THE GIST of Editorial for UPSC Exams : 26 October 2018 (Our time begins now)

Our time begins now

Mains Paper: 3 | Environment
Prelims level: climate change
Mains level: Climate changes effect on India

Context

It was clear that the Paris Agreement on climate change would not be enough to avoid global warming of 1.5° C over pre-industrial temperatures.
In fact, early analyses revealed that the collective effect of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) would result in 3-5° C of warming.
There has been mounting pressure on India to raise its pledges further. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on 1.5° C has come at a time when there are multiple alarms for India.
Another study in Nature Climate Change identifies India as the country with the most expected damage from rising levels of carbon dioxide.

How should India respond?

India’s NDC is already ambitious and it has made decisive changes in its energy sector. Meanwhile, the U.S. has pulled out of the climate treaty, and the support of Australia and Brazil teeters on the outcome of their respective elections.
Some countries are also doing less than they claim.
According to Kevin Anderson at the University of Manchester, with aviation, shipping and trade counted, the U.K. has made no reduction to its greenhouse gas emissions.

A socio-economic challenge

India has two complex and inter-related problems.
The first is to bring a vast population out of poverty and into decent lives.
The second is to do this while dealing responsibly with the global carbon challenge and building resilience to climate change.
India is often mentioned along with China in climate-related discussions as a large emerging economy.
India ranks 130 among nations in the Human Development Index, and China ranks 86.
India still has 364 million living in multidimensional poverty.
Nearly a third (27.5%) are multidimensionally poor and about a fifth (19.1%) are vulnerable to becoming poor.
Almost half the country is therefore at high risk from events such as loss of a job or ill health of a family member.
Combined with damage from a severe cyclone, flood or drought, each subsequent shock will have a multiplier effect on hundreds of millions, potentially pushing them deeper into poverty.

SDGs are crucial

The most sensible way to deal with these complex challenges is to deepen and expand India’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The synergies of meeting SDGs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to a changing climate can only be fully realised if transformative and cross-scale changes are conceived, deliberated upon and tested widely.
The institutional innovation may be more appropriate for a country of India’s size and ecological diversity.
The 1.5° C report calls for societal transformation on a global scale that “reflect[s] the links, synergies and trade-offs between mitigation, adaptation and sustainable development.
However it shows that we cannot trade off forests, urban water bodies, riverine ecosystems, waste management or groundwater as these come back to bite us as floods, landslides, droughts and infectious disease.

What we are achieved?

India expects to reach its ambitious solar target of 100 GW capacity by 2022 primarily through large centralised solar power plants, but these require significant amounts of land, water and evacuation infrastructure and support from mega-corporations.
Some states have shown, renewable-based microgrids can become an important feature of electricity policy.
Jharkhand, which has 249 remote villages powered by solar microgrids, is now considering their use even in villages that are already grid connected.
Some research groups have recognised that agro-ecology methods are best suited for increasing crop yield, raising profits, trapping soil carbon, reducing dependence on fertilisers and pesticides.
Successful models are already effective on small scales in many States.
To Implementing zero budget natural farming, to all its farmers by 2024 with an expected savings of 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
This is with 6 million farmers across 8 million hectares.
If similar methods were used for the entire country, the savings would be substantial.
In transport and urbanisation, the challenge is to create isotropic communities in the areas of the peri-urban.
The rapidly expanding hinterland, which would have to be designed around not cars but walking, cycling and sustainable neighbourhood vehicles.
Work and industry would also have to focus on the small and medium scale of about 300 employees and modest capital investments, which reduce the risk of speculation and jobless growth.

Way forward

The state action plans on climate change now being developed might begin with identifying successful development approaches overlaid with expected climate impacts in each ecological zone.]
Large investments are needed to make the transitions in each sector that would take the country to a near zero-carbon economy.
The shortage of external support and the need for rapid deployment, India will not be able to rely entirely on external funds.
Some of this could instead be financed through a ‘luxury’ carbon tax that curbs non-essential consumption.
Savings can also be expected from the economic and social transformation itself.
Political pressure and activism across the globe may soon turn the tide in other countries, but India needs to begin now with its enormous untapped successes.
We cannot be pressured from outside, but need to change from within.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) Consider the following about the Adaptation Fund (AF) used for financing climate change projects.
1. It was established under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992.
2. It is financed with a share of proceeds from the clean development mechanism (CDM).
3. It is supervised and managed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Forum (UNSDF).

Select the correct answer using the codes below.
a) 1 only
b) 2 and 3 only
c) 2 only
d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: C