By Dr. Bikkar Singh Lalli
United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 4th, final climate assessment volume, on Nov.2. “Climate change is happening, it’s almost entirely man’s fault and limiting its impacts may require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century”, says the panel. “Science has spoken. There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side- all we need is the will to change,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the report’s launch in Copenhagen.
“We have the means to limit climate change,” IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri, said. “The solutions are many and allow for continued economic and human development. All we need is the will to change, which we trust will be motivated by knowledge and an understanding of the science of climate change.” “Rising rates and magnitudes of warming and other changes in the climate system, accompanied by ocean acidification, increase the risk of severe, pervasive, and in some cases irreversible detrimental impacts,” the report said.”You can no longer have some countries go first and others come in later, because there is no more time,” said Glen P. Peters, a scientist at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, who helped compile the new numbers. “It needs to be all hands on deck now.”
Smoke stacks and exhaust pipes around the world are blasting greenhouse gas emissions to a new record annual high -the emission was 39.6 billion tons in 2013. Scientists are warning the world leaders that an increase in global average temperatures greater than 2 C above pre-industrial levels would result in further melting of glaciers and Arctic ice, continued rising sea levels, more frequent and extreme weather events, difficulties for global agriculture and changes in plant and animal life, including extinctions. Disasters including floods, storms, and heat waves have increased fivefold since 1970s, UN finds. The first decade of the 21st century saw 3,496 natural disasters from floods, storms, droughts and heat waves. About half of the $2390.7bn cost of disasters over the last 40 years was due to storms with hurricane Katrina and super storm Sandy, both in the US, accounting for $196.9bn of those damages. Low-income countries will remain on the frontline of human-induced climate change over the next century, experiencing gradual sea-level rises, stronger cyclones, warmer days and nights, more unpredictable rains, and larger and longer heat waves, according to the most thorough assessment of the issue by UN. India and China are among the world’s biggest contributors to fossil fuel emissions with India’s carbon dioxide discharge increasing by a whopping 7.7 percent in 2013, according to a recent study. The US is still the highest emitter per person at 16 tonnes. By comparison an Indian`s carbon footprint is only 1.8 tonnes. The world’s largest economies, China (17.6 trillion dollar GDP)-USA (16.8 trillion) and India (6.8 percent of world GDP), have to make some tough and obviously unpopular decisions for the sake of this planet.
People all over the planet, are worried and concerned. More than 400,000 people turned out for the People’s Climate March, the largest climate march in history, in New York City, in last September. This happened just days before many of the world’s leaders gathered to debate environmental action at the United Nations climate summit. The international agreement is designed to decrease emissions contributing to global warming by holding its signees to reduction goals. The vast majority of the world’s nations have signed on to it. The India and United States are not among them, China is. Negotiations are under way to develop a new international climate change agreement that will cover all countries. The new agreement will be adopted in 2015, at the Paris climate conference, and implemented from 2020. It will take the form of a protocol, another legal instrument or ‘an agreed outcome with legal force’, and will be applicable to all Parties. It is being negotiated through a process known as the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action .
Here Let us all appeal to Prime Minister Modi to act and act fast. India’s air pollution has become so toxic that it has damaged 6.7 million tons of the country’s crops, or enough food to feed 94 million people. That’s according to a recent study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Smog is poisoning the country’s harvests – as well as its citizens. Indians have some of the weakest lungs, highest rates of asthma and highest deaths from respiratory issues of any nation in the world. And India owns the distinction of having the dirtiest city-Delhi, in the world. Climate change is expected to have major health impacts in India- increasing malnutrition and related health disorders such as child stunting – with the poor likely to be affected most severely. Child stunting is projected to increase by 35% by 2050 compared to a scenario without climate change. In taking the decisions, Mr. Modi can avail of the expertise of, Dr. Pachauri t, a nobel laureate, recipient of second-highest civilian award in India, the ‘Padma Vibhushan, and’ Senior Adviser to the Yale Climate and Energy Institute (YCEI). When Dr. Pachauri says “solutions are many”, Mr. should listen to him.
At 2.5°C warming, melting glaciers and the loss of snow cover over the Himalayas are expected to threaten the stability and reliability of northern India’s primarily glacier-fed rivers, particularly the Indus and the Brahmaputra. Alterations in the flows of the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers could significantly impact irrigation, affecting the amount of food that can be produced in their basins as well as the livelihoods of millions of people.
With his “The Swachh Bharat Campaign”, in the wings, Prime Minister Modi has the power, the opportunity . to make India safer. And with no political, religious or regional compelling to block his government’s initiatives, he can develop some innovative schemes to limit carbon emissions. He should know that India, like other developing economies, may lose up to 1.7% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if the annual mean temperature rises by 1 degree Celsius compared to pre-industrialization level. Asia is facing the brunt of climate change and will see severe stress on water resources and food-grain production in the future, increasing the risk of even an armed conflict among India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China, according to a report by a UN panel. Then, there is the question of environment.
Can Mr. Narendra Modi really have Swachh Bharat when country’s environment is so polluted, the majority in the country has no access to clean toilets?
