A Framework for Quantifying the Climate Co-Benefits of MGNREGS works

Kanchan Kargwal

Analyst – Adaptation and Risk Analysis Sector

What is MGNREGS?

• Offers a legal guarantee of 100 days of employment to every rural household, whose adult members demand for manual work.

• Creates community assets aimed at rural development and rejuvenation of public and private natural resources.

• Around 260 works are implemented under the scheme, which can be broadly categorised into natural resource management works (NRM) and non-NRM works. 

It has the following objectives: 

• Strengthen the livelihood resource base of the rural poor 

• Ensure social inclusion proactively 

• Bolster local institutions while provisioning wage labour

What is resilience, adaptation and mitigation?

Resilience

The capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance, responding or reorganising in ways that maintain their essential function, identity, and structure, while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning, and transformation.

Adaptation

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects, to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. (Adaptation is with respect to a hazard)

Mitigation

A human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases. GHG emissions can be avoided, reduced or eliminated by making a certain change. 

What are climate co-benefits? 

Climate co-benefits refer to the local and global benefits of development plans, policies or programs that contribute to resilience, adaptation and/or mitigation of climate change. They are the unintended positive side effects of development.

For example, horticulture plantation works implemented under MGNREGS provide: 

• Fruits and nuts to the households (income, livelihood diversification and food security)

• Sequester carbon (mitigation)

• Reduce soil erosion and surface runoff, and assist with groundwater recharge, withstand drought (resilience and adaptation)

Are these co-benefit captured in any way?

No, the MGNREGS management information system (MIS) currently records and reports only: 

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Do MGNREGS activities result in climate co-benefits?

Adaptation + Mitigation + Resilience 

  

 

MGNREGS climate co-benefits 

There is ample evidence that suggests that MGNREGS works to build resilience, help households to adapt to climate hazards and sequester carbon. These benefits are additional to the benefits the works actually provide, i.e., climate co-benefits of works. 

The ‘Annual Master Circular’ for MGNREGA (MoRD, 2022) has acknowledged the climate co-benefits of MGNREGS works and even recognises this scheme as 'one of the 24' key initiatives” to address climate change. 

MGNREGS & SDGs

The government also recognizes that MGNREGS can contribute to climate action under the SDGs but has not quantified it besides using a few case studies to indicate the same under asset creation and rejuvenation of natural resources. 

Quantifying climate co-benefits 

CSTEP* developed a framework to quantify and monitor the climate co-benefits delivered due to the implementation of NRM-based MGNREGS works.

Applied a conceptual framework for quantifying the Carbon Sequestration and Climate Resilience Co-Benefits of Usharmukti works

With HUF, PRADAN and ARF. 

The Co-benefits Framework

Motivation

WHAT? 

Develop a comprehensive framework to quantify the climate resilience, adaptation, and mitigation co-benefits of MGNREGS works. 

HOW?

Mainstream the framework for quantification and reporting of climate co-benefits at the national level through MGNREGS.

WHY?

Given the scale of MGNREGS implementation, quantification of climate co-benefits can help India in its international reporting requirements: UN SDGs, NDC (Forestry target) and Adaptation Communications (from 2024).

Usharmukti

➡️ Implemented between December 2019 and March 2021, resulting in:

• Benefits to 1,87,199 households
• Raising of ~30,000 ha of plantations—with over 1.5 crore trees
• Treatment of 93,330 ha with water conservation and harvesting structures, creating 138 billion liters of water potential

➡️ Implementing CSOs approached CSTEP with interest to quantify the amount of carbon sequestered in plantation works (Also the interest of the state)

➡️ CSTEP convinced the CSOs the importance of quantifying the resilience and adaptation benefits as well

➡️ CSTEP quantified climate co-benefits of works implemented under Usharmukti

➡️ Our learnings from this pilot has led to the development of a framework that can be applied to MGNREGS at scale

Step 1: Sampling protocol

Step 2: Rapid Assessment

         

         

Data collected

• 13 PRAs completed in the 13 sampled watersheds.

• 238 WHS and 87 horticulture households surveyed.

• 242 plots visited for biomass estimation and soil sample collection.

• Soil analysed for SOC from 396 soil samples (including control). 

         

         

Step 3: Data generalisation & extrapolation

Step 1: Analysis of sampled works

• Data analysis was conducted at the watershed level using WHS and Horticulture household survey and PRA data
• For estimating carbon stock of social forestry and horticulture plantation works data analysis was done considering the year of plantation and area planted.

Step 2: Generalisation to Project Activity Intensive Blocks (PAIBs)

• Results from the sample size were generalised to the total works implemented in the PAIBs
• Generalisation was done using the percentage of households benefitted, plantation area, etc., depending on the type of work.

Step 3: Generalisation to the total project area and beneficiaries within districts with PAIBs

• Using the same method, sample result were generalised to the entire project area within districts from which sample watersheds were selected.

Results

Climate co-benefits of Usharmukti works

Horticulture

Situation

Resilience & Adaptation Co-benefits

• Most beneficiary households with surviving trees reported a cooler ambient temperature and improved soil quality.

• As plantations are young, there were no adaptation benefits reported. 

• Only in Purulia, 10% of survey respondents stated that their mango plantations have started yielding fruits with an average yield of 5 kg/year/tree. 

• This yield is being used for subsistence. 

• Additionally, about 5% of survey respondents in Purulia reported collecting dry leaves and branches from plantations to use as fuelwood.

Water Harvesting Structures

Situation

Resilience Co-benefits

• Enabled 59.8% former rainfed farmers to irrigate their lands. 

• Recharged groundwater and consequently increased the overall availability of water. 

• Increased the area under irrigation and provided access to water for an additional one and a half months. 

• Increased crop yields and farm incomes. 

• WHS also serves as fish and duck ponds and increase the availability of water for livestock. 

• Additional earnings on an average from livestock and fisheries are ₹14,321 and ₹22,963 per annum per beneficiary.

Adaptation Co-benefits

Diversified and higher incomes increase the ability to cope with crop loss due to drought.

Increased ability to protect crops from dry spells & droughts

Social Forestry

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Co-benefits 

• Average survival rate of social forestry plantations was 70.6%. 

• Increases the quantity of water in WHS downstream by two to three months.  

• Improved water quality in WHS downstream. 

• Cooler weather and increase in local fauna sightings.

• Plantations have also been perceived to improve soil quality.

Irrigation Canals

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Co-benefits

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Mitigation Co-benefits

• A total of 3,668 tonnes of carbon has been sequestered in tree biomass. 

• 5,707 tonnes of carbon has been sequestered by the soil in plantations.

• A total sequestration of 9,367 tonnes of carbon across all plantation works within the sampled districts under the Usharmukti programme.  

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Prerequisites for the framework 

• Selection of indicators (in line with the SDG & NDC targets) to quantify the climate co-benefits – a maximum of 2-3 indicators to be quantified for each type of work.

• Mapping of institutions and stakeholders, who'll be conducting the rapid field-based assessment (survey and field measurements). 

• Developing of methods manual – consisting  of different methods for quantification of climate co-benefits.

• Preparation of training modules (for field-assessment) and capacity building of relevant stakeholders. 

• Development and application of Sampling algorithm to the MGNREGS MIS. 

• IT infrastructure for digitisation of data collection and automation of data analysis 

The three-step framework

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Climate co-benefits framework

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Benefits 

• Provides an opportunity to improve implementation of the scheme, based on the feedback from beneficiary surveys and field assessments.

• Generates supplementary information for social audits performed under MGNREGS. 

• Aids reporting on the relevant SDG targets, indicators, and goals, and the forestry-related NDCs and Adaptation Communications (from 2024).

• Enables reporting of carbon sequestration benefits of plantation-related MGNREGS works that can become an input for the National Communications and the Biennial Update Reports of the GoI submitted to the UNFCCC. 

• Can be adopted by other development programmes implementing land- and water-based activities once its utility is demonstrated via MGNREGS.

Barriers

• Buy-in from various institutions and stakeholders involved in the implementation of MGNREGS might be difficult to come by.

• There is limited institutional capacity to carry out monitoring and reporting of climate co-benefits.

• Operationalisation of the framework and its integration into the scheme’s MIS is complex, requiring approval from the Ministry of Rural Development, GoI.

Our Work 

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Published on March 17, 2023.

Accessible at: https://www.cstep.in/publications-details.php?id=2316 

Workshop and training

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Think 20 policy brief 

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Think 20 book chapter – submitted for publication

A Framework for Quantifying the Climate Co-Benefits of Development Programmes | ThinkTwenty (T20) India 2023 - Official Engagement Group of G20 (t20ind.org)