Karnataka’s importance to India’s economic progress has been well established. As one of the industrial powerhouses of the nation, and a leader in the service and IT industries, the state’s continued development is integral to the overall growth of the nation. However, this progress is being threatened by as well as posing a threat to environmental sustainability. For instance, projections, presented in this very report, indicate that temperatures will rise by as much as 1.5 to 2 degrees by 2030.
Needless to say, this will have profound effects on agriculture, an important sector and provider of livelihood for much of the state’s population. Water, a precious resource that so many of us take for granted, is also expected to pay the toll of over-use, with resources in the north eastern districts depleting.
a progressive state, Karnataka envisions joboriented, inclusive economic growth. This will require sustainable industrialization and livelihood diversification. However, such a transition is likely to increase the demand for resources and energy significantly. Additionally, the state’s dwindling resources and increasing vulnerability to climate change may threaten the achievement of inclusive growth. The highly vulnerable districts across Karnataka also rank lowest in indicators of human development. Also, the decline in poverty in Karnataka during the last decade has been slower as compared to other southern states. Hence, there is an urgent need for increasing climate resilience and adaptive capacity of its people.
Karnataka Vision 2020 policy and State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) recognize this need and considers ‘sustainability of the state’s environment and natural resources’ as one of the primary approaches
to ‘job oriented inclusive economic growth’. Thus, the state should focus on green growth, i.e. meeting the allied developmental imperatives of economic growth, environmental sustainability and poverty reduction, in order to realize its vision.
Accordingly, this report presents a Green Growth Strategy that evaluates the sustainability challenge over a longterm horizon, and proposes a set of feasible interventions in order of priority.