adaptation measures into the national and state development planning process. Hence, it contributes to addressing risk of climate change to the most vulnerable sectors. Additionally, CCA-RAI focuses on strengthening capacities and knowledge of communities, planners, and decision-makers so that they are better equipped to deal with climate variability and change.

• Natural Resource Management:

Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management (UPNRM) improves loan financing to promote rural livelihood projects that are based on natural resource management. The UPNRM assesses the projects’ loan eligibility by applying five guiding principles: the projects must be pro-poor, environmentally sustainable, and needs-based and must practise good governance and promote community-participation.

• Climate Change Adaptation in the North-Eastern Region:

The CCA-NER supports the MoDONER to improve the access of rural households to food through resource-saving and climate-resilient agricultural practices.


The following results are expected:

Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Areas:
• Pilot adaptation projects are being implemented in 4 states and integrated into development plans for scaling up.
• States and Union Territories successfully access climate funds from international and national funding sources. Six states have already accessed about 17.5 million Euros from the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC).
• A framework for assessing and addressing loss and damage from climate change impact in India has been developed.

Umbrella Programme for Natural Resource Management (UPNRM):

• At least five commercial or regional rural banks will adopt business models developed by NABARD aiming at resource-efficient and climate-resilient rural development.
• UPNRM will be institutionalised within the NABARD headquarters office and will be integrated in all 26 regional offices.
• About 1.8 million Euros will be invested by private companies (Corporate Social Responsibility) for the implementation and leveraging of the UPNRM projects.
• So far, UPNRM has already benefitted the lives of nearly 300,000 people.


Climate Change Adaptation in the North-Eastern Region:

• Agriculture value chains: Eight replicable measures will be implemented, promoting resource-efficient and climate-resilient organic agriculture and increasing the average annual income for 7,000 households by 20 per cent.
• Five existing or newly developed sector policies and programmes will incorporate aspects of climate change adaptation.
• State Action Plan for Climate Change (SAPCC) support: Already, the implementation of two climate change adaptation measures has started - Government of Meghalaya and Government of Mizoram have received funds from the NAFCC.