• Director General Office

Steigende Temperaturen führen zu Rekordniederschlägen: Überschwemmungen verwüsten Ostasien, während die Klimakrise zunimmt

Der größte und bevölkerungsreichste Kontinent der Welt rechnet mit den tödlichen Auswirkungen des extremen Sommerwetters, da die Länder unter glühenden Hitzewellen und Monsunregen in Rekordhöhe leiden und die Regierungen die Bewohner warnen, sich auf weitere Ereignisse vorzubereiten. In diesem Monat überschwemmten sintflutartige Regenfälle Teile von Japan, China, Südkorea und Indien, stellten das Leben von Millionen Menschen auf den Kopf und verursachten Sturzfluten, Erdrutsche und Stromausfälle. Rekordtemperaturen führten auch zu einem Anstieg hitzebedingter Krankheiten, insbesondere bei gefährdeten Bevölkerungsgruppen wie älteren Menschen. Am Samstag starben mindestens 13 Menschen in der zentralsüdkoreanischen Stadt Cheongju, nachdem Wasser aus einem geplatzten Flussufer eine Unterführung überschwemmt hatte und Fahrzeuge, darunter einen öffentlichen Bus, darin eingeschlossen hatte. In Südkorea sind in den letzten Tagen mindestens 41 Menschen gestorben und Tausende weitere waren gezwungen, ihre Häuser zu räumen und vorübergehend Schutz zu suchen, da heftige Regenfälle die zentralen und südlichen Teile des Landes trafen. Als Reaktion auf den Verlust von Menschenleben forderte der südkoreanische Präsident Yoon Suk Yeol eine Überarbeitung des Umgangs des Landes mit extremen Wetterbedingungen. „Diese Art von extremen Wetterereignissen wird zur Normalität werden – wir müssen akzeptieren, dass der Klimawandel stattfindet, und damit umgehen“, sagte Yoon am Montag. Dashcam fängt Momente im Vorfeld einer tödlichen Überschwemmung einer Unterführung ein Im benachbarten Japan führten Rekordregenfälle im Südwesten des Landes zu verheerenden Überschwemmungen, bei denen mindestens sechs Menschen starben und viele weitere noch vermisst wurden. „Es regnet wie nie zuvor“, sagte ein Sprecher der japanischen Wetterbehörde in einer Erklärung, in der er die Bewohner in den betroffenen Gebieten zu höchster Wachsamkeit aufrief. Es ist ein Muster, das in der gesamten Region zu beobachten ist – von Teilen der Philippinen und Kambodschas im Süden, wo großflächige Überschwemmungen zu Verkehrsstörungen in Großstädten wie den Hauptstädten Manila und Phnom Penh geführt haben – bis hin zu Teilen Indiens weiter nördlich, wo rekordverdächtige Regenfälle mehrere Bundesstaaten mit sich brachten bis fast zum Stillstand Nach Angaben von Beamten kamen dabei Dutzende Menschen ums Leben. Nach Angaben der Behörden war der 10. Juli in der Hauptstadt Delhi der regenreichste Julitag seit mehr als 40 Jahren. Die heftigen Regenfälle erzwangen die Schließung von Schulen und ließen viele Schutzbedürftige obdachlos zurück. Während einige Regionen mit tödlichen Regenfällen zu kämpfen haben, sind andere mit sengender Hitze konfrontiert. Am Montag verzeichnete eine Wetterstation im Nordosten Chinas eine Rekordtemperatur von 52,2 Grad Celsius (125 Fahrenheit), während in Japan die Temperaturen auf 39,7 Grad Celsius (103 Fahrenheit) stiegen. Insgesamt haben mehr als fünf Wetterstationen in China am Montag Höchstwerte von 50 Grad Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) überschritten – eine der heißesten in der Geschichte. Dies folgt auf einen rekordheißen Sommer in der Hauptstadt Peking, in dem die Temperaturen Anfang Juli auf über 40 Grad Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) stiegen – was die Behörden dazu veranlasste, zwei Wochen lang Hitzewarnungen auszusprechen, da sich die globale Klimakrise verschärft. Die Hitzewelle bricht mit der Ankunft des US-Klimabeauftragten John Kerry am Sonntag in China zu Gesprächen zwischen Peking und Washington über die Wiederaufnahme der Zusammenarbeit bei Klimadiskussionen aus. China, einer der größten Umweltverschmutzer der Welt, erlebte eine Reihe extremer Wetterereignisse – mit sintflutartigen Regenfällen und Überschwemmungen, die andere Teile des Landes, insbesondere im Süden, heimsuchten. Auch Teile Japans wurden von Hitzewellen heimgesucht. Am Montagmorgen stiegen die Temperaturen in der Stadt Kiryu in der Präfektur Gunma auf der Insel Honshu – der größten und bevölkerungsreichsten Stadt Japans, auf der sich auch Kyoto und Tokio befinden – auf Höchstwerte von 39,7 Grad Celsius (103 Fahrenheit) und in der Stadt Hatoyama auf 39,6 Grad Celsius liegt in der Präfektur Saitama. Fälle von Hitzschlag treten bei älteren Menschen in Japan, die 28 % der Bevölkerung ausmachen, immer häufiger auf. Die Temperaturen in der Hauptstadt Tokio sind in den letzten Jahren auf gefährliche Werte gestiegen, sodass Regierungsbeamte eine Stromrationierung fordern, da das Land mit zunehmender Stromknappheit zu kämpfen hat. Wissenschaftler haben gewarnt, dass die Häufigkeit und Intensität extremer Wetterereignisse mit der Beschleunigung der vom Menschen verursachten Klimakrise weiter zunehmen wird. In ihrem jährlichen Klima-Update sagte die Weltorganisation für Meteorologie, dass die Welt auf dem besten Weg sei, in den nächsten fünf Jahren eine kritische Klimaschwelle zu überschreiten, da die globalen Temperaturen weiterhin über das vorindustrielle Niveau steigen. Asien mit einer geschätzten Gesamtbevölkerung von 4,4 Milliarden Menschen ist besonders anfällig für die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels. Die jüngsten extremen Wetterereignisse haben zu Wasserknappheit, Ernteausfällen und einer Verlangsamung der Wirtschaft geführt. Diese Verwundbarkeit wurde letztes Jahr deutlich, als Pakistan von einer katastrophalen Überschwemmung heimgesucht wurde, bei der mehr als 1.700 Menschen ums Leben kamen und Millionen obdachlos wurden. Das südasiatische Land kämpft derzeit mit der schlimmsten Wirtschaftskrise seit Jahrzehnten, die durch einen Anstieg der Inflation aufgrund der Überschwemmungen, die die Ernten des letzten Jahres ruinierten, noch verschärft wurde. „Eines ist ganz klar: Was in Pakistan passiert ist, wird nicht in Pakistan bleiben“, sagte Premierminister Shehbaz Sharif den Staats- und Regierungschefs der Welt auf der Generalversammlung der Vereinten Nationen im September letzten Jahres und warnte, dass der Klimawandel die Länder nicht verschonen werde. „Die gesamte Definition der nationalen Sicherheit hat sich heute geändert. Und wenn die Staats- und Regierungschefs der Welt nicht zusammenkommen, um jetzt auf der Grundlage einer vereinbarten gemeinsamen Agenda zu handeln, wird es keine Erde mehr geben, um die Kriege geführt werden könnten. Die Natur wird sich wehren. Und die Menschheit ist dem überhaupt nicht gewachsen.“ Nachbarland Indien, Das bevölkerungsreichste Land der Welt gehört nach Angaben des Zwischenstaatlichen Ausschusses für Klimaänderungen (IPCC) zu den Ländern, die voraussichtlich am stärksten von der Klimakrise betroffen sein werden, von der potenziell 1,4 Milliarden Menschen im ganzen Land betroffen sind. Nach den jüngsten glühenden Hitzewellen im Norden und Osten mussten Tausende letzte Woche vor schweren Überschwemmungen in Staaten wie Himachal Pradesh fliehen, nachdem heftige Regenfälle Dörfer heimgesucht und Straßen in Flüsse verwandelt hatten. Jedes Jahr wird Indien während der Monsunzeit, die das Land von Juni bis September überschwemmt, von schweren Überschwemmungen und Erdrutschen heimgesucht. Assam, ein Staat Mit einer Bevölkerung von mehr als 31 Millionen Menschen gehört es zu den am stärksten betroffenen Ländern. Mehr als 495.000 Menschen in 22 Bezirken waren von den Überschwemmungen betroffen und etwa 14.000 wurden in Hilfslager evakuiert, als der Regen über die Region fegte. Katastrophenschutzbeamte und staatliche Behörden meldeten Ende Juni mindestens zehn Todesopfer seit Beginn der Regenfälle. Im Lokalfernsehen ausgestrahlte Videos zeigten Dorfbewohner, die mit ihrem Vieh bis zum Hals durch das schlammige Wasser waten, und Häuser, Geschäfte und Autos, die in den Fluten versunken waren. Für mehrere nördliche Bundesstaaten, darunter Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab und Haryana, wurden rote Alarme ausgegeben, die die höchste Bedrohungsstufe anzeigen. Auch für Uttarakhand und Himachal Pradesh wurden Erdrutschwarnungen herausgegeben. Die heftigen Regenfälle erzwangen auch Schulschließungen in einer Reihe von Gebieten, darunter Uttar Pradesh und der Hauptstadt Neu-Delhi. Die Auswirkungen solcher Wetterextreme sind kaum zu übersehen und die Armen Indiens gehören zu den am stärksten gefährdeten. Nach Angaben der Weltbank stellen Überschwemmungen eine besondere Gefahr für die 35 % der Bevölkerung dar – etwa 472 Millionen Menschen –, die in städtischen Slums leben. „Die Ironie daran ist, dass die Armen der Welt tatsächlich Opfer des Klimawandels sind“, auch wenn sie nicht diejenigen sind, die „das Problem geschaffen haben“, sagt Sunita Narain, Generaldirektorin des Zentrums für Wissenschaft und Umwelt und erfahrene Inderin sagte ein Umweltschützer letztes Jahr gegenüber CNN. „Überschwemmungen, Dürren und andere verheerende Klimaereignisse zeigen uns alle sehr deutlich, wie die Zukunft aussehen wird“, fügte sie hinzu. cnn Nicht alle Nachrichten auf der Website drücken den Standpunkt der Website aus, aber wir übertragen diese Nachrichten automatisch und übersetzen sie durch programmatische Technologie auf der Website und nicht von einem menschlichen Redakteur

• Director General Office

Asia terhuyung-huyung saat krisis iklim terjadi

Benua terbesar dan terpadat di dunia sedang memperhitungkan efek mematikan dari cuaca musim panas yang ekstrem, karena negara-negara mengalami gelombang panas yang terik dan rekor curah hujan monsun, dengan pemerintah memperingatkan penduduk untuk bersiap menghadapi lebih banyak lagi yang akan datang. Hujan deras bulan ini menggenangi beberapa bagian Jepang, Cina, Korea Selatan, dan India, merenggut nyawa jutaan orang dan menyebabkan banjir bandang, tanah longsor, dan pemadaman listrik. Rekor suhu juga menyebabkan peningkatan penyakit terkait panas, terutama di kalangan masyarakat rentan seperti orang tua. Pada hari Sabtu, setidaknya 13 orang di kota Cheongju, Korea Selatan tengah, tewas setelah air dari tepi sungai yang meluap membanjiri jalan bawah tanah, menjebak kendaraan, termasuk bus umum. Sedikitnya 41 orang tewas di Korea Selatan dalam beberapa hari terakhir dan ribuan lainnya terpaksa mengungsi dari rumah mereka dan mencari tempat berlindung sementara, saat hujan lebat melanda bagian tengah dan selatan negara itu. Menanggapi hilangnya nyawa, Presiden Korea Selatan Yoon Suk Yeol menyerukan perombakan pendekatan negara terhadap cuaca ekstrem. “Peristiwa cuaca ekstrem semacam ini akan menjadi hal biasa – kita harus menerima perubahan iklim yang sedang terjadi, dan menghadapinya,” kata Yoon, Senin. Di negara tetangga Jepang, rekor curah hujan di barat daya negara itu mengakibatkan banjir dahsyat yang menewaskan sedikitnya enam orang, dan banyak lainnya masih hilang. “Hujan tidak seperti sebelumnya,” kata juru bicara Badan Meteorologi Jepang dalam sebuah pernyataan yang menyerukan kewaspadaan maksimal dari penduduk di daerah yang terkena dampak. Ini adalah pola yang terlihat di seluruh wilayah – dari bagian Filipina dan Kamboja di selatan di mana banjir yang meluas telah menyebabkan gangguan transportasi di kota-kota besar termasuk ibu kota Manila dan Phnom Penh – ke bagian India lebih jauh ke utara di mana rekor curah hujan membawa beberapa negara bagian. hampir terhenti dan merenggut nyawa puluhan orang, menurut pejabat. Ibukota Delhi pada 10 Juli menandai hari Juli terbasah dalam lebih dari 40 tahun, menurut pihak berwenang. Hujan deras memaksa penutupan sekolah dan membuat banyak orang rentan tanpa perlindungan. Satu ekstrem ke ekstrem lainnya Sementara beberapa daerah bergulat dengan hujan deras yang mematikan, yang lain menghadapi panas yang membakar. Pada hari Senin, sebuah stasiun cuaca di Cina timur laut mencatat rekor suhu tertinggi 52,2 derajat Celcius (125 Fahrenheit), sementara Jepang melihat suhu naik menjadi 39,7 derajat Celcius (103 Fahrenheit). Secara total, lebih dari lima stasiun cuaca di China melebihi suhu tertinggi 50 derajat Celcius (122 Fahrenheit) pada hari Senin — di antara yang terpanas dalam sejarah. Ini mengikuti rekor musim panas di ibu kota Beijing yang melihat suhu pada awal Juli melonjak melewati 40 derajat Celcius (104 Fahrenheit) – mendorong pejabat untuk mengeluarkan peringatan merah panas selama dua minggu karena krisis iklim global meningkat. Gelombang panas melanda di tengah kedatangan Utusan Iklim AS John Kerry di China pada hari Minggu untuk pembicaraan antara Beijing dan Washington untuk melanjutkan kerja sama dalam diskusi iklim. China, salah satu pencemar terbesar di dunia, telah mengalami peristiwa cuaca ekstrem – dengan hujan deras dan banjir yang melanda bagian lain negara itu terutama di selatan. Gelombang panas juga melanda beberapa bagian Jepang. Suhu pada Senin pagi naik hingga 39,7 derajat Celcius (103 Fahrenheit) di kota Kiryu, yang terletak di Prefektur Gunma di pulau Honshu — Jepang terbesar dan terpadat yang juga menampung Kyoto dan Tokyo, dan 39,6 derajat Celcius di kota Hatoyama terletak di Prefektur Saitama. Kasus serangan panas menjadi semakin umum di kalangan lansia Jepang, yang merupakan 28% dari populasi. Suhu di ibu kota Tokyo telah melonjak ke tingkat berbahaya dalam beberapa tahun terakhir, membuat pejabat pemerintah menyerukan penjatahan listrik karena negara itu berjuang dengan kekurangan listrik yang terus meningkat. Wilayah yang rentan Para ilmuwan telah memperingatkan frekuensi dan intensitas peristiwa cuaca ekstrem akan terus meningkat seiring dengan percepatan krisis iklim yang disebabkan oleh manusia. Dalam pembaruan iklim tahunannya, Organisasi Meteorologi Dunia mengatakan dunia berada di jalur yang tepat untuk menembus ambang iklim kritis dalam lima tahun ke depan karena suhu global terus naik di atas tingkat pra-industri. Asia, dengan perkiraan total populasi 4,4 miliar orang, sangat rentan terhadap dampak perubahan iklim, dengan serangan cuaca ekstrem baru-baru ini yang mengakibatkan kekurangan air, gagal panen, dan perlambatan ekonomi. Kerentanan itu menjadi fokus tajam tahun lalu ketika bencana banjir melanda Pakistan yang menewaskan lebih dari 1.700 orang dan menyebabkan jutaan orang kehilangan tempat tinggal. Negara Asia Selatan itu kini menghadapi krisis ekonomi terburuk dalam beberapa dasawarsa, diperparah oleh lonjakan inflasi akibat banjir yang merusak panen tahun lalu. “Satu hal yang sangat jelas: apa yang terjadi di Pakistan tidak akan tinggal di Pakistan,” Perdana Menteri Shehbaz Sharif mengatakan kepada para pemimpin dunia di Majelis Umum PBB pada September tahun lalu, memperingatkan bahwa perubahan iklim tidak akan menyelamatkan negara. “Seluruh definisi keamanan nasional telah berubah hari ini. Dan kecuali para pemimpin dunia bersatu untuk bertindak dan bertindak sekarang pada agenda bersama yang disepakati, tidak akan ada bumi untuk diperebutkan perang. Alam akan melawan. Dan untuk itu, umat manusia sama sekali bukan tandingannya.” Negara tetangga India, negara terpadat di dunia, adalah salah satu negara yang diperkirakan akan terkena dampak terburuk krisis iklim, menurut Panel Antarpemerintah tentang Perubahan Iklim (IPCC), yang berpotensi memengaruhi 1,4 miliar orang di seluruh negeri. Setelah menderita gelombang panas terik baru-baru ini di utara dan timur, ribuan orang kemudian terpaksa mengungsi dari banjir parah di negara bagian seperti Himachal Pradesh minggu lalu setelah hujan lebat melanda desa-desa dan mengubah jalan menjadi sungai. Setiap tahun, India dilanda banjir parah dan tanah longsor selama musim hujan, yang membasahi negara itu dari Juni hingga September. Assam, negara bagian dengan populasi lebih dari 31 juta orang, termasuk yang terparah. Lebih dari 495.000 orang yang tersebar di 22 distrik terkena dampak banjir dan sekitar 14.000 dievakuasi ke kamp-kamp bantuan ketika hujan melanda wilayah tersebut. Pejabat manajemen bencana dan otoritas negara pada akhir Juni melaporkan setidaknya 10 kematian sejak hujan mulai turun. Tayangan video di televisi lokal menunjukkan penduduk desa mengarungi air berlumpur setinggi leher dengan ternak mereka, dan rumah, toko, dan mobil terendam banjir. Peringatan merah, yang menunjukkan tingkat ancaman tertinggi, dikeluarkan untuk beberapa negara bagian utara termasuk Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, dan Haryana. Peringatan tanah longsor juga dikeluarkan untuk Uttarakhand dan Himachal Pradesh. Hujan deras juga memaksa penutupan sekolah di sejumlah daerah termasuk Uttar Pradesh dan ibu kota New Delhi. Dampak dari cuaca ekstrem seperti itu sulit untuk dilewatkan dan masyarakat miskin India termasuk yang paling rentan. Banjir telah menimbulkan bahaya khusus bagi 35% populasi — sekitar 472 juta orang — yang tinggal di daerah kumuh perkotaan, menurut Bank Dunia. “Ironisnya, orang miskin di dunia sebenarnya adalah korban perubahan iklim,” bahkan jika mereka bukanlah orang yang “menciptakan masalah,” Sunita Narain, direktur jenderal Pusat Sains dan Lingkungan dan veteran Indian ahli lingkungan mengatakan kepada CNN tahun lalu. “Banjir, kekeringan, dan peristiwa iklim yang menghancurkan lainnya “semuanya menunjukkan kepada kita dengan sangat jelas apa yang akan terjadi di masa depan,” tambahnya. Untuk lebih banyak berita dan buletin CNN, buat akun di CNN.com

• Director General Office

Lackadaisical approach

Lack of enforcement of India’s limited single-use plastic ban, coupled with opacity in the EPR regime, has led to unabated persistence of plastic pollution There are reasons in Hindu religion, the God of Creation, Brahma, is considered to be of somewhat lesser importance than the God of Destruction, Shiva. In the past 50-odd years, the world has learnt, to its horror, the problems of long-lasting and non-destructive substances, once considered wonder creations. Take DDT, which had such a long residence time in the environment that it led to accumulation of the pesticide in the eggs of birds and in the blood of humans. Or take chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), a non-destructive chemical, which literally burnt a hole in the stratospheric ozone layer. Worse still is carbon dioxide, emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, whose residence time is anywhere between 150 and 200 years in the atmosphere — and this stock of emissions is resulting in catastrophic climate change. This tidbit of religion and science is important in the context of this year’s World Environment Day that was marked with the theme #BeatPlasticPollution. Plastic is another one of our wonder substances—an all-pervading essential in our lives that is used for almost everything, from piping water to packing milk to chips. It is this very characteristic of plastic that has become a bane of our environment. The waste of plastic has become that sign of the Anthropocene. Worse, massive quantities of plastic litter pollutes oceans and also enters the food chain through fish. In India, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has two recent regulations for managing plastic waste. It has notified a ban on 19 items identified as “single-use plastic”. For other plastic waste, including packaging material, it has brought in the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules. Under EPR (at least in theory), companies are required to take back the plastic waste they generate, based on pre-determined targets, and then either preprocess it or dispose it off safely. The bad news is these regulations are not working. Single-use items are still available and there is a huge confusion on the thickness — measured in microns — allowed under the rules. The EPR regime is weakened by a lack of transparency and enforcement. For instance, there is no information on the quantity of this plastic material or the waste a company generates. Not only is it based on self-declaration, not enough data is available in the public domain to assess its accuracy or to know what is happening in terms of compliance. Worse, under EPR, companies are required to recycle or reprocess the material they collect only by 2024. The question, then, is what is happening to the plastic waste that is being collected—is it being stored or dumped? There is good news as well. While the regulations are inadequate, city governments are beginning to go beyond to find solutions. Many states and Union Territories have banned the use of all plastic carry bags. This has helped enforcement. Many cities are seriously beginning to practice source segregation, which then means the dry waste (including plastic) can be reprocessed. They are either building material-recovery facilities (MRF), where the plastic that can be recycled is sorted and separated from the waste, or are directly working with the informal sector to take out this “valuable” fraction of waste. Then, they are sending the non-recyclable plastic waste for incineration to cement plants (where possible) or for use in road construction. But there are huge challenges and this is where we must work. First, we must get out of this quagmire of defining “single-use” plastic. The fact is most plastic usage, particularly for packaging, is single-use. We pack and then use and throw. It is, therefore, hard to understand why we would restrict the relatively minor items of use and then deploy our grossly inadequate regulatory agencies to enforce the ban. Instead, the focus should be based on “recyclability” of plastic waste. This is where the real politics kicks in. It is well understood that what is difficult to collect, cannot be sent for recycling. It is also known that certain plastic products, including those that are multilayered, are difficult to recycle. This is why the 2016 Plastic Management Rules stipulated a phaseout of multilayered plastic, including those used for packing gutka or chips, by 2018. But the rules were later amended to say that this would only be done, if the multilayered plastic was “non-recyclable” or “non-energy recoverable”. This was done knowing fully well that multilayered plastic is what is found in litter and landfills because this waste has no value and it is difficult to collect and even more difficult to reprocess. Second, we need to focus on the waste warriors. We must understand that if we are able to manage any plastic waste, it is because of the millions of people working in the informal sector who manage to make value out of our refuse. It is time we understood this so that we become responsible for our own waste; not use what is banned today and ask for more to be banned tomorrow, because we must and can live without plastic. DTE The writer is the Director-General of CSE and editor of DownToEarth. Views expressed are personal

• Renewable Energy

Cooking Technology In Indian Homes: Can Electricity Take The Place Of LPG?

An inflection point was reached in 2021 when the price of an LPG (liquified petroleum gas) domestic cylinder crossed Rs 860. A study by the Officers’ Association of the Kerala State Electricity Board revealed that for those consuming up to 300 units of electricity every month, it would work out cheaper to switch to electric alternatives like induction cookers. Those who use one LPG cylinder per month for cooking require only four units of electricity per day. Studies in other states came to a similar conclusion. A few days ago, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) organised an online discussion to explore various challenges to adoption of e-cooking in rural and urban India and what regulatory frameworks need to be adopted to encourage its use across all social and economic classes in the country. The discussion had a sense of urgency for multiple reasons: A third of the world’s population, or nearly 2.4 billion people, still lacks access to clean cooking solutions, which in turn causes damage to the climate, local economies, and public health. Globally, some 2.3 million people die every year because of indoor air pollution — mostly due to wood-basced cooking. The scenario is no different in India where, according to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), about 120 million (12 crore) households, making for over 56 per cent of the households in rural India and around 15 per cent of urban India, still use some form of kerosene or biomass to cook food. Some 600,000 premature deaths every year in India are attributed to indoor air pollution. Successive governments have addressed the issue, trying to encourage cleaner cooking fuel adoption — from the Rajiv Gandhi Gram LPG Vitrak Yojana (RGGLV scheme) of 2009 to the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) of 2016. Over 10 crore households are currently covered by PMUY, and according to the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC), LPG is used by some 30 crore households. Toilet-linked-biogas cookstoves have been in use since the 1960s, but as the CSE webinar revealed, most of the 5 million biogas plants in villages are not functioning anymore. Sadly, none of these well-meaning schemes have succeeded in completely switching to cleaner cooking fuels. Reasons include a lack of strong LPG distribution networks in rural areas, the high price of LPG refills, and the sustained withdrawal of subsidies. The price of LPG for domestic consumption has tripled in the last eight years. As a result, says Noble Varghese, Deputy Programme Manager (Renewable Energy) at CSE, over half of the households under the PMUY scheme have not refilled their LPG cylinders and approximately 50 million beneficiaries still use biomass as primary fuel. Approximately 10 per cent of urban and 57 per cent of rural Indian households primarily rely on solid fuels — particularly in East Indian states like Odisha, Jharkhand, and Bihar, where over half of all households use solid fuels as primary cooking fuel. Varghese suggests that considering the high prices of oil and gas — the import bill is in the region of $13 billion every year and constitutes a tenth of India’s energy imports — LPG, a fossil fuel that requires heavy imports, cannot be the only clean cooking option for the country in the coming decades. India’s aspiration for net-zero emission by 2070 needs another alternative. The country’s resolve to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal SDG 7 and to provide clean cooking fuels for all by 2030 is an even more pressing deadline. Is Electric Cooking Viable? Electric cooking (e-cooking), with benefits like improved indoor air quality, is an attractive direction for India’s clean cooking efforts. Recent policy announcements that make provisions for subsidy on induction cookstoves are clear signals of governments thinking in this direction. Sunil Mani, Programme Lead, Centre for Energy, Environment, and Water, says: At current LPG prices of around Rs 1,100 for a 14.2 kg LPG refill, e-cooking will be cheaper than LPG for households that pay for electricity at less than Rs 9 per unit. The initial investment in induction stoves and suitable utensils could set you back Rs 4,000. This is a barrier and, consequently, 85 per cent of all the e-cooking users belong to the urban upper-middle class. It is also significant that in states where electric tariffs are lower, like Delhi and Tamil Nadu, adoption of e-cooking has been faster. So, clearly, pushing urban consumers who enjoy more reliable electricity to make a switch to e-cooking is a less daunting challenge for the government. The thrust can start there, though electric cooking has as yet not achieved the economics of scale anywhere. Experts agree that for rural India, where the government has already made a big investment in promoting LPG under PMUY, the first step may be to restore subsidies so that LPG refills are perceived as good value and are available for less than Rs 500. Where and when rural electric grids are more ubiquitous and reliable, it will be the time to encourage households to switch from LPG to e-cooking, not before. Electricity In The Kitchen Electric cooking is an omnibus term that includes induction cooktops, electric rice cookers, toasters, mixer grinders, and electric kettles. According to a market survey in India this year by the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft Fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), as reported by their Delhi-based adviser, Florian Postel, induction cooktops are seeing the highest demand in South India — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala — and the west — Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. The sweet spot seems to be 1,200 watts and 2,000 watts, and the price ranges from Rs 1,800 to Rs 4,000. Leading brands include Prestige, Butterfly, Preethi, Panasonic Bajaj Electricals, Stovekraft, Philips, and Havells, with WonderChef and Borosil among more recent entrants. What Is Induction Cooking? Induction cooking involves the induction heating of cooking vessels rather than relying on indirect radiation, convection, or thermal conduction. A cooking vessel with a suitable base is placed on an induction stove, which has a heatproof glass-ceramic surface above a coil of copper wire with a low radio frequency alternating electric current passing through it. The resulting oscillating electromagnetic field induces an electrical current in the vessel. This large eddy current flowing through the resistance of a thin layer of metal in the base of the vessel results in resistive heating. A cooking vessel must be made of, or contain, a ferrous metal such as cast iron or some stainless steels. The iron in the pot concentrates the current to produce heat in the metal. Consumers tend to compare the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an induction cooktop against the cost of using unsubsidised LPG. Piped natural gas (PNG) is slightly cheaper, but availability even in metros is rather thin. As things stand, LPG wins over induction, but if cooking gas prices continue to grow, the value proposition of an electric option will look brighter. Many urban households who can afford the initial asking price of an induction cooking device tend to hedge their bets — retaining their LPGF stove and shifting some of their cooking to induction. Induction appliances have the added attraction of being currently the best electricity-driven technology for the kitchen, scoring over older electric rice cookers. The latter still compete in the Indian kitchen with that sturdy nonelectric mainstay: the pressure cooker. Also popular in cities is the microwave oven, whose basic function of rapid reheating has expanded to enable other kitchen operations like baking, by adding features like convection heating. A microwave oven heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce thermal energy in a process known as dielectric heating. But the asking price of a microwave oven — Rs 10,000-plus for a 20-litre model — makes this a specialty device and not a factor in the debate of what technology works best in the kitchen. A milk boiler is another staple in Indian kitchens. But, though electric models have started appearing, most households go for the non-electric whistling type, preferring to place it on a gas or induction stove. The key findings at the CSE online seminar can be found in the three presentations linked here. Other Experts Agree The CSE is not alone in advocating a shift to electric cooking. A year ago in an opinion piece in the Economic Times, Professor Jyoti Parikh, Executive Director, Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), New Delhi, said: "What needs to be done to introduce electric cooking as a serious option is not as demanding as the PM Ujjwala scheme but there are many challenges." His suggestions are similar to the ones mooted at the CSE — strengthen the power system for 24x7 electricity, continue efforts for LPG or piped gas, but continue comparison with electricity options. He also suggests consideration of solar cooking as a possible third option. His conclusion is worth repeating: "Both gas and electricity may be beyond the reach of the very poor in the near term till more or all people get out of poverty. But we are faced with sustainability issues for even the middle or lower middle class, and an alternative to excessive reliance on gas or LPG should be ready at hand."

• Industrial Pollution

New report estimates district-wise crop residue potential for bioenergy production

A recent study estimates the potential of crop residue availability, as a bioenergy resource in India. The study provides district and month-wise information as well as crop-specific surplus residue data which could assist in addressing bottlenecks in use of residue as biomass. Despite its ill effects on the environment and human health and efforts to counter it by the government of India and the Indian, burning of crop residue continues to be a prevalent practice, leading to pollutant emissions. India’s potential to produce bioenergy from surplus crop residue is lower than previously estimated, claims a study. It suggests a potential of 1313 petajoules (PJ) (1 PJ= 277778 MWh) of bioenergy annually, lower than earlier estimates ranging from 1738 to 4150 PJ. However, the study provides valuable insights into the district and crop-specific bioenergy potential, which can help the country better plan and utilise the available resource. The study conducted across India and supported by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), noted prevalant burning of crop residue, which is the material left behind after harvest, of crops such as rice, wheat, sugarcane, maize, millets, groundnut, oilseed, cotton and banana. Crop residue burning is an easy, low-cost way to dispose residue. However, crop residue burning, leads to pollutant emissions and can instead be targetted as a bioenergy resource, indicates the study. Sixteen institutes, including the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and others, collaborated on this study where researchers used the bottom-up approach (starting with a ground survey) of country-wide surveys to estimate the quantity of surplus crop residue being burned on the field. They used primary survey data from over 43 representative districts and secondary data related to cattle numbers, socio-economic variables, and satellite-derived information. Based on the finding, researchers created a model to extrapolate it to all 735 districts of India, reflecting both location-specific variability and seasonal availability. The paper claims that the research findings are important for effectively utilising surplus biomass towards producing bio-energy while also controlling stubble burning to prevent air pollution. The study estimates large bioenergy potentials from surplus residues in the districts of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, central/western regions of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. As per the study, rice (28%) and wheat (29%) are the largest contributors to surplus energy potential, followed by sugarcane (13%). The study indicates the months when bioenergy becomes available in each state. Most of the residue availability coincides with the rabi (March-May) and kharif (October–November) harvest periods. Some residues (such as sugarcane and banana) are available between December and February. Bioenergy availability is low in the country’s monsoon months (June–September). Information on location, season and crop-specific biomass availability, provided by the study, could help overcome bottlenecks in the use of crop residue as a bioenergy resource in India. Unlocking the potential Biomass, a renewable energy source, is carbon neutral and has the potential to provide significant employment in rural areas, notes the study. The use of crop residue as a bio-energy resource helps achieve emission reduction targets which in turn improves air quality. Bioenergy can be harnessed in various forms, such as cofiring in coal power plants, independent thermal power plants (TPPs), combustion in cogeneration in sugar industries, biogas and bioethanol. Despite the multiple benefits of biomass utilisation and the multitude of policy interventions, incidents of stubble burning have not been reduced significantly. Although the government reported around 30% decline in stubble-burning incidents during the kharif season, experts questioned the use of satellite data alone to give a clear picture of the change on the ground compared to last year. Speaking to Mongabay India, Taveen S. Kapoor from IIT-Bombay, one of the lead authors of the study, said that farmers burn crop residue due to lack of utilisation, high expenses in removing the residue and transportation. There is presently no monetary value attached to the residues, which makes residue collection and transportation for using crop residue as a bioenergy resource, expensive. A separate study conducted by the New Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) underlines the low usage of agro-residue (crop residue) and finds that not even 1% of the coal consumed yearly has been replaced with agro-residue in the eleven coal-based thermal power plants in the National Capital Region (NCR). The Ministry of Power (MoP) mandates thermal power plants to use 7% biomass pellets (densified form of farm stubble) along with coal. This is when surplus residue is sufficient to meet the present mandate. “Our study shows that the present surplus can provide approximately 8% of the energy needs in the power plants. This will compel the system to find innovative solutions for the collection and transportation problems to reduce costs,” says Kapoor. The research also suggests that the surplus use of biomass for cofiring in TPPs is presently limited because of high transportation costs, highlighting the importance of setting up plants for other technologies, such as biogas and bioethanol, closer to crop residue sources. Kapoor believes that using the surplus crop residue in situ or near the generation of biogas/biofuel production plants is likely the best bet. Biogas/biofuel production plants can be set up to take residues from a cluster of villages. The produced fuels can be consumed within the villages, especially the biogas that can replace biomass-based cooking. Both ethanol and biogas can be blended with petrol and CNG, respectively. To ensure that TPPs use the mandatory blending of biomass pellets, the MoEFCC, on July 14, issued a notification to enforce penalties on power plants that do not adhere to the mandatory blending rule. Addressing the gap In the last decade, union government has developed several policies to effectively utilise surplus biomass, especially to control stubble burning. In November 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture came up with the National Policy for Management for Crop Residue (NPMCR). In January 2019, the MoEFCC launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) as a long-term, time-bound, national-level strategy to tackle the air pollution problem nationwide. The NCAP identified agriculture crop residue burning in the Indo-Gangetic Plains as one major reason for air pollution. On October 8, 2021, the MoP issued the revised biomass policy mandating all TPPs in the country to use 5-7% of biomass pellets to cofire with coal. Apart from the MoP, the Commission on Air Quality Management (CAQM) has also directed TPPs located within 300 km of Delhi to initiate cofiring biomass-based pellets to curb air pollution from burning paddy straw. However, these efforts have not been able to push the usage of biomass. Responding to the slow progress, Aggarwal further explains that the supply chain of agri-biomass is extremely tricky and difficult to scale up. All stakeholders (MOP, CAAQM, MoEFCC) are working together and came up with the SAMARTH (Sustainable Agrarian Mission on Use of Agri-Residue in Thermal Power Plants) portal in 2021. But there is a lack of coordination among authorities. TPPs and pellet manufacturers have their own stories to tell and blame each other.

• DTE - Web

River inundated city with less water than previous flood years; here is why

Siltation, encroachment, lack of dredging and flushing are to blame, experts tell DTE This is the second of a 3-part ground report on the Delhi floods Several parts of the national capital Delhi started to flood after the Yamuna river crossed its evacuation mark on July 11, 2023. The flooding happened despite water released from Haryana’s Hathnikund barrage being less than previous flood years. A section of experts told Down To Earth (DTE) that the flooding was human-induced and completely avoidable. “If we look into the history of Delhi floods, the last time the city witnessed such record-breaking floods was in 1978. Back then, the highest water level the Yamuna reached in Delhi was 207.49 metres,” Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers & People, told DTE. This water level had never been breached since 1978. “At the time, water used to be released from the now-decommissioned Tajewala barrage in today’s Yamuna Nagar district (carved out of Ambala in 1989), not Hathnikund,” recalled Thakkar. The amount of water released was 0.72 million cusecs. In 2010, when there was an extreme rainfall situation in Delhi, the release from the Hathnikund barrage was more than 0.7 million cusecs. But the surge in the Yamuna’s water level wasn’t even close to 207.4 metres. In 2013, the amount of water released from the Hathnikund barrage into the Yamuna was more than 0.81 million cusecs. Yet, the surge in river water level didn’t approach the 1978 flood record. In 2019, 0.83 million cusecs of water were released from the barrage into the Yamuna and the surge wasn’t even close to the record year. “This year, it is astonishing that even though the peak release from the Hathnikund barrage into the Yamuna was a much lesser amount of 0.31 million cusecs and that too only for a span of two hours, it broke records. The water level of the Yamuna went up to 208.66 metres and crossed the surge record from 45 years ago by a considerable 1.17 metres beyond it,” Thakkar told DTE. ‘WE ARE TO BLAME’ Thakkar said the deluge was as the result of the cumulative impact of several anthropogenic factors. “A factor indeed could be rainfall in the catchment downstream from Hathnikund barrage up to Delhi. The rainfall was possibly higher than previous instances. But we need to specifically look at what is happening in regard to the riverbed and floodplains within Delhi,” Thakkar said. First, he noted, the riverbed and floodplains had been encroached to a huge extent. Second, Thakkar drew attention to the obstructions caused by 30 bridges and flyovers crossing the Yamuna in Delhi, most of them completed but at least four under construction. “All of these obstruct the flow of the river and are a key factor behind the alarming situation of the Yamuna today. Also, there has been an increase in the riverbed level due to indiscriminate sand mining and deforestation upstream as well as other factors,” Thakkar said. All these factors increase the silt content in the river, which mostly gets deposited on the riverbed when it enters Delhi. To make things worse, the flushing of river water downstream is taking place at such a small scale that the silt gets accumulated and the riverbed level goes up. This reduces the river’s carrying capacity, detailed Thakkar. A number of cases of illegal farming taking place are witnessed along the course of Yamuna and that leads to encroachment of river as well. Both Depinder Kapur, director, Water Program at the Centre for Science and Environment and water economist Gourishankar Ghosh also pointed to the Yamuna’s silting being a key factor. Kapur said, “Sewage and solid waste are mixing with the waters of the Yamuna. According to my analysis as well as discussions with experts’ groups, the siltation could also be caused by untreated water. So, I find that plausible.” The Yamuna, when it enters Delhi, is dry for seven-eight months. Meanwhile, wastewater from Delhi — which generates 1,000 million gallons of it per day — as well as from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are probably also running into the Yamuna. “The water supplied to and used by the people of Delhi is also going back and mixing with the river water the level of which is already up,” Ghosh had told DTE right before floods hit Delhi. “A lot of wastewater contains sediments — both organic and inorganic waste — which are getting deposited on the riverbed. Sewers are either directly going into the river or because the river is flooded, the river water is coming in and pushing the sewage water back,” Kapur said. This means the seven-eight months when the river runs dry, the sewers are emptying into it. “The water level of 208.6 metres hasn’t been seen ever in Delhi by this generation. This is the highest flood level and these factors which have triggered the situation, do compound it,” Kapur elaborated. Thakkar agreed that the damaged drain regulator no. 12 in Delhi led to the flooding of the ITO and Supreme Court areas. According to the experts, destruction of water bodies in the Aravalis and cloudbursts in the upper catchment of the river are also among the factors that compounded the situation and led to the deluge in Delhi. “We are not even monitoring what is happening at various cross sections in Delhi at different points,” pointed out Thakkar. “Among three main barrages in Delhi —Wazirabad, ITO and Okhla — the authorities were not able to open the sluice gates for ITO. This could have also contributed to the flooding in the Yamuna. To what extent, should be analysed,” he added. We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/natural-disasters/yamuna-claims-back-delhi-river-inundated-city-with-less-water-than-previous-flood-years-here-is-why-90644

• Sustainable Habitat

Marble, glass, steel: Indian architects caught between desires of cash-rich & climate alarm

Anuj Jain, a real estate agent in Gurugram’s DLF Phase 2, sums up his clients’ demands in two words that echo through his basement office: foreign amenities. A luxury apartment straight out of a shiny catalogue, with plunge pools, spas, ice-skating rinks and ballrooms. These heady constructions, with their hyper-connected condos, now dot the urban sprawl at the edge of every city, bringing to life the high-rise Indian middle-class desires. It’s a boom everyone wants to get in on. “For every 100 clients, there are 1,000 dealers,” says Jain about the rapid rise in demand. But the result is a push and pull between the urgency for green and sustainable architecture and a rising aspirational middle class that values excess and wants Italian marble, Roman arches and glass facades. The overwhelming demand means that architects and engineers, even those who want to experiment with new technology, are following the business-as-usual model using heavy-duty construction material. This tension at the heart of the Indian construction industry also mirrors the crossroads the country is at. Unlike the West, especially European nations, construction work in India relies heavily on steel, glass, and aluminium. But with two-decade-old building codes and energy conservation ethics, the industry is now pushing back to balance conspicuous consumption with energy-efficiency laws. And high rise-structures packed with people are a stark contrast to the inability of the housing sector to meet the demand. “There is no pressure to be frugal, and no compulsion to be sustainable,” says Rahul Mehrotra, Chair of Urban Planning and Architectural Design at Harvard University. Tyranny of aspiration Middle-class, urban aspirations are palpable in cities, rendered alive through their residential and commercial spaces. A giant billboard en route to the airport in Hyderabad entices motorists with a slice of colonial splendour: “Buy a piece of London in Hyderabad. Four BHK British-style villas.” Corporate hubs and tech centres in Gurugram, Noida, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad may even be ‘gaining’ on the West. “Driving up the flyover, I feel like I’m in Manhattan,” says a resident of Hyderabad’s Gachibowli–– once understood to be the back of beyond. “Who lives in Gachibowli?” he had asked at the time of moving. Mehrotra captures this sense of being, the “architecture of an impatient capital”, which changes as it spreads. “The tyranny of images drives the way our cities begin to look. Shanghai aspires to be like Singapore, and Mumbai, like Shanghai. And then Nashik aspires to be Mumbai,” he says, alluding to a vicious, endless cycle. Civil engineer turned builder Manish Kumar’s business card has the New York skyline on it. He operates out of an easily-missable basement in Gurugram amid several stand-alone houses that have been torn down and are being reconstructed as identical builder flats with a glass exterior, wood panels and marble flooring. He takes pride in the AAC blocks—they’re about 30 per cent lighter than bricks—the RMC (Ready Mixed Cement) cylinders that aren’t labour intensive, and the 1.4-kilowatt solar panels that are compulsory in Huda City Centre. Kumar uses between 4 and 5.5 kgs of steel per square foot. But these tried and tested tools of the trade are not pushing the edges of innovation. These mammoth towers that promise to change the skyline are the favourite kid on the block, replacing the culture of stand-alone houses and bungalows in urban sprawls. But they are still trapped in the past. Net-zero steel is the way forward; AAC blocks are a product of the 1930s, and engineers are researching sustainable construction materials and green decarbonated concrete. “We are not exploiting technology in any innovative ways. Most of our buildings are using technology of the past,” says renowned New Delhi-based architect Gautam Bhatia. “Bricks are still being piled, laid by hand.” Luxury condos offer the illusion of choice. More often than not, builders and architects rely on what Anumita Roy-Chowdhury, executive director at New Delhi’s Centre for Science and Environment, calls “a cookie cutter approach.” They cut corners. The walls are thin. There is an overuse of materials and an absence of aesthetic. But at least there is a modular kitchen. “The buyer goes wherever there is luxury,” says Chandra Rajwani, who works at Torbit Realty, a real-estate consultancy firm in Gulshan One29, a luxury retail-cum-office space in Greater Noida. It’s an expanse of the country’s new definition of modernity with ornamental plants, manufactured patches of green amid a sea of marble and a concierge who greets you behind a gold, metallic ‘G’ logo. It also boasts of a ‘temperature-controlled environment’ –– designed to maintain its frigid temperatures, regardless of external climatic conditions. Central air conditioning is a paragon of wealth today. It represents the marvels of technology and the ease of luxe life. Apartments in new and cushy high-rises no longer come fitted with fans; they are appendages, not priorities. Rajwani is nonchalant. Open spaces and clean air are the trendy buzzwords that align with an eco-friendly way of life, but a consumer would never ask to install solar panels or equipment for rainwater harvesting. “And thus, you cannot use the climatic advantages of the building to be comfortable. Thermal comfort needs to be central to the planning to reduce the air conditioning hours and energy consumption,” says Roy-Chowdhury. Thermal comfort must be obtained at the design stage, not through technology. “This is what is creating a problem today.” New, supposedly state-of-the-art buildings by dominant builders like Gulshan and DLF enclose you in a vacuum where one is impervious to the outside world. Gulshan One29’s “temperature-controlled environment” is an example of this. The overuse of unsustainable and outdated building materials and aesthetic are the established best practices nobody is willing to question or break out of. “Ninety-five per cent of green construction materials aren’t available in India,” says Shekar Reddy, former national president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association in India (CREDAI). He now heads the Indian Green Building Council, under which 682 commercial buildings have been registered. However, there are a few architects and engineers who are pushing back. There is innovation, but like everything, India is the graveyard of pilot projects. Nothing goes for volume. One of Sanjay Prakash’s first projects was New Delhi’s Mirambika—Free Progress School, whose ethos is reflected in its mud-made façade. But the resurgence of community-driven architectural techniques that are technically more suited to the Indian environment is yet to occur on any meaningful scale, says Prakash, who runs Studio for Habitat Futures (SHIFT), one of the frontrunners in community-driven architectural techniques. Even though his firm engaged in sustainable architecture long before it morphed into a fashionable phrase a decade ago, his clients require convincing and hand-holding in order to use materials that are less wasteful, like bamboo, mud or fly ash. “Clients come with an idea of sustainability. We have to educate them. Very few of them will actually think of going with buildings made from mud,” he says. Architectural innovation and the return to tradition have a space in India’s cities, but they exist in silos. Along the Jaipur-Ajmer highway stands the Central University of Rajasthan. A coalescence between traditional materials and modern design, it evokes solidity. An urban anomaly in an arid landscape, Dikshu C Kukreja, managing principal at CP Kukreja Architects have made use of simple architectural techniques that provide respite from the climate: jaalis, chhajas [balconies], chhatris [umbrellas], and johads [earthen dams]. It is not a building that encloses you in–– it opens out.

• Director General Office

As victims of climate change, we will see more such disasters’

Environmentalist Sunita Narain says ‘we have to come up with a very different strategy for development where the ecosystem is more vulnerable; a predevelopment plan is the way forward’. New Delhi Amid untold tales of horror and fury unleashed by nature across the north Indian plains from Punjab to Haryana and from Himachal to Uttarakhand and even Delhi-Gurugram, The Sunday Guardian spoke to Padma Shri Sunita Narain, acclaimed environmentalist, on the “manmade monsoon disaster” of North India. Narain has been with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) since 1982 and is currently the director general of the CSE and the treasurer of the Society for Environmental Communications. Excerpts: Q: What do you make of this disaster from Ravi-Beas in the Himalayas to Yamuna in Delhi? A: This is a combination of two issues, (1) The changes in weather because of climate change, and (2) The kind of development that we are doing in this region. Let me explain. First, we know that the weather is changing due to climate change, in this case two things have happened—the western disturbance which are winds that come from the Mediterranean to India, normally come over winter, but due to the weakening of the jet stream, the western disturbance is also becoming weaker and as a result, came much later in the year, which is now, and you also have the unusual extreme heating of the Bay of Bengal which has also led to the early onset of the monsoon. Combination of these two factors meant collision of the two systems over J&K, Himachal and the northern Indian plains. Now, that has meant extremely heavy rainfall perhaps unprecedented in this region and that is one key reasons for the floods. But this is not the only reason. The reason is also that we have been developing, doing development work in that very fragile, vulnerable area of the Himalayan region as we would in the plains of India. And we have to come up with a very different strategy for development where the ecosystem is more vulnerable. Q: Has rampant development along the Ganga basin created Kedarnath like disaster 2.0? A: It is about the kind of development that we are doing. For instance, the fact is that we are making a lot of hydroelectric projects in this region. Now that is good, because one of the big economic benefits of this region is water. Water provides clean energy, but the way we are building the hydro projects is literally one after the other and that is creating pressure on the fragility, adding to vulnerability of the region—with the blasting, the construction—the way you do it. I am not against the hydroelectric plants, I think you need to build them, development is good for the region, but one has to plan keeping in mind the fragility of the ecosystem of the region. So, you have to plan accordingly, you cannot plan for these plants coming up one after the other and you reengineer the river. Now this is the kind of development which is bad. Development per se is not bad. Development is needed for that region, people need development but the kind of development we are doing is without any consideration of vulnerability of that region. Q: Where are the policies to keep the hills free of population from the plains? What according to you should be the way forward from here? A: As far as what kind of policies, I will leave the policy-making to the wisdom of the state. According to me, all policies and planning have to be made keeping in mind an increase in disaster in times to come. Our data shows that India experienced one extreme weather event from 1 January 2022 to 30 September 2022, now that’s huge, and we are only going to see more of it. That is the nature of the climate change. We have not created the problem but we are the victims of it. And this is clearly going to happen and it is going to get worse and worse. In that scenario we have to understand that Himalayas are the youngest mountain range in the world. They are fragile, they have landslides. We really have to make sure that we do development accordingly. This is where the state governments, the central government, the coalition that the central government has set up for disaster reliance infrastructure, the Niti Aayog—they all need to think about what is the development strategy for the Himalayas. What kind of masterplans do we need for the cities so that you say where you will not build? What kind of buildings you will have, what is the carrying capacity of the region? –these are important questions. They cannot be dismissed as academic questions anymore. Q: Is Instagram-generated tourism taking a toll on the Himalayan ecology? A: Tourism is very good. It is very important for the Himalayan ecosystem’s economy, especially the kind of tourism that is being promoted by states like Uttarakhand and Himachal which is “homestay tourism” which is laudable. We need to say that this is a good policy, but what is bad is that you do not have any plan. Earlier, at the end of the day, there used to be very clear restrictions on what was called a flood plain area–you could not build there, so the city administration has to impose the plan. So, it is not about tourism, it is about enforcement from the city. The problem is there is nobody to say no to such things and if you raise the point, you can be seen as anti-development, but at the end of the day, it is important for cities and states to themselves come up with these plans–where is that we will allow development and what kind of development. There are rules across the world, there are seismic areas where you build houses with only certain kinds of building plans. So also for the Himalayan region, you have to understand the fragile ecology and plan accordingly which is predevelopment. A predevelopment plan is the way forward.

• Climate Change and Green Economy

COP28: Doubling energy efficiency, raising hydrogen production top agenda

New Delhi Trebling renewable energy capacity, doubling energy efficiency, and raising hydrogen production to 180 million tonnes (Mt) per year by 2030 are the highlights of COP28 president-designate Sultan Al Jaber’s plan for the UN Climate Conference (COP28) scheduled to be held in Dubai in November, he said on Thursday, adding that these goals will be critical in keeping global warming under 1.5°C over pre-industrial levels. Al Jaber, who is the UAE’s industry and advanced technology minister, is also CEO of State oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Corporation (ADNOC) and the founding CEO of Masdar, a government-owned renewable energy company. Being the first serving oil firm CEO to take the post of COP28 president, and with his country heavily dependent on petroleum and natural gas, experts and activists had raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest since his nomination in January. On Thursday, Al Jaber said the phasing down of fossil fuels is inevitable, while addressing a ministerial meeting on climate action with the environment ministers of the EU, Canada, and China in Brussels. He also called for a comprehensive transformation of climate finance instead of piecemeal reforms, with a special focus on supporting “climate-positive development” across the Global South. “Today, I’d like to walk you through our plan of action. This plan is guided by a single north star. And that is keeping 1.5 [°C] within reach. To do this, we aim to match the highest ambition for the negotiated outcomes with an equally strong and robust action agenda that can implement those outcomes in the real world,” he said. The main challenge facing COP28 is a deep trust deficit among developed and developing countries. At the Bonn climate talks in June, a formal agenda could not be adopted until a day before the meeting was to officially close. This was mainly because in line with the Paris Agreement’s principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, developing countries sought an agenda on finance for scaling up mitigation action. But developed countries led by the US and the EU opposed the agenda stating that existing mechanisms address the issue of finance. There was a sense of disappointment because there was little progress on action and an erosion of trust among rich and developing countries at the critical Bonn conference. Developed countries want mitigation burden to be shared equally by all countries to meet the 1.5°C goal. Developing countries want the burden of climate mitigation be shared based on historical responsibility. They also expect scaled up finance for energy transition. Island nations demand that the 1.5°C goal is not breached because it is a question of survival for most of them. Al Jaber called for collective ownership of the global stocktake. “We must be brutally honest about the gaps that need to be filled, the root causes and how we got here. Then we must apply a far-reaching, forward-looking, action-oriented and comprehensive response to address these gaps,” he added. Global stocktake is the process for reviewing the implementation of the Paris Agreement and its goal of keeping global warming to well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to keep it under 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. It is scheduled to be held at COP28 in Dubai this November. “On fast-tracking the transition, we must be laser focused on building the energy system of the future, a system free of unabated fossil fuels, including coal, using all available technologies, while we rapidly decarbonise the system of today. As I’ve said many times, the phase down of fossil fuels is inevitable. It is in fact essential. And it must also be responsible…We will co-create a practical action plan, based on the science, around pathways consistent with keeping 1.5°C within reach. On the supply side, we are partnering with governments in the north and south to double energy efficiency, triple renewable energy capacity to 11,000 GW, and double hydrogen production to 180 million tonnes per year by 2030,” Al Jaber added. He urged all parties to update their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement to keep the 1.5°C goal of Paris Agreement within reach. “Strong demand signals must come from the top through NDCs. The UAE just submitted a third update to its second NDC that pushes emission reductions to 40%, compared to business as usual, with clearly defined targets for all domestic sectors. That’s an almost 10% improvement on the previous disclosure. This aligns with our 2050 net zero initiative and our ambition to keep 1.5°C within reach. At the same time, we will invest $54 billion to triple clean energy capacity by 2030, massively scale up hydrogen while maintaining zero coal in our energy mix. And I call on all governments to update their NDCs by September of this year, ensuring alignment with the Paris Agreement,” he said. “COP28 President Al Jaber outlined the plan today, emphasising efforts to keep warming below 1.5°C as the central focus of the climate summit. We are already experiencing the hottest days in over 125,000 years. We are witnessing record-shattering heatwaves, floods, and wildfires at 1.2°C warming. It is clear that the time has come to end the era of fossil fuels. COP28 must initiate a roadmap for a just and equitable transition that benefits workers and communities and supports the countries least responsible for the climate crisis,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy for Climate Action Network International. “This needs to occur alongside establishing ambitious targets for renewable energy and the scaling up of finance to implement climate action and support those suffering from climate-induced loss and damage,” he added. “The COP 28 presidency’s plan mentions an inevitable phasedown of fossil fuels, but COP28 must precipitate real commitments from developed countries on phasing out the production and consumption of oil and gas. A renewable energy target is a very positive goal to anchor efforts in this decade. It needs to be accompanied by serious inquiry into how predictable, scalable money for renewables buildout will flow into developing countries,” said Avantika Goswami, programme manager for climate change at Centre for Science and Environment.

• Water Programme

Man-made factors at play in Delhi going under water, say experts

‘Delhi witnessing flooding because of illegal construction on the floodplains of the Yamuna’ Despite Delhi bearing the brunt of heavy rainfall in the upper reaches such as Himachal Pradesh this monsoon season, environmental experts say that the city is witnessing flooding because of several man-made factors such as illegal construction on the floodplains of the Yamuna. Experts told The Hindu that apart from illegal structures by private persons, religious sites such as the Akshardham Temple and infrastructure projects like Outer Ring Road have come up on the floodplains. “The Delhi Secretariat, Commonwealth Games Village, Akshardham Temple and Outer Ring Road have been built on the floodplains. Despite notices being issued by the agencies concerned against the construction of the Akshardham Temple, it was built,” said Depinder Singh Kapur, director of the Water Programme at the Centre for Science and Environment. The river has become narrow owing to concrete structures on the floodplains, especially in the 5-km stretch between Civil Lines and Okhla, leading to flooding in these areas and parts of east Delhi, Mr. Kapur said. He added that the current crisis should serve as a warning against concretising riverbanks in the name of riverfront development projects. ‘Problem is in Delhi’ Bhim Singh Rawat, associate coordinator, South Asia Networks on Dams, Rivers and People, pointed out that though there are six barrages between Hathnikund in Haryana and Old Railway Bridge in Delhi, flooding was witnessed in the Yamuna only in Delhi. “This shows that the problem is in Delhi. In 1978, more than 7 lakh cusecs of water was released from the Hathnikund barrage and the water level in Delhi was only 207.49 metres. Now, only 3.59 lakh cusecs was released, but the water level went up to 208.66 metres. This shows that there is more flooding in Delhi though less water is coming to the city,” Mr. Rawat said. He also held that “official encroachments” by governments and “unofficial encroachments” by people were responsible for flooding in the city. “Carrying out construction on the floodplains obstructs the natural flow of the river. So, when the flow increases, the river recaptures its original flow area, flooding these areas,” Prasoon Singh, a fellow at Climate Change Division, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), said. Mr. Singh said dredging to remove silt and planned water diversion channels are possible solutions to the problem of flooding, but they can be implemented only after conducting proper studies on them.

• Down To Earth

Heavy rainfall kills over 100 people in India, following heatwaves that took the lives of almost 200

Torrential downpours over the past fortnight have led to the deaths of more than 100 people and unleashed havoc across northern India in what climate scientists describe as the country’s worst monsoon in decades. The deadly monsoon comes as several other countries grapple with similar extreme weather. Himachal Pradesh, India’s most northern state, was the worst affected by the heavy rains. Authorities reported that over 1,300 roads were damaged, resulting in a total estimated damage bill in the state of 40 billion Indian rupees (approximately $US486 million). Other impacted states include Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. New Delhi, the national capital, recorded 153 mm of rain in 24 hours on July 10, the highest in a single day in July since 1982. The water levels of the Yamuna River in Delhi hit an all-time high, breaching the previous record level of 207 metres (over 680 feet) in 1978. Schools, houses and other buildings have been inundated and shut down. Delhi, Punjab and Himachal have received 112 percent, 100 percent and 70 percent more rainfall than usual so far in this year’s monsoon, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The extreme rainfall follows blistering heat waves in Northern India that began in June and saw temperatures soar to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in large parts of the country. More than 170 people died from the heat, most of them in the north. Extreme temperature and rainfall events, droughts, rising sea levels and intense cyclones are recurring events across the sub-continent and clear signs of climate change with deadly consequences. In India, 959 people were killed by floods in 2020 and 656 in 2021. In 2018, it was reported to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the national parliament, by the Central Water Commission that 107,480 people had died from extreme rainfall and floods across the country between 1953 and 2017. Heatwaves have claimed more than 17,000 lives in the past 50 years in India, according to a paper authored by M. Rajeevan, former secretary of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, along with four other scientists. While India’s main summer months—from April to June—are always hot, temperatures over the past decade have become much more intense and dangerous. The IMD reports a 24 percent increase in the number of heat waves in 2010–2019 compared with 2000–2009. The mortality rate from high temperatures increased by 62 percent between 2000 and 2019. Even though these disasters are projected in the media as “natural” calamities, they are, in reality, mainly produced by the destructive drive for profits by big business and are, hence, man-made. Unplanned urbanisation and development along with haphazard burning of fossil fuels are key factors. Last year, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation that tracks extreme weather events, released its “State of India’s Environment Report 2022.” It revealed that the country experienced extreme weather events on 314 out of the 365 days, meaning that at least one extreme weather event was reported in some part of India on each of these days. The report concluded that these events caused over 3,000 deaths in 2022, affected some 2 million hectares of crop area, killed more than 69,000 livestock and destroyed around 420,000 houses. Extreme weather events claimed 233 lives and damaged 950,000 hectares of cropland in the country in the first four months of this year (2023), according to a recent study led by the CSE. These recurring calamities impact most heavily on the poorest sections of society. They always produce crocodile tears from political leaders and the media and grossly inadequate compensation payments. On July 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office issued a cynical tweet declaring that local administrations are working to ensure the well-being of those affected by floods while the PM “took stock of the situation.” Aggrieved farmers and flood victims have angrily spoken out about the devastation. One social media video showed an elderly woman in Haryana slapping Ishwar Singh, a parliamentarian from the Jannayak Janta Party which is part of the BJP ruling alliance. “Why have you come now?” she asked. While climate change and global warming are drastically changing weather patterns, Modi and his Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, like its Congress Party-led predecessor, has refused to take any real action to mitigate the devastating impact of these catastrophes or to provide adequate relief. Instead, it spends billions of dollars upgrading the Indian armed forces in pursuit of the ruling elite’s geo-political ambitions while giving major tax incentives and other assistance to big business. For decades India’s ruling elites have failed to act on warnings made by climate scientists. They have refused to build the necessary infrastructure to prepare for these disasters. Addressing the threat posed by climate change and global warming requires a global solution. Protection from floods, heatwaves and a reversal of the imminent global calamity posed by climate change requires coordinated international collaboration and planning. This can only be attained through the establishment a Union of Socialist Republics of South Asia as part of a world socialist federation.

• Down To Earth

चरम मौसम की घटनाओं सेबढ़ा संपत्ति का नुकसान : महापात

आईएमडी प्रमुख नेकहा, चरम मौसम सेमौतों की संख्या मेंकमी आई देश मेंसामाजिक-आर्थिक प्रगति के बाद संपत्ति का नुकसान भी बढ नई दिल्ली, एजेंसी। भारत मेंपिछलेकुछ वर्षों मेंचरम मौसम की घटनाओं के कारण होनेवाली मौतों की संख्या मेंकाफी कमी आई है। लेकिन सामाजिक-आर्थिक प्रगति के बीच संपत्ति का नुकसान बढ़ रहा है। भारत मौसम विज्ञान विभाग के प्रमुख मृत्युंजय महापात्र नेगुरुगुवार को यह बात कही। 2013 की केदारनाथ बाढ़ और इस साल हिमाचल प्रदेश की बाढ़ की तुलना करतेहुए उन्होंनेकहा कि आपदा प्रबंधन एजेंसियों और आम जनता द्वारा प्रारंभिक चेतावनी प्रणालियों, भविष्यवाणी और तैयारियों, रोकथाम और शमन मेंजबरदस्त सुधार हुआ है। उन्होंनेनीति अनुसंधान थिंक टैंक द सेंटर फॉर एनर्जी, एनवायरनमेंट एंडएं वॉटर (सीईईडब्ल्यू) की एक रिपोर्ट के लॉन्च के लिए वीडियो संदेश मेंकहा कि हम पिछलेकुछ वर्षों मेंमौतों की संख्या को न्यूनतम करनेमेंसक्षम हैं। लेकिन संपत्ति का नुकसान बढ़ रहा है, क्योंकि देश मेंसामाजिक-आर्थिक प्रगति बढ़ रही है। वज्रपात सेहर साल 2500 मौत : महापात्र नेकहा कि भारत मेंहर साल बिजली गिरनेसे 2,500 लोगों की मौत हो जाती है। प्रकाश व्यवस्था एक चुनौती बन गई है। जबकि हमनेउष्णकटिबंधीय चक्रवात जैसी आपदाओं पर लगभग विजय प्राप्त की है। बिजली गिरना बहुत छोटे स्तर की घटना है और इसके घटित होनेमेंकम समय लगता है। इसकी भविष्यवाणी भी मुश्किल है। हालांकि, पिछलेकुछ वर्षों मेंभारत मौसम विज्ञान विभाग, पृथ्वी विज्ञान मंत्रालय और भारतीय उष्णकटिबंधीय मौसम विज्ञान संस्थान नेमिलकर बिजली की भविष्यवाणी के लिए एक मॉडलिंग प्रणाली विकसित की है। भारत दुनिया के उन पांच देशों मेंशामिल हैजिनके पास बिजली गिरनेकी पूर्वचेतावनी प्रणाली है। शहरी बाढ़ देश के लिए नई चुनौती : उन्होंनेकहा कि शहरी आबादी मेंवृद्धि के साथ, शहरी बाढ़ देश के लिए एक और चुनौती बन गई है। सीईईडब्ल्यूरिपोर्ट के अनुसार, भारत मेंअनुमानित 72 प्रतिशत जिलेअत्यधिक बाढ़ की घटनाओं के संपर्क मेंहैं। लेकिन उनमेंसेकेवल 25 प्रतिशत मेंही बाढ़ पूर्वानुमान स्टेशन या प्रारंभिक चेतावनी प्रणाली हैं। बाढ़ के उच्च जोखिम के बावजूद, असम, बिहार, उत्तर प्रदेश, ओडिशा और सिक्कि म बाढ़ पूर्वचेतावनी प्रणालियों के मामलेमेंसबसेअच्छा प्रदर्शन करनेवालेराज्य हैं। 66 प्रतिशत व्यक्ति अत्यधिक बाढ़ के संपर्क में : रिपोर्ट सेपता चला हैकि हिमाचल प्रदेश, जो इस समय भारी बाढ़ सेजूझ रहा है, प्रारंभिक चेतावनी प्रणालियों की सबसेकम उपलब्धता वालेराज्यों मेंसेएक है। दूसरी ओर उत्तराखंड मेंगंभीर बाढ़ की घटनाएं सामान्य रूप सेहोती हैं। लेकिन यहां बाढ़ की पूर्वचेतावनी प्रणाली की उच्च उपलब्धता है। उफनती यमुना के कारण दिल्ली अत्यधिक बाढ़ के संपर्क मेंहै। भारत मेंलगभग 66 प्रतिशत व्यक्ति अत्यधिक बाढ़ की घटनाओं के संपर्क मेंहैं। हालांकि, उनमेंसेकेवल 33 प्रतिशत ही बाढ़ ईडब्ल्यूएस द्वारा कवर किए गए हैं। रिपोर्ट मेंकहा गया हैकि इसके अलावा, 25 प्रतिशत भारतीय आबादी चक्रवातों और उनके प्रभावों के संपर्क मेंहै। लेकिन चक्रवात की चेतावनी 100 प्रतिशत आबादी के लिए उपलब्ध है। 50 साल मेंएक लाख सेअधिक मौत : स्वतंत्र थिंक टैंक सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंडएं एनवायरनमेंट के अनुसार, भारत ने 2022 में 365 दिनों मेंसे 314 दिनों मेंचरम मौसम की घटनाओं का अनुभव किया। घटनाओं ने 3,026 लोगों की जान लेली और 1.96 मिलियन हेक्टेयर फसल क्षेत्र को नुकसान पहुंचाया। संयुक्त राष्ट्र की एक विशेष एजेंसी, विश्व मौसम विज्ञान विभाग के आंकड़ों के अनुसार, चरम मौसम, जलवायुऔर पानी सेसंबंधित घटनाओं के कारण 1970 और 2021 के बीच भारत में 573 आपदाएं हुईं। इनमेंएक लाख 38 हजार 377 लोगों की जान चली गई।

• Climate Change and Green Economy

Paris Finance Summit fails to push revolutionary solutions

“Today, the most vulnerable countries, which also need funding for climate mitigation, have a crushingly high debt burden. We can no longer talk about small changes, or about short-changing the poor. We need answers and we need them fast,” says Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), commenting on the recently concluded Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, held in Paris. “The summit did not precipitate any transformational solutions, but it started a conversation on the climate and development financing crisis, and this momentum cannot be lost,” Narain added. The first of its kind Paris Summit was spearheaded by President Emmanuel Macron of France, and was attended by many leaders from the developing world and Europe. It aimed at addressing the lack of money flowing to poor and vulnerable countries as they battle “a cocktail of interconnected crises” -- as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia put it: poverty, debt and inflation triggered due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and increasing climate impacts. Says Avantika Goswami, programme manager, climate change, CSE, who also attended the Summit proceedings in person: “Countries of the Global South are in a debt crisis and are facing pressure to decarbonise their economies -- without adequate climate finance flowing in. The Summit was never expected to solve these problems in a day and a half, but it has started a crucial conversation. It shone a spotlight on the scale of these crises, the clear demands from countries of the Global South, and the pathways of action that the Global North is choosing to advocate for.” Avantika underlines the scale of the problem by quoting world leaders who attended the Summit. Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia said: “African countries are facing an unprecedented funding squeeze. Public and private debt has reached new heights. Inflation in almost all commodities has risen sharply, and today daily meals are the biggest issue for many Africans.” Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbadosgave a rallying call: “The developing world is sinking from debt. The UK took a hundred years to repay its debt for World War I; Germany had all the benefits of being able to have its debt service capped at 3 to 5 percent of its GDP in order to rebuild after World War II. We are people too, we are countries too, and we deserve a similar treatment.” What is Global South seeking? Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) have been at the center of the discussion on financial systems reform. According to Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, MDBs are “being asked by non-borrowing shareholders to also address transboundary challenges, along with their core development mandate”. Says Goswami: “This will increase the pressure on MDBs’ resources. Developed countries want to squeeze more out of existing MDB resources, whilst simultaneously adding on climate as a part of the Banks’ mandate. Developed countries are resistant to paying more money from their budgets and also risking more influence from large economies such as India and China if their paid-in share rises.” Countries of Global Southare asking for more concessional and grant financingand a reduction in debt levels in developing countries, including debt cancellations for least developed countries. Deals such as Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETP) must consider each country’s circumstances, the needs of workers and communities, and development goals to address poverty and unemployment, as pointed out by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. They must be flexible to accept that some fossil fuel generation might need to remain in existence to serve the country’s basic energy needs. And they must offer adequate financing. In the case of South Africa, for instance, the financing of US $8.5 billion that has been offered is far below the country’s estimated need of US $98 billion. Kenya has called for aglobal financing mechanism that is not hostage to national or shareholder interests, while Brazil has asked why it must trade in dollars and not in its own currency. What the Summit announced MDBs: A contentious MDB Vision Statement document did not get full consensus at the Summit. Separately, it was announced that an additional lending capacity of US $200 billion would be unlocked for emerging economies. The World Bank announced disaster clauses for debt deals that would suspend debt payment in the case of extreme weather events. The Bank also unveiled a Private Sector Investment Lab to “develop and rapidly scale solutions that address the barriers that are preventing the private sector from investing – at scale – in emerging markets and developing countries, with a specific focus on renewable energy and energy infrastructure”. Special Drawing Rights (SDRs): IMF announced that US $100 billion in SDRs for vulnerable nations has been met. The ‘recycling’ of SDRs from rich countries whose central banks do not need the cushioning, to poor countries who need them or MDBs who can channel them, has been proposed as a means to expand the amount of concessional finance available for developing countries. A new JETP: A new Euro 2.5 billion Just Energy Transition Partnership deal was announced for Senegal with a consortium of developed countries -- the goal is to increase the share of renewable energy in installed capacity to 40 per cent of Senegal’s electricity mix by 2030. Polluter taxes: Many groups called for a tax on shipping emissions. More traction is expected on this issue at the International Maritime Organisation meeting in July. Support is also growing for a financial transactions tax. Debt: Colombia and Kenya have proposed a Global Expert Review on Debt, Nature and Climate to “assess the impact of debt on low- and medium-income countries capacity to preserve nature, adapt to climate change and decarbonise their economies”. Carbon markets: The EU unveiled a call to action on ‘Paris Aligned Carbon Markets’ with the goal of covering at least 60 per cent of global emissions with carbon pricing mechanisms (compared to 4 per cent today) and allocating a proportion of the revenues to climate finance. Climate finance goal: It was suggested that the long overdue US $100 billion climate finance goal will be delivered this year. Says Narain: “Every climate change disaster takes the Global South countries to greater indebtedness as they borrow to survive and rebuild. This year, we need to discuss structural issues that underpin the vast inequities in the world, which make it certain that countries in the Global South cannot afford the price of adaptation or mitigation. And we need to find the money and we need to do this fast.” Goswami sums it up: “What was evident from the Paris Summit is that the demands from the developing world seem to be falling on deaf ears. Peddling false solutions, offering piecemeal and inadequate debt relief efforts, and shifting the onus to the private sectorwas the plan that developed countries offered in Paris.” (Centre for Science and Environment)

• Solid Waste Management and Circular Economy

Hot and thirsty? Let’s drink some…microplastics!

Just ahead of World Water Day on March 22nd this year, a report released by the United Nations showed that the bottled mineral water industry in India had grown by 27% between 2018 and 2021, the second fastest growth recorded globally. The signs are all around us – discarded bottles everywhere, wherever you go. But have you considered that with every gulp you take from a plastic bottle, you could actually be introducing microplastic particles into your body? In 2018, a study reported that eleven globally sourced brands of bottled water, purchased in nine different countries including India, were tested for microplastic contamination. Of the 259 total bottles processed, 93% showed some sign of microplastic contamination. Such is the menace of microplastics, the invisible pollutant that is not only wreaking havoc on marine and terrestrial ecosystems, but is also permeating all that we eat and drink, through a variety of channels. World Environment Day 2023 has indeed cranked up the volume of the discourse around plastic pollution. But while the dangers of single-use plastic are in plain sight and easy to comprehend, the more insidious threat of microplastics needs to be understood better. It is not just the water we drink. A kilo of sea salt has anywhere between 35 and 575 particles of microplastics. Every 100 gm of fish caught off the coast of Mumbai has about 80 particles of microplastics, according to a survey by Central Institute of Fisheries Education. Microplastics may be causing growth defects in fish, a study by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) revealed. The research also detected microplastics in the waters of Krishna Raja Sagara (KRS) dam in Karnataka’s Mandya district. Among fruits and vegetables, apples and carrots have the highest number of microplastics, as found in a study, conducted to evaluate the number and size of microplastic particles in the most commonly consumed vegetables and fruits. But what are microplastics and why should we be concerned about these? What can we, as individuals, do to mitigate the effects of microplastic pollution? Tracing the sources The United Nations Environment Programme defines microplastics as tiny plastic particles up to 5mm in diameter. It is easy to identify some common contributors of microplastics such as single-use plastic, but there are many other hidden ones: fibres released from washing clothes, particles shed from car tyres, microbeads in cosmetic products, road markings and much more. And while the components of microplastics differ from one locality to the other, there are only two ways in which they are generated. “One is through abrasion and breakdown of larger items that contain plastic. Another is through purposeful creation of microplastic particles (such as microbeads) for consumer products or industrial applications,” said Dr Anna Posacka, Chief Scientific Officer of Ocean Diagnostics, a Canada-based environmental impact company that enables researchers and citizens to have better access to microplastic data. The microplastics we find in water in plastic bottles are due to the first. An example of the second can be found in the microbeads in your face wash. These enter the sewerage system but as the tiny particles cannot be filtered in wastewater plants, they enter the rivers and eventually reach the oceans. Small marine species consume them, mistaking them for food. As these particles take years to break down, they can be traced eventually in the fish we consume. Similarly, microplastics get transferred to salt from the seawater that is used in salt production. A study conducted by IIT-Bombay in 2018 using salt samples from the markets of Mumbai proved the presence of microplastics. Between 56 and 103 particles were found in each kilogram of the salt sample. However, the same study also provides a solution – filtering seawater to reduce the transfer. “Cracks in the roots of lettuce and wheat crops can take in microplastics from the surrounding soil and water,” mentioned a study published in Nature Sustainability by researchers at Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, in China, and Leiden University, in the Netherlands. “Those microplastics can then travel from the roots up to the edible parts of the crop,” it added. Studies note that they reach the stem and leaves through the roots and contaminate the food chain. In the marine ecosystem, discarded fish gear or other plastics degenerate into microplastics either from sunlight or movement against rocks. All varieties of plastics that enter the marine ecosystem, including discarded fish gear (contributing to 10% of global marine pollution), break into microplastics over time. Mistaking them for food, fish eat them. A study conducted by the Cochin University of Science and Technology documented microplastic presence in the edible and inedible tissues of nine species of pelagic fishes from the Cochin coast, that are commonly consumed by humans. “They (microplastics) largely come from land. All plastic that comes from land eventually makes its way to the oceans through runoff from land into streams and creeks, into rivers and estuaries and from there to the ocean,” said Dr Jesse Meiller, an environmental toxicologist in her Tedx Talk. The bigger concern Studies have now found the presence of microplastics in the human digestive system, brain and also in breast milk. “The chemical used to make plastics – Bisphenol A – is associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. There is a possibility that these chemicals could be found in microplastics too,” says Upendra Nongthomba, Professor, Developmental and Biomedical Genetics Laboratory, IISc. IISc’s research has established the link between microplastics and increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and abnormal concentration that can kill cells and harm body organs. “Our unpublished data suggests that the presence of microplastics in the gut itself is enough to cause behavioural defects, by generating gut microbiota dysbiosis,” said the professor. “Plastics are a carrier of pollutants including the ‘dirty dozen’- a group of dangerous chemicals called Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs),” explains Monika Khanna Gulati, founder of NCR Waste Matters – a citizen action and awareness group, “As per the World Health Organisation, human exposure for some compounds and scenarios, even to low levels of POPs, can lead to many health effects. These include increased cancer risk, reproductive disorders, alteration of the immune system, neuro-behavioural impairment, endocrine disruption, genotoxicity and increased birth defects.” There are multiple studies that predict negative outcomes of plastics on human health but even globally, none of them have really established the exact risks to human health from microplastics. “It’s not easy to study the health hazard impacts of microplastics. Making micro-and nano-plastics in laboratory conditions and characterising them requires sophisticated tools. But it is doable if there are grants from philanthropists and CSR groups to support our work,” says Upendra. The diverse components of plastic and the need for long-term data on human studies add to the complexity. “Each microplastic particle is unique, like a snowflake, and may cause different toxic effects. Researchers have made great progress in developing methods to accurately extract and characterise microplastics in the environment, and it is only in recent years that research has shifted towards human studies,” says Anna. “The plastic manufacturing industry uses 10,000 to 13,000 different chemicals. Any plastic product has 23 different chemicals that are unknown to us. The industry doesn’t disclose it under the pretext of protecting its intellectual property rights. But it is a sheer violation of human rights.” – Siddharth Ghanshyam Singh, Programme Manager, Environmental Governance and Solid Waste Management, Centre for Science and Environment. Policy paralysis Lack of funding and unavailability of adequate tools pose a challenge in the research. “All countries must put their collective might behind collecting data, doing research and sharing outcomes to escape the next pandemic. Bring the research to support policy and legislative decisions which are firmly executed on the ground,” says Monika. At a policy level, however, there has hardly been any action to tackle the issue of microplastics in India. “The discussion, especially in policy, has not reached a stage where we start discussing microplastics as an issue. Even our policymakers look at plastics as a waste management problem and not really as a threat to human health. We can definitely not expect to have policies on microplastics unless this perspective changes,” says Siddharth Ghanshyam Singh, Programme Manager, Environmental Governance and Solid Waste Management, Centre for Science and Environment. “India has good legislation on plastic waste management. There is a ban on single-use plastics which lists close to 21 different plastic items that are illegal to produce, sell, use and distribute. But we failed miserably in effective implementation of the ban”, adds Siddharth. The onus is on us “Local regulations, industrial activities, waste management practices, and the degree of plastic usage and manufacturing can significantly influence the distribution and prevalence of microplastics in different environments, says Dr Anna Posacka. Even if the impact of microplastic pollution on human health has not yet been understood and analysed in granular detail, it is certain that it results in negative outcomes. Mitigating microplastic pollution requires rejection of plastic, and thus, as consumers, here are a few strategies we can adopt: Avoid using personal care products that contain microbeads. Remember, microbeads are found in exfoliating scrubs, face wash, detergents, dish washing soap and creams. Look for “microbead-free” labels and choose products with natural exfoliants instead. Stop using single-use plastic products which are often discarded within minutes of use. These invariably find their way into our soil and water. Carry your own bottle of water and minimise use of products with plastic packaging. Support citizen groups fighting for the effective implementation of plastic ban laws. Support policies that aid alternative green technologies through subsidies and tax benefits. Join and share anti-plastic campaigns and petititions, such as this.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Beyond diesel: Moving communities in developing countries off generators

Is transition to renewables possible for the millions of people reliant on highly polluting off-grid machines for power? According to Alan Greenshields, Director EMEA of ESS Inc, the answer lies in an iron flow battery solution capable of releasing clean energy over a ten hour period. Air pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels is creating an ongoing global public health crisis. Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) illustrates that ambient air pollution caused 4.2 million premature deaths worldwide in 2019 with almost 89% of those in low- and middle income countries. Climate change, one of the most significant environmental challenges of our time, is driving the global transition to clean energy. As we address this global challenge, we have the opportunity not only to reduce carbon emissions, but to improve air quality in communities worldwide which currently experience the worst fossil fuel pollution. Large fossil-fuelled power stations and motor vehicles are commonly blamed for air pollution, but often-overlooked are the polluting diesel generators which tend to be located in populated areas. In many developing countries, the unpredictability of the grid necessitates the use of these diesel generators to ensure reliable, resilient power, regardless of their high cost and the toxic pollutants they emit. Despite their drawbacks, these diesel generators are a critical electricity source for millions of homes and businesses. Fortunately, clean energy technologies are now available which can replace these dirty diesel generators and provide clean, reliable energy 24/7. New battery technologies, such as the iron flow batteries manufactured by ESS, can be deployed either as standalone backup systems or incorporated into community-scale solar + storage microgrids to replace backup diesel generation and ensure clean air. Dirty Diesel There are estimated to be 82.6 millions diesel generators in use globally. In the developing world, these generators provide an estimated350–500 gigawatts (GW) of energy across 20-30 million individual sites, permeating communities worldwide. This generation capacity is equivalent to hundreds of coal power stations. But, while large central power stations are typically located in remote areas, diesel generators are found in urban areas where their particulate, nitrogen oxide, and carbon monoxide pollution is particularly harmful to local communities. While particularly acute in the developing world, developed economies do not fully avoid the impacts of diesel generators either: industry relies on diesel generators for construction, off-grid applications (such as agriculture),and as back-up power for critical infrastructure such as hospitals and data centres. A recent study by the Centre for Science and Environment provides one example in a community in India where diesel generators operated several hours a day increased particulate matter (PM) such as PM2.5 and PM10 by 30% and 50-100% compared to levels before their operation. (PM2.5 and PM10 refer to inhalable particles in the air measuring 2.5 and 10 micrometres in diameter, respectively.) PM2.5 poses the most critical threat to human health. These particles can affect an individual’s lungs and heart and have been linked to heart disease, asthma and reduced lung function. Particulates can also affect water and soil quality, and damage sensitive forests and farm crops. A report on London air pollution stated that 26% of the PM2.5 and 40% of the PM10 from diesel fuel combustion comes from construction, industrial and commercial applications, not automobiles. In California, their emissions are estimated to cost $136 million in annual health costs, underscoring the global nature of the risk. Sun, Wind and Long-duration Energy Storage Offer a Path Forward The ultimate answer is clearly to transition to renewable energy sources which emit little or no pollution. Replacing a fossil-fuel generator with solar and wind power will limit particulates almost immediately while also quickly reducing or eliminating other pollutants in ambient air. The transition is not without challenges. As renewable energy is increasingly deployed to the grid, it is becoming clear that the intermittency of wind and solar remains a challenge to reliability and grid stability. Today, if the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing, diesel gensets are needed to fill the gap in many places. “Green” datacentres that are designed to be powered exclusively by renewables are forced to depend on diesel generators for back-up. Amazon Web Services recently announced that it was purchasing over 100 diesel generators, and that is just for its datacentres in Ireland. To realise the benefits of renewables, clean energy sources will need to be coupled with energy storage to provide reliable, resilient energy and avoid the need for diesel generation. Emerging long-duration energy storage technologies can store and deploy hours of clean energy and enable renewable energy to be available on demand. For example, ESS iron flow batteries provide up to 12 hours of energy storage. In addition, they are safe and nontoxic, and can be safely sited in populated areas, providing safe, clean energy whenever needed.

• Director General Office

कैसे जलवायु परिवर्तन भारत में पर्यावरण संकट पैदा कर रहा है?

मूसलाधार बारिश के कारण भारत के कुछ हिस्सों में अचानक बाढ़ और भूस्खलन हुआ है, जिससे मौत और विनाश हुआ है। असहनीय गर्मी की लहर के बाद भारी बारिश आती है। पिछले कुछ दिनों में उत्तर भारत के कुछ हिस्सों में तीव्र मानसूनी बारिश हुई है, जिससे मौत और विनाश के निशान छोड़ गए हैं, साथ ही कई क्षेत्र दुर्गम हो गए हैं। हिमाचल प्रदेश राज्य सबसे ज्यादा प्रभावित हुआ है। टेलीविज़न फ़ुटेज में भूस्खलन और अचानक आई बाढ़, वाहनों को बहाते हुए, इमारतों को नष्ट करते हुए और पुलों को ढहते हुए दिखाया गया है। भारत मौसम विज्ञान विभाग के मुताबिक, जुलाई के पहले हफ्ते में देशभर में हुई मूसलाधार बारिश से अब तक सामान्य से करीब 2% ज्यादा बारिश हो चुकी है। एजेंसी ने आने वाले दिनों में उत्तर भारत के बड़े हिस्से में और बारिश की भविष्यवाणी की है। विभाग के एक अधिकारी ने डीडब्ल्यू को बताया, "यह क्षेत्र, जो आमतौर पर सबसे शुष्क क्षेत्रों में से एक है, में अनुपातहीन रूप से अधिक बारिश हुई है।" ग्रीष्म, या दक्षिण-पश्चिम, मानसून भारत में वार्षिक वर्षा का लगभग 70% लाता है। यह देश की कृषि के लिए महत्वपूर्ण है, जो भारत के कुल आर्थिक उत्पादन का केवल 11% हिस्सा है, लेकिन 40% से अधिक श्रम शक्ति को रोजगार देता है। बारिश अक्सर बाढ़ और भूस्खलन से बड़े पैमाने पर तबाही और मौत का कारण बनती है। वैज्ञानिकों का कहना है कि बारिश का पूर्वानुमान लगाना कठिन है और इसमें काफी भिन्नता होती है, लेकिन जलवायु परिवर्तन मानसून को मजबूत और अधिक अनियमित बना रहा है, जिससे बाढ़ की आवृत्ति और तीव्रता बढ़ रही है। "मानव-प्रेरित जलवायु परिवर्तन पहले से ही भारत में हाइड्रोलॉजिकल चरम को तीव्र कर रहा है, और उत्तर भारत के कुछ हिस्सों में हाल ही में आई बाढ़ इस बात का एक और उदाहरण है कि कैसे चरम घटनाएं मैदानी इलाकों की तुलना में पहाड़ी क्षेत्रों में अधिक विनाशकारी हो सकती हैं," अक्षय देवरस, एक शोध वैज्ञानिक यूनाइटेड किंगडम के नेशनल सेंटर फॉर एटमॉस्फेरिक साइंस और यूनिवर्सिटी ऑफ रीडिंग के मौसम विज्ञान विभाग ने डीडब्ल्यू को बताया। देवरस ने कहा कि ग्रीनहाउस गैसों के बढ़ते उत्सर्जन के कारण ग्रह लगातार गर्म होता जा रहा है, जिससे चरम मौसम की घटनाएं तेज होने वाली हैं। "इसका मतलब यह नहीं है कि उच्च प्रभाव वाली घटनाएं हर साल घटित होंगी," उन्होंने कहा, "लेकिन, जब भी वे घटित होंगी, इस बात की अधिक संभावना होगी कि वे पिछली ऐसी घटनाओं की तुलना में अधिक प्रभावशाली होंगी।" 2022 चरम मौसम की घटनाएं 2022 में, नई दिल्ली स्थित जनहित अनुसंधान और वकालत संगठन, सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट ने भारत में चरम मौसम की घटनाओं पर नज़र रखी। इससे पता चला कि कुल मिलाकर भारत ने 365 दिनों में से 314 दिनों में चरम मौसम की घटनाओं का अनुभव किया, जिसका अर्थ है कि इनमें से प्रत्येक दिन भारत के किसी न किसी हिस्से में कम से कम एक चरम मौसम की घटना की सूचना मिली थी। रिपोर्ट ने निष्कर्ष निकाला कि इन घटनाओं के कारण 2022 में 3,000 से अधिक मौतें हुईं, लगभग 2 मिलियन हेक्टेयर (4.8 मिलियन एकड़) फसल क्षेत्र प्रभावित हुआ, पशुधन के रूप में उपयोग किए जाने वाले 69,000 से अधिक जानवर मारे गए और लगभग 420,000 घर नष्ट हो गए। जलवायु परिवर्तन पर संयुक्त राष्ट्र के अंतर सरकारी पैनल ने भी 2022 की एक रिपोर्ट जारी की जिसमें भारत के लिए एक निराशाजनक तस्वीर पेश की गई है। इसने चेतावनी दी कि देश को अगले दो दशकों में कई जलवायु परिवर्तन-प्रेरित आपदाओं का सामना करना पड़ सकता है। इसमें कहा गया है कि जब तक 2030 तक ग्रीनहाउस गैस उत्सर्जन में भारी कमी नहीं की जाती, भारतीय अधिकारियों के लिए आसन्न जलवायु आपदा को उलटना असंभव हो जाएगा। भीषण गर्मी के बाद भारी बारिश हो रही है पुणे में भारतीय उष्णकटिबंधीय मौसम विज्ञान संस्थान के जलवायु वैज्ञानिक रॉक्सी मैथ्यू कोल ने डीडब्ल्यू को बताया, "जलवायु परिवर्तन तेजी से बढ़ रहा है, जिससे एक के बाद एक चरम मौसम की घटनाएं सामने आ रही हैं। यह जितना हमने पहले सोचा था, उससे कहीं अधिक तेज है।" कोल ने कहा, "दक्षिण एशिया जलवायु परिवर्तन का पोस्टर चाइल्ड बन गया है।" "सिर्फ भारत ही नहीं, पूरे क्षेत्र में गर्मी की लहरें, बाढ़, भूस्खलन, सूखा और चक्रवात बढ़ने का स्पष्ट रुझान देखा जा रहा है। यह पहले से ही क्षेत्र की भोजन, पानी और ऊर्जा सुरक्षा को प्रभावित कर रहा है।" भारी बारिश गर्मी की लहर के बाद हुई जिसके कारण भारत के बड़े हिस्से में तापमान 45 डिग्री सेल्सियस (113 एफ) तक बढ़ गया। भले ही भारत में मुख्य गर्मी के महीने - अप्रैल से जून तक - हमेशा गर्म होते हैं, पिछले दशक में तापमान अधिक तीव्र हो गया है। और लगभग 80% आबादी गर्मी की लहरों या भीषण बाढ़ जैसी आपदाओं के प्रति अत्यधिक संवेदनशील क्षेत्रों में रहती है। क्या किया जाने की जरूरत है? भारत के जलवायु परिवर्तन प्रयासों के हिस्से के रूप में, प्रधान मंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी के प्रशासन ने 2070 तक देश के ग्रीनहाउस गैस उत्सर्जन को शून्य पर लाने की कसम खाई है। लेकिन, बढ़ती चरम मौसमी घटनाओं की पृष्ठभूमि में, विशेषज्ञों का कहना है कि सरकार को अनुकूलन उपायों पर भी ध्यान देने की जरूरत है। सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरमेंट की निदेशक सुनीता नारायण ने डीडब्ल्यू को बताया, "आर्थिक नुकसान और खाद्य असुरक्षा को रोकने के लिए जलवायु अनुकूलन के लिए और अधिक प्रयास किए जाने की जरूरत है।" नारायण ने कहा, "हमें भूमि और जल-प्रबंधन रणनीतियों को फिर से सीखने की जरूरत है।" "भारत को सीखने के लिए बहुत कुछ है, बाढ़-संवेदनशील क्षेत्रों में बस्तियों का निर्माण न करने से लेकर तटबंधों के भीतर नदियों को नियंत्रित करने के बजाय नदी के पानी को प्रवाहित करने तक, जो हमेशा टूटती हैं या काम नहीं करती हैं।" "वां