Green Sector have demanded increased allocation and stricter compliance to help usher in a better life for Indian citizens and help India meet international commitments on climate change at global forums, among the clamouring rise in demands in every sector.

Over the last few years, air pollution has become a major issue in India, not just in Delhi-NCR. Increased cyclone frequency and intensity, as well as the resulting loss of life and infrastructure damage, has increased demand for climate resilience, and the promotion of solar energy as a renewable energy source has been pushed as a major mitigation effort.

The Centre's intentions were not up to par in Budget 2021, but experts in the fields of environment, sustainability, and agriculture are optimistic that Budget 2022 will address these issues adequately.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented an ambitious agenda for India's contribution to global efforts to combat climate change at COP26, the annual climate conference, at the end of 2021.

Modi promised 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030, a 45 percent reduction in GDP emission intensity over 2005 levels, 50 percent electric installed capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030, a 1 billion tonnes reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, and India becoming net-zero by 2070 as part of his 'Panchamrit' or five nectar elements.

Ulka Kelkar, Director of the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute in India (WRI India), said, “India's climate targets will require about $35 billion investment in energy storage in this decade alone. Budget incentives and risk guarantees to attract investment in battery storage will be key to ramp up non-fossil electricity generation.”

Kelkar noted that India's climate targets call for increasing non-fossil electricity capacity from 158 GW to 500 GW in just nine years, “since land is precious, we need budget incentives to realise the full potential of rooftop solar PV. And since critical mineral reserves are scarce, the budget can provide incentives for a circular economy, urban mining, and e-waste recycling.”

Dhruba Purkayastha, India's director of the Climate Policy Initiative, echoed the need for India to focus on distributed renewable energy in order to meet the 500 GW renewable energy target.

He said, “pumping clean energy into the grid will not get us beyond 30 to 40 per cent of renewable energy share. The budget needs to put emphasis on distributed energy programmes with distributed renewable energy such as battery storage rooftop solar, solar pumps, solar charging stations etc."

Purkayastha added that the budget can make a big difference in the EV (electric vehicle). He further said, “the EVs transition is good for managing the Urban Air pollution but does not do much for carbon mitigation as the power consumption is still from the carbon-intensive grid. So, a focus on distributed charging stations with storage etc., will make this transition truly clean.”

Aarti Khosla, Director of Climate Trends, an advocacy think tank, recalled how the Union Budget 2021-22 was a shot in the arm for India's air pollution crisis, with an allocation of Rs 2,217 crore to combat the problem in 42 urban agglomerations.

She said, “however, disbursement of these funds seems to have failed the objective on many counts. States such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab could utilise less than 20% of the allocation made for them, failing to balance the attention on major sources like industry, thermal power plants and construction waste with only two years remaining to meet the national clean air programme targets. The Budget 2022 has to demand a stricter and time-bound framework for performance assessment before allocating the next tranche of the budget.”

The burning of parali (agro-waste) by farmers in Punjab or Haryana was blamed for air pollution in northwest India, but this was often unnecessarily, as data showed.

When Prime Minister Modi called for the promotion of natural farming in December, the topic of sustainable farming practises took centre stage. He claimed that it would be beneficial to both the environment and the farmers.

The National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture promotes natural farming as one of the sustainable agriculture practises.

 Abhishek Jain, Fellow and Director, Powering Livelihoods, Council on Energy, Environment, and Water's (CEEW) said, “however, the mission received a mere 0.8% share of the agriculture budget last year. As a result, no single sustainable agriculture practice has more than 4% of Indian farmers practising it. Let us hope the upcoming Union budget would provide a significant thrust to sustainable agriculture, including Natural farming, to move India's food system on a resilient and healthy pathway”.

Experts also called for the establishment of a national just transition fund for fossil fuel sector workers and MSMEs, which would be eligible for grants from international climate funds. The experts said “defining green finance and directing banks and capital markets through appropriate regulation would go a long way in shifting finance towards green growth of the Indian economy.”