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Green Growth Push

In News:  In the recent Union Budget 2023, Finance Minister has listed a series of initiatives from green hydrogen to mangroves protection to green credit to replacement of polluting vehicles.

More on the News

  • Finance Minister listed ‘Green Growth’ as one of the seven priorities of the Budget.
  • The 2023-24 budget has allocated Rs 3,079.40 crore to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, which is a 24 per cent increase from last year’s Rs 2,478 crore.
  • Component elements of the Budget’s Green Growth push:
Component Details
National Green Hydrogen Mission
  • It will facilitate transition of the economy to low carbon intensity, reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports, and make the country assume technology and market leadership in this sunrise sector.
  • India aims to reach a target of an annual production of 5 MMT of green hydrogen by 2030.
Green Credit Programme
  • It will be notified under the Environment (Protection) Act.
  • It will incentivize environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals and local bodies, and help mobilize additional resources for such activities.
PM-PRANAM
  • PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth.
  • Aim: To incentivize States and Union Territories to promote alternative fertilizers and balanced use of chemical fertilizers.
  • Objective: To bring down the government’s subsidy burden, which is estimated to reach Rs 2.25 lakh crore in 2022-23.
Bhartiya Prakritik Kheti Bio-Input Resource Centres
  • To facilitate the adoption of 1 crore farmers to adopt natural farming, over the next three years.
  • For this, 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres will be set-up, creating a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network.

Need for Promoting Natural Farming

  • Though, Chemical fertilisers revolutionised agriculture, they are known to be a major source of water pollution.
  • Eutrophication caused by excessive use of chemical fertilisers, causes death to fishes and other aquatic life.
  • Over a long period of time, they can also harm the soil, causing acidification, and hence have an impact on the land’s productivity.
  • There is a link between the excessive use of chemical fertilisers and incidence of cancer among farmers.
GOBARdhan scheme
  • 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme will be established for promoting circular economy.
  • These will include 200 compressed biogas (CBG) plants, including 75 plants in urban areas, and 300 community or cluster-based plants at total investment of Rs 10,000 crore.
Coastal Shipping
  • It will be promoted as the energy efficient and lower cost mode of transport, both for passengers and freight, through PPP mode with viability gap funding.
Vehicle Replacement
  • Replacing old polluting vehicles is an important part of greening our economy.
  • Budget allocated funds to scrap old vehicles of Central Government.
  • States will also be supported in replacing old vehicles and ambulances.
Renewable Energy Evacuation
  • The Inter-state transmission system for evacuation and grid integration of 13 GW renewable energy from Ladakh will be constructed with investment of Rs 20,700 crore including central support of 8,300 crore.
  • The Budget has provided Rs 35,000 crore for priority capital investments towards energy transition and net zero objectives.
Energy Storage Projects
  • To steer the economy on the sustainable development path, Battery Energy Storage Systems with capacity of 4,000 MWH will be supported with Viability Gap Funding.
“LiFE”, or Lifestyle for Environment
  • To spur a movement of environmentally conscious lifestyle, and that India was moving towards the ‘panchamrit’ and net-zero carbon emission by 2070 to usher in green industrial and economic transition.

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