Nagpur: The Interim Union Budget for the financial year 2024-25 was tabled in the Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier today.
Nagpur Today in conversation with Environmentalists of Nagpur city, tried to explore what is there for environment sector in Union budget 2024.
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Wednesday12 Feb. 2025
While talking to Nagpur Today, Kaustav Chatterjee, Founder, Green Vigil Foundation explained, in Budget 2024, the finance minister has allocated significant resources to bolster the green energy sector, with a focus on harnessing India’s vast offshore wind energy potential comprehensive plan aimed at achieving the nation’s ambitious Net Zero target by 2070 in Budget 2024.
Chatterjee added, The budget has laid a roadmap for ensuring a green gas-based economy in India . Towards meeting the commitment to ‘net zero’ by 2070, the following measures were announced:
1. Viability gap funding will be provided for harnessing offshore wind energy potential for the initial capacity of one giga-watt.
2. Coal gasification and liquefaction capacity of 100 MT will be set up by 2030. This will also help in reducing imports of natural gas, methanol, and ammonia.
3. Phased mandatory blending of compressed biogas (CBG) in compressed natural gas (CNG) for transport and piped natural gas (PNG) for domestic purposes will be mandated.
4. Financial assistance will be provided for procurement of biomass aggregation machinery to support collection.
Surbhi Jaiswal, Team Lead, Green Vigil Foundation stated, union budget recognised the concept of Blue economy. The Blue Economy 2 scheme harnesses the potential of oceans, seas, and coastal areas, which has emerged as a key area of focus in discussions related to sustainable development. With marine ecosystems facing unprecedented threats from climate change, pollution, and overexploitation, there is an urgent need for coordinated action to safeguard the health and resilience of ocean resources.
The commitment given by Finance Minister that the government will expand and strengthen the EV ecosystem by supporting manufacturing and charging infrastructure is the need of the hour, added Jaiswal.
However, Chatterjee and Jaiswal both feels, the entire focus on environment is aimed at Net Zero target by 2070, thus, though due importance has been given to air pollution but other environmental sectors like forest & wild life, rejuvenation of rivers and lakes, increasing urban green lungs, solid waste management etc did not get the deserved focus.
