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NewsSoumya Gupta
3 min
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06 Feb 2025, 05:30 AM
ISTIn FY26, India’s climate change expenditure will rise to just under ₹62,000 crore. (Photo: Reuters)SummaryThe government expects to spend over ₹50,000 crore in FY25 across ministries and projects directly linked to climate change—a 23% increase from FY24.
This January, Prime Minister Modi launched Mission Mausam, a project to forecast climate change and extreme weather events. The government has now earmarked ₹1,329 crore in FY26 for this initiative in the Union budget. Is this enough? Mint looks at the numbers.What is Mission Mausam?This is a national project under the ministry of earth sciences, meant to improve our understanding of the impact of climate change on India and track extreme weather events more accurately. It aims to develop better weather forecasting technology, deploy more advanced satellites, and create better weather prediction models using AI. The project was approved in September last year with an initial outlay of ₹2,000 crore until FY26 and the PM inaugurated it in January. The budget approved ₹671 crore for Mission Mausam in FY25 per its revised estimates, and the remaining ₹1,329 crore in the coming fiscal year.
Read more: Once again, the Economic Survey seems to play down the climate crisis: Why?Does India have other such projects?Yes. The ministry has combined four schemes into one called PRITHVI to study changes in the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Southern Ocean, and the Himalayas among other climate-sensitive areas. It will spend ₹1,300 crore on this until FY26 and another ₹1,200 crore on a Deep Ocean Mission to track climate change and devise ways to generate freshwater and energy. The government is also spending ₹850 crore on setting up computing systems for climate research called Arka and Arunika. India also spends on various climate resistant-crops, electric vehicles, and atomic and renewable energy.So, how much will India spend on climate change?The government expects to spend over ₹50,000 crore in FY25 across ministries and projects directly linked to climate change—a 23% increase from FY24 as the Centre invests in new initiatives such as EV promotion schemes and R&D projects under the ministry of earth sciences. In FY26, India’s climate change expenditure will rise to just under ₹62,000 crore.This is not nearly enough, is it?No. The FY26 budget allocation on schemes and ministries impacting India’s climate change readiness is merely 1.2% of its total estimated expenditure. But India has told the UN Framework for Climate Change Convention that it will spend ₹57 trillion until 2030 on climate change adaptation including R&D, monitoring climate, sovereign green bonds, urban development and housing, and financial and other protections for people most likely to die or lose their livelihood due to extreme weather conditions.
Read more: India’s green