India Needs Dedicated Wing, To Release Green GDP Estimates, Says RBI Article

India needs to set up a dedicated wing in the environment ministry to release estimates of Green GDP periodically on a regular basis and create a user-friendly data dissemination platform, said an RBI article. Green GDP takes into account estimates for environmental degradation, depletion of natural resources, and savings of resources and environment into the national income accounts.

"Given the paucity of relevant data, estimation of Green GDP for India in this paper relies on an available global database and provides the starting point for future research in this area of environmental and economic accounting," the article said. The trajectory of Green GDP for India displays an upward movement with visible improvements particularly, since 2012, it added. The central bank said that the views expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Reserve Bank of India.

"Furthermore, resource depletion, CO2 emission and material footprint, especially in the case of biomass and nonmetallic minerals, are showing signs of considerable improvements which further support our findings," said the article. The authors further said the unavailability of data related to environmental indicators in the case of India is posing a major challenge for engaging in research work in the area and though India has a dedicated Open Government Data (OGD) platform for data dissemination18, but it needs revamping to smoothen its use.

The article stressed that a dedicated in house group in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change may be formed for providing time-series database required for estimation of Green GDP and release estimates of Green GDP for India periodically on a regular basis. There is also a need for a user-friendly data dissemination platform on the lines of the OECD and the Eurostat, it added.

"Despite the recent initiatives and achievements, a lot remains to be done at the ground level going ahead," it said. Better coordination of the flow of power between the state-owned power distribution companies, and the rollout of nationwide charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs) to name a few, it said. There is an increasing need for the financial system to move towards green financing, keeping in mind the social and development objectives of India. The article has been published in the RBI's October bulletin.

(PTI)