Six space missions to look forward to in 2021 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Six space missions to look forward to in 2021.

From Artemis 1 to Chandrayaan 3, here are some missions to keep an eye out for

Space exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth.

The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of the missions to keep an eye out for.

Artemis 1

Artemis 1 is the first flight of the Nasa-led, international Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024. This will consist of an uncrewed Orion spacecraft which will be sent on a three-week flight around the Moon. IT will reach a maximum distance from Earth of 450,000 kilometres – the farthest into space that any spacecraft that can transport humans will have ever flown.

Artemis 1 will be launched into Earth orbit on the first Nasa Space Launch System, which will be the most powerful rocket in operation. From Earth orbit, the Orion will be propelled onto a different path towards the Moon by the rocket’s interim cryogenic propulsion stage. The Orion capsule will then travel to the Moon under the power provided by a service module supplied by the European Space Agency (Esa).

The mission will provide engineers back on Earth with a chance to evaluate how the spacecraft performs in deep space and serve as a prelude to later crewed lunar missions. The launch of Artemis 1 is currently scheduled for late in 2021.

Mars missions

In February, Mars will receive a flotilla of terrestrial robotic guests from several countries. The United Arab Emirates’ Al Amal (Hope) spacecraft is the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. It is scheduled to arrive in Mars orbit on February 9, where it will spend two years monitoring the Martian weather and disappearing atmosphere.

Arriving within a couple of weeks after Al Amal will be the China National Space Administration’s Tianwen-1, consisting of an orbiter and a surface rover. The spacecraft will enter Martian orbit for several months before deploying the rover to the surface. If it succeeds, China will become the third country to land anything on Mars. The mission has several objectives including mapping the mineral composition of the surface and searching for sub-surface water deposits.

Nasa’s Perseverance rover will land at Jezero Crater on February 18 and search for any signs of ancient life which may have been preserved in the clay deposits there. Critically, it will also store a cache of Martian surface samples on board as the first part in a highly ambitious international program to return samples of Mars to Earth.

Chandrayaan-3

In March 2021, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch its third lunar mission: Chandrayaan-3. Chandrayaan-1 launched in 2008 and was one of the first major missions in the Indian space programme. Comprising an orbiter and a surface penetrator probe, the mission was one of the first to confirm evidence of lunar water.

Unfortunately, contact with the satellite was lost less than a year later. Sadly, there was a similar mishap with its successor, Chandrayaan-2, which consisted of an orbiter, a lander (Vikram) and a lunar rover (Pragyan).

Chandrayaan-3 was announced a few months later. It will consist of only a lander and rover, as the previous mission’s orbiter is still functioning and providing data.

If all goes well the Chandrayaan-3 rover will touch down in the lunar south pole’s Aitken basin. It’s of particular interest as it is thought to host numerous deposits of subsurface water ice – a vital component for any future sustainable lunar habitation.

James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, but has had a rocky path to being launched. Initially planned for a 2007 launch, the Webb telescope is almost 14 years late and has cost roughly US$10 billion (£7.4 billion) after apparent underestimates and overruns similar to those experienced by Hubble.

Whereas Hubble has provided some amazing views of the universe in visible and ultraviolet region of light, Webb is planning to focus observations in the infrared wavelength band. The reason for this is that when observing really distant objects there will probably be gas clouds in the way.

These gas clouds block really small wavelengths of light, such as X-rays and ultra violet light, while longer wavelengths like infra-red, microwave and radio can get through more easily. So by observing in these longer wavelengths we should see more of the universe.

Webb also has a much bigger mirror of 6.5-metre diameter compared to Hubble’s 2.4-metre diameter mirror – essential for improving image resolution and seeing finer detail.

The primary mission of Webb is look at light from galaxies at the edge of the universe which can tell us about how the first stars, galaxies and planetary systems formed. Potentially this could include some information about the origin of life as well, as Webb is planning on imaging exoplanet atmospheres in high detail, searching for the building blocks of life. (Source: downtoearth)

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Six space missions to look forward to in 2021.

Bird flu deaths on the rise, environment ministry issues guidelines - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Bird flu deaths on the rise, environment ministry issues guidelines.

As many as 250 crows in Rajasthan, 1,700 migratory birds in Himachal Pradesh have died since December 2020

The Union Ministry of Environment, Science and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has ordered a strict vigil on the wintering habitats of migratory birds for any sign of a flu outbreak in the backdrop of rising deaths of birds.

The ministry issued a set of guidelines January 3, 2021 in view of Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan reporting several deaths in December alone, including that of migratory birds. Many birds migrate to India every year during the winters for food, breeding and nesting.

According to the letter:

“Considering this grave situation, the ministry requests all states / Union territories to take all possible measures / precautions to prevent the transmission of diseases, if any, in other animals / birds and human beings. Surveillance for mortality of wildlife, particularly in needs to be taken up on priority and States are requested to report such incidences of mortality to this ministry.”

The guidelines have asked all states to report to the Union ministry every week. It also laid down protocols for personal and bird care as well as monitoring of migratory birds.

As many as 250 crows in Rajasthan have died due to bird flu since December, 2020. At least 1,700 migratory birds in Himachal Pradesh have died during the same time, reasons for which are being ascertained, according to Additional Director General (Wildlife) at MOEF&CC, Soumitra Dasgupta.

The guidelines

In terms of personal care, the guidelines stated, the personnel should wear rubber gloves and protective clothing that can be disinfected or disposed of, including protective eyewear and face shield.

“The influenza virus is sensitive to many common disinfectants such as detergents, 10 per cent household bleach, alcohol and other commercial disinfectants. The virus is much more difficult to inactivate if it is encrusted in organic material such as faeces or soil,” the guidelines states.

It said influenza anti-viral drug has to be taken daily for the entire time one is in direct contact with infected birds or a contaminated environment.

For bird care, the guidelines stated:

• It should be ensured that wild birds are not harmed during trapping and collection of serum samples.

• Preference should be given to the leg vein instead of the wing vein. Wing vein blood collection is reported to result in hemorrhage affecting normal flight, making them susceptible to predators.

• All wild bird samples are valuable; hence collection of samples, packing and transport should be done in collaboration with trained animal husbandry / veterinary staff

• Awareness should be spread that any sighting of a dead bird by volunteers, bird watchers, etc. should be reported to the nearest forest / animal husbandry office

• To better monitor the migratory birds, a state-level committee has to be formed which will come with an action plan

“Surveillance should not be restricted to the Protected Areas alone, but to all such wetlands and habitats that provide staging grounds to the migrating birds and to areas where there is a possibility of interaction of migratory birds and poultry, more so in backyard poultry,” the guidelines said.

All states are required to immediately report to the Union ministry in case of any bird deaths. (Source:downtoearth)

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Bird flu deaths on the rise, environment ministry issues guidelines.

Statement on Climate of India during 2020 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Statement on Climate of India during 2020.

The annual mean land surface air temperature averaged over India during 2020 was above normal. During the year, annual mean land surface air temperature averaged over the country was +0.290C above normal (based on the data of 1981-2010). The year 2020 was the eighth warmest year on record since nation-wide records commenced in 1901. However, this is substantially lower than the highest warming observed over India during 2016 (+0.710C).

The monsoon and post-monsoon seasons with mean temperature anomalies (Actual temperature-Normal temperature) of +0.430C and +0.530C respectively mainly contributed to this warming. Mean temperature during the winter was also above normal with anomaly of +0.140C. However, during the pre-monsoon season temperature was below normal (-0.030C). The Global mean surface temperature anomaly during 2020 (January to October as per WMO state of the global climate) is +1.20C

The 2020 annual rainfall over the country as a whole was 109% of its Long Period Average (LPA) based on the data of 1961-2010. The monsoon season rainfall over the country as a whole was above normal and was 109% of its LPA.

Temperatures

The 2020 annual mean land surface air temperature for the country was +0.290C above the 1981-2010 period average, thus making the year 2020 as the eighth warmest year on record since 1901 (Fig. 1).The five warmest years on record in order were: 2016 (+0.710C), 2009 (+0.55 0C), 2017 (+0.541 0C), 2010 (+0.5390C), and 2015 (+0.420C). It may be mentioned that 12 out of 15 warmest years were during the recent fifteen years (2006-2020).Past decade (2001-2010/ 2011-2020) was also the warmest decade on record with anomalies of 0.230C /0.340C.The country averaged annual mean temperature during 1901-2020 showed an increasing trend of 0.620C/100 years (Fig.1) with significant increasing trend in maximum temperature (0.990C/100 years) and relatively lower increasing trend (0.240C/100 years) in minimum temperature.

The country averaged seasonal mean temperatures were also above the average during all the seasons except pre-monsoon season. The country averaged mean monthly temperatures were warmer than the normal during all the months of the year except March and June. The mean temperatures exceeded the normal during September (by 0.720C, warmest since 1901), August (by 0.580C, second warmest), October (by 0.940C, third warmest), July (by 0.560C, fifth warmest), and December (by 0.390C, seventh warmest).

Rainfall

The annual rainfall over the country was 109 % of long period average (LPA) of 117.7 cms. Time series of percentage departure of annual rainfall over the country as a whole since 1901 is shown in Fig. 2. Rainfall over the country as a whole during the SW monsoon season (June-September), which is the principal rainy season of the country, was above normal (109 % of LPA of 88 cms). During this season, among the four broad geographical regions of the country, Central India, South Peninsular and East & Northeast India received seasonal rainfall of 115%, 129% and 106% of its LPA respectively, while Northwest India received seasonal rainfall of 84% of its LPA. The 2020 Northeast monsoon season (October-December) rainfall over the country as a whole was normal (101% of LPA). The seasonal rainfall during the northeast monsoon season over the core region of the south peninsula (comprising of 5 subdivisions viz. Coastal Andhra Pradesh, Rayalaseema, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry, South Interior Karnataka and Kerala), was also normal (110% of LPA). All the five subdivisions of the core region except Kerala received excess/normal rainfall.

Tropical Storms in the Indian Seas

During 2020, 5 cyclones formed over the North Indian Ocean. These are Super cyclonic Storm AMPHAN, Very Severe Cyclonic Storms NIVAR & GATI, Severe Cyclonic Storm NISARGA, and Cyclonic Storm ‘BUREVI’. Of these, NISARGA & GATI formed over Arabian Sea, while the remaining 3 cyclones viz. AMPHAN, NIVAR & BUREVI formed over the Bay of Bengal. Out of these five most devastating cyclones, the Super Cyclonic Storm AMPHAN formed in the pre-monsoon season and crossed West Bengal coast over Sundarbans on 20th May. It claimed 90 lives & about 4,000 livestock mainly in West Bengal. The Severe Cyclonic Storm NISARGA, formed in the Monsoon season, crossed Maharashtra coast on 3rd June claimed 4 lives & 2000 livestock in Maharashtra. The remaining three cyclones viz.NIVAR, BUREVI & GATI formed during the post monsoon season. The Very Severe Cyclonic Storm NIVAR crossed Tamil Nadu & Puducherry coasts close to north of Puducherry and claimed 12 lives & 10836 livestock in Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh. The Cyclonic Storm BUREVI claimed 9 lives & 200 livestock in Tamil Nadu. The VSCS “GATI” made landfall over Somalia coast. All these weather systems and their remnants and other low-pressure systems caused above normal rainfall over central and peninsular India.

High Impact Weather Events

The country also experienced other high impact weather events like, extremely heavy rainfall, floods, landslide, thunderstorm, lightning, cold waves, etc. (Fig.4). A few are listed below. The causalities mentioned here are based on the media and government reports. Bihar & Uttar Pradesh were the most adversely affected states during the year which reportedly claimed more than 350 deaths from each state mainly due to thunderstorm, lightning & cold wave events.

Heavy rainfall & flood related incidents reportedly claimed over 600 lives from different parts of the country during pre-monsoon, monsoon & post-monsoon seasons. Of these, 129 lives were reportedly claimed from Assam, 72 from Kerala [Specifically, 65 persons reportedly claimed dead in a single day from Pettimudi in Munnar, Idukki district of Kerala on 7th August due to landslide.], 61 from Telangana (while, 59 lives reportedly claimed only during the period 1st to 20th October), 54 lives from Bihar, 50 from Maharashtra, 48 Uttar Pradesh, & 38 from Himachal Pradesh. Thunderstorms and lightning reportedly claimed 815 lives from different parts of the country. Among these, 280 from Bihar, 220 from Uttar Pradesh, 122 from Jharkhand, 72 from Madhya Pradesh, 23 from Maharashtra and 20 from Andhra Pradesh were significant. Cold wave conditions mainly prevailed over central parts the country especially in the month of January. It caused deaths of about 150 people. Of these deaths, 88 deaths were reported from Uttar Pradesh alone, 45 from Bihar only on single day on 1st January & 16 from Jharkhand.

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Statement on Climate of India during 2020.

UN Climate Action Summit 2019 - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

UN Climate Action Summit 2019.

Global emissions are reaching record levels and show no sign of peaking. The last four years were the four hottest on record, and winter temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 3°C since 1990. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying, and we are starting to see the life-threatening impact of climate change on health, through air pollution, heatwaves and risks to food security.
The impacts of climate change are being felt everywhere and are having very real consequences on people’s lives. Climate change is disrupting national economies, costing us dearly today and even more tomorrow. But there is a growing recognition that affordable, scalable solutions are available now that will enable us all to leapfrog to cleaner, more resilient economies.

The latest analysis shows that if we act now, we can reduce carbon emissions within 12 years and hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C and even, as asked by the latest science, to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
Thankfully, we have the Paris Agreement – a visionary, viable, forward-looking policy framework that sets out exactly what needs to be done to stop climate disruption and reverse its impact. But the agreement itself is meaningless without ambitious action.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres is calling on all leaders to come to New York on 23 September with concrete, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050.
To be effective and credible, these plans cannot address mitigation alone: they must show the way toward a full transformation of economies in line with sustainable development goals. They should not create winners and losers or add to economic inequality; they must be fair and create new opportunities and protections for those negatively impacted, in the context of a just transition. And they should also include women as key decision-makers: only gender-diverse decision-making has the capacity to tackle the different needs that will emerge in this coming period of critical transformation.
The Summit will bring together governments, the private sector, civil society, local authorities and other international organizations to develop ambitious solutions in six areas: a global transition to renewable energy; sustainable and resilient infrastructures and cities; sustainable agriculture and management of forests and oceans; resilience and adaptation to climate impacts; and alignment of public and private finance with a net zero economy.
Business is on our side. Accelerated climate solutions can strengthen our economies and create jobs, while bringing cleaner air, preserving natural habitats and biodiversity, and protecting our environment.
New technologies and engineering solutions are already delivering energy at a lower cost than the fossil-fuel driven economy. Solar and onshore wind are now the cheapest sources of new bulk power in virtually all major economies. But we must set radical change in motion.
This means ending subsidies for fossil fuels and high-emitting agriculture and shifting towards renewable energy, electric vehicles and climate-smart practices. It means carbon pricing that reflects the true cost of emissions, from climate risk to the health hazards of air pollution. And it means accelerating the closure of coal plants and halting the construction of new ones and replacing jobs with healthier alternatives so that the transformation is just, inclusive and profitable.
Action porfolios
In order to ensure that the transformative actions in the real economy are as impactful as possible, the Secretary-General has prioritized the following action portfolios, which are recognized as having high potential to curb greenhouse gas emissions and increased global action on adaptation and resilience.
Finance: mobilizing public and private sources of finance to drive decarbonization of all priority sectors and advance resilience;
• Energy Transition: accelerating the shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy, as well as making significant gains in energy efficiency;
• Industry Transition: transforming industries such as Oil and Gas, Steel, Cement, Chemicals and Information Technology;
• Nature-Based Solutions: Reducing emissions, increasing sink capacity and enhancing resilience within and across forestry, agriculture, oceans and food systems, including through biodiversity conservation, leveraging supply chains and technology;
• Cities and Local Action: Advancing mitigation and resilience at urban and local levels, with a focus on new commitments on low-emission buildings, mass transport and urban infrastructure; and resilience for the urban poor;
• Resilience and Adaptation: advancing global efforts to address and manage the impacts and risks of climate change, particularly in those communities and nations most vulnerable.
In addition, there are three additional key areas:
• Mitigation Strategy: to generate momentum for ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and long-term strategies to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
• Youth Engagement and Public Mobilization: To mobilize people worldwide to take action on climate change and ensure that young people are integrated and represented across all aspects of the Summit, including the six transformational areas.
• Social and Political Drivers: to advance commitments in areas that affect people’s well-being, such as reducing air pollution, generating decent jobs, and strengthening climate adaptation strategies and protect workers and vulnerable groups.


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UN Climate Action Summit 2019.

Climate vulnerability assessment of all states, UTs soon - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Climate vulnerability assessment of all states, UTs soon.

• It would be the first-such climate vulnerability index for all states
• India is among the most vulnerable to climate change
After the first-ever vulnerability assessment of 12 Himalayan states to climate risks, the Department of Science and Technology has now decided to carry out a climate vulnerability assessment of all states and union territories (UTs).
The assessment would be based on the global methodological framework of 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), where vulnerability is defined by how ‘sensitive’ a specific eco-system is to climate change risks and what is the current adaptive capacity to mitigate the risks.

“The project for the 12 Himalayan states is completed and now it would be extended to all other states and union territories. This would enable us to compare vulnerability profiles of all states and prioritize action on climate change," said Dr Akhilesh Gupta, head, climate change programme, Department of Science and Technology (DST).
It would be the first-such climate vulnerability index for all states, as there is no such national rating at present to determine which states are more vulnerable to climate risks based on a common set of indicators — socio-economic, demographic, health, sensitivity of agricultural production, forest-dependent livelihood and access to information.
Among the 12 Himalayan states, Assam and Mizoram were found to be the most vulnerable to climate change. Assam, not only has a low per capita income, but also the least area under irrigation, low percentage area covered under crop insurance and a high proportion of marginal farmers, making it extremely vulnerable.
“More than 60% of population in Assam rely on climate sensitive agriculture as a primary source of income. There is high yield variability of food grains, which indicates fluctuations in agro-climatic conditions over time. The population living below the poverty line (BPL) is also greater than national average, and there is lack of access of information," stated the report, which was presented at the 24th Conference of Parties (COP) meeting held in Poland last December.
The assessment for Himalayan states was conducted by researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, and IIT Mandi in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.
“India is among the most vulnerable to climate change. Such assessment would help government to assess which states or districts need more resource allocation for adaptation and mitigation of climate change, depending on how vulnerable they are," said Professor N H Ravindranath, from IISc Bangalore, adding that it would also nudge governments to revise their first state action plan based on current situation.
The assessment found low per capita income, low open forest area per 1,000 households and lack of irrigation coverage to be the most important drivers of vulnerability in Himalayan states. Other crucial indicators were percentage of area under slope, yield variability of food grains, forest cover, irrigation cover and access to healthcare. (Source: Livemint)


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Climate vulnerability assessment of all states, UTs soon.

Climate actions can save India 3 times its GDP, but rich nations must pay - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Climate actions can save India 3 times its GDP, but rich nations must pay.

India's emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) grew 6% a year over 16 years to 2016, faster than China's 3.2% and the world's average 1.3%.

India can save three times its gross domestic product (GDP) and help the world save a million lives a year if it scales up its climate actions to help the global community limit global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (oC), said a World Health Organization (WHO) study released on December 5, 2018. This is a more ambitious target than the 2oC agreed under the Paris Agreement in 2015.

Doing this would require massive investment, but historical emitters--the rich, industrialised countries--have failed to make good their commitments to provide funds under the Paris Agreement. “The present scope, scale and speed of climate finance are not only insufficient but not even being discussed properly,” said a paper released by India’s finance ministry on December 4, 2018, timed to coincide with the ongoing 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland.
India has always championed the developing countries’ demand that historical climate change culprits should pay for mitigation and adaptation. In 2009, at COP15, developed countries agreed to channel $100 billion (equal to the GDP of Delhi) every year by 2020 to help developing countries mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects. The Paris Agreement of 2015 required rich countries to review and scale up this amount from 2025 onwards.
Now, as world leaders thrash out a “rulebook” for implementing the Paris Agreement--the procedures, guidelines and institutional mechanisms for monitoring, reporting and verification of climate change goals--climate financing and finance accounting should be front and centre of the discussions, the paper said.
Developed countries have not made good their commitment
Upto 2017, developed countries had met only 12% of their financial obligations, according to the Indian finance ministry paper. It accused developed countries of using dodgy accounting methods to inflate their financial contribution to $41 billion (equal to the GDP of Uttarakhand state) per year by 2013-14.
“A government of India discussion paper in 2015 noted that [the] only credible number is $2.2 billion in 2013-14, if we restrict to country disbursements of actual climate finance on a concessional basis,” the paper said. The remaining money was either not yet disbursed, or not provided as financial assistance but as loans, etc.
Rich countries are completely failing to meet their commitment, Harjeet Singh, global lead on climate change with the non-profit ActionAid, told IndiaSpend. “Worse, we have seen attempts to pass this commitment off in the form of commercial loans, straddling developing countries with more unjust debt,” he said.
New climate-specific assistance may be just $16-21 billion (for 2018), the finance ministry paper said, adding, “If the finance for development projects that only partially cover climate change were reported more accurately, annual bilateral flows of public climate finance could be between $10 billion and $15 billion lower than reported.”
The UNFCCC guidelines allow much leeway in climate finance accounting, the paper said. Singh of ActionAid agreed: "It is next to impossible to quantify the total amount received under international climate finance…[I]t's very complex with different countries and agencies having their own definitions. Some even count development and infrastructure projects as climate projects.”
Therefore, developing countries such as India say the rulebook being negotiated at Katowice must clarify accounting procedures.
However, the United States--which has already pulled out of the Paris Agreement--the European Union and other developed countries are skirting the issue of climate finance reporting, as the newspaper Business Standard reported on December 6, 2018.
Developed countries say they will not set a date by which they will start providing upfront information on their financial contributions. They have also refused to set a date by which they will review the finances provided to see whether these were adequate, and have also vetoed any proposal that would require assessment of their financial support.
Ironically, even an annual $100 billion support, provided in full, would not be enough, the finance ministry’s paper said. “This goal of $100 billion is a meagre amount in size in contrast to the actual needs assessed for developing countries,” it said, adding that even a simple adding up of all the requirements of developing countries mentioned in their climate action plans submitted to the UN climate body came to around $4.4 trillion--about 5% of global GDP.
“Without real money for real action, the urgent transition the world needs to make will be impossible to achieve,” Singh said.
Where things stand: Warming, India’s goals, and upping the ante
The earth has warmed by 1oC from pre-industrial levels (before the 1800s), and any further increase is expected to have severe effects, from killing 70-90% coral reefs, causing hotter days and more frequently, rising ocean levels and temperatures, increasing the severity and frequency of droughts, setting off more wildfires and cyclones, and so on.
To meet the 1.5oC target, the world must halve its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 (relative to 2010 levels). But the four biggest polluters with combined 58% emissions--China (27%), United States (15%), European Union (10%) and India (7%)--are set to take carbon emissions to a record high in 2018, with a projected rise of 2.7% over 2017. The projections for India suggest a 6.3% emissions increase in 2018, more than four percentage points above the 2% in 2017.
India’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) grew 6% a year over 16 years to 2016, faster than China’s 3.2% and the world’s average 1.3%. India now emits as much CO2 as all of Africa and South America combined, The Economist newspaper said in its December 6, 2018, issue.
At the same time, in 2017, there were 2,726 deaths in India that were directly related to extreme weather-related events--heat waves, storms, floods and droughts. India suffered an economic loss of $13.8 billion as a result, said the Global Climate Risk Index 2019released on December 4, 2018. India has been ranked the 14th most vulnerable nation on a list, which is topped by Puerto Rico, which was ravaged by Hurricane Maria in 2017.
The fight against climate change makes economic sense for developing countries such as India, the index showed--India could save up to $8.4 trillion dollars, about three times its GDP, if it pursues actions to limit global temperature rise to 1.5oC target rather than the 2oC target, the WHO report said.
India had pledged under the Paris Agreement to achieve 40% of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources and reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35% (from 2005 level) by 2030, among other actions. Both these goals have been nearly attained, IEEFA said.
India has made significant progress towards its intended nationally-determined contributions, to the extent that it is expected to meet the targets a decade ahead of time.
Two of the country's three major climate targets--increased share of renewable energy and reduced emission intensity of its GDP--will be reached 10 years before the 2030 deadline, as per projections by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), US-based think-tank, released on December 3, 2018.
The third major goal--to create an additional 2.5-3 billion tonnes of carbon sinks [reservoirs that accumulate and store carbon dioxide] through the planting of additional forest and tree cover--has remained far off.
India’s forest area rose by 1% over the two years to 2017. And, even this figure is likely exaggerated and includes degraded forests and plantations, FactChecker reported on July 4, 2018.
India must double down on this unmet goal, but that may not be enough. Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific group, has said India’s current goals are not ambitious enough, and are not compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5C.(Source:The Business Standard)


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Climate actions can save India 3 times its GDP, but rich nations must pay.

Green Climate Fund to help achieve Paris agreement target, benefit nations - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Green Climate Fund to help achieve Paris agreement target, benefit nations.

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) report to COP24 suggests a broad set of countries are benefiting as a result.

Imagine, as a leader of a small developing nation, you are faced with the oncoming existential crisis that is climate change, but every time you try and implement a new policy your Treasury tells you the coffers are empty.

I say imagine, but for many of us in the developing world this is a reality. This dream is the nightmare we face, and it's one climate change will make much darker, much deeper.
Developing countries want access to clean, cheap energy. To kitchens that do not make their cooks cough and splutter, to lighting that allows our kids to do their homework.
The good news is many of us are taking a lead, investing in future energy systems instead of being locked into polluting fossil fuels like the developed world. And the good news also is there is money flowing from rich countries to help. Not enough, but we acknowledge it is flowing.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) report to COP24 suggests a broad set of countries are benefiting as a result.
Fifty-seven of the GCF's 93 projects and programmes worth over $3 billion are targeted at least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing States (SIDS) and African states.
Nearly half a billion dollars is being invested in Indian mitigation and adaptation projects as a result of the GCF, well over $1 billion in Brazil, while billions more is heading to multiple countries in Africa to help transform their financial systems and make it easier for them to access funding.
Released last week, the UN's latest climate finance assessment is -- broadly speaking -- something we can all cheer.
Public finance from developed to developing countries reached $57 billion in 2016. That's an increase of $14 billion from 2014.
If you then take into account -- as we agree you should -- private finance mobilised by public support, flows reached over $70 billion in 2016.
Still: it is clear that support for adaptation is lacking. Projects to protect vulnerable communities receive just a quarter of public climate funding.
Yet if their funding continues to scale up at this rate, developed countries are on track to meeting the $100 billion goal in 2020.
They are not there yet -- and the current US administration's decision to cut support to the Green Climate Fund is deeply regrettable -- but we are nearing the end of this long walk to the $100 billion.
The question is: What next? Can we as a global community relax when we get to the top?
The answer to that lies in the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2018 IPCC 1.5 degrees Celsius report, which must now be our guides as we walk our new journey.
Both emphasize the need for transformational shifts in mobilizing finance to deliver the systemic changes across the planet to avoid dangerous levels of warming.
As the New Climate Economy report earlier this year details bold global action to reap an economic benefit of $26 trillion by 2030.
The world is now on a journey to make financial flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate resilient development. Everywhere you look this is slowly happening, from high street banks offering green bank accounts, central banks warning of financial risks linked with fossil fuels, multinational development banks refusing to invest in polluting projects.
To rest now would be to undermine all the work we have achieved so far, and to ignore the fast-growing low carbon economy on every continent.
But for the next stage of our journey, we also need to reframe the climate finance debate.
The fixation with the $100 billion target has obscured the huge gaps in support that are emerging across the world. While the overall funding flows towards clean energy continue to rise, huge gaps remain --, especially across Africa.
The recent study by the UN's energy agency SE4ALL makes clear that "committed finance stands at only half of the $52 billion that is needed annually to deliver electricity access to the 500 million still without power".
It adds: "Already abysmal levels of clean cooking funding have declined, and now account for less than one percent of the projected funding needed to end the several millions of deaths caused annually from traditional biomass cooking."
As we build a set of rules to implement the Paris Agreement, let us commit to ensuring that the most vulnerable and those most in need start receiving more support.
Let us commit to ensuring that as the global economy grows, and as wind and solar energy become cheaper and easier to deploy, these technologies are shared. ( Source: The Business Standard)


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Green Climate Fund to help achieve Paris agreement target, benefit nations.

The surprising way plastics could actually help fight climate change - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

The surprising way plastics could actually help fight climate change.

Plant-based plastics can be biodegradable, so they don't accumulate in landfills.

What do your car, phone, soda bottle and shoes have in common? They’re all largely made from petroleum. This nonrenewable resource gets processed into a versatile set of chemicals called polymers – or more commonly, plastics. Over 5 billion gallons of oil each yearare converted into plastics alone.

Polymers are behind many important inventions of the past several decades, like 3D printing. So-called “engineering plastics,” used in applications ranging from automotive to construction to furniture, have superior properties and can even help solve environmental problems. For instance, thanks to engineering plastics, vehicles are now lighter weight, so they get better fuel mileage. But as the number of uses rises, so does the demand for plastics. The world already produces over 300 million tons of plastic every year. The number could be six times that by 2050.
Petro-plastics aren’t fundamentally all that bad, but they’re a missed opportunity. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Switching from petroleum-based polymers to polymers that are biologically based could decrease carbon emissions by hundreds of millions of tons every year. Bio-based polymers are not only renewable and more environmentally friendly to produce, but they can actually have a net beneficial effect on climate change by acting as a carbon sink. But not all bio-polymers are created equal.
Degradable bio-polymers
You may have encountered “bioplastics” before, as disposable utensils in particular – these plastics are derived from plants instead of oil. Such bio-polymers are made by feeding sugars, most often from sugar cane, sugar beets, or corn, to microorganisms that produce precursor molecules that can be purified and chemically linked together to form polymers with various properties.
Plant-derived plastics are better for the environment for two reasons. First, there is a dramatic reduction in the energy required to manufacture plant-based plastics – by as much as 80 percent. While each ton of petroleum-derived plastic generates 2 to 3 tons of CO₂, this can be reduced to about 0.5 tons of CO₂ per ton of bio-polymer, and the processes are only getting better.
Second, plant-based plastics can be biodegradable, so they don’t accumulate in landfills.
While it’s great for disposables like plastic forks to biodegrade, sometimes a longer lifetime is important – you probably wouldn’t want the dashboard of your car to slowly turn into a pile of mushrooms over time. Many other applications require the same type of resilience, such as construction materials, medical devices and home appliances. Biodegradable bio-polymers are also not recyclable, meaning more plants need to be grown and processed continually to meet demand.
Bio-polymers as carbon storage
Plastics, no matter the source, are mainly made of carbon – about 80 percent by weight. While petroleum-derived plastics don’t release CO₂ in the same way that burning fossil fuels does, they also don’t help sequester any of the excess of this gaseous pollutant – the carbon from liquid oil is simply converted into solid plastics.
Bio-polymers, on the other hand, are derived from plants, which use photosynthesis to convert CO₂, water and sunlight to sugars. When these sugar molecules are converted into bio-polymers, the carbon is effectively locked away from the atmosphere – as long as they’re not biodegraded or incinerated.
Even if bio-polymers end up in a landfill, they will still serve this carbon storage role.
CO2 is only about 28 percent carbon by weight, so polymers comprise an enormous reservoir in which to store this greenhouse gas. If the current world annual supply of around 300 million tons of polymers were all non-biodegradable and bio-based, this would equate to a gigaton — a billion tons — of sequestered CO₂, about 2.8 percent of current global emissions. In a recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlined capturing, storing and reusing carbon as a key strategy for mitigating climate change; bio-based polymers could make a key contribution, up to 20 percent of the CO₂ removal required to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The non-degradable biopolymer market
Current carbon sequestration strategies, including geological storage that pumps CO2 exhaust underground or regenerative agriculture that stores more carbon in the soil, lean heavily on policy to drive the desired outcomes.
While these are critical mechanisms for climate change mitigation, the sequestration of carbon in the form of bio-polymers has the potential to harness a different driver: money.
Competition based on price alone has been challenging for bio-polymers, but early successes show a path toward greater penetration. One exciting aspect is the ability to access new chemistries not currently found in petroleum-derived polymersConsider recyclability. Few traditional polymers are truly recyclable. These materials actually are most often downcycled, meaning they’re suitable only for low-value applications, such as construction materials. Thanks to the tools of genetic and enzyme engineering, however, properties like complete recyclability – which allows the material to be used repeatedly for the same application – can be designed into bio-polymers from the beginning.
Bio-polymers today are based largely on natural fermentation products of certain species of bacteria, such as the production by Lactobacillus of lactic acid – the same product that provides the tartness in sour beers. While these constitute a good first step, emerging research suggests the true versatility of bio-polymers is set to be unleashed in the coming years. Thanks to the modern ability to engineer proteins and modify DNA, custom design of bio-polymer precursors is now in reach. With it, a world of new polymers become possible – materials in which today’s CO₂ will reside in a more useful, more valuable form.For this dream to be realized, more research is needed. While early examples are here today – like the partially bio-based Coca-Cola PlantBottle – the bioengineering required to achieve many of the most promising new bio-polymers is still in the research stage – like a renewable alternative to carbon fiber that could be used in everything from bicycles to wind turbine blades.
Government policies supporting carbon sequestration would also help drive adoption. With this kind of support in place, significant use of bio-polymers as carbon storage is possible as soon as the next five years – a timeline with the potential to make a significant contribution to helping solve the climate crisis. (Source: The Business Standard)


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The surprising way plastics could actually help fight climate change.

2018 set to be fourth warmest in 138-yrs of climate record keeping: Report - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

2018 set to be fourth warmest in 138-yrs of climate record keeping: Report.

If the current trend continues we may see temperature increases 3-5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, says report.

2018 is set to be the fourth warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) which found that extreme weather this year due to climate change left a trail of devastation across the globe, including in India.
The long-term warming trend has continued in 2018, with the past four years being the warmest in 138-years of climate record keeping.
Other tell-tale signs of climate change, including sea level rise, ocean heat and acidification and sea-ice and glacier melt continue, whilst extreme weather caused devastation on all continents, according to a WMO statement.
For example, in August, Kerala suffered the worst flooding since the 1920s, displacing more than 1.4 million people from their homes and affecting more than 5.4 million.
Major wildfires affected Athens (Greece) on 23 July, with many fatalities. British Columbia in Canada broke its record for the most area burned in a fire season for the second successive year.
California suffered devastating wildfires, with November's Camp Fire being the deadliest fire in over a century for the US.
The WMO report shows that the global average temperature for the first ten months of the year was nearly 1 degree Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline (1850-1900).
This is based on five independently maintained global temperature data sets.
"We are not on track to meet climate change targets and rein in temperature increases," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
"Greenhouse gas concentrations are once again at record levels and if the current trend continues we may see temperature increases 3-5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. If we exploit all known fossil fuel resources, the temperature rise will be considerably higher," he said.
"It is worth repeating once again that we are the first generation to fully understand climate change and the last generation to be able to do something about it," said Taalas.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius reported that the average global temperature for the decade 2006-2015 was 0.86 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline.
The average increase above the same baseline for the most recent decade 2009-2018 was about 0.93 degrees Celsius and for the past five years, 2014-2018, was 1.04 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial baseline.
"Every fraction of a degree of warming makes a difference to human health and access to food and fresh water, to the extinction of animals and plants, to the survival of coral reefs and marine life," said WMO Deputy Secretary-General Elena Manaenkova.
"It makes a difference to economic productivity, food security, and to the resilience of our infrastructure and cities," said Manaenkova.
"It makes a difference to the speed of glacier melt and water supplies, and the future of low-lying islands and coastal communities. Every extra bit matters," said Manaenkova.
The WMO report adds to the authoritative scientific evidence that will inform UN climate change negotiations from December 2-14 in Katowice, Poland.
The key objective of the meeting is to adopt the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which aims to hold the global average temperature increase to as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius. (Source:The Business Standard)


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2018 set to be fourth warmest in 138-yrs of climate record keeping: Report.

Fragile climate puts food security at risk, UN report - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Fragile climate puts food security at risk, UN report.

‘Increasing farm output is hard given the fragility of the natural resource base’.

Feeding a hungry planet is growing increasingly difficult as climate change and depletion of land and other resources undermine food systems, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said on Wednesday as it renewed appeals for better policies and technologies to reach “zero hunger.”

Population growth requires supplies of more nutritious food at affordable prices, but increasing farm output is hard given the “fragility of the natural resource base” since humans have outstripped Earth’s carrying capacity in terms of land, water and climate change, the report said.
About 820 million people are malnourished. The FAO and International Food Policy Research Institute released the report at the outset of a global conference aimed at speeding up efforts to achieve zero hunger around the world.
“The call for action is very clear. It is possible in our lifetime and it is also realistic to end hunger and malnutrition,” Inonge Wina, Vice-President of Zambia, told the gathering.
Civil strife, conflicts
Food security remains tenuous for many millions of people who lack access to affordable, adequately nourishing diets for a variety of reasons, the most common being poverty. But it’s also endangered by civil strife and other conflicts. In Yemen, where thousands of civilians have died in airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition, the aid group Save the Children says 85,000 children under 5 may have died of hunger or disease in the civil war.
In Afghanistan, severe drought and conflict have displaced more than 2,50,000 people, according to UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency.
FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva noted that the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world has risen to levels last seen a decade ago.
“After decades of gains in fighting hunger, this is a serious setback and FAO and the U.N. sister agencies, together with member governments and other partners, are all very concerned,” Mr. Graziano da Silva said in a videotaped address to the conference.
The FAO estimates that global demand for food will jump by half from 2013 to 2050. Farmers can expand land use to help make up some of the difference, but that option is constrained in places like Asia and the Pacific and urbanisation is eating up still more land that once may have been used for agriculture.
Increasing farm output beyond sustainable levels can cause permanent damage to ecosystems, the report said, noting that it often causes soil erosion, pollution with plastic mulching, pesticides and fertilizers, and a loss of biodiversity.
China destroys 12 million tons of tainted grain each year, at a loss of nearly $2.6 billion, the report said. (Source: The Hindu)


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Fragile climate puts food security at risk, UN report.

India, world's second-largest coal consumer, awaits grim climate report - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

India, world's second-largest coal consumer, awaits grim climate report.

Here is the problem for India: It is the second-largest coal consumer after China, putting at risk the lives of 600 million Indians to disasters caused by climate change.

Recent extreme weather events, such as floods in Kerala, wildfires in Uttarakhand and heat waves in the north and east, have demonstrated how vulnerableIndia is to climate change. Such events, which cause widespread destruction and impact the availability of food and water, are likely to become more frequent and intense in India because of rising average temperatures.
A new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a global body of climate change scientists, is being released on October 8, 2018. This report will be an assessment of how effective the initiatives of all nations, including India, are in mitigating the rise in global temperatures.
Early leaks of the report indicate its findings are likely to be disquieting. "Climate scientists are struggling to find the right words for very bad news," said the headline of a story in the Washington Post on October 3, 2018.
In the next 10 years the world may reach its carbon pollution quota, the amount of carbon it can release into the atmosphere before global temperature rises by 1.5 deg C, the Washington Post report said. This could be disquieting news for India, the world’s third- largest carbon polluter after China and the United States.
The IPCC report is also likely to recommend “stricter” climate actions by governments, allowing the use of only a third of the coal being consumed today by 2030, Bloombergreported on September 30, 2018, quoting the leaked draft of the report. The aim is to keep warming down to 1.5 deg C since the industrial era began in 1800.
Here is the problem for India: It is the second-largest coal consumer after China, putting at risk the lives of 600 million Indians to disasters caused by climate change.
Coal currently feeds about 27% of the world’s and 60% of India's energy demand. “Under a bolder outlook that assumes quicker action to protect the atmosphere, coal use would fall to 13% of the energy market by 2040,” Bloomberg said on September 30, 2018, referring to the IPCCs draft recommendation.
As a part of the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5-2 deg C, India had agreed to cut carbon pollution by raising its renewable-power capacity to 40% by 2030--from 20% in 2018--increase its forest cover, build climate-resilient cities and improve solid-waste management.
Here is where India stands on these pledges today:
• Currently, renewable power capacity in India is 20% of installed capacity.
• The country’s forest area rose by 1% over the two years to 2017, covering 24% of India. But the figure is likely exaggerated and includes degraded forests and plantations, FactChecker reported on July 4, 2018.
• Only 24% of the country’s solid waste collected annually by municipalities is processed.
Are India’s nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to reduce greenhouse emissions ambitious enough to help limit global warming to 1.5 deg C? No, according to the Climate Action Tracker, an independent scientific group tracking climate actions of the nations.
India’s commitments “are not fully consistent” with the Paris Agreement, the report said. If India achieves all its targets, warming could be held below 2 deg C but would still be “too high” to be consistent with the 1.5-deg-C limit.
Four looming climate-change threats for India.
Increasing heat wave episodes: If there are no changes in the current emissions and environment policies, India’s average annual temperatures are expected to rise 1.5-3 deg C by 2050. Temperatures will rise by 1 degrees C-2 degrees C even if preventive measures on the lines of the Paris Agreement are implemented, said a June 2018 World Bank study.
Over 4,800 Indians died due to heat waves across the country over four years to 2017, with the highest number of deaths in 2015. These heat-wave events are likely to worsen: Under the current emission scenario, they could increase by 75 times by the end of the century, gripping the entire stretch from Uttar Pradesh in the north to the southern peninsular. Their frequency will also increase by 3-9 events in the next 30 years, reaching 18-30 events by the final quarter of the century.
The frequency of severe heat waves in India will rise by 30 times by the end of the century, even if India adhere to the Paris Agreement and the global mean temperature rise is limited below 2 deg C. If not, even a humid seaside city like Kolkata could experience temperature conditions equivalent to its deadly 2015 heatwave every year.
Looming water crisis: The other effects of a 2-deg C rise in the global mean temperature over India could be on the availability of water. The annual runoff in the Ganga river basin is expected to decrease by about 20% and this could worsen the current water crisis.
Nearly 600 million Indians are facing high-to-extreme water stress because more than 40% of the annually available surface water is being used. About 200,000 people are dying every year due to inadequate access to safe water, a situation likely to worsen because of water shortages by 2050.
Lower living standards for 600 million Indians: By 2050, rising temperatures and changing monsoon rainfall patterns could cost India 2.8% of its gross domestic product and could lower the living standards for nearly 600 million people living in "hotspots" -- areas vulnerable to changes in average temperature and rainfall, according to the June 2018 World Bank study.
Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are predicted to be India's top two climate hotspot states by 2050, followed by Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Jharkhand, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Chandigarh make up the rest of the 10 worst-affected states. In all 10 states, hotter days and erratic rainfall would increase the stress on farmers, said the study.
Seven of the top 10 most-affected hotspot districts will be in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, the report said. “These hotspots are not only necessarily regions where the temperature will be higher, but they are also defined by the local population’s socio-economic capacity to cope with the climatic changes," said the report.
Nutrition crisis: The rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) in atmosphere is making our food less nutritious, according to a September 2018 study by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. It is also making crops such as rice and wheat less nutritious and could result in 175 million people--1.9% of the global population--becoming zinc-deficient and 122 million protein-deficient by 2050.
India could be the country worst hit with world’s largest number, about 50 million people—the population size of Andhra Pradesh—becoming zinc-deficient and 38 million—equal to the combined population of Haryana and Uttarakhand --becoming protein-deficient.
India will also see more than 500 million women and children becoming vulnerable to diseases associated with iron deficiency due to inadequate nutrition, as per the Harvard study. (Source: The Business Standard)


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India, world's second-largest coal consumer, awaits grim climate report.

Climate change warning: One-fifth of global deaths due to flooding in India - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Climate change warning: One-fifth of global deaths due to flooding in India.

As many as 107,487 people died due to heavy rains and floods across India over 64 years between 1953 and 2017.

India accounts for one-fifth of global deaths due to floods, according to government data that lend perspective to a new World Bank study that says climate change will lower the standards of living ofnearly half of India’s population by 2050.
As many as 107,487 people died due to heavy rains and floods across India over 64 years between 1953 and 2017, according to Central Water Commission data presented to the Rajya Sabha (Parliament’s upper house) on March 19, 2018. Damage to crops, houses and public utilities was reported to be Rs 365,860 crore–or as much as 3% of India’s current gross domestic product–the data show.
“The main reasons of floods have been assessed as high-intensity rainfall in short duration, poor or inadequate drainage capacity, unplanned reservoir regulation and failure of flood control structures,” according to the reply to the Rajya Sabha.
With heavy rains sweeping western India, many cities such as Mangaluru, Mumbai and Junagarh have flooded during the 2018 monsoon season. Over 30 people died in floods that inundated 58 villages, The Times of India reported on July 7, 2018.
Climate change will exacerbate flooding
“Temperatures have been rising across the [South Asia] region, and are projected to continue increasing for the next several decades under all plausible climate scenarios,” the World Bank study, published on June 28, 2018, said.
These changes will result in more frequent flooding, greater water demand and increased heat-related medical issues.
South Asian cities such as Kolkata, Mumbai, Dhaka and Karachi–that are home to over 50 million people–face a substantial risk of flood-related damage over the next century, the report said.
India is one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change. It has increased the frequency of downpours as well as the gaps between rainy days during the monsoon, as IndiaSpend reported in January 2018 and February 2018.
As India’s climate warms, extreme weather, such as intense rain and floods, is predicted to worsen.
The new World Bank study mentioned above said the worst affected states by 2050 would be Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
Seven of the 10 most affected districts will belong to Vidarbha, Maharashtra.
India could see a six-fold increase in population exposed to the risk of severe floods by 2040–to 25 million people from 3.7 million facing this risk between 1971 and 2004, IndiaSpend reported in February 2018, based on a study published in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed journal.
“India is highly vulnerable to floods,” according to the National Disaster Management Authority, a government body. “Out of the total geographical area of 329 million hectares (mha), more than 40 mha is flood prone.”
Most deaths (11,316) due to floods/heavy rains in India were reported in 1977, while the least were recorded in 1953 (37). (Source: The Business Standard)


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Climate change warning: One-fifth of global deaths due to flooding in India.

Climate change to affect India’s renewable energy plan: Study - Pragnya IAS Academy

Climate change to affect India’s renewable energy plan: Study.

Changes in wind pattern in the Northern Hemisphere and pollution are seen taking a toll of wind power and solar power plants, respectively Changing weather patterns may negatively impact India’s renewable energy generation capacity, said developers and weather scientists.

A recent research published in Nature Geoscience, which used 10 global climate models to investigate large-scale changes in wind power generation across the globe, indicated that there will be changes in wind power across Northern Hemisphere, with substantial regional variations.
Dr. K.J. Ramesh, director general of meteorology, India Meteorological Department, agrees: “The weather is bound to change due to climate change. When rainfall patterns are changing, the intensity and frequency of heavy rainfall is changing, warming is changing, there will be appropriate changes in the wind regime as well.”
The findings could throw a spanner in the works of the world’s largest renewable energy programme launched by India, which seeks to produce 100 gigawatts (GW) from solar projects and 60GW from wind power plants by March 2022.
In fact, Hyderabad-based renewable energy firm Greenko Group said that in the past two years the company has faced certain headwinds in wind power generation. “In the average view, we are fine, but in the short-term, in the past two years or so, we have had a bad season. Normally, we don’t get to see two continuous years of bad seasons,” said Mahesh Kolli, founder, president and joint managing director, Greenko Group.
Dr. S.W.A. Naqvi, former head, National Institute of Oceanography, said India has already seen an inter-annual variability in wind-speeds.
Solar power developers, too, are aware of the changes in weather conditions. “Variability in solar radiation is being observed not just on seasonal basis but also on a year-on-year basis for the same locations. This is a challenge for independent power producers as the revenue model is solely dependant on the radiation levels received,” said Anmol Singh Jaggi, director at solar advisory firm Gensol Group.
Dr. Malti Goel, head, Climate Change Research Institute, however, said that more than climate change, increasing pollution levels are a cause for concern for solar energy. “With emissions on rise, we need to develop solar energy systems that can be maintained well in such changing circumstances, because the quantum of solar energy decreases, if pollution increases.”
The impact of climate change is also evident from the fact that India incurred losses of $9-10 billion, annually, due to extreme weather events. The Economic Survey 2016-17 also pitched for climate insurance instruments.
However, the Centre seems to be oblivious of the fact. “No developer has approached us till date with such a concern,” said a senior government official, requesting anonymity. There is no ‘conclusive’ or ‘visible’ evidence for the same, he added.
A ministry of new and renewable energy resources spokesperson, too, echoed simlar views in an emailed response: “There is no evidence from the ground that conclusively suggests that solar and wind power generation has been affected due to climate change consideration. None of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports supports such considerations. There are sporadic papers that have studied the inter-seasonal variability of solar and wind power, but there is nothing to suggest any long-term impacts.”
“Though effects of climate change are evident, as the minimum temperature has recorded an increase, but there has been no visible effect of climate change on wind patterns or solar energy,” said a ministry of earth sciences spokesperson.
However, scientists are of the view that one needs to take note of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which cause changes in global atmospheric circulation and potentially affect wind power. “Climate change is an important factor which needs to be taken into consideration before planning wind resources. The atmospheric circulation is expected to change, because of warming, which could affect the wind patterns as well. There is definitely going to be a potential impact,” said NIO’s Naqvi. (Source: Livemint)


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Climate change to affect India’s renewable energy plan: Study.

Climate change: Shifting-monsoon patterns causing water distress in India - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

Climate change: Shifting-monsoon patterns causing water distress in India.

Climate change has a multiplier effect and is likely to worsen in the coming years.

Tourists are being asked to stay away from Shimla during peak holiday season, and schools have been shut for this week, as the city received nearly 60 per cent less water daily since May 18, 2018. The crisis could hit the state’s economy as 7.2% of the state’s gross domestic product is dependent on tourism.

Reservoir levels in Himachal Pradesh are 56 per cent below normal for this time of the year, according to a fact-sheet released by Climate Trends, a Bengaluru-based non-profit, on June 5, 2018.
Not just Himachal Pradesh, many Indian states are facing acute water shortages due to shifting monsoon patterns of in the country caused by climate change, the fact-sheet said.
“Across the country, people are facing dried-up wells and rivers; some places have suffered repeated droughts in recent years,” said a statement by Climate Trends. A worsening of the situation could fuel many interstate and international water conflicts in India, it added.
In states such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, reservoir levels were less than 50 per cent of their usual levels, while the levels in Punjab, Karnataka and Gujarat were about 40 per cent below normal, data show.
As of May 17, 2018, water levels in major Indian reservoirs were 10 per cent lower than is normal at this time of year, despite a near-normal monsoon in 2017, according this status report released by the Central Water Commission.
Rapid urban growth, increasing population, and a changing climate has made it difficult for many Indian cities to meet the water demands of the ordinary citizen, said Kangkanika Neog, a researcher at the Centre for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a Delhi-based think-tank.
Shifting rainfall patterns are causing water distress
Climate Trends used secondary data to analyse the impact of climate change in shifting rainfall patterns in India, the repeated droughts and water shortages. Monsoon rain in the country has been below average in five of the last six years to 2018 and pre-monsoon season–from March to May–has seen 11 per cent less rainfall in 2018 than the average, for the third consecutive year, the study found.
These shifts are part of long-term changes in where and when rain falls in India, driven by climate change, the fact-sheet said. Some states have seen big changes in annual rainfall. For example, year-round rainfall in Chhattisgarh has fallen nearly 10 per cent, while it has increased in coastal Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana, according to the fact-sheet.
Monsoon rainfall has been decreasing since 1870, with rainfall outside the monsoon increasing slightly, balancing the annual average.
States such as Kerala and Madhya Pradesh received less rainfall during the 2017 monsoon. The poor monsoons of 2014 and 2015 resulted in severe drought and water shortages in much of the country, including parts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana, the fact-sheet said.
Consequently, water levels in major reservoirs at the end of the monsoon–in early October 2017–were 11% below average, the fact-sheet said.
Several states face shortages
Levels in major reservoirs across the country were, as we said, 10 per cent below the normal at this time of the year.
In Andhra Pradesh, reservoir levels were around half their normal level, and parts of the state, such as Prakasam, are facing a drinking-water crisis. The government is spending Rs 103 crore to provide emergency drinking water. This crisis is linked with water shortages in neighbouring Telangana, the fact-sheet released by Climate Trends said.
In some parts of rural Chhattisgarh, wells have dried-up and people are walking many kilometers dalily to fetch water.
In Tamil Nadu, major reservoirs are 67 per cent below normal levels–every major reservoir has below-average levels for this time of year. The state has allocated Rs 200 crore from the Disaster Relief Fund to tackle the crisis. In 2016-17, the state suffered its worst drought in over a century.
For a country usually endowed with good monsoons, it’s a shame that we are unable to harvest water that is made available to us and end up with crisis situation, both in managing heavy rainfall and water scarce conditions alike, said Aarti Khosla, director, Climate Trends.
Climate change has a multiplier effect and is likely to worsen in the coming years. The increasing and devastating human cost, combined with economic loss across agriculture and industry sectors caused by water shortage, could worsen if we don’t manage water resources well and don’t act on sharply reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, said Khosla.
Changes in monsoon patterns would make droughts and floods more common in many parts of India. Droughts are particularly likely to become more frequent in north-western India, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, according to a 2013 World Bank study.
The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna river basin, which serves over 650 million people, is also likely to experience both droughts and floods more often if temperatures continue to rise, according to a 2015 study published in the journal Environmental Science.
Water crisis can trigger interstate and international conflicts
The water shortage in many parts of the country can fuel interstate and international conflicts in India, the fact-sheet noted. These conflicts include:
• Cauvery river dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu;
• Krishna river dispute among Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana;
• Narmada river dispute among Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra;
• Ravi and Beas river dispute among Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan;
• Disputes between India and China for the water distribution of 10 major rivers originating from Tibet.
The need of the hour, CEEW’s Neog said, is to strongly promote water management and conservation measures such as reusing treated wastewater, rainwater harvesting, monitoring water in-flow through real-time gauging, and moving towards honest pricing. (Source: The Business Standard)

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Climate change: Shifting-monsoon patterns causing water distress in India.