Prime Minister Council on Climate Change

The Prime Minister Council on Climate Change was constituted in 2008 by Dr Manmohan Singh, the then PM.

What are the main functions of the committee?

The committee was constituted to create a coordinated response to issues relating to climate change at national level. It aims to provide oversight for formulation of action plans in the areas of adaptation, assessment and mitigation. Also, the committee periodically monitors key policy decisions.

What has the council done so far?

The Council created the National Action Plan on Climate Change in 2008. The plan was to be overseen by six Union ministries. This includes finance and external affairs. However, the plan lacked implementation strategy. In 2015, PM Modi held the first meeting of the council. The council has never met since then.

What are the recent concerns around PM Council on Climate Change?

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced climate targets for 2030 at the COP26 held in Glasgow, Scotland. This includes reducing emissions per unit of GDP to 45% of 2005 levels, increasing renewable energy capacity to 500 GW and increasing the share of the non – fossil fuels to 50%. With this, the concerns of implementing the targets have started coming out as criticisms. How did the PM arrive at these commitments? How will his government implement them? The Prime Minister Council on Climate Change has not met in seven years. Now the concern raised is, how did GoI fix the targets without the council meeting. However, the Apex Committee for the Implementation of Paris Agreement was formed in 2020 by PM Modi. The main objective of the committee is to coordinate the work of meeting Nationally Determined Contributions of India. Unfortunately, there is no publicly available information on the work or meetings of the committee.