Climate

Climate Change

Climate Environment and Science, India, News 3 February 2023

Increasing Climate Impacts puts coastal communities & their livelihoods at risk, yet Budget allocation for NCM is lower

By Dr Seema Javed The recent 2023-2024 green budget is a strong indication that India considers sustainability to be a key driver of future economic growth. The focus remains on infrastructure development and the establishment of manufacturing capacity. India’s Prime Minister has been regularly strengthening its climate targets and the recent budget is a clear reflection of that. However, It offers little in terms of protection from climate change or avenues for spending that will reduce the impacts. Though Attribution Science has led to major advances in linking the impacts of extreme weather events with human-induced climate change and global warming. Because of this new science, we now know that the heat wave that hit north India in 2022 was 30 times more likely only due to climate change. Reducing emissions in a way that matches the requirements to limit Earth’s heating to 1.5 degrees is no more a choice but a compulsion. National Coastal Mission (NCM) The budget to ensure the livelihood security of coastal communities including fisher folks, to conserve, and protect the coastal stretches remains lower. Especially with Increasing cyclones in the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal & Arabian Sea. Budget allocation for National Coastal Mission (NCM) Financial Year Budget Allocation Revised Estimate Actual Spend Feb 2018-19 Rs 165 crores Rs 130.1 crores Rs 129.55 crores Feb 2019-20 (1) Rs 95 crores Rs 96 crores Rs 90.84 crores Feb 2020-21 Rs 103 crores Rs 68.38 crores Rs 68.34 crores Feb 2021-22 Rs 200 crores Rs 100.9 crores Rs 27.79 crores Feb 2022-23 Rs 195 crores Rs 4 crores Feb 2023-24 Rs 12.5 crores While the budget for the programme has seen an increase in the past few years, the revised estimates and utilization of the same remained much lower. This is concerning in times when climate impacts are increasing and putting coastal communities and their livelihoods at further risk. Scientists are unpacking how tropical cyclones in the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal & Arabian Sea behave in a changing climate. The percentage of storms that can hold themselves in a severe cyclonic storm and above category for…

joe biden

News 11 August 2022

The US to make a historic investment in climate solutions

by Dr Seema Javed The Senate passed a historic first-ever US climate bill that puts the US on a path to achieve 2/3 of its 2030 NDC. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty darn great and a much-needed boost heading into climate diplomacy season and US midterm elections. The House vote and Biden’s signature will happen as soon as this week (both pretty guaranteed), so we should treat this as a done deal. To fight climate change and inflationary fossil fuels, the U.S. Senate has passed major legislation supporting the clean energy transition. The bill will direct $369B toward clean energy and put the U.S. economy on track to cut emissions by 40% or more by 2030. This would be the largest U.S. climate investment in history, and it comes at a time when American families are suffering from climate impacts and high fossil fuel energy bills. The bill will enable President Biden to head into COP27 with stronger authority to encourage action from other major emitters. It also will be a boon to the clean energy economy at home and around the world. It could create 9 million good jobs in the U.S. over the next decade. Clean energy stocks soared once it was announced that key U.S. Senators had reached an agreement on the Act. The bill is likely to be voted on in the House this week, where Democrats have a strong majority, and will shortly thereafter be signed into law by President Joe Biden. The Senate has voted in support of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, paving the way for the U.S. to pass the largest climate investment in its history with $369 billion for clean energy. It’s expected to be voted on by the House (where Democrats have a strong majority) around 12 August and would shortly after be signed into law by President Biden. Emissions The bill, combined with other federal and state legislation already in place, would put the U.S. on track to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 41-44% by 2030 (see analyses from Rhodium, Energy Innovation, and Princeton). Without Congressional…

Climate Change

Climate Environment and Science, international, News 29 May 2022

Climate damages lawsuit enters final stages – court visits Peru glacier

An international legal case could expose Australian coal and gas companies to billions of dollars in climate litigation By Dr Seema Javed A lawsuit, in which German energy company RWE could be held liable for climate change damages, is reaching its final stages with the German court visiting Peru this week to inspect a glacier and lake at the centre of the case. This climate litigation case is currently before the German court and could have wide-reaching implications for Australia and the rest of the world. The case is likely to be in public view in the next few weeks, as the German court travels to Peru to hear evidence. This the first international case to quantify the contribution that fossil fuels companies have made to global warming, and potentially allow people affected by the impacts of climate disasters to sue for damages, with implications for climate litigation in Australia. The prosecution is arguing that a Peruvian farmer,  Saúl Luciano Lliuya is at risk from a melting glacier above his town and that German energy company RWE is partially responsible due to its historical emissions.  RWE is also a major purchaser of Woodside’s LNG production. RWE is one of Europe’s largest carbon polluters, responsible for 0.47% of global historical carbon emissions. A Peruvian farmer, Saúl Luciano Lliuya, issued RWE for a share of the costs needed to prevent a devastating flood from a lake near his home. Lliuya lives in Huaraz, a city that is at risk from a glacial lake outburst flood due to the melting of a glacier. They need to reduce the water levels in the lake, an intervention with an estimated cost of $3.5 million. Lliuya argues that the melting of the glacier is caused by climate change – a claim that is backed up by a peer-reviewed scientific study – and that RWE should pay a proportional share of the cost of protecting the city, amounting to €17,000. The court has already agreed that RWE would be liable for the damages if it can be proved that the glacier poses a flood risk and that…

Pollution

Climate Environment and Science, India, international, News 9 October 2021

The study pinpoints sources for aerosol over central Himalayan region

New Delhi, Oct 09: With a unique role in the Asian climate, the Himalayan region is considered a vulnerable environment. Several chemical speciation studies have been performed for carbonaceous aerosols and inorganic species over the western and central Himalayan regions during the last decade, reporting the dominance of transported aerosol plumes from the Indo-Gangetic Plains. However, there is a knowledge gap regarding the primary and secondary organic carbon (POC, SOC) fractions, along with a lack of statistical methods for identifying and quantifying the sources of air pollutants at a receptor location (receptor model) in the central Indian Himalaya. In order to address this, researchers at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, an autonomous research institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, along with Indian and foreign collaborators, studied the chemical composition and source apportionment of total suspended particulate, which includes all the aerosols and air pollution in the central Himalayan region. The main source regions for aerosols were found to be the plains in northwest India and Pakistan, polluted cities like Delhi, the Thar Desert, and the Arabian Sea area. It also showed that the main aerosol factors were mineral dust (34%), biomass burning (27%), secondary sulfate (20%), and secondary nitrate (9%). There was a predominance of mineral dust in spring and summer and biomass burning and secondary sulfate in winter. Further, the study showed that Carbonaceous aerosols – Organic Carbon (OC) and Elemental Carbon (EC) were the maximum in winter due to the intensification of biomass burning over the Indo Gangetic Plains and the Himalayas because of domestic heating and shallower mixing layer. Apart from researchers from Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences, scientists from the National Observatory of Athens, the University of Crete in Greece, Washington University in St. Louis, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, The Cyprus Institute at Nicosia, Cyprus, Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development, Banaras Hindu University and Department of Physics at Gorakhpur University participated in the study. They have published a report on their work in science journal, ‘Atmosphere’. Dr Umesh Chandra Dumka and Mr Rahul Sheoran…

Climate Change

Climate Environment and Science, Health, India, international, News, United States 6 September 2021

24% of deaths are due to environmental pollution and other environmental risks

WHO and UN partners’ compendium of 500 actions  aims to reduce diseases from environmental factors and save lives Almost 25% of deaths worldwide could be prevented if the actions in the compendium were fully implemented New Delhi/Geneva 06th September 2021: WHO, UNDP, UNEP and UNICEF have partnered to create a new compendium of 500 actions aimed at reducing death and diseases driven by environmental risk factors, the first such resource to unite this expertise from across the UN system. 24% of deaths are due to environmental pollution and other environmental risks Environmental pollution and other environmental risks cause 24 per cent of deaths through, for example, heart disease, stroke, poisonings, traffic accidents, and others. This toll could be substantially reduced – even eliminated – through bold preventive action at national, regional, local and sector-specific levels. Compendium of WHO provides easy access to practical actions The Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health & environment provides easy access to practical actions for practitioners to scale up efforts to create healthy environments that prevent disease. It is designed for policymakers, staff in government ministries, local government, in-country UN personnel and other decision-makers. The repository presents actions and recommendations to address a comprehensive range of environmental risk factors to health, such as air pollution, unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene, climate and ecosystem change, chemicals, radiation and occupational risks, among others. Air pollution alone leads to 7 million deaths each year. Air pollution alone leads to 7 million deaths each year, while climate change is expected to contribute increasingly to a broad range of health impacts, both directly and indirectly through effects on biodiversity. “Events like record-breaking high temperatures in North America, massive flooding in Europe and China, and devastating wildfire seasons provide increasingly frequent, grim reminders that countries need to step up action to eliminate the health impacts of environmental risk factors,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, at WHO. “Implementing the actions in the compendium should be part of a healthy and green recovery from the COVID pandemic and beyond, and is essential to…

Environment and climate change

Climate Environment and Science, international, News 14 July 2021

UN body unveils new plan to end ecological destruction, ‘preserve and protect nature’

Climate and Environment 14 July 2021 Equitably “redirecting, repurposing or eliminating incentives” that harm biodiversity by at least $500 billion per year is just one of the 21 ambitious targets of a new draft agreement released by a UN body in the lead up to the landmark November climate conference, COP26, in the United Kingdom. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat on Monday, released a new Global Framework for Managing Nature Through 2030; an evolving plan which provides a Paris-style UN agreement on biodiversity loss, to guide actions worldwide that “preserve and protect nature and its essential services to people”.  The CBD goals aim to stem and reverse ecological destruction of Earth by the end of the decade, and included a plan to protect at least 30 per cent of the world’s land and sea areas, halve the nutrients lost to the environment and eliminate plastic waste. “The framework aims to galvanize this urgent and transformative action by Governments and all of society, including indigenous peoples and local communities”, said CBD Executive Secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema. Reduce extinctions tenfold The draft framework for humanity to live “in harmony with nature” by 2050 was adopted by the CBD’s 196 member parties, with four broad milestone goals which need to be reached by the end of this decade. “The framework aims to galvanize this urgent and transformative action by governments and all of society, including indigenous peoples and local communities”, she added. It aims to expand ecosystems by 15 per cent to support healthy and resilient populations of all species and reduce extinctions by at least tenfold. And by 2030 it aims to safeguard 90 per cent of the genetic diversity of wild and domesticated species. Valuing nature By 2050, nature’s contributions to people must be “valued, maintained or enhanced through conservation”, according to the second goal. But by 2030, they must inform all relevant public and private decisions and restore the long-term sustainability of those in decline. The third goal, to fairly share the use of genetic resources for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, sets out the shorter-term…

Climate Change

Opinion 28 August 2020

Climate change under a gender lens

Countries in the Asia Pacific region are at the forefront of bearing the onslaught of climate change. During the last three decades, 45% of the world’s natural disasters have occurred in this region, which is vulnerable to floods, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, storms and tsunamis. While climate change affects everyone but the impacts of climate change-related events are not gender-neutral. Women and girls are more vulnerable and disproportionately impacted due to pre-existing gender inequalities that are perpetuated by patriarchal beliefs. These inequalities are exacerbated during times of disasters. Biplabi Shrestha, Programme Director at the Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW), cites some of the gendered impacts of natural disasters as revealed by numerous studies done by ARROW: “In Bangladesh, even upon receiving early warning sirens women did not immediately seek refuge at cyclone shelters. Instead, they stayed back to manage the household and to safeguard their assets and livestock. There is also the added burden within the households and girls drop out of school to help gather energy, food and water for the family. Early age marriage is used as a coping strategy in many poor communities in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Laos and Nepal, despite child marriage being legally banned in them. During any disaster, sexual and other forms of gender-based violence within family increases. Also, women and girls are more exposed to sexual violence in shelter camps. Gender ascribed rules and household food hierarchy systems existing in most communities lead to food insecurity and malnutrition of women and girls. It also prevents women and girls from accessing healthcare services, especially sexual and reproductive health services. As a result, the maternal mortality rate goes up, and so do unwanted pregnancies, because of unmet need for contraception and lack of access to safe abortion.” Natural disasters adversely impact maternal health and uptake of family planning services. However, two studies conducted by the Population Council – one in Cambodia and another in Pakistan – show some very interesting results to the contrary. A study on the 2013 massive floods in Cambodia, done by Dr Ashish Bajracharya, Deputy Director (global country strategy), Population…