Environment, Climate, WASH, and Resilience

By 2027, Government of India, state governments, communities, the private sector and other actors take informed actions to address climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss and restore ecological integrity through improved knowledge, capacity and mainstreaming of relevant actions across sectoral programmes, policies and plans.

Outcome 5 is embedded in the “Planet” pillar of the UNSDCF, which aims at strengthening the knowledge and capacity of stakeholders to take informed actions to address climate change, pollution, exploitation of natural resources, biodiversity loss and restore ecological integrity through mainstreaming of relevant actions across sectoral programmes, policies and plans. 

The UN supports the Government of India and stakeholders in climate change adaptation, mitigation, disaster risk reduction and ecosystem restoration, aligned with global environmental goals. The UN also works to tackle the challenges of pollution and waste generation, and building capacities for managing sanitation practices.

Challenges 

• Achieving sustained economic growth without adverse impacts on environment, biodiversity and ecosystems
• Minimizing impacts of climate change, strengthening the resilience of livelihoods, ecosystems and infrastructure
• Decarbonizing the expanding economy
• Decoupling economic growth from current levels of resource utilization and air, water and land pollution
• Mobilizing, leveraging and accessing finance (international and domestic)

• Improving productivity, sustainability and resilience of agri-food systems

   

The UN system’s contribution to Outcome 5 focuses on ensuring that

• Climate change adaptation and DRR across sectors (urban, peri-urban and rural) are mainstreamed,
• Climate mitigation approaches are mainstreamed in socio-economic development strategies and sectors,
• Approaches and actions are scaled up and capacities are built to abate and manage pollution and waste (for e.g., plastic, marine litter, biomedical, electronic, etc.),
• Circularity and resource efficiency are achieved across sectors,
• Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem restoration are supported,
• Measures for improved productivity, sustainability and resilience of agri-food systems are supported and
• Climate resilient, sustainable and safe water and sanitation services with a focus on the most vulnerable children and women are strengthened.

UN development support and partnerships to achieve Outcome 5

The UN system’s contribution to Outcome 5 focuses on sustaining and enabling resource-efficient and clean economic growth of the country with minimized impact on the environment and ecosystems; minimizing impacts of climate change, shocks and stresses; and building resilience of livelihoods, ecosystems and infrastructure. It pays special attention to strategies and solutions to promote sustainable consumption and production and environmentally sound management of natural resources, including recharge and conservation of water and sanitation service operations and management.

The UN system contributes to building institutional capacities for mainstreaming sector-specific climate change adaptation strategies, DRR strategies and climate mitigation approaches at various levels of governance (national, state and district levels).

The UN system advocates for and supports circularity and resource efficiency by contributing to strategy formulation and preparing action plans in partnership with the government and private sector. It supports the development and upscaling of technologies and ecosystem-based solutions to support the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem restoration. 

The UN system works with the government to improve the collection of data on the sustainability of agri-food systems and the use of water resources, which, in turn, will help formulate interventions for improving the sustainability of agri-food systems. In addition, the management of designated protected areas (biosphere reserves) is strengthened through a network of stakeholders that promote scientific research, monitoring, education and training.

The UN system provides technical support to the government for the preparation of plans and implementation of interventions providing safe, sustainable and climate-resilient drinking water and sanitation services to the communities, particularly women and children.

The UN system engages with the government at all levels to design, strengthen and put in place institutional, legal and policy frameworks that promote environmental sustainability, circular economy and multi-risk resilience-building. It contributes to the strengthening of implementation capabilities at the national and sub-national levels. It partners with the government to access, adapt and implement innovative technological and digital solutions, financing mechanisms and public-private partnerships.

The UN system's contribution focuses on hotspots where intersectionality of poverty, climate change vulnerability and gender inequality are highest and in areas that need attention, such as urban, peri-urban and Tier II and Tier III towns and cities.

The UN system harnesses synergies with national flagship programmes such as the Panchamrit Agenda, NDCs, NAPCC, Mission LiFE and Swachh Bharat Mission to strengthen the planning and implementation of programmes related to providing access to water and sanitation services to all the communities.

LNOB focus:

The UN system's contribution to Outcome 5 focuses on consumers, manufacturing firms and service providers, farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, tribal communities, forest dwellers, women, youth and children. Working with vulnerable communities to strengthen their resilience, adopt climate change adaptation practices and behaviour change is a focus area.

Synergies with government schemes and programmes:

Achieving SDGs by 2030 aligned with national priorities including the Panchamrit (Five Nectar Elements) DeclarationAgenda, Nationally Determined ContributionsNDCs, National Action Plan on Climate ChangeNAPCC, Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission as well as other key commitments