Open Forum
New Delhi, 29 March
2023
Synthesis Report
STRATEGY TO COUNTER WARMING
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
It is encouraging to
hear the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) come out with
periodic reports warning of the consequences of global warming. There can be no
denying of the disastrous consequences that are already being felt due to
climate change but the actions being taken by nations, though to a great extent
satisfactory, do not fulfill the requirements that need to be brought in place.
The recently released
IPCC Synthesis Report at Interlaken, Switzerland has come forward with a
summary of all reports produced since 2015 on the reasons and consequences of
global temperature rise due to anthropogenic emissions. Experts are of the
opinion that this is the most comprehensive look to date at the causes of
global warming, the impacts of rising temperatures are having on people and
ecosystems across the world and strategies that need to be adopted to counter
this situation. Leading climate scientists of the world said keeping warming to
1.5 degrees Celsius required deep, rapid and sustained greenhouse gas emissions
reduction in all sectors.
Keeping in view the
planned fossil fuel infrastructure – coal-fired plants, oil wells, factories,
cars and trucks – will already produce enough carbon dioxide to warm the planet
roughly 20C, these projects need to be cancelled, retired early or
otherwise cleaned up to keep warming below that level. The 1.50 C
limit can only be achieved “if nations take a quantum leap in climate action”,
the UN Secretary General Antonnio Guterres observed and called on
countries to stop building new coal plants and to stop approving new oil and
gas projects.
“The Synthesis Report
underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and shows that if we
act now, we can secure a liveable sustainable future for all”, the IPCC chair,
Hoesung Lee observed. The report underlined that “10 percent of households with
the highest emissions per person contributed 34-45 percent of all household
emissions while the bottom 50 percent contribute 13 to 16 percent”. India has
been emphasising the importance of mindful and deliberate utilisation of
natural resources against mindless and wasteful consumption.
Obviously,
consumption inequality needs to be addressed through policy, infrastructure and
technology access, which is a major message of the report. But to implement
such things is an uphill task and not at all practical. The rich would continue
to consume more as, not just the Western world, but even countries like India
are into unbridled materialism where we need more than we can consume.
It is not just
talking of the bottom 25 percent of people globally, but it is also talking
about the top 10 percent of the households, who have a disproportionate
consumption and contribution to growing emissions. It is significant that the
report stressed that fossil fuel use is overwhelmingly driving global warming.
In 2019, around 79 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions came from energy,
industry, transport and buildings and 22 percent from agriculture, forestry and
other land use.
It has rightly been
pointed out that at current levels of warming – even after various nations have
taken and announced strategic action – food production is starting tocome under
strain while pollution levels are on the rise. The world is still producing
more food each year, thanks to improvements in farming technologies but climate
change has slowed the rate of growth, the report pointed out quite rightly. One
cannot doubt the fact that in populous countries like India, food security is
at risk as the growth of population is on the rise.
The last conference
at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in November brought up the issue of loss and
damage, which incidentally is very crucial. As almost half of the world’s
population lives in regions that are highly vulnerable to climate change,
floods, storms and droughts were 15 times higher in vulnerable regions. Experts
said that areas like Sunderbans fits the “loss and damage” description because
of a sea level rise double the global benchmark, exposure to frequent high
intensive cyclones and low socio-economic resilience of its residents.
According to Prof.
Joyshree Roy, an economist and one of the authors of the present IPCC report:
“The loss and damage impact is going to increase sharply with additional
warming . . . coasts and areas like the Sunderbans, already under the climate
change hammer, are beyond the coping capacity with an approximate temperature
rise of 1.1 degrees over the pre-industrial level”. He rightly pointed out that
“mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce
losses and damage for nature and people, it will provide wide benefits” but all
this is possible if warming can be controlled.
However,
the actions being suggested may be very difficult to implement in the
foreseeable future, specially for the Third World countries like India due to
resource constraints and also due to the fact that sufficient funding from the
West is not being made available to them. This has put severe financial
pressure on the developing world.
In such a situation,
the oft-repeated slogan of sustainable development is rather difficult to
achieve in view of developmental activities in and around forest areas, thereby
disturbing nature. Added to this, as far as India is concerned, it is becoming very
difficult to tackle natural disasters like floods, cyclones, affecting lakhs of
people who reside near coastal areas and belonging to the lower echelons of
society. For them sustainable development is a myth as they are affected almost
every year.
India’s efforts in
tackling climate change have been carried out to the extent possible, specially
in areas like renewable energy but pollution in metros or combating floods
remain a big problem. Moreover, if expansion of coal-based plants is stopped,
as suggested in the part, it would have a grave impact on the economy. In this
connection, it needs to be stated that biodiversity for the
country is crucial not just because of the ecosystem services but also because
it directly supports the livelihood of large swathes of people and this
challenge India must take.
Though the Union Environment
Minister recently claimed that India has achieved close to 27
percent of the area under conservation with its protective area network that
includes reserved forests, national parks, wildlife, sanctuaries, mangroves,
Ramsar sites and eco-sensitive zones, the path to sustainability is a long way
to go. Moreso because by 2050, water demand will increase by 40 percent, energy
demand by 50 percent and food consumption rise by 25 percent.
Research and
innovation need to be explored for more efficient transport and energy policies
with an eye on curbing environmental degradation. Though the expertise is
available, this is not being utilised so as not to disturb the cozy
relationship between politicians and industrialists. But considering the
serious consequences of warming, India has to be more vigilant. Thus, the
Mission LIFE movement, launched by Prime Minister Modi in October last year, aiming
towards environmentally conscious lifestyle must become a reality if we are
serious about achieving the sustainable path of growth. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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