· 2019-09-29 · India, Nepal, Bhutan to count tigers in high altitudes 77. Index. Page 2 ... fulfil their EPR (extended producer responsibility) obligation. Although compostable,

Page 1

Where does India stand on plastic waste? 2

Research suggests how Southern Ocean could control global climate 4

Fires are not the only threat facing the Amazon 6

A new ethics for a sustainable planet 8

UN conference on desertification kicks off 11

70 rare Assam temple turtle hatchlings released in ‘Mini Kaziranga’ 13

If it is not tackled in time, land degradation can trigger conflict 15

India’s climate score: high on vulnerability, low on resilience 17

Giraffes close to being classified as 'critically endangered' 19

India to restore more degraded land 20

No ‘imminent ban’ on single-use plastic 22

The Amazon fires, an alarm that lacks proportion 24

Nilgiri tahr’s population up 27% in three years in TN 27

Two new species of ginger discovered in Nagaland 29

Shades of green 31

Why restoring degraded land is critical for India 32

A case for a differential global carbon tax 34

U.N. meeting on desertification ends with vow to curb land degradation 36

Climate change can reduce banana yield in India, study finds 38

The adverse impact of climate change 40

Watch: What is World Ozone Day? 42

Vulture culture: How the bird was saved from extinction 43

On World Ozone Day, India’s Cooling Action Plan gets UN applaud 45

‘Save our future’: Students hit streets to demand global climate action 48

Five-year period ending 2019 set to be hottest on record: U.N. report 51

India will set higher green energy target: PM 53

Russia formally accepts 2015 Paris climate accord 55

PM Modi vows to more than double India’s non-fossil fuel target to 450 GW by 2022 57

Raise the bar 60

Climate for action: On UN Climate Action Summit 62

New IPCC report warns of dire threat to oceans 64

Slash emissions or watch cities vanish under rising seas: UN climate report 66

Declare a climate emergency 69

Scientific way of reviving fragments of rainforests 71

Bio-restoring degraded patches of Sunderbans 73

‘Heart attack linked to air pollution’ 75

India, Nepal, Bhutan to count tigers in high altitudes 77

Index

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Source : www.thehindu.com Date : 2019-09-01

WHERE DOES INDIA STAND ON PLASTIC WASTE?Relevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

The story so far: On August 15, in his Independence Day address, Prime Minister NarendraModi called for a movement to eliminate single-use plastic in India, beginning on Gandhi Jayanti(October 2). Individuals and organisations should now actively remove plastic waste from theirsurroundings and municipal bodies must arrange to collect these articles. Start-ups andindustries should think of newer ways of recycling. The government is reported to be working ona ban on certain plastic items of common use such as carry bags, cutlery and plates under theEnvironment (Protection) Act, and this may be announced on October 2, well ahead of theearlier deadline of 2022.

In spite of the notification of the Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules, 2016, andamendments made two years later, most cities and towns are not prepared to implement itsprovisions. Even the biggest Municipal Corporations shouldering a staggering waste burdenhave failed to implement segregation of waste: collecting recyclable plastic, non-recyclableplastic and other waste separately for processing by material recovery facilities. This is agrowing crisis amid criticism of under-reporting of the true extent of plastic waste. Per capitaconsumption of plastic is projected to go up from 11 kg in 2014-15 to 20 kg by 2022 (Federationof Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry data); about 43% is single-use packaging withpoor rates of recovery.

An amendment to the PWM Rules in 2018, by which a six-month deadline was fixed forproducers to arrange for recovery of waste in partnership with State Urban Developmentdepartments, has made little progress. Neither is plastic marked with numerical symbols (suchas 1 for PET, 4 for Low Density Polyethylene, 5 for Polypropylene and so on) to facilitaterecycling using the correct industrial process.

Recycling reduces the volume of non-recyclables that must be disposed of using methods suchas co-processing in cement kilns, plasma pyrolysis or land-filling. In April this year, the CentralPollution Control Board (CPCB) issued notice to 52 companies asking them to file their plan tofulfil their EPR (extended producer responsibility) obligation.

Although compostable, biodegradable or even edible plastics made from various materials suchas bagasse (the residue after extracting juice from sugarcane), corn starch, and grain flour arepromoted as alternatives, these currently have limitations of scale and cost.

Some biodegradable packaging materials require specific microorganisms to be broken down,while compostable cups and plates made of polylactic acid, a popular resource derived frombiomass such as corn starch, require industrial composters. On the other hand, articles madethrough a different process involving potato and corn starch have done better in normalconditions, going by the experience in Britain. Seaweed is also emerging as a choice to makeedible containers.

In India, though, in the absence of robust testing and certification to verify claims made byproducers, spurious biodegradable and compostable plastics are entering the marketplace. InJanuary this year, the CPCB said that 12 companies were marketing carry bags and productsmarked ‘compostable’ without any certification, and asked the respective State Pollution ControlBoards to take action on these units.

A ban on single-use plastic items would have to therefore lay down a comprehensive

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mechanism to certify the materials marketed as alternatives, and the specific process required tobiodegrade or compost them. A movement against plastic waste would have to prioritise thereduction of single-use plastic such as multi-layer packaging, bread bags, food wrap, andprotective packaging. Consumers often have no choice in the matter. Other parts of thecampaign must focus on tested biodegradable and compostable alternatives for plates, cutleryand cups, rigorous segregation of waste and scaled up recycling. City municipal authorities playa key role here.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar sent a message to the industry at the global flexiblepackaging conference in Mumbai recently that it must take its extended producer responsibilityrequirement under the law seriously. The Secretaries of the Environment and PetroleumMinistries said at the event that plastic waste was a key concern, and industry should look atinnovation and new materials in the days ahead, besides facilitating collection and recycling withthe help of city administrations.

Packaging is projected to grow into a $72.6 billion industry in India by 2020 from about $31billion in 2015, with a proportionate rise in waste volumes. The pressure on producers tostreamline the collection, recycling and processing of all forms of plastic is bound to grow.

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RESEARCH SUGGESTS HOW SOUTHERN OCEANCOULD CONTROL GLOBAL CLIMATE

Relevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Degradation - GHGs, Ozone Depletion and Climate Change

Representational image. | Photo Credit: AP

Scientists have made a new discovery challenging the previous understanding of the linkbetween the Southern Ocean — next to Antarctica — and the atmospheric carbon dioxidelevels. The study published in the journal Science Advances shows that, contrary to existingassumptions, biological processes far out at sea are the most important factors determining howthe ocean absorbs carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is absorbed in the surface oceans and stored in the deep seas, gradually, over atimescale of 100s to 1,000s years.

The Southern Ocean plays a critical role in how the carbon dioxide is taken out of theatmosphere, and knowing how it functions helps scientists understand this mechanism’s roleduring dramatic climate transitions in the past, such as the ice ages, and better predict thecurrent and future climate change.

Whether carbon is released into the atmosphere or trapped in the deep ocean, is cruciallydetermined by the transformation of the water from light to dense which is inturn caused bycooling at the ocean’s surface, the study says.

So researchers from the University of Southampton with British Antarctic Survey, University ofEast Anglia and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, studied the ocean circulation andcarbon concentration of the Weddell Gyre — a region lying east of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The team studied data collected as part of the ANDREX project (Antarctic Deep water Rates ofExport) which measured the physical, biological, and chemical properties of the waters in thegyre between 2008 and 2010.

The data considered in this study showed unambiguously that, in the Weddell Gyre, thedominant process enabling the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and its removal tothe deep ocean included the role of phytoplanktons.

The researchers reasoned that as phytoplankton in the centre of the gyre grow and sink, theyremove carbon from the surface of the ocean, causing an uptake of carbon dioxide from theatmosphere - a process known as the ‘biological carbon pump’.

From this, the team showed that the dominant factor driving the uptake of carbon from theatmosphere to the ocean was not related to dense water formation in the shallow seas close toAntarctica, but rather to biological processes further out in the sea.

“The results carry implications for our understanding of how the high-latitude Southern Ocean,close to the Antarctic continent, influences atmospheric carbon and global climate on 100 to1000-year timescales, said Graeme MacGilchrist, who led the study for the University ofSouthampton.

“The findings were important both for our understanding of climate transitions in the past, such

https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/AP/

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as the ice ages, as well as our projections of future climate change, he said.

We also expect that it will help to shift the focus of future research towards the critical processestaking place in the Antarctic Gyres, rather than the historical focus on the shelf-sea regions,” heemphasised.











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FIRES ARE NOT THE ONLY THREAT FACING THEAMAZON


A view of a tract in Amazon rainforest in Altamira, Brazil, after fire consumed it.AP/FileLeoCorrea

Raging wildfires have drawn the world’s attention to the Amazon but immolation is just one ofthe dangers facing the world’s largest rain forest, environmental experts across the region say.

The Amazon, covering 5.5 million square km over nine countries, faces ever more seriousthreats from encroaching crop and livestock farming, mining, land occupations and illegallogging.

Main threat

Deforestation for farming is one of the most serious threats to the rain forest, a problem commonto all nine jurisdictions: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru,Suriname and Venezuela.

“The main cause of deforestation is the advancing agricultural boundary,” said Jose LuisCapella, director of a forest plantation programme in Peru, 13% of which is covered by theAmazon basin.

A case in point is Ecuador, where agricultural land increased by 23% between 2000 and 2017 —gouged from its share of the Amazon basin region.

“This is one of the main factors in the shrinking of the rain forest,” said Carmen Josse, director ofthe Fundacion Ecociencia in Quito.

A practice common in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia is for farmers to set fires in the dryseason to clear the undergrowth in deforested areas. However, this often leads to uncontrolledburning, which takes a greater toll on the rain forest.

Much to environmentalists’ chagrin, Bolivia’s government recently authorised farmers to burn 20hectares (almost 50 acres) instead of the usual five hectares (12 acres) .

Mining too hurts

Illegal mining operations being carried out in most Amazon basin region countries causessignificant damage, compounded by the use of chemicals such as mercury — particularly in goldmining — which has contaminated soil and streams.

The council of the Amerindian peoples of French Guiana declared after a recent meeting that“fire is not the only danger that threatens or destroys the Amazon. Extraction is largelyresponsible.”

Some 29,000 hectares of rainforest have been destroyed due to both legal and illegal goldpanning since 2003, according to the French territory’s National Forestry Office.

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Venezuela’s cash-strapped government turned to the Amazon’s resources after the collapse ofoil prices contributed to its economic crisis.

It launched a vast project in 2016 to extract bauxite, coltan, diamonds and gold in an area ofmore than 110,000 sq. km of rain forest. “Mining is much more serious than the fires,” saidCecilia Gomez Miliani, head of the Venezuelan environmental NGO Vitalis.

“All vegetation is cut, eliminated, and this poses problems of soil erosion, mercury contaminationand population displacements.”

Ms. Josse said the most worrying thing about mining is that it causes “permanent deforestation”by destroying several layers of soil, preventing regenerative growth.

In Ecuador, oil concessions encroaching on indigenous lands are also taking a toll.

In Peru, the government has deployed the Army in the Amazon to try to stop illegal mining thathas flourished in remote areaslong left unprotected by the State.

Colombia has also mobilised its security forces to try to protect the Amazon basin after morethan 138,000 hectares of rain forest disappeared in 2018, accounting for 70% of the country’sdeforestation.

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A NEW ETHICS FOR A SUSTAINABLE PLANETRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Degradation - GHGs, Ozone Depletion and Climate Change

Brazil’s Amazon forests are ablaze with dozens of fires, most of them set intentionally by loggersand others seeking greater access to forest land. How long the fires can continue is unclear. Butat this scale, they are paving the way for a global climate catastrophe. While European leadersand civil society in many places are organising protests to oppose policies that encourage thefires, the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has stated that they are an internal matter and thatthey were actually started by the very non-governmental organisations who are now shouting“fire”.

The American President Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement statingthat it is against the national interests of the U.S. Across the Atlantic, British Prime Minister BorisJohnson, a vocal critic of European integration, has spoken from both sides of his mouth onclimate change, receiving funding from climate science denial groups while saying that he wouldlobby the U.S. to take climate change more seriously.

Meanwhile, many cities in Europe and elsewhere have seen high temperatures never beforeexperienced. Heat waves have also accelerated melting of glaciers in Greenland at a rate thatwas not anticipated by scientific models until much later this century.

The burning of the world’s largest forest reserves, the withdrawal of the world’s leading polluterfrom a major international treaty and the U.K.’s isolationist policies may appear to be the triumphof nationalist ideology. But these actions have consequences that far transcend nationalboundaries and impact all creatures that share life on the planet.

While energy and transport are mainly responsible for the accumulation of greenhouse gases(GHGs) in the atmosphere, changes in land use patterns too have made significantcontributions. Deforestation, industrial agricultural systems and desertification are major driversof climate change. Agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for a little lessthan a quarter (23%) of the total net anthropogenic emissions of GHGs between 2007-2016.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently brought out a special report onClimate Change and Land that covers desertification, land degradation, sustainable landmanagement, food security and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Very wide in itsscope, the report makes it clear that unless land is managed in a sustainable manner, thediminishing chance that humanity will survive climate change will become smaller still.

Land is part and parcel of people’s lives. It provides food, water, livelihoods, biodiversity and arange of other benefits from its ecosystems. Land use is indeed interlocked with several aspectsof life on earth. For example, decades of poor land management in the agricultural system arecoming back to haunt us. Soils have become depleted with heavy use of chemicals, farms havefew or no friendly insects, monoculture has led to a reduction in the use of indigenous cropvarieties with useful characteristics, groundwater is depleted and polluted farm runoffs arecontributing to contaminated water bodies while destroying biodiversity. We have created asystem that no longer supports agricultural households, and the stresses have led to farmersuicides.

Managing land better for farming would entail implementing more sustainable agricultural

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practices. It would mean, for instance, reducing chemical input drastically, and taking thepractice of food production closer to natural methods of agroecology, as these would reduceemissions and enhance resilience to warming. The report calls for avoiding conversion ofgrassland to cropland, bringing in equitable management of water in agriculture, cropdiversification, agroforestry and investment in local and indigenous seed varieties that canwithstand higher temperatures. It also recommends practices that increase soil carbon andreduce salinisation.

Establishing sustainable food systems means reducing food waste, which is estimated to be aquarter of the food produced. It also necessitates eating locally grown food and cutting meatconsumption. Alongside these changes, it is important to put an end to deforestation, whileconserving mangroves, peatland and other wetlands.

To make these significant changes and reduce inequality and poverty, land use policy shouldincorporate better access to markets for small and marginal farmers, empower women farmers,expand agricultural services and strengthen land tenure systems. Sustainable land managementcan reduce multiple stressors on ecosystems and societies. It will also help societies adaptbetter to warmer climates and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

In thinking about how to address the transnational challenges of climate change and land, thenarrow lens of nationalism is no longer serving us. We need a new planetary ethics thatsupports alternative systems for the future, for a sustainable earth. It is one that cultivates thegrowth of ecological sensibilities, supports pluralism, enhances quality of life, shifts values awayfrom consumerism and creates new identities and cultures that transcend conventionalboundaries.

A plea for such values is not new, and there have been successful civil society movements thathave transcended borders, for example, La Via Campesina, The Transition Network, andEcoregionalism. More recently, Fridays for Future and Fossil Fuel Divestment are part of suchevolving sensibilities. How we move forward with these successes to create a sense of solidarityacross boundaries, instead of building fortress worlds, will contribute to the path we build.

In the Great Transition Initiative, Paul Raskin has said that seeing our place as part of the web oflife, instead of at its centre, requires a Copernican shift in world views. Just as Copernicuschanged the perception of the earth from the centre of the universe to being one among manyplanets, so too will our sensibilities have to shift. If we fail to see our place as being part of theplanet, we may well go down with it.

Sujatha Byravan is a scientist who studies science, technology and development policy



How an idea for a ‘perfect Mumbai feature story’ failed to materialise







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UN CONFERENCE ON DESERTIFICATION KICKS OFFRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar addresses apress conference of the COP 14 UN Convention to Combat Desertification, in New Delhi onSeptember 2, 2019. | Photo Credit: PTI

The 14th United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) to combat desertification kicked off inNew Delhi on Monday with India taking over the presidency of the COP for two years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the convention next Monday, with seniorministers from nearly 70 countries expected to participate at that session.

“If human actions have created the problems of climate change, land degradation andbiodiversity loss, it is the strong intent, technology and intellect that will make a difference,” Mr.Javadekar said at the inaugural session of the convention that is expected to conclude on the13th of September.

The COP, which meets every two years, discusses ways and means forward to address globalland degradation. One in four hectares of arable land is considered unusable due tounsustainable land management. These have put nearly 3.2 billion people in the world at risk.

Last week Mr. Javadekar said India had committed to rejuvenate 50 lakh hectares (5 million) ofdegraded land between 2021 and 2030.

India faces a severe problem of land degradation, or soil becoming unfit for cultivation. About29% or about 96.4 million hectares are considered degraded.

“More than 70 countries have robust national drought plans, compared to just three countriesonly 4 years ago. The agenda shows that governments have come to this COP ready to findsolutions to difficult problems,” Ibrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the Convention, said in astatement.

This January, India became part of the “Bonn Challenge”, a global effort to bring 150 millionhectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 millionhectares by 2030.

A report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this monthunderlined that land everywhere was bearing the brunt of severe climate change impactsalready and would lead to extreme food insecurity if steps weren’t taken.






https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/PTI/


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70 RARE ASSAM TEMPLE TURTLE HATCHLINGSRELEASED IN ‘MINI KAZIRANGA’

Relevant for: Environment | Topic: Biodiversity, Ecology, and Wildlife Related Issues

Black Softshell turtle being released in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary near Guwahati on September2, 2019. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

About 70 hatchlings of the rare Black Softshell and Indian Softshell turtles bred in the ponds oftwo temples in Assam were on Monday released in the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, about 50 kmeast of Guwahati.

The sanctuary is often called ‘Mini Kaziranga’ because of similar landscape and a sizeablepopulation of the one-horned rhino.

The “wild restocking” of the two turtle species was done under a joint programme of themanagement committees of two temples — Ugratara in Guwahati and Hayagriv Madhav in Hajoabout 35 km north-west — the Assam Forest Department and two NGOs specialising in theconservation of reptiles.

These organisations are Turtle Survival Alliance and Help Earth.

“This wild restocking programme is important for sustaining turtles in the Brahmaputra riversystem, especially the Black Softshell (Nilssonia nigricans) that is considered extinct in the wild.Thankfully, the last of these rare species were surviving in some of Assam’s temple ponds thatare not ideal habitats for them,” Help Earth’s Jayaditya Purkayastha told The Hindu.

“One has to appreciate the Dolois (chief priests) of Ugratara and Hayagriv Madhab temples forbacking the conservation programme and Pranab Malakar, the caretaker of the turtles at thetemples besides the Forest Department’s role in the captive breeding,” he added.

The hatchlings from the temple ponds were nurtured at a conservation facility at the AssamState Zoo in Guwahati.

Assam is the most species-rich State in India in terms of turtle diversity. It is home to 20 speciesof freshwater turtles and tortoises out of 29 species found in India. But, 80% of these speciesare threatened with extinction.

Help Earth had last year organised the release of 35 captive-bred turtle hatchlings in thePobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.



Bacteria isolated from Neyyar sanctuary soil has antimicrobial properties

Astronaut Anne McClain is accused of identity theft and improperly accessing her estrangedwife's private financial records while on a sixth-month mission aboard the International SpaceStation

https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/Special-Arrangement/


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Source : www.hindustantimes.com Date : 2019-09-03

IF IT IS NOT TACKLED IN TIME, LAND DEGRADATIONCAN TRIGGER CONFLICT

Relevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

Sep 02, 2019-Monday-°C

Humidity-

Wind-

Metro cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata

Other cities - Noida, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Bhopal , Chandigarh , Dehradun, Indore,Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Ranchi

Powered by

The 14th session of the Conference of Parties (COP14) to the United Nations Convention toCombat Desertification began in New Delhi on Monday. The meeting, which is being attendedby 196 countries, will discuss several global challenges, including drought, land tenure,ecosystem restoration, climate change, health and sand and dust storms among others. TheCOP 14 comes at a critical time for the world. In August, an Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange’s report on climate change and land said the land surface temperature has increased by1.53 degree C since the pre-industrial period, and called for addressing land degradation to helpmitigate climate change because of large reserves of carbon in the soil.

Out of the 196 participating nations, 122 countries, including India, have agreed to become landdegradation neutral (LDN) by 2030. But this will not be easy. Nearly 30% of India’s land areahas been degraded through deforestation, over-cultivation, soil erosion and depletion ofwetlands, says a 2016 study by Space Applications Centre of the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation. The annual economic loss due to degraded land and change in land use in Indiawas valued at Rs 3.17 lakh crore ($46.90 billion) in 2014-15, which was 2.5% of the country’sgross domestic product (GDP) in 2014-15, according to a 2018 study done by The Energy andResource Institute (TERI), a Delhi-based think tank. The government needs to speed upreclamation as the cost of land degradation will outstrip the cost of reclamation in 2030, thereport warned.

But at a time when India needs to take up the anti-desertification drive, there seems to be somedoubt about India’s LDN target. On August 27, environment minister Prakash Javadekar quoteda lower LDN target (5 million hectares) when the original target was 30 million hectares. TheIndian government must take the warning on desertification seriously because land, as IndianInstitute of Science’s N H Ravindranath told Hindustan Times, has synergistic benefits forbiodiversity and creating carbon sinks. Additionally, loss of land will lead to reduced agriculturaloutput and spark a water crisis. However, what must worry the government more is the stronglink that exists between desertification and the creation of a number of social and economicstressors. Populations that lack resiliency to these stressors — who usually happen to be poor— may choose to migrate, seek other means of production or become dependent on others for

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subsistence. These responses to a worsening environment, experts warn, can make social-political conflict more likely.

First Published: Sep 02, 2019 18:56 IST



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INDIA’S CLIMATE SCORE: HIGH ON VULNERABILITY,LOW ON RESILIENCE

Relevant for: Environment | Topic: Disaster and disaster management

HSBC’s 2018 assessment of India being the country the most vulnerable to climate change is ofgreat significance. However, against scientific warnings, carbon emissions continue to rise inChina, the U.S. and India, three of the biggest emitters.

Brazil, under its President Jair Bolsonaro, is encouraging — under the false pretext of promotingeconomic growth — unprecedented deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. As forest firesworsen global warming, the hardest hit by the resulting floods, storms, heatwaves and droughtswill be in India.

Amidst this dangerous setting, global leadership must act with far greater urgency, andcountries, including India, ought to switch rapidly from polluting fossil fuels to cleaner renewableenergy, while building much stronger coastal and inland defences against climatic damage.Brazil must reverse course on the mindless destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Brazil is not alone in mistakenly thinking that slashing environmental regulations would raiseeconomic growth. The U.S., India and others are following this prescription to varying degrees.To be sure, cutting hurdles to investment can boost short-term growth and benefit interestgroups. But damaging the environment in this way would be self defeating in today’s fragileecology, as it would impact long-term growth and well-being.

HSBC’s index and other such measures relating to the climate risk consider the exposure orsensitivity of countries to climate impacts on the one side, and their ability to cope on the other.Add to these two factors the intensity of the climate hazard itself and we can see how India’sranking on the index is, in all likelihood, worsening each year.

A number of Indian States have experienced extreme heatwaves in the past three years, andthe nation’s capital recently recorded a temperature of 48°C, its hottest day in 21 years. India’sexposure to climate hazards is heightened by the location of its vast coastline in the eye of thestorm, across the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. It also has a highpopulation density located in harm’s way. For instance, Kerala, which experienced intensefloods and landslides in 2018 and 2019, is among the States with the highest density.

How badly this exposure will affect lives and livelihoods depends both on the degrees ofvulnerability and resilience to climate impacts. Increasing temperatures and changing seasonalrainfall patterns are aggravating droughts and hurting agriculture across the country. Extremestorms like the one that hit Odisha this year and the floods that swept Chennai in 2015 are thenew normal. These events become more damaging when infrastructure is not resilient.

In the face of such danger, India is not doing enough to boost its coastal and inland defences. Italso needs to do more to build resilience in the sectors of agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing,energy, transport, health, and education. The priority for spending at the national and Statelevels for disaster management needs to rise. Adequate resources must also be allocated forimplementing climate action plans that most States have now prepared.

Indeed, India should be alarmed at ecological destruction even in faraway places like Amazon.As the country that is most at risk for climate damage, it should lead in pressing the global

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community to take sweeping climate action. Meanwhile, the nation must reinforce itsinfrastructure and adapt its agriculture and industry. Equally, it also needs to replace urgently itsfossil fuels with renewable energy.

The writer is a visiting professor at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University ofSingapore






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GIRAFFES CLOSE TO BEING CLASSIFIED AS'CRITICALLY ENDANGERED'


In Africa, the population of the world's tallest mammals are quietly, yet sharply, in decline.

Giraffe numbers across the continent fell 40% between 1985 and 2015, to just under 100,000animals, according to the best figures available to the International Union for Conservation ofNature (IUCN).

But unlike the clarion calls sounded over the catastrophic collapse of elephant, lion and rhinopopulations, less attention was paid to the giraffe's private crisis.

The rate of decline is much higher in central and eastern regions, with poaching, habitatdestruction and conflict the main drivers blamed for thinning herds of these gentle creatures.



Giraffe numbers across the continent fell 40% between 1985 and 2015, to just under 100,000animals.









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INDIA TO RESTORE MORE DEGRADED LANDRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

India has raised by 10% the area of degraded land that the country has agreed to restore by2030, Prime Minister Narendera Modi said on Monday.

“I would like to announce that India would raise its ambition of the total area that would berestored from its land degradation status, from 21 million hectares to 26 million hectares,between now and 2030,” he said in his keynote address at the high-level ministerial segment atthe United Nation Conference of Parties summit on land degradation held at Greater Noida.

On August 27, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, during a prelude to the UNsummit, said that India would restore “5 million hectares” between 2021 and 2030. Mr. Modi, inhis address, said that this target would be achieved with an emphasis on “degraded agricultural,forest and other wasteland by adopting a landscape restoration approach”.

India faces a severe problem of land degradation, or soil becoming unfit for cultivation. About29%, or about 96.4 million hectares, of its land is considered degraded.

This January, India became part of the “Bonn Challenge”, a global effort to bring 150 millionhectares of the world’s deforested and degraded land into restoration by 2020, and 350 millionhectares by 2030. At the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP) 2015 in Paris, Indiajoined the voluntary Bonn Challenge and pledged to bring into restoration 13 million hectares ofdegraded and deforested land by 2020, and an additional 8 million hectares by 2030.

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NO ‘IMMINENT BAN’ ON SINGLE-USE PLASTICRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

Nearly 10,000 tonnes of single-use plastic waste remains uncollected, Mr. Javadekarsaid.AKHILESH KUMARAKHILESH KUMAR

There is no imminent ban on single-use plastic, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekarsaid here on Monday.

At a press conference, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not spoken about a “ban” onsingle-use plastic, but only said “goodbye” to it. “From October 2, we will begin an attempt tocollect all that waste. Nearly 10,000 tonnes of plastic waste remains uncollected,” he said.

In his address at the United Nations Conference on Desertification, the Prime Minister said, “Ithink the time has come for the world to say goodbye to single-use plastic... My government hasannounced that India will put an end to single-use plastic in the coming years.”

Government officials have reiterated over the past month that the government will redoubleefforts to limit the use and consumption of single-use plastic. Several States have laws againstthe use of single-use plastics, but they are not enforced.

India has a long-standing commitment to eliminate the use of single-use plastic by 2022. “Wemake a solemn pledge that by 2022, we shall eliminate all single-use plastic from our beautifulcountry. Our beloved Prime Minister Shri Modi ji has envisioned a new India by 2022 — an Indiaof our dreams which shall be clean, poverty-free, corruption-free, terrorism-free, casteism-free… and most of all … which will be a global superpower. This India of our dreams shall also besingle-use plastic free,' Union Minister Harsh Vardhan said on World Environment Day last year.He was the Environment Minister then.

A resolution moved by India at the United Nations Environment Assembly to eliminate suchplastics by 2025 was defeated with the final text of the agreement only committing to their“significantly reduced use” by 2030.












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THE AMAZON FIRES, AN ALARM THAT LACKSPROPORTION


The upsurge of global environmental anxiety over the recent spate of forest fires in theAmazon, apparently marking a renewed push to deforestation, is clearly testimony to theheightened awareness of the danger to human security represented by global warming. Theprovocatively anti-environmental and climate denial views of Brazil’s President, Jair Bolsonaro,and his colleagues, the reining in of environmental controls if not disabling them, the President’sinitial air of unconcern, and his absurd counter-allegations regarding the causes, have allcontributed to exacerbating this anxiety. Predictably, this has drawn the ire of environmentalists,and public and government opinion globally, though the global media has been morecircumspect.

Unfortunately, in this confrontation, facts and scientific evidence have become collateraldamage, obscuring in the hype some of the substantive challenges to global climate action. Theconfrontation is also in danger of skewing the global discourse on climate policy, opening theway for unprecedented pressure from developed countries on the global South.

What has been the overall contribution of deforestation and land use change to global carbonemissions? As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes in its FifthAssessment Report (AR5), the cumulative net addition of carbon to the earth system fromterrestrial ecosystems since 1750 amounts to 30 Gigatonne (Gt) with an uncertainty of plus orminus 45 Gt. In the words of the IPCC in the AR5: “The net balance of all terrestrial ecosystems,those affected by land use change and the others, is thus close to neutral since 1750.”

The key word here is net. Though cumulative emissions from land-use change since 1750amounted to almost 180 Gt, driven largely by the more than six-fold expansion of cropland, theywere compensated by the 160 Gt of absorption by existing vegetation not subject to land usechange. Fossil fuel use, in contrast, contributed 375 Gt since 1750, that is more than 12 timesthat of the net cumulative emissions from terrestrial ecosystems.

This pattern in carbon accounting also extends to annual emissions. On an average, the GlobalCarbon Project reports, fossil fuel emissions currently pump about 9.9 Gt of carbon annually intothe atmosphere, while land-use change accounts for 1.5 Gt. But terrestrial ecosystems absorbed3.8 Gt. Taking sources and sinks together, they are a net sink.

For tropical forests alone, following literature cited in the AR5, annual emissions (averaged over1990 to 2007) due to deforestation and logging amounted to 2.9 Gt of carbon, while this wascompensated by carbon absorption due to forest regrowth (1.64 Gt), recovering fromdeforestation and logging, and carbon absorption by intact forests (1.19 Gt). As a result, overall,tropical forests were marginally a source of emissions of about 0.11 Gt of carbon per year.Clearly there is no cause for complacency here, but nor is this yet an emergency.

The story with respect to the Amazon River Basin and its tropical forest cover is very similar.By one scientific estimate, the Amazon, in 1980, stored 128 Gt of carbon, with 94 Gt invegetation and 33 Gt in the reactive component of soil carbon. Subsequent evolution of thecarbon storage in the Amazon, makes for a complex story. But while preservation of the Amazonas a carbon pool is essential, such preservation clearly is not the magic bullet that wouldcounteract the impact of fossil fuel emissions.

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/who-will-save-the-amazon-and-aarey-forests/article29360084.ece1

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/who-will-save-the-amazon-and-aarey-forests/article29360084.ece1

https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/as-eu-threatens-trade-retaliation-brazil-sends-army-to-fight-amazon-fires/article29240834.ece

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But the bottom line from this evidence is that fossil fuel emissions have a lasting impact of a kindthat deforestation and land use change do not. The effect of the latter can be partially repairedover time, albeit slowly, as the data on tropical forests demonstrates, while untouched forestsand living biomass continue to absorb carbon. Fossil fuel emissions from coal, oil, and gascannot however be put back in to where they came from. Nor can their cumulative emissions becompensated by increased vegetation, since it will amount to increasing the cumulativeabsorption of terrestrial ecosystems to an improbable level. Forest ecosystems, in balance, willsuffer from the overall impact of global warming, degrading their extent and quality.

Even the alarm expressed over the current forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon, lacks a sense ofproportion. Data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research shows that the number offires this August, while large, is not exceptional. The year’s tally, till August 25, was 80,626, a78% increase year-on-year. However, in Peru it is 105% higher, and in Bolivia 107%, both partof the Amazon basin. There are forest fires elsewhere, extensive in Africa, particularly in Angola,Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (attributed to slash-and-burn agriculture), inSiberia (three million hectares) and in Canada, both attributed to unusually high summertemperatures (this July being the warmest month ever). Brazil’s tally this year is nowhere yetnear its highs from 2005 and 2010, when it exceeded 120,000 for the comparable period of theyear.

Brazil has also put in substantial effort over the last decade to slow down deforestation, withsome notable success, reducing it by 2013 to 75% of its pre-2005 annual average, success thatwas hailed globally. It is quite likely that Mr. Bolsanaro represents a reaction to the toughmeasures that accompanied this effort, not only from agribusiness in soy and beef production,as has been plausibly argued, but also a large section of small farmers who found it difficult toshift from slash-and-burn to intensified cultivation. Apart from deforestation though, Brazil is byno means a high emissions country, and a model of renewable energy use from hydro powerand biofuels.

What then has driven the global outrage against Mr. Bolsanaro? On the part of global publicopinion, the notion that afforestation constitutes some kind of magic bullet to fight globalwarming, is a popular one. The Amazon was always the poster-child of conservation andbiodiversity, and halting deforestation there a global cause célèbre among environmentalists andtheir movements. With global warming, the difficulty in slowing down fossil fuel emissionsprovides added fuel to such views, even if the evidence militates against them.

However, the attitude of the governments of developed countries and many international non-governmental organisations that share these views, is clearly driven by other considerations.These nations have notably failed to deliver in reducing their fossil fuel emissions. As a 2018report of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has noted,the developed countries (excluding the former Soviet bloc nations whose emissions plummetedalong with their economies) have achieved a reduction of only 1.3% over 26 years from 1990.The only way to maintain the Paris Agreement’s promise, that they brokered, of restricting globalwarming to well below 2° C or indeed 1.5°C is by turning the screws on mitigation in the non-industrial sectors. These sectors play a major role in the emissions of most developingcountries, however low they may be in absolute terms.

Mr. Bolsanaro’s revolt is particularly unwelcome in this context, even if it is inspired by theUnited States, and its President, Donald Trump. But while a superpower cannot be brought toheel, nor indeed can large developing nations such as China and India, Brazil is a softer target.The threat by the French President, Emmanuel Macron to block the EU-Mercosur trade deal tomark the European Union’s displeasure marks a new low in the global North’s pressure tacticson the South in dealing with the climate challenge. In a dangerous portent, a noted U.S. foreign

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policy commentator, Stephen Walt, writing recently in Foreign Policy magazine, speculated onprecisely such tactics. He further speculated that “major powers” could intervene even militarilyto discipline nations recalcitrant in climate action. Global talk of a climate emergency that is notgrounded in scientific evidence, however well-intentioned in their origins, could also unwittinglyfuel thinking along these lines.

The Amazon and other terrestrial ecosystems offer much needed room to manoeuvre in dealingwith global warming. But without reducing fossil fuel emissions drastically and the global Northpaying back its carbon debt by taking the lead, there can be little hope of meeting the climatechallenge.

T. Jayaraman and Kamal Murari teach at the Centre for Climate Change and SustainabilityStudies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai




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NILGIRI TAHR’S POPULATION UP 27% IN THREEYEARS IN TN


In more good news for the State animal, the Nilgiri tahr, its sightings in the Mukurthi NationalPark have risen from 568 in 2018 to 612 this year.

Officials said this was the second consecutive year that an increase in the population of theanimal had been recorded in the park, meaning the population of the Nilgiri tahr, also known asthe Nilgiri ibex, has risen by 132 since 2016.

According to officials, the almost 8% increase in the population of the iconic animal in 2019follows a similarly significant increase in its population in 2018. Officials said the upward trendwas good news, as the new data reinforced last year’s findings.

There was a decrease in tahr numbers in 2017, when a population of only 438 was recorded,down from 480 in 2016.

Deputy Director of Mukurthi National Park S. Senbagapriya said the yearly exercise to estimatethe population of the State animal, endemic to the Western Ghats, was organised in June. “Theresults of the census are extremely promising, with many juveniles being seen,” Ms.Senbagapriya said, adding that preliminary findings pointed to a healthy sex ratio, slightlyskewed in favour of does (female goats).

She added that efforts were being made to ensure that the 78-sq.km reserve, closed to tourists,remained relatively free of some of the species of invasive plants that had begun their incursioninto other habitats, such as Scotch broom and gorse in Avalanche. “For now, there is almost nospread of invasive plants, meaning the tahr have plenty of food and more room for thepopulation to grow in the coming years,” said Ms. Senbagapriya. The 275 hectares of clearedwattle plantations were ‘maintained’ in 2018, ensuring that these cleared areas remained freefrom new invasive wattle trees coming up from underground seed banks. “We also clearedaround 10 hectares of plantations in Bangithabal and the Western Catchment last year,” shesaid.

K.K. Kaushal, Field Director of the Mukurthi National Park, said the almost 27% increase in thepopulation of the tahr in the Nilgiris over the last three years showed that current conservationpolicies — keeping the national park closed to tourists and free from poaching, while fighting thespread of invasive flora — were bringing the desired results in terms of maintaining a healthypopulation of the tahr. “We don’t see any chance of the population reaching a saturation point inthe near future, as the habitat is contiguous with the Silent Valley National Park and theMannarrkad forest division in Kerala, meaning they have a large habitat they can keepexpanding into,” Mr. Kaushal said.





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TWO NEW SPECIES OF GINGER DISCOVERED INNAGALAND


Zingiber perenense, left, was found growing in moist areas, while Zingiber dimapurense wascollected from a forest.

Scientists from the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) have discovered two new species of Zingiber,commonly referred to as ginger, in Nagaland. While Zingiber perenense has been discoveredfrom the Peren district of Nagaland, Zingiber dimapurense was found in the Dimapur district ofthe State.

Details of both discoveries were published in two peer-reviewed journals earlier this year. Of thetwo species, Zingiber dimapurense is taller in size, with leafy shoots measuring 90-120 cm high,whereas the leafy shoots of Zingiber perenense reach up to 70 cm in height.

The type specimens of Zingiber perenense were collected in September 2017, when botanistswere working on the ‘State flora of Nagaland’ in the Peren district. “The plant was found growingin moist shady places on the bank of a small steam in the hilly terrain forest of the Tesen villageunder the Peren subdivision,” the publication authored by four botanists said.

Collection of specimen

The specimen of Zingiber dimapurense was collected in October 2016 from the Hekese forestunder the Medziphema subdivision. Some rhizomes of this plant collected along with field datawere planted in the Botanical Survey of India’s Eastern Regional Centre garden in Shillong,where itself they began flowering in June 2018.

According to Dilip Kumar Roy, who has contributed to both the publications, the genus Zingiberhas 141 species distributed throughout Asia, Australia and the South Pacific, with its centre ofdiversity in Southeast Asia. “More than 20 species have been found in northeastern India. Overthe past few years, more than half a dozen species have been discovered from different Statesof northeast India only,” Dr. Roy said.

Nripemo Odyou, another scientist with the BSI, said that the high diversity of ginger species inthe region reveals that the climate is conducive for the growth of the genus.

More studies are required to ascertain the medicinal properties of the newly discoveredspecies,” Dr. Odoyu said.








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Source : www.indianexpress.com Date : 2019-09-11

SHADES OF GREENRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

© 2019 The Indian Express Ltd.All Rights Reserved

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India will scale up its ambition torestore degraded land. PM Modi’s announcement, at the ongoing 14th Conference of Parties(CoP) of the United Nation’s Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Greater Noida,is significant from the standpoint of the country’s global environmental commitments. Thecountry will now restore 26 million hectares by 2030, five million hectares more than what it hadpledged at the Paris Climate Change Meet in 2015. Monday’s announcement is also salutarygiven the growing crisis of desertification. According to ISRO’s Desertification and LandDegradation Atlas, nearly 30 per cent of land in the country is degraded. This, PM Modi said,“would be reversed by adopting a landscape-restoration approach”. It will require theenvironment ministry to shift focus from its plantation-oriented afforestation schemes andrecognise the importance of ecosystem services of land and forests such as watershedmanagement, biodiversity conservation and improving soil health.

PM Modi also spoke of the increase in the country’s green cover in the past year. In fact, overthe past two decades, the Dehradun-based Forest Survey of India (FSI) has reported aconsistent increase in the country’s forested area. But the agency hasn’t convincingly answereda question: How is it that India’s forests have not been impacted by the relentless pressure onland? This paradox can be ascribed to a methodological problem with the FSI’s audits. Theagency uses satellite images to identify green cover as forest, and does not discriminatebetween natural forests and plantations. Addressing the asymmetry between India’s green coverand land degradation data is, however, not just an academic matter. Several studies haveshown the limitations of monoculture plantations in sequestering GHG emissions. A studypublished in the journal Science in 2016 found that the capacity of the green areas in Europe toabsorb carbon dioxide has come down significantly despite recording an increase in such areasover the past 250 years.

Last month, a report of the IPCC elucidated the links between global warming and landdegradation. Climate change “not only exacerbates many of the well-acknowledged landdegradation processes”, but it “becomes a dominant pressure that introduces novel degradationpathways in … ecosystems,” it said. PM Modi’s announcement at the UNCCD meet signals thecountry’s intent to meet this challenge. India’s environment establishment now needs to re-evaluate the methods to measure the country’s green cover.

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WHY RESTORING DEGRADED LAND IS CRITICAL FORINDIA


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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that India will restore 26 million hectares (ha) ofdegraded land by 2030, taking up the target by five million ha from the current 21 million ha. Hewas speaking at the ongoing 14th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention toCombat Desertification (COP14 UNCCD) being hosted by India. Of the 196 countries that areparty to the UNCCD, 122, including India, have agreed to become land degradation neutral --- astate whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystemfunctions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases ---- by 2030, asspecified in the Sustainable Development Goal targets.

To understand why Mr Modi’s plan to restore land is critical, one needs to understand thecurrent situation, and the impact degradation can have on the poor and the country.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s land atlas 2016, about 96 millionhectares, or 29.23%, of India’s land area is undergoing degradation. This is caused by multipleforces, deforestation, wetland drainage, overgrazing, unsustainable land-use practices, and theexpansion of agricultural, industrial and urban areas, and now climate change. This processneeds to be reversed because degraded land loses the ability to support plant life, and provideecosystem services such as management of water systems and storage of carbon dioxide, oneof the six main greenhouse gases.

Second, India spends a huge amount of money on developing infrastructure, which then peopleuse to exploit to gain new social and economic opportunities. But these enablers --- such asroads and bridges --- are often destroyed by rampaging floodwaters and excessive rainfall ----both linked to climate change. So if India wants to protect its crucial investments, it needs totackle climate, and reversing land degradation of a sure-shot way of doing it.

Third, tackling land degradation will improve livelihood opportunities of 60% of India’s populationthat depends on agriculture and related activities. For successive governments, povertyalleviation has been a key agenda. And that goal will not succeed if two basic units of livelihood ---- land and water ----- are not taken cared for by the government --- and the people.

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A CASE FOR A DIFFERENTIAL GLOBAL CARBON TAXRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

“The emissions of the U.S. and China are higher than the global average.” A steel factory in theindustrial province of Hebei, China, in 2015.Getty Images

Climate change is a global problem, and a global problem needs a global solution. The mostrecent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report suggests that we, ashumankind, might have just over a decade left to limit global warming. The IPCC says totalglobal emissions will need to fall by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.If these targets are not met, tropical regions of the world, which are densely populated andhappen to be mainly concentrated in the global South, are likely to be most negatively affectedbecause of their low altitudes and pre-existing high temperatures. Some impact of this wasalready felt during the Tamil Nadu water crisis this year.

The global South, which has historically contributed less to the problem (and even at present itsper capita carbon emissions are much smaller in comparison to the countries in the globalNorth), happens to be at the receiving end of the lifestyle choices made by the global North.Although time is running out, a genuine global consensus on the mitigation of this problem isunfortunately missing. In the absence of a collective agreement, the environment is becomingthe casualty. The bottom line is that both the worlds need to contribute to avert this danger intheir self-interest. At the same time, the burden of adjustment cannot be equal when theunderlying relationship between the two worlds has been historically unequal (climate injusticefunnel). But what is the correct balance in terms of sharing this burden, something which can bepolitically and juridically just?

A just approach would involve a global sharing of the responsibility among countries accordingto their respective shares in global emissions. Currently, the most accepted model of mitigatingstrategy has been the carbon trading process. However, it has its own limitations. Our proposal,a Just Energy Transition (JET), on the contrary, is premised on a sense of global justice in termsof climatic fallouts and the respective contributions of the countries. It will also help the resource-poor developing countries to make the energy transition without having to worry about thefinances unduly. Instead, the current experiences of the developing countries point to thecontrary.

How can this injustice be corrected while making the planet a better place to live in for futuregenerations? The first priority is to fundamentally change the energy infrastructure, whichrequires massive investments for the green energy programme across the world. What wepropose here in some sense is a new global green deal. But how can it be financed? Wesuggest that those on the top of the funnel, apart from funding their own energy transition,partially support the transition for the countries at the bottom and this sharing of the burden ofdevelopment be done in a way which inverts this injustice funnel. For a successful energytransition to greener renewable sources, countries have to spend around 1.5% of their GDP. Wepropose that the global energy transition be financed through a system of the global carbon tax.Since the total global carbon emissions are 36.1 billion metric tonnes of CO2, this amounts to aglobal carbon tax of $46.1 per metric tonne.

Who subsidises whom and by how much? Those countries which emit more than the global percapita average pay for their own transition plus fund a part of the energy transition of those whoare below this average. So, those at the receiving end of climate injustice are duly compensatedfor even as the entire world transitions to greener earth as a result of this process of carbon tax

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sharing. Currently, the global average of carbon emissions is 4.97 metric tonne per capita. Allthe countries with emissions above this level (68 in all) are “payers” to finance energy transitionfor ‘beneficiary’ countries (135 in number), which are emitting below this level.

The total amount of “carbon compensation” made by the payer nations comes to around $570billion. The distribution of this amount across the payer countries is based on their distance fromthe global average (controlled for their population size). The other side of the same coin is thecompensated countries, and the distribution of this fund across them is also based on how lowertheir emissions are in comparison to the global average. Once you add (subtract) the carboncompensation amount to (from) each of the countries, you get the effective carbon tax for them.

The two top ‘payer’ countries in terms of absolute amounts of transfers are the U.S. and Chinasince their emissions are higher than the global average. What’s interesting is that despite beinga payer country, the effective tax rate for the Chinese is lower than the possible universal taxrate of $46.1 per metric tonne and that’s because their own energy transition (1.5% of China’sGDP) plus the global compensation they make requires a tax rate only of $34.4 per metrictonne. So, in that sense, the burden of adjustment is only partially falling on their shoulder andonly because they emit more than the global average.

In terms of ‘compensated’ countries, India comes at the top due to its population size and itsdistance from the global emissions’ average (India has per capita emissions of 1.73 metrictonne). The other suspects are all countries from the global South, but this list springs a fewsurprises like France, Sweden, and Switzerland. What this tells us is that even high-incomecountries which have currently kept their per capita emissions low are beneficiaries of thisglobally-just policy. With China in the first list and some of the first world countries in the second,it’s obvious what this policy wants to achieve. It wants all nations to climb down the emissionsladder without necessarily having to give up on their standard of living. It’s a global green RobinHood tax!

Rohit Azad teaches economics at JNU, New Delhi, and Shouvik Chakraborty is a researchfellow at the Political Economy Research Institute, Amherst, U.S.












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U.N. MEETING ON DESERTIFICATION ENDS WITH VOWTO CURB LAND DEGRADATION


Photo: Twitter/@UNCCD

A two-week long United Nations-led Conference to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) ended witha commitment to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030. Such neutrality is defined by theU.N. as ensuring that enough land is available across the world to ensure a sustainable future.

The Delhi Declaration, a consensus document, agreed upon by more than 100 countries“welcomed” the proposed adoption of a “voluntary” land degradation neutrality target by India,which has committed to restoring at least 26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030. TheDeclaration doesn’t detail commitments by other countries.

Almost 122 nations, including India, have made voluntary commitments in previous years toensure that a certain percentage of their degraded land was restored. India had agreed, againon a voluntary basis, to restore 20 million hectares by 2020. Nearly 96 million hectares of land isdeemed ‘degraded’ in India.

On August 14th, 2018, India claimed it had brought an area of 9.8 million hectares underrestoration since 2011. Of the 9.8 million hectares, 94.4% was contributed by governmentagencies, while NGOs and private companies contributed 3.6% and 2% respectively.

Countries will address insecurity of land tenure, promote land restoration to reduce land-relatedcarbon emissions and mobilise innovative sources of finance from public and private sources,the UN said in a statement.

“To my mind, this was the conference where we put people at the heart of what we do,” saidIbrahim Thiaw, Executive Secretary of the UNCCD, “We have woken up to the fact that we willsee more frequent and severe droughts, a phenomenon that will be exacerbated by climatechange,” he added.

Independent organisations said India must outline specific action plans to arrest landdegradation.

“There ought to be clear estimates of the extent of degraded areas across various ecosystemsand land use is required to assess the efficacy of ongoing reclamation programmes, to givesuccessful policy prescriptions and to get an accurate picture of the actual costs of landdegradation,” The Energy and Resources Institute, said in a statement. “Separate atlases andpolicies for grasslands and wetlands of India are clearly warranted,” it said.

The UNCCD is the only legally binding international agreement on land issues. Its 196 partiesaim, through partnerships, to implement the Convention and achieve the SustainableDevelopment Goals.

The meet drew almost 9,000 participants and saw ministers and heads of UN and other inter-governmental bodies attend several events around the conference.



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CLIMATE CHANGE CAN REDUCE BANANA YIELD ININDIA, STUDY FINDS


India, which is the world’s largest producer and consumer of banana, along with nine othercountries such as Brazil will see a reduction in the yield. | Photo Credit: K. K. Mustafah

Global warming in the last about 60 years had helped increase banana yield at annual rate of0.024 tonnes per hectare translating to an average increase of 1.37 tonnes per hectare in 27countries since the 1960s. But with continued warming, the yield gains could slow down or evenreverse in some countries leading to a drop in yields — 0.59-0.19 tonnes per hectare — by2050, a study published in Nature Climate Change finds.

India, which is the world’s largest producer and consumer of banana, along with nine othercountries such as Brazil will see a reduction in the yield, the University of Exeter study finds.

At the same time, certain other countries — Ecuador and Honduras, and many in Africa — willwitness an overall increase in crop yields.

“India could experience a major reversal with predicted negative effects of future climate changecompared to positive effects in the past,” the authors write. But the decline in production due toclimate change in the case of India may be mitigated by strong, technology-driven measures toincrease the yield.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) with 29 million tonnes produced peryear between 2010 and 2017, India is the world’s number one producer of banana. Over 29% ofthe world’s banana production is in India. The average yield of banana in India is around 60tonnes per hectare, according to the FAO. During the same period (2010 and 2017), China,which is second largest producer globally, produced about one-third of India — 11 million tonnesper year.

The authors caution that the study does not take into account agro-economic considerationssuch as cultivation infrastructure, access to market to name a few which are taken into accountto arrive at production data. Similarly, the extent of irrigation in use has not been accounted forin the analysis.



Assam is the most species-rich State in India in terms of turtle diversity.





https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/K-K-Mustafah/



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THE ADVERSE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGERelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Degradation - GHGs, Ozone Depletion and Climate Change

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The human cost of climate change is increasing every year. According to a report in theHindustan Times, this year’s June 1-September 14 monsoon saw the highest number ofextreme rainfall events (1,800), and the most people (1,422) killed in the season, since datastarted being recorded in 2010. Data also showed that monsoon-related deaths were morewidespread across India than in any previous year with the highest toll of 317 in Maharashtra,followed by 203 in West Bengal and 200 in Madhya Pradesh. It’s not just rain-related deaths;other extreme weather-related events such as heat waves or cyclonic storms, are also havinghuge impact on the people, especially the poor. On July 9, the government informed the LokSabha that over 2,400 people died due to extreme weather events in the last one year. Between1980 and 2010, the government added, India experienced 431 major natural disasters.Unfortunately, minister of state for environment Babul Supriyo, added that “direct attribution toclimate change [to the extreme weather events] has not been indicated”. But United Nationsreports have said that over the last 40 years there has been a doubling of extreme weatherevents, causing huge loss of life, disrupted billions of lives and caused staggering economiclosses.

To reduce climate-related deaths, mitigation and resilience, which the Paris Climate Agreementtalks about, every policy decision needs to be evaluated from the climate angle. In addition,India’s governments and people must recognise the protective value of forests, and strictlyenforce regulations that protect them. Second, stop building infrastructure on danger zones suchas flood plains or at the foot of unstable hills. Third, alleviate poverty and strength publicinstitutions to reduce the risk. Fourth, improve forecasts and multi-hazard early warnings, be iton heat waves or floods.

While the central governments have been pushing the states to improve their climate action, theperformance of the states has been varied across the country, says Driving climate action: Stateleadership in India, a May 2019 report by the Climate Group. This is unfortunate because theclimate-laggard states must realise, as the data-rich report also shows, that along with savinglives, economic gain and climate action can go hand in hand. This is borne out by the fact thatthe top 10 performing climate action states align almost identically with the 10 highest per capitaincome states.

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WATCH: WHAT IS WORLD OZONE DAY?Relevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Degradation - GHGs, Ozone Depletion and Climate Change

Commonly known as the ‘World Ozone Day’, September 16 commemorates the MontrealProtocol that was signed on this date by 24 UN member nations in 1987, to limit and ultimatelyphase out the production of manmade chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and 95 otherozone-depleting materials.

The slogan for this year “Ozone: All that is there between You and UV” is meant to show howhuman activity can impact the ozone layer and ultimately, the survival of the Earth and itsenvironment as we know it.

According to the UN, the Montreal Protocol has led to the phase-out of 99% of ozone-depletingchemicals in refrigerators, air-conditioners and many other products. Parts of the ozone layerhave recovered at a rate of 1-3% per decade since 2000, according to the Scientific Assessmentof Ozone Depletion.












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VULTURE CULTURE: HOW THE BIRD WAS SAVEDFROM EXTINCTION


The slender-billed vulture, which is one among the three bred at the VCBC in Pinjore,Haryana.special arrangement

In the late 1990s, when the population of the vultures in the country had begun to declinesharply, one White-backed vulture was rescued from Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan,where vultures were dying at an alarming rate.

To study the cause of deaths of vultures, a Vulture Care Centre (VCC) was set up at Pinjore,Haryana. It was here that the rescued vulture from Rajasthan was brought. Later, a few morevultures from Haryana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh were brought in.

Starting with just a few vultures, the VCC, until then the sole facility for conservation of vulturesin the country, has come a long way in the past two decades. At present there are nine VultureConservation and Breeding Centres (VCBC) in India, of which three are directly administered byBombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

Thriving population

“The total number of vultures in these VCBCs is more than 700,” said Sachin Ranade, assistantdirector, BNHS. Mr. Ranade said that the three species of vultures bred in the VCBC are theWhite-backed, Long-billed and the Slender-billed vulture.

“By the time we started these vulture conservation breeding centers in 2004, the vulturepopulation had already crashed significantly, almost by 99 %. As vultures are slow-breedingbirds, intervention was of immediate requirement otherwise the vultures would have becomeextinct,” said Vibhu Prakash , deputy director at BNHS.

The major reason behind the vulture population getting nearly wiped out was the drugDiclofenac, found in the carcass of cattle the vultures fed on. The drug, whose veterinary usewas banned in 2008, was commonly administered to cattle to treat inflammation.

Dr. Prakash said that the objective of the VCBCs was not only to look after the vultures andbreed them in captivity, but also to release them into the wild. The first objective of the VCBCwas to produce a few hundred pairs of each of the three species of the endangered vultures.

Referring to the release of two Himalayan Griffon into the wild from the Pinjore VCBC in 2016,the scientists said that the objective of the test release was to see what happens when a speciesis kept in captivity for a long time and then set free.

Self-reliant in 40 days

He further added that for almost a month after their release, the vultures stayed around thecentre, and within a month were flying well. “They joined other vultures and by 40 days they hadstarted locating their own food and water, and soon they flew away. Unfortunately in those dayswe only had wing tags, so we lost track of the vultures,” he said.

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Enthused by the success of the release of the pair, scientists at BNHS are now planning morereleases. Mr. Ranade said they are planning a release of more Himalayan Griffons at theRajabhatkhawa Centre in Bengal later this year. Two of the birds will have satellite PTT(platform transmitting terminals) attached to them, and the rest will have wing tags and rings.The White-backed vultures from Pinjore are scheduled to be released next year.

“If after releasing the birds we don't find any drug-related mortality in the next one year, then wewill release 20 more White-backed vultures and we will take 10 Long-billed vultures to MadhyaPradesh ,” the scientist said.

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Source : www.pib.nic.in Date : 2019-09-19Relevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

On World Ozone Day, India’s Cooling Action Plan gets UNapplaud

Posted On: 16 SEP 2019 6:52PM by PIB Delhi

At an event to mark the World Ozone Day 2019 in New Delhi, Union Minister of State (MoS) forEnvironment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Babul Supriyo said that the World Ozone Dayoffers an opportunity to focus global attention and action on the vital environmental issue ofprotection of the stratospheric ozone Layer.

Shri Babul Supriyo highlighted the fact that India became one of the first countries in the world tolaunch a comprehensive Cooling Action plan in March, 2019, which has a long term vision toaddress the cooling requirement across sectors such as residential and commercial buildings,cold-chain, refrigeration, transport and industries. The India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) lists outactions which can help reduce the cooling demand, which will also help in reducing both directand indirect emissions.

The Minister also underlined that the importance of development of National Cooling ActionPlans has been recognized by the United Nations Secretary General, Mr António Guterres in hismessage on World Ozone day 2019 where the need for all countries to develop national coolingaction plans has been highlighted. “It is heartening to note that a step taken by India has led to aglobal recognition of this important policy initiative which can help in climate action andachievement of sustainable development goals.”, said the MoS

He pointed out that the ICAP has been appreciated internationally as an important policyinitiative which has the potential to provide socio-economic and environmental benefits related toreduced refrigerant use, climate change mitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Many countries are now involved in development of cooling action plans keeping in view thesignificant environmental benefits and the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goals.

The India Cooling Action seeks to (i) reduce cooling demand across sectors by 20% to 25% by2037-38, (ii) reduce refrigerant demand by 25% to 30% by 2037-38, (iii) Reduce cooling energyrequirements by 25% to 40% by 2037-38, (iv) recognize “cooling and related areas” as a thrustarea of research under national S&T Programme, (v) training and certification of 100,000servicing sector technicians by 2022-23, synergizing with Skill India Mission.

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ICAP recommends synergies with ongoing government programmes and schemes such asHousing for All, the Smart Cities Mission, Doubling Farmers Income and Skill India Mission, inorder to maximize socio-economic co-benefits. It was informed that the Ministry has constitutedthe Steering Committee and Thematic Working Groups for providing the modalities foroperationalization of the recommendations. They have already commenced their work.

Shri Babul Supriyo further stated that as part of the Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) phaseout programme, India has proactively taken the challenge of complete phase out of HCFC 141b, which is a chemical used by foam manufacturing enterprises by 1.1.2020. Towards meetingthis compliance target, the Ozone Cell of the Ministry is providing technical and financialassistance to foam manufacturing enterprises along with UNDP.

Shri Babul Supriyo informed the gathering that MoEFCC is implementing a project jointly forupskilling and certification of 100,000 Refrigeration and Air-conditioning service technicians withMinistry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) under Skill India Mission - PradhanMantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). Training and certification of Refrigeration and Air-conditioning (RAC) service technicians will allow securing environmental benefits and livelihoodenhancement for technicians. This sector is largely unorganized. Already 20000 servicetechnicians have been upskilled and certified in the first phase. In addition 14, 000 technicianshave also been trained under HPMP in collaboration with GIZ. The Minister also releasedProceedings of Stakeholder consultation on Strengthening of certification System for RACservicing technicians and a Special issue of newsletter “newsTRAC” –for technicians inRefrigeration and Air-conditioning (RAC) Sector on Social Security, Access to Finance andOccupational Safety of Servicing Technicians.

The Ministry has also signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Central Institute of PlasticsEngineering & Technology (CIPET), for providing Competency Enhancement of System Housesand Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs) in foam manufacturing sector for ensuringsmooth and sustainable phase out of HCFC-141b.

A booklet on ‘Montreal Protocol – India’s Success Story’ and poster and sticker of award winningstudents were also released on the occasion of the World Ozone Day. In keeping with the focuson skilling of RAC service technicians and formalization of the RAC service trade fourpublications related to RAC service sector which have been developed by Ozone Cell,MoEF&CC along with GIZ and UN Environment were also launched today. A booklet on Efficientand Sustainable Cooling and a booklet on Good Servicing Practices for Flammable Refrigerants:A Quick Guide were also released on the occasion. Shri Babul Supriyo also presented awards tostudents for competitions in painting, poster making and slogan writing organized on WorldOzone Day.

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"32 years and healing” is the theme of 25th World Ozone Day celebrations. The theme signifiesover three decades of remarkable international cooperation to protect the ozone layer and alsothe climate system under the Montreal Protocol. The abundance of Ozone DepletingSubstances (ODSs) in the atmosphere is declining and a recent study has indicated that theozone hole is recovering.

The World Ozone Day celebration was well attended by the representatives of Multilateral andbilateral agencies including UN Environment, UNDP, GIZ, representatives of variousGovernment Departments, Industry and Industry associations and large number of students.

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‘SAVE OUR FUTURE’: STUDENTS HIT STREETS TODEMAND GLOBAL CLIMATE ACTION


A protester shows a placard during a climate demonstration on September 20, 2019 in Paris. |Photo Credit: AP

Hundreds of thousands of students and workers left their schools, colleges and offices onSeptember 20 to take to the streets around the globe and demand that world leaders take urgentaction to avert an environmental catastrophe.

The global climate strike, inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, kicked offin the Pacific islands and followed the rising sun across Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia andthen Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

It will culminate in New York when Ms. Thunberg, who has been nominated for a Nobel PeacePrize, will spearhead a rally at the United Nations headquarters, where heads of government aredue to gather for a climate summit next week.

“This is about my future, not only my future, but the future of my entire generation and all thegenerations to come after ours,” said Tristan Vancleef, 16, among around 15,000 demonstratorswho marched through the centre of Brussels.

Banners at the Brussels march included “Cool kids save the hot planet”, “I won't go to schooluntil you make it cool” and “The warm earth destroys our cold beer”.

Protesters are calling on governments to take immediate action to limit the harmful effects ofman-made climate change.

Social media posts showed scores of demonstrations, ranging from a few dozen primary schoolchildren in Abuja, Nigeria, to tens of thousands of people in cities from Hamburg, in Germany, toMelbourne, Australia.

“Our future on your shoulders,” read one banner stretched across a street by students in Berlin.

“Our oceans are rising, so are we,” was a popular slogan on placards, including one carried by astudent in school uniform in Melbourne and another by a girl wearing a facemask in Kolkata.

Global warming caused by heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels hasalready led to droughts and heatwaves, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and floods, scientistssay.

Carbon emissions climbed to a record high last year, despite a warning from the U.N.-backedIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October that output of the gases must beslashed over the next 12 years to stabilise the climate.

Organisers said demonstrations, taking place in about 150 countries and being billed as thebiggest of their kind, would take different forms around the world, but all would aim to promoteawareness of climate change and demand political action to curb contributing factors.


https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg?s=17

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The protest movement is putting increasing pressure on both governments and companies torespond.

Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc pledged on September 19 it would be net carbon neutral by2040. Cutting emissions is a challenging goal for Amazon, which delivers 10 billion items a yearand has a massive transport and data centre footprint. “We know we can do it and we know wehave to do it,” Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said.

Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace USA welcomed the commitment, but a spokesmansaid the company lagged peers Google, Apple and Facebook in transparency around itsrenewable projects.

Some of the company's workers from the group Amazon Employees for Climate Justice plan tojoin marches on September 20.

In Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel unveiled a major new climate protection packagethrashed out by parties in her coalition in all-night talks.

Meanwhile, on the streets of the capital, crowds gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, where threeactivists stood on blocks of ice beneath a mock gallows.

“A lot of people support our movement but we want to go a step further because politiciansdecide on our future,” said Janik Oswald, a German spokesman for Fridays For Future, theschool strike movement started by Thunberg in Sweden last year. ”We urgently demand thatsomething happens.”

The U.N. summit next week brings together world leaders to discuss climate change mitigationstrategies, such as transitioning to renewable energy sources from fossil fuels.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, among the worlds onlynational leaders that publicly question climate science, are not due to take part, theirrepresentatives said.

The issue of global warming is vital to low-lying Pacific islands, which have repeatedly askedwealthier nations to do more to prevent rising sea levels.

As Friday's day of action got under way across scattered Pacific communities, students holdingplacards in Kiribati chanted: “We are not sinking, we are fighting”.

By mid-afternoon across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, crowds had gathered in manycities, including London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Warsaw, Stockholm, Helsinki, Beirut, Nairobiand Cape Town.

“We are skipping our lessons to teach you one,” read a placard carried by a student in London.

In Stockholm, crowds gathered outside the Swedish parliament, where Thunberg began herschool strike protests.

“We have to send a message to the politicians that the environment is more important thaneducation,” said Mattis Johanssen, 18.

Earlier, Danielle Porepilliasana, a Sydney high school student, had a blunt message forpoliticians such as Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who told parliament on

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Thursday that students should stay in class.

“World leaders from everywhere are telling us that students need to be at school doing work,”she said, wearing anti-coal earrings. “I'd like to see them at their parliaments doing their jobs foronce.”




We turn 141! Check out our foundation day offer








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FIVE-YEAR PERIOD ENDING 2019 SET TO BE HOTTESTON RECORD: U.N. REPORT


In this December 2010 picture, environmental activists from Greenpeace demonstrate byholding images of world landmarks in the water during the United Nations Climate ChangeConference in Cancun, Mexico. | Photo Credit: AP

Average global temperature between 2015-2019 is on track to be the hottest of any five-yearperiod on record, a U.N. report by the world’s leading climate agencies said on September 22.

“It is currently estimated to be 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial [1850-1900] times and0.2 degrees Celsius warmer than 2011-2015,” said the report titled United in Science, asynthesis of key findings.

Other major takeaways from the report include that the extent of Arctic summer sea ice hasdeclined at a rate of 12% per decade over the past 40 years, with the four lowest valuesbetween 2015 and 2019.

Overall, the amount of ice lost from the Antarctic ice sheet increased by a factor of six each yearbetween 1979 and 2017, while glacier loss for 2015-19 is also the highest for any five-yearperiod on record.

The report comes ahead of a major U.N. climate summit on September 23 that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called to ask countries to raise their greenhouse gas reductiontargets.

On this metric, too, the world is failing. The report found that rather than falling, carbon dioxidegrew 2% in 2018, reaching a record high of 37 billion tonnes.

More importantly, there is also no sign yet of reaching what is known as “peak emissions”, thepoint at which levels will start to fall, though these are not growing at the same rate as the globaleconomy.











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INDIA WILL SET HIGHER GREEN ENERGY TARGET: PMRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

Mr. Modi also said that India plans to “considerably increase the proportion of the biofuel blendin petrol and diesel.” He said India had plans to make the transport sector green through the useof electrical vehicles (“e-mobility”).

The Prime Minister highlighted his call from banning single-use plastics, the International SolarAlliance, an Indian-led initiative, and that India had provided 160 million families with cookinggas connections.

New initiatives

He also announced two international initiatives. First, a platform with Sweden and othercountries, for governments and the private sector to work together to develop low carbonpathways for industry.

Second, a Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. This initiative was approved by theUnion Cabinet last month and Rs. 480 crore has been allocated for technical assistance andprojects. The U.K., Australia and island nations such as Fiji and the Maldives will be part of thiscoalition.

With the UN

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had asked leaders to come with “concrete plans” ratherthan “beautiful speeches”, a message he emphasised at the start of the summit.

Mr. Modi’s early slot, after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacina Ardern and Hilda Heine, thePresident of the Marshall Islands, was a recognition of India’s leadership in climate action,according to India’s UN envoy Syed Akbaruddin, who briefed the media a few days ago on thesummit.

U.S. pulls out

The U.S., Brazil, and South Africa are among countries that will not be speaking at the summit.










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RUSSIA FORMALLY ACCEPTS 2015 PARIS CLIMATEACCORD


Russia said it would implement the 2015 Paris Agreement to fight climate change after PrimeMinister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday approved a government resolution signifying Moscow’sfinal acceptance of the deal.

The same resolution said Russia would not technically ratify the accord however due to a legalnuance. Mr. Medvedev said Moscow would adapt the accord to existing legal norms. It wasunclear what, if any, the legal implications of failing to technically ratify the pact were.

Russia is the world’s fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases and the biggest emitter not tohave ratified the landmark global climate deal.

In Monday’s government resolution, Russia said it did not need to ratify the agreement becauseMoscow had already undertaken to honour its commitments when it signed the deal in April2016.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeyev said it was important for Russia to be part of the Parisaccord so that it had a voice when it came to deciding any new measures to regulategreenhouse gas emissions. “And any regulatory measures that are drawn up will have to takeinto consideration our national interests as much as possible,” he said.















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PM MODI VOWS TO MORE THAN DOUBLE INDIA’SNON-FOSSIL FUEL TARGET TO 450 GW BY 2022


Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the climate summit at UN headquarters in New Yorkon September 23, 2019. Twitter/@UNFCCC

India’s renewable energy target will be increased to 450 GW, Prime Minister Narendra Modi saidat the United Nations Climate Action Summit here on Monday.

“India today has come not just to talk about the seriousness of this issue, but to present apractical approach and a road map. We believe an ounce of practice is worth more than a tonneof preaching,” he said.

‘Moment of truth’ at key UN climate summit

Speaking in Hindi, Mr. Modi reiterated India’s commitment to the creation of 175 GW renewableenergy capacity by 2022 under the Paris Climate Agreement. “What is needed today is acomprehensive approach which covers education, values and everything from lifestyle todevelopmental philosophy... What we need is a global people’s movement to bring aboutbehavioural change.”

Also read | ‘You have stolen my dreams’, climate activist Thunberg angrily tells worldleaders

India would spend approximately $50 billion “in the next few years” on the Jal Jeevan Mission toconserve water, harvest rainwater and develop water resources, he added.

Mr. Modi also said India planned to “considerably increase the proportion of the biofuel blend inpetrol and diesel.”

He said India had plans to make the transport sector green through the use of electricalvehicles.

PM Modi’s U.S. visit: After Houston, it’s a busy New York week

The Prime Minister highlighted his call from banning single-use plastics, the International SolarAlliance, an Indian-led initiative, and that India had provided 160 million families with cookinggas connections.

He also announced two international initiatives. First, a platform with Sweden and othercountries, for governments and the private sector to work together to develop low carbonpathways for industry.

Second, a Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. This initiative was approved by theUnion Cabinet last month and 480 crore has been allocated for technical assistance andprojects.

The U.K., Australia and island nations such as Fiji and the Maldives will be part of this coalition.

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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had asked leaders to come with “concrete plans” ratherthan “beautiful speeches”, a message he emphasised at the start of the summit.

Mr. Modi’s early slot, after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacina Ardern and Hilda Heine, thePresident of the Marshall Islands, was a recognition of India’s leadership in climate action,according to India’s UN envoy Syed Akbaruddin, who briefed the media a few days ago on thesummit.

The U.S., Brazil, and South Africa are among countries that will not be speaking at the summit.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence briefly attended the summit andlistened to several speeches including Mr. Modi’s.

>>World not doing enough to overcome serious challenge of climate change.

>>Need a global people’s movement to bring about behavioural change.

>>India will spend $50 billion on water conservation in next few years.

>>India will increase share of non-fossil fuel, will increase renewable energy capacity to beyond175 GW by 2022 and take it to 400 GW.

>>India will inaugurate on Tuesday solar panels on the roof of the U.N. building, built at a cost of$1 million.

>>80 countries have joined the International Solar Alliance initiated by India.

>>Called for a people’s movement to end the use of single use plastic and hoped that it willcreate an awareness at a global level about the harmful effects of single use plastic.

>>Need is a global people’s movement to bring about behavioural change.

>>India will spend $50 billion on his government’s ambitious ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ for waterconservation, rainwater harvesting and for the development of water resources.

>> India and China, which faced the highest burden of death from air pollution, will reap thebiggest health benefits of a robust climate policy aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

>>Calls for comprehensive approach which covers everything from education to values, andfrom lifestyle to developmental philosophy.








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Source : www.indianexpress.com Date : 2019-09-25

RAISE THE BARRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Conservation, Sustainable Development, and EIA

© 2019 The Indian Express Ltd.All Rights Reserved

On Monday, at the Global Climate Action Summit in New York, Prime Minister Narendra Modi,made several announcements that underscored India’s commitment towards addressingpressing environmental challenges. He talked about his government’s plans to curb plastic useand invited countries to join the Coalition For Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

But the centrepiece of the prime minister’s speech was his announcement on upscaling India’srenewable energy ambition. “By 2022, we plan to increase our renewable energy capacity tomuch beyond 175 GW, and later to 450 GW,” he said. The prime minister’s reiteration of a cleanenergy path for the country’s development is welcome. And, there is little doubt that the countryhas made big strides in renewable energy (RE) in the last five years. At the same time, however,the PM’s speech should also occasion a stocktaking of the challenges faced by the sector.

Increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in the country’s energy mix is the bedrock of India’scommitments under the Paris Climate Pact. The country pledged an installed electricity capacityof 175 GW by 2022 — a more than five-fold capacity increase in seven years. In the last fouryears, India has more than doubled its RE capacity.

This impressive achievement notwithstanding, the country will need to step up its pace. To meetits Paris Pact target, India will need to add more than 20 GW of RE installation a year, more thandouble the rate achieved in the past four years. Developments in the solar energy sector give aninkling of the challenges likely to be faced when the RE ambitions are upscaled. According tothe clean energy research outfit, Mercom, the country added 8.3 GW of solar capacity last year.This is a 13 per cent dip from 2017. The fall in pace of adding solar installations has continuedthis year.

Land acquisitions are a major worry for large-scale solar projects, the Mercom report noted. Theloss in momentum could well be temporary. But policymakers should ill-afford to ignore it giventhat solar installations constitute nearly 60 per cent of the country’s RE energy mix under itsParis commitments.

PM Modi’s New York announcement is consistent with India’s goal of generating 40 per cent ofits electricity by renewables by 2030. When it comes to RE, the gap between installed capacityand actual electricity generation can be large, especially when weather conditions are notcongenial.

Conversation about REs in the country have largely been about installed capacity. In the spirit ofthe PM’s New York speech, the discourse on RE needs to go one notch higher.

Download the Indian Express apps for iPhone, iPad or Android

© 2019 The Indian Express Ltd. All Rights Reserved


https://indianexpress.com/article/india/on-climate-change-india-not-just-talking-but-has-plan-pm-modi-at-un-summit-6022410/

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/on-climate-change-india-not-just-talking-but-has-plan-pm-modi-at-un-summit-6022410/

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CLIMATE FOR ACTION: ON UN CLIMATE ACTIONSUMMIT


Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertive stance on the need for all countries to walk thetalk on climate change action is to be welcomed as a signal of India’s own determination to aligndomestic policy with its international commitments. Mr. Modi’s comments at the UN ClimateAction Summit in New York have turned the spotlight on not just the national contributionspledged under the Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC), but also the possibility of India declaring enhanced ambition on cutting greenhousegas emissions under the pact next year. Several aspects place the country in the unenviableposition of having to reconcile conflicting imperatives: along with a declared programme ofscaling up electricity from renewable sources to 175 GW by 2022 and even to 450 GW later,there is a parallel emphasis on expanding coal-based generation to meet peaks of demand thatcannot be met by solar and wind power. The irony of the Prime Minister telling the internationalcommunity in Houston that his government had opened up coal mining to 100% foreign directinvestment was not lost on climate activists campaigning for a ban on new coal plants anddivesting of shares in coal companies. No less challenging is a substantial transition to electricmobility, beginning with commercial and public transport, although it would have multiplebenefits, not the least of which is cleaner air and reduced expenditure on oil imports.

Advancing the national climate agenda in the spirit of Mr. Modi’s action-over-words idiomrequires the Central government to come up with a strong domestic action plan. The existinginternal framework, the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) is more than adecade old. It lacks the legal foundation to incorporate the key national commitment under theParis Agreement: to reduce the emissions intensity of economic growth by a third, by 2030.Without an update to the NAPCC and its mission-mode programmes, and legislation approvedby States for new green norms governing buildings, transport, agriculture, water use and so on,it will be impossible to make a case for major climate finance under the UNFCCC. It is equallyurgent to arrive at a funding plan for all States to help communities adapt to more frequentclimate-linked disasters such as cyclones, floods and droughts. There is, no doubt, wide supportfor India’s position that it cannot be held responsible for the stock of atmospheric carbon dioxideinfluencing the climate; even today, per capita emissions remain below the global average.Paradoxically, the country is a victim of climate events on the one hand and a major emitter ofGHGs in absolute terms on the other. In New York, Mr. Modi chose to rely on the country’sculture of environmentalism to reassure the international community on its ability to act. Incoming years, national actions will have to be demonstrably effective in curbing carbonemissions.



Boris Johnson seems bent on delivering a no-deal Brexit



https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/prime-minister-narendra-modi-addresses-the-un-climate-summit-in-new-york/article29492091.ece


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NEW IPCC REPORT WARNS OF DIRE THREAT TOOCEANS


Disaster ahead:The report updates literature available since 2015 and summarises the impactsof warming.PTIPTI

With representatives from nearly 200 countries at the United Nations Climate Summit underwayin the United States, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the apexreferee for scientific evidence on the impact of global warming — made public a special reporton Wednesday that underlined the dire changes taking place in oceans, glaciers and ice-deposits on land and sea.

‘Unprecedented’

“Over the 21st century, the ocean is projected to transition to unprecedented conditions withincreased temperatures, further ocean acidification, marine heatwaves and more frequentextreme El Niño and La Niña events,” according to a summary of the report made available topolicymakers.

The report updates scientific literature available since 2015 — when the IPCC released itscomprehensive 5th Assessment Report — and summarises the disastrous impacts of warmingbased on current projections of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is virtually certain that the global ocean has warmed unabated since 1970 and has taken upmore than 90% of the excess heat in the climate system (high confidence). Since 1993, the rateof ocean warming has more than doubled. Marine heatwaves have very likely doubled infrequency since 1982 and are increasing in intensity,” the report notes.

The Southern Ocean accounted for 35%–43% of the total heat gain in the upper 2,000 m ofglobal ocean between 1970 and 2017, and its share increased to 45%–62% between 2005 and2017.

The ‘Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate’ was preparedfollowing an IPCC Panel decision in 2016 to prepare three Special Reports and follows theSpecial Reports on Global Warming of 1.5°C (SR1.5), and on Climate Change and Land(SRCCL).

Countries’ commitment

The 1.5°C report was a key input used in negotiations at Katowice, Poland last year forcountries to commit themselves to capping global temperature rise to 1.5°C by the end of thecentury. “A major impact is in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Regions,” said Anjal Prakash, aresearcher at The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) School of Advanced Studies, and amongthose involved with the report.

“Floods will become more frequent and severe in the mountainous and downstream areas of theIndus, Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins, because of an increase in extreme precipitationevents. The severity of flood events is expected to more than double towards the end of thecentury,” she added

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SLASH EMISSIONS OR WATCH CITIES VANISH UNDERRISING SEAS: UN CLIMATE REPORT


The study documented the implications of warming oceans, fast-melting ice sheets in Greenlandand Antarctica and shrinking glaciers for more than 1.3 billion people living in low-lying or highmountain regions. | Photo Credit: AP

Scientists behind a landmark study of the links between oceans, glaciers, ice caps and theclimate delivered a stark warning to the world on Wednesday: slash emissions or watch citiesvanish under rising seas, rivers run dry and marine life collapse.

Days after millions of young people demanded an end to the fossil fuel era at protests aroundthe globe, a new report by a UN-backed panel of experts found that radical action may yet avertsome of the worst possible outcomes of global warming.

But the study was clear that allowing carbon emissions to continue their upward path wouldupset the balance of the great geophysical systems governing oceans and the frozen regions ofthe Earth so profoundly that nobody would escape untouched.

“Everybody in the world will be affected by the changes we are seeing,” said Michael Meredith,an oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey and one of the report’s authors. “The keything that’s coming out of the report is that we have a choice. The future isn’t set in stone,” hesaid.

Finalised on Tuesday in a last 27-hour session of talks in Monaco between authors andrepresentatives of governments, the report was the culmination of two years of work by the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Compiled by more than 100 authors who crunched 7,000 academic papers, the studydocumented the implications of warming oceans, fast-melting ice sheets in Greenland andAntarctica and shrinking glaciers for more than 1.3 billion people living in low-lying or highmountain regions.

The report projects that sea levels could rise by one metre (3.3 ft) by 2100 — ten times the ratein the 20th century — if emissions keep climbing. Looking further forward, the rise could exceedfive metres by 2300.

In the Himalayas, glaciers feeding 10 rivers, including the Ganges and the Yangtze, could shrinkdramatically if emissions do not fall, hitting water supplies across a swathe of Asia.

Thawing permafrost in places such as Alaska and Siberia could release vast quantities ofgreenhouse gases, potentially unleashing feedback loops driving faster warming.

The IPCC galvanised global concern over climate change in October when it publishing a reportthat showed the world would need to halve emissions over the next decade to stand a chance ofmeeting the temperature goals in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Following a subsequent report published last month on land use and farming, the IPCC SpecialReport on the Oceans and Cryosphere — or 'frozen world' — was the final piece in a scientific


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jigsaw revealing the global sweep of climate impacts.

Released two days after a one-day UN climate summit in New York closed with scant signs oftransformative action by major economies, the latest report underscored the gulf betweenwarnings from science and the policies of most governments.

“If we aren’t able to have ambitious action that enables us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,we will have these high-end impacts,” said Nerilie Abram, a paleoclimatologist at the AustralianNational University, and an author of the study. “We’re at a point where we have a decision tomake,” she said.

Carbon emissions, which hit a record high last year, are projected to inflict a devastating toll onoceans, which have so far buffered almost all the manmade warming generated by burning coal,oil and gas.

As the oceans get hotter, what are known as “marine heatwaves” are becoming more intense,turning coral reefs boneyard white — including much of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. As morecarbon dioxide dissolves in the water, the oceans are also becoming more acidic, damagingecosystems.

The rising temperatures are in turn starving the upper layers of the water of oxygen, suffocatingmarine life, creating growing dead zones, and disrupting the circulation of ocean currents, whichthen unleashes more disruptive weather on land.

The authors say that long lag times at work in oceans mean that some of these changes willinevitably intensify over centuries — even if the world stopped emitting all its greenhouses gasestomorrow.

But if emissions are allowed to continue rising then the impacts are likely to start accelerating sorapidly that they will overwhelm societies' capacity to cope, with the poorest and most vulnerablecommunities and countries succumbing first.

“In a high emissions scenario, the chances of having any reasonable foothold to deal with theimpacts becomes much smaller,” said Matthias Garschagen, chair in human geography at LMUMunich, another author. “Systems are changing in a way in recent history that they've neverchanged before.”










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DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCYRelevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Degradation - GHGs, Ozone Depletion and Climate Change

A few generations from now, our descendants may not see the animals and plants we nowregard as commonplace. Nearly 500 species have become extinct in just the last century. Weare depleting 25% more natural resources than the planet can sustain right now. Mankind isteetering dangerously close to the precipice of extinction.

Al Gore’s 2006 film, An Inconvenient Truth, awakened the world to the dire causes andconsequences of global warming. It made an impact on millions and initiated global debates onclimate change. However, many of us were sceptical of the warnings. Some of us did not believethat our planet would ever run out of resources. We thought that discussions would take placeamong scientists and environmentalists, but that the impact of climate change would never reallybe felt by us. And that if it were to be felt, it would take a long time, perhaps a couple ofcenturies.

In just 13 years, Al Gore’s predictions have become real and haunting. Now the effects ofclimate change are at our doorsteps. Cyclones such as Thane, Vardah, Ockhi and Gaja haveaffected Tamil Nadu in recent times; Chennai saw terrible floods in 2015. Floods wreaked havocin Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar this year, and Mumbai received record monsoon rains.Kerala witnessed floods for the second consecutive year. Cyclone Fani devastated Odisha,Cyclone Vayu ravaged Gujarat this year. All these are because of climate change. Meanwhile,Europe saw the highest temperatures ever in recorded history. This July, Paris recorded itshighest temperature of 42.6°C.

Humanity is paying the price for the indiscriminate use of fossil fuels. The increase in globaltemperatures started with the industrial revolution. Experts say that if our current lifestylecontinues, the global temperature will increase further in the next 30-40 years and that will havecatastrophic consequences.

Industries, vehicles, burning of fossil fuels, thermal power plants and large-scale rearing of cattleare emitting heat-trapping greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.The increase in these gases is trapping the sun’s heat and increasing the earth’s temperature.

Global warming will drastically affect agriculture — the production of rice, wheat, maize and soyawill decrease significantly. Apart from malnutrition, climate change will give birth to newerinfections and illness. This imbalance will in turn affect the economy which will lead to conflict,war and global unrest. Global warming is already melting the polar ice caps. If this continues,sea levels will rise and submerge coastal cities. These natural disasters will make millions ofpeople climate refugees.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report states that averting a climate crisis willrequire reinvention of the global economy. By 2040,there could be global food shortages,inundation of coastal cities and a huge refugee crisis, it says.

UN and climate experts have called for the declaration of a global climate emergency. Countrieslike the U.K., Canada, France and Ireland have already declared climate emergencies. So havelocal bodies and NGOs worldwide. Unfortunately India and U.S. are still slow to act. Whichcountries are responsible for historical emissions is now past the stage of debate. Globalwarming will affect every individual in every country. It is the duty of every human andgovernment to take steps to stop the climate crisis. The Indian government should declare a

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climate emergency immediately. Immediate policy changes should include reducing the usage offossil fuels by half by 2030, encouraging the use of public transport, increasing forest area,promoting non-conventional energy, devising good water management policies, implementingthe plastic ban stringently, banning the burning of waste, promoting innovative urban planningpolicies and reducing mass rearing of cattle for human consumption. Let us all join together tosave the only planet we have.

Anbumani Ramadoss is a member of the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu












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SCIENTIFIC WAY OF REVIVING FRAGMENTS OFRAINFORESTS


All in 14 years: A degraded fragment in the Anamalai Hills (left) with with invasive weedsremoved in preparation for restoration planting in 2004, and the same site in 2018 (right)showing some recovery of rainforest trees. | Photo Credit: NCF

A two-decade long study carried out by ecologists from Nature Conservation Foundation andUniversity of Columbia finds that active restoration can promote recovery of tropical rainforestfragments with seven to 15 years of effort.

The recovery included improvement in forest structure and composition as well as carbonstorage. Further, the study finds that such a restoration effort would be more effective infragmented forest patches. For example, those found in the middle of plantations, rather than inareas where the forest is contiguous but degraded. The results of the study are published in theopen-access journal Ecosphere.

The study, which began in 2002, focused on rainforests fragments in Anamalai Hills, in theWestern Ghats, and the ecological restoration involved clearing the chosen areas of invasiveweeds and planting a diverse mix of native species. “We planted more than 150 native rainforesttree species overall. Depending on size of the plot, we planted between 27 and 82 nativespecies carefully selected as appropriate for the site,” says T. R. Shankar Raman, from NCFand an author of the paper.

The group studied 25 pairs of plots within degraded forest fragments. In one of the pair of plots,they carried out active restoration which included first removing non-native weeds and thenplanting saplings belonging to a variety of native tree species.

The other plot was left to regenerate naturally. Finally, the results of the effort on the two sets ofplots were compared with 17 benchmark areas that were relatively free of human disturbance ina few decades.

“A key challenge we faced was in identifying suitable pairs of sites such that actively restoredand naturally regenerating plots were similar to each other in all respects (for instance, slope,topography, past disturbance), except for that one was restored and the other was not,” saysAnand Osuri from The Earth Institute, Columbia University, and first author of the paper, in anemail to The Hindu. “We achieved this by conducting detailed site surveys before the mainstudy, comparing old photographs of the sites pre-restoration, and through discussions with ourfield staff who were involved in the restoration efforts.”

The team found that the actively restored areas improved in comparison with the passivelyrestored ones in a way that matched the benchmarks to a good percentage. From seven to 15years after restoration, these degraded forests recovered significantly in terms of numbers oftrees, 49% in the number of tree species and 47% in the amount of carbon stored for a givenarea, compared to degraded forests left to recover naturally, according to figures presented inthe paper.

“First, don’t assume that planting trees is the best way to restore an ecosystem. Trees shouldnot be planted in ecosystems such as grasslands, deserts, or wetlands that did not have any

https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/NCF/

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forests to begin with.” says Divya Mudappa, another author of the paper and from NCF.

According to her, the best way to go about ecological restoration would be to identify criticalareas that would benefit from restoration effort — this would include sites far away from larger,contiguous tracts of forests or those that would be critical as animal or plant movementcorridors. “Ecological restoration should use a diverse set of local, native species. We need toplan long-term as most of the native plants can be slow-growing and sometimes even difficult togrow,” Dr. Mudappa explains.

With regard to degraded forests that are not isolated, Dr. Shankar Raman says, “If degradedforests adjoin or are near larger tracts of relatively intact forests, it may be better to just protectthem and leave them to regenerate naturally as that would be cost-effective.”

Some of the fragments that the team studied were located within tea and coffee plantations. “Wewere fortunate that tea and coffee plantation companies extended their support. They engagedin partnerships with us, recognised these forest patches as ‘biodiversity plots’ within their estatesand provided in-kind support such as labour and space for nursery,” says Dr. Shankar Raman.











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BIO-RESTORING DEGRADED PATCHES OFSUNDERBANS


Sturdy species: The site of restoration was first stabilised by planting four native, salt-tolerantvarieties of grass, says Krishna Ray (left). | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Increasing anthropogenic activities along with natural stresses have led to massive degradationof one of India’s World Heritage Site — the Sunderbans. A team of researchers from WestBengal State University, Kolkata, set out with the herculean task of identifying the major reasonsfor the decline and also devising new restoration strategies. They surveyed 19 shorelinemangrove patches, collected soil and water samples and studied them. The results published inHydrobiologia highlight that lack of essential nutrients and increasing salinity were the mainproblems in Sunderbans.

“Nutrient depletion especially phosphorus and nitrogen was found to be directly connected withthe decline in forest cover. We are now trying to understand what is causing nutrient depletion.We have also planned to expand this analysis to a larger area, so as to cover the wholemangrove region and get a complete picture,” says Rajojit Chowdhury, Ph.D. scholar at theuniversity and the first author of the paper.

They also saw a change in the species distribution — salt-sensitive ones such as Heriteirafomes, Xylocarpus species and Phoenix paludosa were not able to cope up with the increase inthe salinity and declined while the tolerant varieties thrived.

After understanding the state of the degraded region, the team started the bio-restorationprocess. “We initially stabilised the site of restoration by planting four native salt-tolerantvarieties of grass. These grasses proved to exhibit the highest survival in the lower and middleintertidal zone. During the last five years (2014–2019) almost about one-hectare area of thedegraded patch has been restored by the growth of these grasses,” explains Krishna Ray, teamleader of the Environmental Biotechnology Group of the university and corresponding author ofthe work.

The grass rhizosphere also provided a nutritive atmosphere to the colonizing mangrovesbecause this root zone decomposes microbes and helps release more nutrients in the mudflatsoil. In addition, these grasses also provided protection from high energy waves and subsequenterosion of soil. The team also used native plant growth-promoting bacteria to enrich thedegraded land.

The team then established an on-site mangrove nursery and during each season collectedmangrove propagules or buds and maintained in the nursery till transplantation. About 22species of mangroves were restored in the region which included threatened, endangered andvulnerable species. High salt-tolerant varieties were planted near the shoreline and themoderate ones farther. The team notes that the present ecosystem in the studied patch isalmost brought back to the original pristine condition.

“We have already identified many degraded mangrove patches in the western part of IndianSundarbans and have planned to restore them by the application of this technology,” adds Prof.Ray.

https://www.thehindu.com/profile/photographers/Special-arrangement/

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‘HEART ATTACK LINKED TO AIR POLLUTION’Relevant for: Environment | Topic: Environmental Pollution - Air, Water, Soil & E-waste

Air pollution could well be the new equivalent of smoking for heart diseases. A study, conductedby Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, which tied up withinstitutions such as NIMHANS and St. John’s Research Centre, Bengaluru, found thatapproximately 35% of patients with no conventional risk factors suffered from cardiovasculardiseases (CAD) due to reasons linked to air pollution.

The study was released on Friday, ahead of World Heart Day observed on September 29.

Previously, air pollution was exclusively linked only to respiratory diseases. But in recent times,multiple clinical studies have proved the role of air pollution in causing cardiovascular diseases,said the researchers.

The research was carried out on 2,400 patients in the Premature Coronary Artery Disease(PCAD) Clinic from April 2017 to April 2019. Patients under the age of 40, who had beendiagnosed with coronary artery disease, were registered.

The study shows that 26% of the patients were working in different types of jobs in the privatesector; 15% each were agriculturists and daily wage workers, 12% were working in technicalfields, and 6.5% were housewives. As many as 24% of the patients were drivers, whichaccounted for the most common nature of work among PCAD patients.

“Air pollution is a new tobacco; it kills more people than smoking. Out of one lakh Indians, about200 people are prone to heart diseases due to air pollution. We conducted in-depth research onpeople who did not posses any risk factors who had heart diseases, and we discovered thattheir blood contained higher haemoglobin levels. But this kind of carboxy haemoglobin doesn’taccount as a healthy factor, and these were observed especially in drivers who were moreexposed to air pollution,” said C.N. Manjunath, Director of Sri Jayadeva Institute.

He also said now, more young Indians are vulnerable to heart diseases and air pollution is anemerging risk factor for heart attack. “A person stranded in a traffic junction for five minutes in apolluted area will be exposed to the effect of smoking five cigarettes,” he said.

The report pointed out that transport is one of the major sources of emissions in Bengaluru. ThePM10 annual average over Bengaluru is still almost 1.5 times the National Ambient air QualityStandards. This can adversely affect health, it said.



Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, who retires on September 30, hands over the baton

The first suit regarding the structure was filed in 1885, when the Faizabad Deputy Commissionerrefused to let Mahant Raghubar Das build a temple on land adjoining the mosque.




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INDIA, NEPAL, BHUTAN TO COUNT TIGERS IN HIGHALTITUDES


With studies earlier this year reporting the presence of tigers in high altitude regions in India,experts from India, Nepal and Bhutan — under the aegis of their governments — will next yearbegin a detailed assessment on how entrenched tigers are, in these regions.

A study jointly conducted by experts from three countries had, in a report this month, establishedthat there were potentially 52,671 square kilometres of tiger habitat in high altitudes — orHimalayan habitats — of India, Nepal and Bhutan. 38,915 square kilometres of this habitat lay inIndia.

While India is home to the most number of tigers in the world, most of them are focussed inCentral India and the Western Ghats. The latest tiger survey, made public earlier this yearestimated 2,967 tigers all over India.

Camera traps laid in select districts of Uttarakhand, Sikkim, North Bengal and ArunachalPradesh to detect the presence of tigers in higher altitudes found only three — two in Sikkim andone in Uttarakhand.

“What we’re not sure of is whether these tigers are embedded there or whether they havemigrated in from other parts of the country. A more detailed assessment is necessary to find thisout,” said Rajesh Gopal, Secretary General, Global Tiger Forum. (GTF). The GTF is anintergovernmental body that coordinates activities on tiger conservation.

In previous years, tigers have been reported in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and WestBengal at elevations of 1765m, 3274 m and 2400 m respectively. Bhutan had recorded thepresence of a tiger at 4,210 m.

Recording the presence of tigers in high altitudes is important to judge the health of the species,as poaching and fragmented habitat are serious challenges to their population growth.

As part of a “high altitude tiger master plan”, gathering background information on landattributes, ascertaining status of protection and engaging local communities in tiger conservationis critical. Potential high altitude tiger landscapes include the Valmiki-Chitwan-Annapurna (India-Nepal), Manas-Royal Manas-Jigme Dorji (India-Bhutan); Neora Valley-Torsa-Buxa-Phibsu(India-Bhutan); Askot-Pithoragarh-Nandhaur-Suklaphanta (India-Nepal); and Arunachal-Sikkim-bordering Bhutan (India-Bhutan).

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· 2019-09-29 · India, Nepal, Bhutan to count tigers in high altitudes 77. Index. Page 2 ... fulfil their EPR (extended producer responsibility) obligation. Although compostable,