By Prachi Srivastava
Climate changes all across the world are adversely affecting lives and livelihoods. Deadly cyclones, floods, storms and mudslides have become very frequent phenomena recently. The costs and time for the recovery from these disasters are increasing. Its about time to monitor the policies and funds which can keep a track of the climate changes and their effects. We require a strong Climate resilient infrastructure, which is possible only in two ways. First, the developed countries, being economically and technologically much more sound, can fund the poorer and developing nations. But the access to the funds is itself a tedious process. The second way is to be self-reliant.
Effects of climate change | Photo Courtesy: UNDPIts time for developing nations to see how climate changes are reflected in their own national budgets and expenditures. Climate budgeting helps to assess the alignment and scale of the mobilisation of the public funds based on the national climate priority policies.
Introducing climate budgeting in 2018’s checklist
India will be moving on the right track by introducing climate budgeting in their Union budget from the next year onwards. This would be done on the lines similar to the gender budgeting where it serves as an indicator of government commitment to meet their targets on gender equality.
Climate budgeting will help focus the government on keeping an account of the money India is annually investing on climate change. India being a highly agricultural economy, fluctuations in climate adversely affect the agricultural productivity. Hence it is extremely important to keep a track on the government allocations to the affected areas and the cost incurred to resolve it.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]The finance ministry will soon finalise a status paper on this to provide a roadmap on the best and most robust method for the ministries to follow.[/su_pullquote]
The Government will prepare a supplementary report to go with the main budget document, accounting for the money India is annually investing on climate change. The plan was initially to do it this year itself but the government then realised that it doesnt have a robust methodology that can withstand national scrutiny. The finance ministry will soon finalise a status paper on this to provide a roadmap on the best and most robust method for the ministries to follow.
Where do India’s South-Asian nemeses stand?
Countries like Nepal, Philippines and other South East Asia countries have already started practising on the climate budgeting. For example, according to the analysis carried out by UNDP/Overseas Development Institute in 2012, 6.7% of Nepals national budget is a climate-relevant expenditure. Then there’s the Philippines, one of the most vulnerable countries. Hence it has started preparing itself for the changes in the climate and has progressed drastically from where it started.
A stitch in time
It is indeed the time to carefully and optimally use and allocate our resources.
It is extremely important for a country like India to give attention on the amount of money and time they are investing in issues relating climate changes.
Practising the budgeting on climate changes can actually help us to know where and how much to invest. And if the government can actually do so, we can then prepare for the climate resilient infrastructure which can save the government expenditure on cost, time and energy and also reduce the government deficit. An investment today can save a lot for tomorrow.
Featured Image Source: OEF Research
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