The workshop on "Climate Change Mitigation Projects (CCMPs) in the Decentralised Energy and Building Materials Sectors in India" was organised by Development Alternatives (DA) in association with WWF-India, Pune and MITCON Ltd., Pune during 24-25 Februaruy, 2000, at Hotel Le Meridien, Pune. This workshop was a part of the Climate Change Outreach and Awareness (CCOA) project, being carried out by Development Alternatives, New Delhi. Other partners in CCOA programme in India are CII, IIM Ahmedabad, CRISIL and FICCI. The programme is funded by USAID and coordinated by Hagler Bailly. The Climate Change Outreach and Awareness Programme seeks to increase the level of awareness and institutional capacity on climate change issues within key Indian institutions and business sectors.
 
The purpose of organising such a workshop was to assess the role of decentralised energy sources and building materials in meeting the twin objective of mitigating climate change and addressing the sustainable development goals of the country, particularly in the rural sector where more than 70% of India’s population lives. The potential of renewables to meet the growing energy demand of the world’s poor communities at substantially lower level of emissions is termed as the ‘win-win’ potential of renewables. The focus of the workshop was to network with the
 
Indian business community and funding sources and provide a platform for direct interaction of the parties concerned and building the capacity for design and implementation of CCMPs in India. The workshop, thus, also fulfilled the objective of developing a portfolio of CCMPs in the decentralised energy and building materials sectors in India as a part of the CCOA project DA is implementing at present.
 
About thirty experts participated in the workshop representing the business sector, funding sources, academia, and some NGOs. The business sector was represented by the companies working in the decentralised energy and building materials sectors. Ms. Danita Danniel, Director WWF-India, Pune while welcoming the participants, mentioned of the efforts WWF is making for generation of environmental awareness and the various action programmes that WWF has taken up in and around Pune to protect the environment and bio-diversity to restore the flora and the fauna of the region.
 
Mr. S C Natu, Vice-President of MITCON Ltd., in his keynote address gave a brief account of the Indian energy scenario. He also presented the status of renewable energy in India and expressed concern that despite a large potential available for renewables, only a small portion could be harnessed so far. According to him, a realisable potential of 37,000 MW through energy efficiency, renewables, cogeneration and waste utilisation, etc. exists in India.
 
Mr. Kalipada Chatterjee, Development Alternatives, in his introductory remarks gave a brief account of the human activities leading to climate change, the findings of the IPCC, the likely impacts of climate change and various mechanisms to mitigate climate change. He mentioned that this workshop would lead to capacity building in design and implementation of CCMPs and also address the immediate objective of developing a portfolio of CCMPs in the decentralised energy and building materials sectors in India.
 
Dr. P Venkata Ramana, Programme Manager, Winrock International India, in his presentation talked on the role of decentralised energy sources in mitigating the climate change and the programmes being carried out in the country for the promotion of decentralised energy. He also mentioned that for renewable energy programmes to play a major role in the country’s development, the need of the hour is to make renewable energy market based rather than subsidy based and focus on potential areas for commercialisation.
 
Mr. John Ryan, Winrock International, USA, briefed the participants on the various international funds available for CCMPs. He mentioned about the three catagories of funds which were broadly available viz. Environmentally Targeted (ET) financing mechanisms, Early Action funding sources, and Clean Development Mechanism. Mr. A Amarnath, CRISIL Advisory Services, made a presentation on alternative sources of financing of CCMPs.
 
A number of projects in the decentralised energy and building materials sectors were presented. The projects received were in the fields of solar, biomass co-generation, biomass gasification and waste material utilisation for cement and building materials. The workshop concluded with a discussion on follow-up action and Mr. Chatterjee thanking the participants for their interest in making the event a success. q