Orissa, the first state to draft the Climate Action Plan

Orissa becomes the first state in the country to have earned the distinction of having action plan on climate change. Following the National Action Plan of India started in 2008 the document of Orissa provides the action for the period of 2010-2015 having a budget of 17,000 crore. It has covered major 11 sectors and after having consultation with various stakeholders in the state came out with the plan.
India has a very long history of planning and facing failures and lacking implementation. Only planning and putting the document in shelf and distributing the money  among the administration, departments, NGOs , Local governments and middleman wont achieve the objective of protecting the most vulnerable from the adverse impacts of climate change.

According to the document

1. Orissa Climate Change Agency will be put in place during the first year of implementation. This will have an advisory, supervisory and coordinating role on climate change issues. Agency will function in an independent and autonomous manner so that it can execute its various roles, responsibilities and duties in a smooth, quick and effective manner
2. The state CAP will address both mitigation and adaptation issues in a holistic manner by implementing all the activities in the action plan. It has been recognized that adaptation is important.
3. The budget for climate change response actions has been estimated to be Rs. 17,000 corers for a 5-year period between 2010 and 2015.

While the document looks more like wish list of what to do rather than a careful planning having details.  Some problems in the documents are.

1. Drought as a disaster has not been recognized in the Draft action plan and very less attention has been given to the issue in the context of climate change. It has been merged with agriculture and water sector. As a matter of fact the pattern of drought in the State is of a varied one, sometimes affecting the entire state, sometimes a few regions, and sometimes a few districts. However, the contiguous patch consisting of the Subdivisions of Padampur, Bolangir, Titlagarh, Patnagarh, Nuapada, Khariar, Bhwanipatna and Phulbani comprising of 47 blocks have been identified as drought prone zone.

2. The draft action plan has simply neglected the droughts and have given more importance to coastal disasters, as if it is the only disaster in the state and the lives of people in coastal areas are much more valuable. Document shows a clear regional imbalance in its planning. There is a clear neglect of western Orissa and droughts in the documents.

3. Regarding the implementation, all the powers rests with the state government  to deal with the matter, very less emphasis has been to the role of district planning in the whole process.

4. The document should consider National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme as an important instrument to assist climate change adaptation planning in the state.

5. While mitigation has been recognized a important, the draft plan is not clear, nor have any clear cut provision regarding GHG inventory estimation in the state.

6.Clear lack of emphasis on the relation between poverty and the impacts of climate change, which is very important for the state.