THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 04 MARCH 2019 (The Right Climate (Indian Express)

The Right Climate (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 4: Environment
Prelims level: Climate Change
Mains level: Decarbonisation impact and its recent development

Context

•  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 29-year-old US Congresswoman representing the New York boroughs of Bronx and Queens,
•  It has shot into public prominence in the US for a non-binding resolution that she and her Democrat colleague, Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts, have tabled in the US Congress.

Needed for decarbonisation

•  The road to decarbonisation has been well-marked over the years and the milestones are known:
•  Electricity must be decarbonised by basing it on solar and wind;
•  Industry furnaces should be powered by solar and heat;
•  The internal combustion engine should be replaced by electric vehicles;
•  Residential homes and buildings should be redesigned to make them carbon neutral;
•  Clean energy technology should be generously funded etc.
•  The distance covered so far down this road has not, however, been much.
•  The IPCC “special report on global temperature of 1.5°C”, published in October 2018, made clear that the world has a long way to go in achieving its objective of containing temperatures to below 1.5°C:
•  This objective will only be achieved if it accelerates the implementation of ideas that secure “rapid and far reaching transitions in energy, land, urban and infrastructure and industrial systems” and thereby “deep emission reductions”.
•  The reasons for this slow pace are many and country specific.
•  The US, for instance, has stumbled because of the ambivalence of political leaders towards global warming, the varying interpretations of scientific data and the counterfactual physical experience.
•  President Donald Trump is openly derisory when he says it “wouldn’t be bad to have that good old fashioned global warming right now” in his tweet from the US Mid-West where temperatures had fallen to Arctic levels.

Requirement for the Cortez phenomena

•  The Cortez phenomena offers a sense of what is possible if both timing and medium juxtapose to leverage and complement each other.
•  Her resolution was, for instance, well-timed. It was introduced at a time the US public was still unsettled by the spate of natural disasters that had hit the country.
•  The fires in California last year were the worst ever, leading to considerable loss of life and livelihood.
•  Moreover, it was no longer possible to ignore the mounting scientific evidence of global warming and the forewarning of scientists that the window of opportunity for managing the consequences was fast closing.
•  Cortez also leveraged the power of language.
•  Instead of complicating public understanding by discussing arcane and the still somewhat controversial issues of carbon pricing, sequestration technology, nuclear energy and financing structures, it called for a “10 year national mobilisation” plan for reducing carbon emissions. The medium was a simple war cry.

Way forward

•  All governments for the past two decades have made an effort to tackle the challenge of climate change.
•  The UPA government set up the National Action plan on climate change in 2008 and established a number of climate change missions.
•  The present government made a comparable, if not greater, effort.
•  They set ambitious targets for solar and wind power; they provided incentives for electric vehicles; set a timeline for the cutting of emissions by utilities and also benchmarks for energy efficiency; and, they replenished the “clean energy fund” for financing clean energy through an increase in the coal cess. But no government has been to able to elevate this issue to a national priority and bring it into the public, and, therefore, political discourse.
•  The Cortez resolution offers a clue on how this could be done.
•  The subject must be brought onto the legislative agenda.
•  The new governments should introduce a bill call it “the climate change and clean energy Bill” that sets out a time-bound objective for decarbonisation.
•  The language of the bill must be exhortatory and its purpose should be to educate and mobilise.
•  It should be able to bring climate change into the national conversation and create the opportune time for implementation of the ideas already on the agenda.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
1. The Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) is a facility provided by the RBI for all resident individuals including minors to freely remit upto a certain amount in terms of US Dollar.
2. The LRS was launched in 2004 and regulations for the scheme are provided under the FEMA Act 1999.

Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer: B

Mains Questions:
Q.1) In India no government has been able to elevate climate issue to a national priority and bring it into the public domain. Suggest some measures how it can be achieved.