REVIEW OF FISCAL RESOURCES IN INDIA FOR CLIMATE REFORM.

Most developing countries, including India, continue to face the crisis of Climate change. World leaders understand that we are past the point where we can do very much with individual action and took moral cognizance of the issue when Paris Agreement was negotiated by representatives of 195 countries at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC. India ratified the Paris Agreement on 2nd October 2016 to become the 62nd nation to join the initiative. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed that by 2030 at least 40% of country?s electricity will be generated from non-fossil fuels. In numbers, this implies that by 2025, India will need a 175 gigawatt-power production capacity from non-fossil fuel sources. Such an ambitious project for a country like India, whose 80% of energy demands are met by fossil fuels requires oversight and commitment by Government and more importantly revenue for these projects. Keeping in mind these agenda, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley doubled the Clean Energy Cess to ₹400 per tons of coal from ₹200 per tons during Budget Presentation 2016-2017. While this solves only one of the many problems for the climate reform, a comprehensive model that encourages strategic shift to renewable sources for energy demands needs more fiscal resources and a coherent Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Framework. This paper reviews the principle sources of fiscal resources in India for climate reform and discusses suggestion as to how the Government can increase the monetary budget introducing more policies and introduce awareness to bring behavioral changes.