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Subject: Climate Change

1. Global Warming and Issues
2. All about Pollution

  • Adaptation, not mitigation, should inform India’s climate strategy

    The article discusses issues such as China’s changing stance, climate finance and adoption of targets.

    The 26th COP to the UNFCCC

    • Countries Across the world are gearing up for the 26th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
    • At the forthcoming COP countries will be expected to increase the nationally determined commitments they made as part of that agreement.
    • Those original commitments would put the planet on track towards a 3 degrees centigrade temperature rise by the end of the current millennium.
    • 3-degree centigrade is far beyond the 1.5-degree limit that science considers to be a relatively safe threshold.

    Countries declaring carbon neutrality targets

    • The European Union (EU), the UK, Japan and South Korea have announced more ambitious targets.
    • The EU and the UK have pledged to reduce their carbon emissions by 55 per cent in 2030 with 2000 as the base year
    • They have also pledged to achieve “carbon neutrality” or zero carbon emissions by 2050.
    • China has announced that it will achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and this has been welcomed by other major economies.

    Delinking from China

    • It is anticipated that the Biden administration may engage with China to come up with a template for COP-26.
    • That template did not take into account India’s interests despite China being part of the BASIC group of Brazil, South Africa, China and India.
    • BASIC, as major emerging economies, had been taking coordinated positions at multilateral climate negotiations.
    • Going forward, India must delink itself from China, let BASIC become a consultative forum only and reconstruct a larger coalition of developing countries whose climate change goals are more aligned with its own.
    • After Paris, BASIC has lost whatever rationale it originally possessed.

    Course of action for India: Adaptation is the key

    • There will be some important international conferences before COP-26, where major efforts are expected to set down an agenda for that meeting.
    • Biden has called for a summit of major emitting nations on April 22.
    • In June there will be a G-7 summit of western countries and Japan to which India has been invited.
    • The UK has let it be known that climate change would be at the top of the summit agenda.
    • What should India’s stance be at these meetings?
    • Both for India and other developing countries, it is important that mitigation does not overshadow other key elements of the Paris Climate agreement.
    • There has been step-motherly treatment of adaptation, which is a bigger challenge for most developing countries than mitigation is.
    • Adaptation should have equal billing with mitigation whenever and wherever climate change action is being deliberated upon.
    • India may find itself under pressure to commit to decisions that limit rather than enhance its development prospects.
    • One should not yield to pressures to declare a peaking year for India’s carbon emissions or to follow China into declaring a target year for carbon neutrality.
    • There is a relentless effort by the US and Western European countries to include climate change on the UN Security Council (UNSC) agenda.
    • At a recent UNSC meeting, this was strongly opposed by Russia and by India.
    • We will need to work out a persuasive case for opposing it since a large number of countries seem to believe that climate change is indeed a security issue and needs to be treated as such.
    • The potentially menacing intent behind it should be exposed.

    Climate finance falling short

    • The developed countries had committed themselves to providing $100 billion a year in climate finance to developing countries up to 2020.
    • There was a pledge to increase the size of this funding significantly in the period 2021-2025.
    • Even by the very accommodative accounting methods used by the OECD, the actual flows have fallen far short, being only $79 billion in 2018.
    •  Our own ministry of finance has estimated that there has been only a billion dollars in new and additional finance transferred to developing countries annually against the $100 billion pledge.
    • It is therefore important for India to highlight the finance component.
    • This will also enable the mobilisation of other developing countries, in particular small and medium countries and small island developing states.
    • These countries look up to India to provide intellectual leadership in a domain that is often quite technical and complex.

    Consider the question “What are the factors India should highlight and focus on as it heads to the 26th COP to the UNFCCC?”

    Conclusion

    It is evident that India needs to fashion a fresh strategy on climate change negotiations to safeguard its interests, contribute to a global climate regime that enhances and does not diminish India’s development prospects and helps the country both to adapt to climate change that is already taking place and to accelerate its transition to a low carbon growth trajectory.

  • Climate and consciousness

    Two recent events: floods in Uttarakhand and Texas cold snap serves as reminders of the devastation climate change could unleash. What we need is climate action. The article deals with this issue.

    Fingerprints of global warming in Uttarakhand floods and Texas cold snap

    • The melting of the Himalayan glaciers that prompted the floods and landslides in Uttarakhand have the fingerprints of global warming.
    • The United States has already witnessed many deadly avalanches since the beginning of 2021.
    • Furthermore, as glacier cover is replaced by water or land, the amount of light reflected decreases, aggravating warming.
    • The extreme cold weather in Texas, like the double-digit negative temperatures seen in Germany earlier this year, is connected to Arctic-peninsula warming, at a rate almost twice the global average.

    Global warming causing the movement of cold air

    • Usually, there is a collection of winds around the Arctic keeping the cold locked far to the north.
    • But global warming has caused gaps in these protective winds, allowing intensely cold air to move south — a phenomenon that is accelerating.

    India needs to announce carbon neutrality target

    • When the public connects cause and effect, responses are usually swift.
    • Global warming is still seen as a danger that lies over the horizon.
    • For India, the third-largest carbon emitter after China and the United States, a decisive switch is needed from highly polluting coal and petroleum to cleaner and renewable power sources.
    • China has announced carbon neutrality by 2060, Japan and South Korea by 2050, but India is yet to announce a target.
    • HSBC ranks India at the top among 67 nations in climate vulnerability (2018), Germanwatch ranks India fifth among 181 nations in terms of climate risks (2020).
    • But public spending does not reflect these perils.

    Including policies for climate mitigation in the Budget

    • A vital step should be explicitly including policies for climate mitigation in the government budget.
    • Growth targets should include timelines for switching to cleaner energy.
    • The government needs to launch a major campaign to mobilise climate finance.
    • India’s Central and State governments must increase allocations for risk reduction, such as better defences against floods, or agricultural innovations to withstand droughts.

    Neglect of warnings and lack of policy response

    •  The Uttarakhand government and the Centre have been diluting, instead of strengthening, climate safeguards for hydroelectric and road projects.
    • Studies had flagged ice loss across the Himalayas, and the dangers to densely populated catchments, but policy response has been lacking.
    • Similarly, Kerala ignored a landmark study calling for regulation of mining, quarrying and dam construction in ecologically sensitive places, which contributed to the massive floods and landslides in 2018 and 2019.

    Consider the question ” Frequent occurrences of the extreme weather events serve as the warning for more climate actions, yet there is a lack of policy actions. In light of this, suggest the measures India should take.”

    Conclusion

    Events like Uttarakhand and Texas should be treated as lessons to change people’s minds and for the public to demand urgent action.

  • What is Stockholm+50?

    Stockholm+50 is a high-level meeting that the Government of Sweden plans to hold in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the first UN conference on the human environment – the 1972 Stockholm Conference.

    The 1972 Stockholm Conference

    • The UN Conference on the Human Environment, also known as the Stockholm Conference, was the first UN conference on the environment and was held between 5 and 16 June 1972 in Stockholm.
    • The meeting’s outcome document – the Stockholm Declaration – included several principles that are still important for environmental management.
    • Another result of the meeting was the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Environment Day, held annually on 5 June.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty drawn at:

    (a) United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 1972

    (b) UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1992

    (c) World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, 2002

    (d) UN Climate Change Conference, Copenhagen, 2009

    Background

    • It’s been a generation since global leaders met in Stockholm in 1972 to discuss environmental challenges.
    • Then the concerns were for the local environment; there was no talk of climate change or even the depletion of the ozone layer.
    • All that came later. In 1972, the discussion was on the toxification of the environment as water and air were foul.

    Progress for 50 years

    • The toxification of the environment is still a pressing concern; countries have indeed cleaned up locally but added to the emissions in the global atmosphere.
    • Now, we are out of time as climate change impacts are spiralling out of control.

    Perils of Ecological Globalization

    • The fact is we stitched up the global ecological framework in terms of the many agreements only.
    • During this time, we also signed another agreement on free-trade — the economic globalisation agreement.
    • But we never really understood how these two frameworks — ecological and economic globalisation — would counteract each other.
    • As a result, we have worked to build an economic model based on discounting the price of labour and of the environment.

    Expectations from Stockholm+50

    • The aim of Stockholm+50 is to contribute to concrete action.
    • It aims at leveraging sustainable consumption and production patterns and nature-based solutions in order to achieve climate-neutral, resilient, circular and inclusive economies.
    • The narrative and result will be further developed together with interested governments and other partners.

  • Places in news: Lake Chad

    One of Africa’s largest freshwater bodies, Lake Chad, has shrunk by 90 per cent.

    Try this PYQ from CSP 2018:

    Q.Which of the following has/have shrunk immensely/dried up in the recent past due to human activities?

    1. Aral Sea
    2. Black Sea
    3. Lake Baikal

    Select the correct answer using the code given below:

    (a) 1 only

    (b) 2 and 3

    (c) 2 only

    (d) 1 and 3

    Lake Chad

    • Lake Chad in the Sahel spans the countries of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon and is home to 17.4 million people.
    • It is blessed with rich aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity.
    • The Chari River, fed by its tributary the Logone, provides over 90% of the lake’s water, with a small amount coming from the Yobe River in Nigeria/Niger.
    • Despite high levels of evaporation, the lake is freshwater.
    • The Lake Chad basin comprises biosphere reserves, World Heritage and Ramsar sites as well as wetlands of international conservation importance.

    Why it is significant?

    • For years, the lake has been supporting drinking water, irrigation, fishing, livestock and economic activity for over 30 million people in the region.
    • It is vital for indigenous, pastoral and farming communities in one of the world’s poorest countries.
    • However, climate change has fuelled a massive environmental and humanitarian crisis.
    • The United Nations has termed the Lake Chad crisis as “one of the worst in the world”.

    A looming peril

    • The lake has shrunk 90 per cent over the last 60 years since the chronic droughts surged at the beginning of the 1970s.
    • The surface area of the lake was 26,000 square kilometres in 1963; it has now reduced to less than 1,500 square kilometres.
    • Its population is exploding and the region has been ripped apart from conflict at an unprecedented scale.

    Behind all crises

    • The ever-changing climate has dramatically worsened the situation, amplifying food and nutritional insecurity in the region.
    • Temperature is rising one-and-a-half times faster than the global average. The seasonal and inter-rainfall patterns have been drastically changing each year.
    • This has triggered food insecurity, ultimately pushing communities into the arms of terrorist groups.
    • Boko Haram is one of the top insurgent groups with a strong foothold in the region.

  • Carbon Watch: India’s first app to assess one’s carbon footprint

    Chandigarh became the first state or UT in India to launch Carbon Watch, a mobile application to assess the carbon footprint of an individual.

    Carbon Footprint

    • A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent.
    • It corresponds to the whole amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) produced to, directly and indirectly; support a person’s lifestyle and activities.
    • Carbon footprints are usually measured in equivalent tons of CO2, during the period of a year, and they can be associated with an individual, an organization, a product or an event, among others.
    • The GHGs whose sum results in a carbon footprint can come from the production and consumption of fossil fuels, food, manufactured goods, materials, roads or transportation.

    Note: An ecological footprint, as explained earlier compares the total resources people consume with the land and water area that is needed to replace those resources. A carbon footprint also deals with resource usage but focuses strictly on the greenhouse gases released due to burning of fossil fuels.

    How does the app Carbon Watch work?

    • As a person downloads the application, they will need to fill details in four parts — Water, Energy, Waste Generation and Transport (Vehicular movement).
    • In the category of Water, the person will be required to inform about the consumption of water.
    • In the Energy category, the details regarding the electricity units consumed every month at the house, monthly bill etc and usage of solar energy will have to be furnished.
    • In the Waste category, the individual will need to inform about the waste generated on their part and their family.
    • In the transport section, the individual will have to inform about the mode of transport used by four-wheeler, two-wheeler or bicycle.

    Try this PYQ:

    As a result of their annual survey, the National Geographic Society and an international polling firm GlobeScan gave India top rank in Greendex 2009 score. What is this score?

    (a) It is a measure of efforts made by different countries in adopting technologies for reducing the carbon footprint

    (b) It is a measure of environmentally sustainable consumer behavior in different countries

    (c) It is an assessment of programs/schemes undertaken by different countries for improving the conservation of natural resources

    (d) It is an index showing the volume of carbon credits sold by different countries

  • Mawsynram: Wettest place on Earth sees a decreasing trend in rainfall

    A recent study that looked at the rainfall pattern in the past 119 years found a decreasing trend at Cherrapunji and nearby areas.

    Try this PYQ:

    Q.“Climate is extreme, rainfall is scanty and the people used to be nomadic herders.” The above statement best describes which of the following regions?

    (a) African Savannah

    (b) Central Asian Steppe

    (c) North American Prairie

    (d) Siberian Tundra

    Mawsynram

    • Mawsynram is a town in the East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya state in northeastern India, 60.9 kilometres from Shillong.
    • Mawsynram receives the highest rainfall in India.
    • It is reportedly the wettest place on Earth, with an average annual rainfall of 11,872mm but that claim is disputed.
    • According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Mawsynram received 26,000 millimetres (1,000 in) of rainfall in 1985.

    Why it rain highest in Mawsynram?

    • Because of the uneven relief of India due to the presence of a number of hill ranges, the monsoon is not able to shed its moisture evenly over India.
    • Windward sides receive more rainfall and leeward sides receive less rainfall.
    • Mawsynram lies in the funnel-shaped depression caused by the Khasi range in Meghalaya.
    • The Bay of Bengal branch of monsoons is trapped in it and causes heavy rainfall.

    Decreasing rainfall trends

    • The research analysed daily rain gauge measurements during 1901–2019 and noted that the changes in the Indian Ocean temperature have a huge effect on the rainfall in the region.
    • There was a reduction in the vegetation area in northeast India in the past two decades, implying that human influence also plays an important role in the changing rainfall patterns.
    • The traditional way of cultivation known as Jhum cultivation or shifting cultivation is now decreased and being replaced by other methods.
    • Also, previous studies have noted there is sizable deforestation in the region.

  • India Inc must follow global example, take affirmative action on climate change

    The article explains the global trend in investors and lendors are demanding companies to recognise their impact on environment and act on it.

    Accountability on climate change: global trend

    • There is a wave of investors pushing large corporations from across sectors, to recognise their carbon footprint and take affirmative action.
    • Aviva, the British insurance company announced it would divest stock and bond holdings in 30 of the biggest corporate emitters of carbon, if their boards failed to take affirmative action over climate change.
    • MPs in the United Kingdom called on the Bank of England to ratchet up environment standards in its pandemic stabilising, corporate bond programme.
    • Swedbank AB, Sweden’s biggest mortgage bank, has taken a decision not to provide fresh loans to new oil and gas projects.

    Companies realising social and environmental impacts

    • Several large and growing companies, especially in Europe, are realising their social and environmental impacts and making it a boardroom agenda even without investor guns on their heads.
    • Schneider Electric, the energy management and automation company, has embedded environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into every facet of its activities.
    •  The company climbed from 29th to number 1 rank in the 2021 Global 100 ranking in the Corporate Knights index of the world’s most sustainable companies.
    • Only one company from India, Tech Mahindra, has made it to the world’s 100 most sustainable list.

    Indian scenario

    • Indian institutional lenders and investors are simply not demanding enough on sustainability.
    • A majority of Indian companies are only meeting compliance norms set out by various state or city authorities.
    • Rarely do they go beyond rule-based compliances and implement environment, social and governance or ESG goals with purpose and passion like their European counterparts.

    Way forward

    • SEBI is putting the final touches on the Business Responsibility and Environment Reporting (BRSR) guidelines.
    • The new ESG reporting norm will apply to the top 1,000 listed companies on Indian exchanges.
    • Under BRSR reporting guidelines, companies will have to declare their R&D spends on improving environmental and social outcomes. 
    • They will have to disclose energy and water consumed to turnover ratios, and the percentage of recycled or reused input materials, among many other social and governance disclosures such as CSR, employee skilling and gender diversity.
    • It’s time for lending institutions and investors to align with SEBI and use their muscle to drive a deeper change.

    Consider the question “Indian institutional lenders and investors are  not demanding enough on sustainability from the companies. Rarely do they go beyond rule-based compliances and implement environment, social and governance or ESG goals with purpose and passion like their European counterparts. In light of this, suggest the measures to nudge the businesseses to act on their environmental responsibilities.” 

    Conclusion

    Stepping up green standards to meet Paris Climate Agreement goals cannot be the government’s responsibility alone. Businesses must be part of the movement, or the target of containing global warming to less than 1.5 degrees of pre-industrial levels, will remain elusive.

  • Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in Uttarakhand

    A massive glacier burst at Chamoli in Uttarakhand yet again bringing back our focus to the dangers of climate change.

    A wake-up call!

    Uttarakhand is often at the heart of various Himalayan disasters such as flash floods, cloud bursts, avalanches and earthquakes.

    The Chamoli incident signifies the dawn of ugly faces of climate disaster for which the mankind is clueless. At last, someone has to be blamed, isn’t it?

    What is the news?

    • Experts are uncertain about what caused the massive glacier burst at Chamoli in Uttarakhand.
    • It is unclear whether there was an avalanche in the area recently or whether the lake breach was the result of construction, anthropological activities, climate change etc.

    What is GLOF?

    • A GLOF is a type of outburst flood that occurs when the dam containing a glacial lake fails.
    • An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a jökulhlaup.
    • The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine.
    • Failure can happen due to various factors such as:
    1. Erosion, a buildup of water pressure
    2. Avalanche of rock or heavy snow
    3. Earthquake or volcanic eruptions under the ice or
    4. Displacement of water in a glacial lake when a large portion of an adjacent glacier collapses into it

    Possible causes for Chamoli

    Avalanche

    • An avalanche is falling masses of snow and ice which gathers pace as it comes down the slope.
    • But an avalanche is unlikely to result in the rise of water of that magnitude what Chamoli witnessed.

    Cloudburst

    • What happened in Uttarakhand in 2013 was a multi-day cloudburst.
    • It is a sudden, very heavy rainfall accompanies by a thunderstorm. But it generally happens in monsoon.
    • In fact, the season in which such a disaster was witnessed has surprised experts as there is no immediate trigger that can be pointed to as the reason why water level rose to that level washing away two hydro projects.

    Why always Uttarakhand?

    • Human activities profoundly affect the earth’s climate and mountains are a sensitive indicator of that effect.
    • The mountain ecosystem is easily disrupted by variations in climate owing to their altitude, slope and orientation to the sun.
    • As the earth heats up, mountains glaciers melt at unprecedented rates.
    • Several scientists believe that the change occurring in the mountain ecosystems may provide an early glimpse of what could come to pass in a lowland environment.

    Conclusion

    • The current policy of the government of pursuing hydro-power projects indiscriminately cannot be ignored.
    • The entire State of Uttarakhand is categorised as falling in Zone-IV and V of the earthquake risk map of India.
    • The potential of the cumulative effect of multiple such projects has turned out to be more environmentally damaging than sustainable.

  • Global Climate Risk Index 2021

    India was ranked the seventh worst-hit country in 2019 in the Global Climate Risk Index 2021.

    The report holds much significance for prelims as well as mains. Just for the sake of information, we must be aware of India’s performance.

    Global Climate Risk Index

    • The GCRI is released annually by the environmental think tank and sustainable development lobbyist Germanwatch.
    • It analyses to what extent countries have been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heat waves etc.).
    • It pushes for the need to support developing countries in coping with the effects of climate change.

    Highlights of the 2020 year

    Global prospects

    • Mozambique, Zimbabwe and The Bahamas were the worst-affected countries in 2019.
    • While hurricane Dorian ravaged The Bahamas; Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi were affected by the single extreme weather event of cyclone Idai.
    • Japan and Afghanistan were the other countries that fared worse than India on the Index, while South Sudan, Niger and Bolivia fared better in comparison but still made it to the top 10 worst-affected countries.

    The burden of development

    • Eight of the 10 countries most affected between 2000 and 2019 were developing countries with low or lower middle income per capita.
    • Vulnerable people in developing countries suffered most from extreme weather events like storms, floods and heatwaves, whereas the impact of climate change was visible around the globe.
    • Poorer countries are hit hardest because they are more vulnerable to the damaging effects of a hazard and have the lower coping capacity.

    Data about India

    • According to the Index floods caused by heavy rain in 2019 took 1,800 lives across 14 states in India and displaced 1.8 million people.
    • Overall, the intense monsoon season affected 11.8 million people, with the economic damage estimated to be $10 billion (Rs.72,900 crore at $1=INR 72.9).
    • A total of eight tropical cyclones meant that 2019 was one of the most active Northern Indian Ocean cyclone seasons on record. Six of them intensified to become “very severe”.
    • The worst was Cyclone Fani in May 2019 which affected a total of 28 million people, killing nearly 90 people in India and Bangladesh, and causing economic losses of $8.1 billion (Rs.59,066 crore).

  • India’s Draft Arctic Policy

    India has unveiled a new draft ‘Arctic’ policy that and is committed to expanding scientific research, “sustainable tourism” and mineral oil and gas exploration in the Arctic region.

    Note: Five Arctic littoral states — Canada, Denmark (Greenland), Norway, Russia and the USA (Alaska) — and three other Arctic nations — Finland, Sweden and Iceland — form the Arctic Council (estd. 1996).

    Try mapping them.

    Caution: India became an Observer in the Arctic Council for the first time in 2013. And, India isn’t a full-time observer.

    India at the Arctic

    • India launched its first scientific expedition to the Arctic in 2007 and set up a research station ‘Himadri’ in the international Arctic research base at Ny-Ålesund in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway.
    • It has two other observatories in Kongsforden and Gruvebadet. Himadri is manned for about 180 days a year.
    • Since its establishment, over 300 Indian researchers have worked in the station. India has sent 13 expeditions to the Arctic since 2007 and runs 23 active projects.

    Draft ‘Arctic’ policy

    • The draft policy discusses the importance of understanding the impact of climate change in the Arctic region and its connection with India’s monsoon, which is crucial for its economy.
    • India also proposes to focus on vast resources of the Arctic region including hydrocarbons, minerals and renewable power to ensure its energy security.
    • The policy is cautious in framing its involvement in the Arctic as “common heritage of mankind” but its priorities are similar to that of other non-Arctic states.
    • This policy roadmap draft rides on five pillars:
    1. Science and research activities,
    2. Economic and human development cooperation,
    3. Transportation and connectivity,
    4. Governance and international cooperation, and
    5. National capacity building.

    Nodal bodies

    • The Goa-based National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research to lead scientific research and act as a nodal body.
    • It would thus coordinate among various scientific bodies to promote domestic scientific research capacities by expanding earth sciences, biological sciences, climate change and space-related programmes, dove-tailed with Arctic imperatives.

    Why study arctic?

    • The Arctic is home to almost four million inhabitants, of which approximately one-tenth are considered as indigenous people.
    • Climate change has meant that seasons in the Arctic influence tropical weather.
    • The Arctic influences atmospheric, oceanographic and biogeochemical cycles of the earth’s ecosystem.
    • The loss of sea ice, ice caps, and warming of the ocean and atmosphere would lower salinity in the global oceans.
    • This could increase the temperature differential between land and oceans in the tropical regions, dry subtropical areas and increase precipitation at higher latitudes.
    • Arctic research will help India’s scientific community to study melting rates of the third pole — the Himalayan glaciers.