New Delhi (CNN)Anish Yadav was sleeping in his home, a fragile hut made of wood and plastic, when the water rushed in. A concrete retaining wall that had previously held back monsoon floodwaters had collapsed, sending a deluge through Yadav's slum in Malad, a northern suburb in India's financial hub Mumbai. "We woke up to people screaming for help," said Yadav, 26, of that night in July 2019. "The water had risen to our heads ... and I saw people being swept away with the water with my own eyes." For his entire life, the wall had protected Yadav and his neighbors from increasingly severe monsoon storms. His house had never been damaged before -- but with the wall now gone, he has had to rebuild his home four times in three years. Every year, thousands of people die in India from flooding and landslides during the monsoon season, which drenches the country from June to September. The monsoon is a natural weather phenomenon caused by warm, moist air moving across the Indian Ocean toward South Asia as the seasons change. But the climate crisis has caused the event to become more extreme and unpredictable. India's poor, like Yadav, are among the most vulnerable. "The irony of it is that the poor of the world are actually victims of climate change," even if they aren't the ones who "created the problem," said Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment and veteran Indian environmentalist. This weekend, world leaders are gathering in Glasgow for the COP26 climate talks as they seek to reduce carbon emissions and avoid a catastrophic rise in global temperatures. Yet for millions of Indians, pledges on paper won't save their homes. The climate crisis is already at their front door -- and it's knocking down the frame. Four homes lost in three years Mumbai, the country's most populous city, boasts glittering skyscrapers and glitzy luxury hotels. It's also a city of widespread poverty and wealth inequality, where about 65% of its 12 million residents live in shacks of tarp and tin in crowded slums. Yadav and his mother were evacuated to a school after their home was first swept away in 2019. The flood had killed 32 people, and authorities said the slum was too dangerous to live in -- but when an offer of new housing didn't materialize, Yadav and his mother returned to the slum to rebuild. "My house is about 10 by 15 feet and the floor is made of dirt," Yadav said. "In that soil, we have hammered down wooden poles. We tie them together and then cover it with plastic sheets. If there is a cyclone or a strong wind, it will be uprooted entirely." Family members started keeping what scarce valuables they had in plastic bags, so they could evacuate quickly. But there's only so much you can protect. During the 2020 monsoon season, Yadav and his mother once again lost their home, clothing and precious food items to rain and flooding. It happened again in May this year, when a massive cyclone hit India's west coast -- an unusual event, since they typically strike the east coast. Yadav said at that point, people were fed up with authorities and the constant cycle of destruction, evacuation and rebuilding. "How can we live this way?" he said. The most recent disaster came in September, at the tail end of this year's monsoon season, when debris from past flooding swept toward the slum. "It was around 1:30 in the (morning) and debris started flowing down," Yadav said. "It was raining heavily and we heard it moving." Residents were again evacuated to the school, where they remain to this day with little clean water or electricity and no toilets. "We have no idea when we will go back or get another home," Yadav said. "(Authorities) are just saying that we will get housing in three to four days, but nothing is being done. People have lost their jobs and they don't have money for food. The system is to blame here." The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Mumbai's governing body, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Places are becoming unlivable As the climate crisis worsens, floods pose a particular danger to the 35% of India's population -- roughly 472 million people -- who live in urban slums, according to the World Bank. Muralee Thummarukudy, acting head of the UN Environment Program's Resilience to Disasters and Conflicts Global Support Branch, said slum dwellers tend to live in flimsy structures on the outskirts of cities where land is less stable and more exposed to natural disasters. They also often don't have any kind of insurance that allows them to rebuild or relocate. These residents are also more vulnerable to the secondary effects of flooding, including the spread of waterborne diseases, groundwater contamination, and the loss of food supplies. Rajan Samuel, managing director in India for Habitat for Humanity, says disasters wipe out livelihoods as well as homes. "The trend I am seeing is that livelihood gets disrupted with every disaster, and then there is shelter which goes as well," he said. "We need to mitigate both." Some states have taken action -- like Odisha, which built stormwater drains in its slums, or Kerala, which offers financial incentives for residents in climate-vulnerable places to relocate. Yet on a national level, progress has been slow. Several ambitious initiatives to improve slums and retrofit cities have flailed over the past two decades, stymied by a lack of funding, insufficient participation, poor planning or the red tape of Indian bureaucracy, according to a number of international organizations, researchers and local media. And though the government is now training cities across India to become "climate smart," experts say there are many other measures that need to be taken -- like improving evacuation processes and redesigning water systems and other urban infrastructure. Narain, from the Centre for Science and Environment, said existing systems were built "at a time when disasters were still once in 10 years, once in five years. Now, it is 10 disasters a year." Recent floods, droughts and other devastating climate events are "all showing us very clearly what will the future be," she added. Climate migrants For years, climate experts and scientists have warned the climate crisis could displace more than a billion people in the coming decades -- potentially forming a class of "climate migrants" and refugees. Flooding is one of the major dangers, with record rainfall causing devastation in Germany and China this summer. In India, people are already on the move. Natural disasters forced more than 5 million Indians to leave their homes in 2019, according to a study conducted by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace. And that number is expected to rise as the climate crisis worsens. Many of those displaced Indians, like Yadav, have no means to relocate and no choice but to continually rebuild their homes in disaster-prone locations. Yadav and his family are reluctant to move from their patch of land in the slum, unless the government provides an alternative. He and his mother are now surviving off their meager savings, money borrowed from relatives, and cash earned from pawning their jewelry. Right now, he's losing hope and dreading the thought of having to rebuild -- yet again. "It has been going on for so long," Yadav said. "You never know if the water will flood the house and destroy the house."
Aniket Gupta, a young Delhi-based environment activist who started the petition, said introducing climate literacy in the school curriculum has become a necessity, considering the fast degradation of the environment globally and the extreme weather events that are being reported worldwide New Delhi: A group of young environmental activists have started an online petition, requesting the Delhi and central governments to include climate education in Delhi schools to sensitise youngsters about the impact of the global climate crisis. Aniket Gupta, a young Delhi-based environment activist, who started the petition, said introducing climate literacy in the school curriculum has become a necessity, considering the fast degradation of the environment globally and the extreme weather events that are being reported worldwide. “I think awareness of climate change isn’t enough. We need to sensitise children too from an early age. Record-breaking heat waves, changing rainfall patterns, dust storms and increasing air pollution scares me about my future and the future of generations to come. If as children we are not taught about the climate crisis, and what we can do to stop this cycle of permanent damage to our planet in even the smallest of ways we can, there is no way we will live to see a green planet again,” Gupta said. He added, “Just a few loose mentions of global warming and deforestation in school textbooks will not help. We need a comprehensive curriculum that not only creates awareness among kids about their natural world but also sensitises them towards the beings that they share this planet with.” Gupta is supported by three other co-petitioners, Aditya Dubey, Seher Taneja and Dwishojoyee Banerjee, who are also students and have been regularly raising their voice against various aspects of environment degradation in the national capital. Ever since the petition was started on Change.org late September, they have also met Aam Aadmi Party legislators, and senior leaders from the BJP, who have agreed to support their demands and raise it before their respective governments for consideration. “We are in touch with our area (Krishna Nagar) MLA, SK Bagga. He has agreed to hear our proposal. We are also presenting our proposal to the vice-chairperson of Dialogue and Development Commission, Jasmine Shah. Charu Pragya, lawyer and BJP spokesperson, has also accepted our proposal and promised to present it to education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan,” Gupta said. A Delhi government spokesperson said that they will consider the proposal once it comes before them. Experts said that such a proposal by the young generation should be taken seriously by the political representatives. “In the times that we are in, environment has to be the centre of all discussions. One of the ways by which we can make masses sensitive towards the environmental crisis is to catch them early. It will be a good idea to have young children know about what is happening around them and how they can make things better,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy), Centre for Science and Environment.
Bhubaneswar: In order to promote non-motorised transport and cycling across the Smart City, the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) today organised an exclusive cyclothon of transgenders between Ekamra Kshetra Plaza near Sishu Bhawan Square and Temple Plaza near Ram Mandir Square. This was perhaps the first of its kind all-transgender cyclothon in the city, organised for a cause. Participated by more than 50 people from the transgender community, the event was sponsored by Khimji Foundation. Members of SAKHA, a community-based organisation of transgenders actively participated in the event with great enthusiasm under the leadership of Meera Parida. Well-known Odia TV actor and social worker Russy Patnaik also joined as a guest and encouraged the participants. It can be mentioned here that the Temple City, as part of its citizen-centric planning based on the Smart City Proposal, has developed a quality city-wide facility for cycles and pedestrian ways so that the emissions are less and citizens enjoy a healthy and livable environment to breath in fresh air with minimal load of pollutants and particulate matters in the neighborhood air. The city has relied on its NMT planning to make it more citizen-friendly. Managing Director and CEO of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited Sri Sanjay Kumar Singh said “we always believe in inclusiveness and for a better city we include all communities into the mainstream. While the self-help groups (SHGs) of transgender communities are given the responsibilities of manning the parking spaces, their participation today in the cyclothon has again proved that we are going to include all socially disadvantageous groups in our citizen-centric activities and planning.’’ In July this year the Temple City bagged India Cycles4Change Challenge Stage-1 Award as it was adjudged among the top 11 Cycling Pioneers of the nation. All the 11 cities are going to receive an award of Rs 1 crore each to scaleup their cycling events in their respective cities. Speaking on the occasion, leading transgender leader of Odisha and organizer Meera Parida said “in the past we have always participated in the pan-city events for the city administration. Under the Smart City mandates we want to have more activities in future and we are ready to participate in them. We had a memorable participation during the Patha Utsav days along the Janpath on every Sunday, promoting NMT philosophy.’’ In fact, under the India Cycles4Change Challenge the Bhubaneswar Smart City has planned a series of activities in the coming days to promote cycling among all age groups and communities. This would, in a way could be a catalyst for change to make cycling a popular alternative and promote NMT to make the Capital city a clean and green city on every aspect. This year Smart City Bhubaneswar had come as the fourth ranked city among the top 10 Livable Capital Cities in India. Interestingly, the Temple City had topped in the Citizen Perception Survey with the highest score of 94.8 out of 100 as per the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE’s) Ease of Living Index Report, 2020.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will, on Monday, join 120 heads of states/governments from around the world, including US President Joe Biden, at the high-level segment of the COP26, the crucial negotiation platform for countries to work out their emission plans to collectively restrict global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Like this year's 'World Leaders' Summit' (WLS), it is not every year that heads of the states visit the COP and/or take part in the deliberations that in turn decide their respective country's policy for climate action. The last time they were at the COP in large numbers was at Paris in 2015 when the major document of Paris Agreement 2015 took shape. Starting Sunday, the 26th edition of Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Convention Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is taking place at the UK's Glasgow. This COP26 is deemed critical because, as warned by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), every additional 0.5 degree of warming will increase heat extremes, extreme precipitation, and droughts and for coastal areas, sea level rise will be a threat to their very existence. India has a target to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, and it has already achieved 24 per cent by 2016. "World leaders need to come together in person and put climate change on the world agenda. The WLS before the COP is a good thing because they need to set the tone for the COP to discuss," said Centre for Science and Environment's (CSE) Sunita Narain. "However, will they actually call out the need for transformational action, will they call out the need for looking at climate justice as the bedrock of climate negotiations moving ahead, I am not sure," she quickly added during a pre-COP media consultation. Modi, before departing for the G20 and COP26 summits, had said: "In line with our tradition of living in harmony with nature and culture of deep respect for the planet, we are taking ambitious action on expanding clean and renewable energy, energy efficiency, afforestation and bio-diversity." He had also made clear what are the stakes for India when he declared: "I will also highlight the need to comprehensively address climate change issues including equitable distribution of carbon space, support for mitigation and adaptation and resilience building measures, mobilisation of finance, technology transfer and importance of sustainable lifestyles for green and inclusive growth." As has been maintained by India, there is no mention of net zero targets. Most of the western world has been pressuring India for declaring net zero goal, which India - and all the Like Minded Developing Countries (LMDC) - has already termed as shifting the goal from 2030 as per the Paris Agreement to a future date. India has said it will announce its stance at an appropriate time. Rich countries are favouring 2050 as the net zero goal. The updated synthesis report of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) showed that for all available NDCs of all 192 parties taken together, there would be a sizable increase, of about 16 per cent, in global GHG emissions in 2030 compared to 2010. The country-wise updates had clearly shown how inadequate the action on part of rich nations was, a point that the developing nations have been harping on. Net zero is absorbing or removing as much carbon as a given unit consumes. Carbon emissions are responsible for global warming and the COP is a platform to negotiate and bring the emissions considerably low to prevent that temperature rise. Scientists, however, have a word of caution about the concept of net zero. "There is no clarity on what the rich nations are saying when they talk of net zero targets. Is it net zero CO2 or is it net zero greenhouse gases (GHG)?" asked visiting Researcher at the Jadavpur University, Shreya Some. The major push for net zero was given by the September's Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC. "But, the IPCC report is very clear that it is net zero carbon," she said. Net zero or not, what will matter ultimately will be domestic actions and it is where the government has not evoked much trust. As if to showcase the glimpse of the future, the years 2020 and 2021 have witnessed more frequent and high intensity climate catastrophic events across the globe, India was no exception. In such situations, question remains as to what is the accountability expected from the state and how should India tackle the twin challenges of climate and growing inequality? Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said: "The equity conundrum provides an opportunity to design our future actions in a way that tackles the issues together. Both inequality and climate change are in fact symptoms of a deeper malaise - a flawed, overconsumption-based economic system that is predatory and exploitative by nature. So, the only way we are getting out of this quicksand is by fundamentally reimagining progress and development." With rich countries insisting on net zero pledges and many from the developing nations, including India, insisting on delivery of promises first -- and both parties refusing to budge from their position, will there be a consensus at the end of the two week meeting? Will net zero 2050 be the bone of contention? Will this COP be a failure? "What you do in 2050 does not matter, what you are actually doing now and in the next 10 years is crucial. What do you do about adaptation and finance? There is no debate that goals by developed countries are highly inadequate," pointed out Associate Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Tejal Kanitkar. "In fact, the global stock taking is in 2023, so why do you suddenly want to push that timeline to 2050. What the rich nations did - rather not do - by 2020 is out in the open now. So, now, this COP and the target of net zero by 2050 is an attempt at green washing that failure." "COP failing means what?" Kanitkar said. "Whatever the outcome, it does not mean that the Paris Agreement will go away."
The Climate Equity Monitor has a stark map of carbon credit/ debt which shows all the northern countries have exceeded their fair share of the global carbon budget On the first day of the Glasgow climate change conference (COP 26), India highlighted the large disparity in historical emissions of rich or developed countries and developing countries like India. The Climate Change Group at MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) launched a Climate Equity Monitor, an online dashboard for assessing equity in climate change mitigation. Union environment minister, Bhupender Yadav, said the monitor will encourage discussion on issues related to equity and justice at the ongoing climate negotiations. “Welcome the scientific initiative, Climate Equity Monitor, (https://t.co/KzqShJ1Ggt) which went live today. Its focus on equity & climate action from a data and evidence-based perspective will encourage vigorous discussion on the crucial issue and engage experts from all nations,” he tweeted on Sunday. PM Narendra Modi is likely to address COP 26 and over 120 world leaders on India’s actions to mitigate climate change during the World Leaders Summit scheduled on November 1. The Climate Equity Monitor has a stark map of carbon credit/ debt which shows all the northern countries, including the United States, Russia, Australia, most European countries, have exceeded their fair share of the global carbon budget. Carbon debt, according to the monitor, is the difference between the actual cumulative emissions for a country and its fair share of the global carbon budget already consumed. The values for developed countries clearly indicate their responsibility and the massive carbon debt they owe the world, it states. On the other hand, the southern countries including India, China, Africa, South America and others highlighted in blue indicating that they have generated credits by consuming less than their fair share. A fair share of the carbon budget is defined as the share of the cumulative emissions based on the share in the global population. The monitor also has an interactive graph on historical emissions which indicates China, followed by the US and the EU, have the highest historical greenhouse gas emissions, the monitor was jointly developed with the Natural Sciences and Engineering department at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) Bengaluru. “The Climate Equity Monitor is aimed at monitoring the performance of Annex-I Parties (developed countries) based on the foundational principles of the Climate Convention, namely equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC). The performance and policies of the Non-Annex-I Parties (developing countries) will be also provided for comparison,” a statement by the union environment ministry welcoming the launch of the monitor said. CBDR RC is a principle under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which acknowledges different capabilities and differing responsibilities of individual countries in addressing climate change based on their social and economic conditions. “In keeping with the latest scientific results of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that have underlined the importance of cumulative emissions and carbon budgets, the analysis will be anchored in these two concepts. The equitable sharing of the global carbon budget is the fundamental equity principle that will underpin the assessments that will progressively appear on the website. Existing “tracking” websites on climate policies are based in the global North and routinely do not address the crucial aspects of equity and differentiation. Other websites, according to the researchers, bury the key issues in complexities that are not transparently dealt with,” the ministry further said in its statement. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had recently flagged that China is currently the world’s biggest emitter – it has increased its share of global CO2 emissions from 5.11% in 1990 to almost 21% in 2019. According to a recent analysis by CSE, in the coming ten years, China will take up 33% of the remaining carbon budget of 409 GtCO2 and India may occupy only 9.54% of the budget. Between 1870 and 2019 China occupied 13.4% of the global carbon budget; India 3.16% and the seven historical polluters— United Kingdom, United States, European Union-27, Russia, Japan, Australia, and Canada occupied 60.53% of the carbon budget. The share changed quite a bit between 1990 and 2019 when China occupied nearly 21% of the carbon budget. This means China went through a very intense phase of development mainly dependent on fossil fuels during those 20 odd years. “We cannot compare India and China. It’s time we de-hyphenated the two,” Sunita Narain, director general, Centre for Science and Environment, said during a recent briefing to climate journalists. Meanwhile, the Climate Action Tracker also released an analysis on India’s role in climate change mitigation on Sunday. It suggested that coal should be phased out globally, and in India by 2040, to limit warming to 1.5 degrees C. Early retirement of older coal power plants and re-evaluation of the coal pipeline – would align India with the level of policies and action consistent with its own “fair share” contribution to the Paris Agreement. Such measures in India would very likely result in a 1.5 degree C compatible rating by CAT, it said. “We estimate that this reduction in coal-fired capacity, in the absence of additional efficiency measures, would require 160–320 GW of additional renewable capacity to India’s previously communicated 450 GW by 2030 goal. India is likely to achieve, and may even over-achieve, the 450 GW goal, including hydro, under current policies,” the CAT said. HT reported on September 17 that India’s nationally determined contribution (NDC), which was rated as 2 degrees compatible or “almost sufficient” by the Climate Action Tracker until August, had rated India as “highly insufficient” in its action and policies on climate change in September. This is because Climate Action Tracker had updated its rating system. CAT is supported by several foundations and governments including the European Climate Foundation and the German Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) etc.
Bhubaneswar, October 31: In order to promote non-motorised transport and cycling across the Smart City, the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) today organised an exclusive cyclothon of transgenders between Ekamra Kshetra Plaza near Sishu Bhawan Square and Temple Plaza near Ram Mandir Square. This was perhaps the first of its kind all-transgender cyclothon in the city, organised for a cause. Participated by more than 50 people from the transgender community, the event was sponsored by Khimji Foundation. Members of SAKHA, a community-based organisation of transgenders actively participated in the event with great enthusiasm under the leadership of Meera Parida. Well-known Odia TV actor and social worker Russy Patnaik also joined as a guest and encouraged the participants. It can be mentioned here that the Temple City, as part of its citizen-centric planning based on the Smart City Proposal, has developed a quality city-wide facility for cycles and pedestrian ways so that the emissions are less and citizens enjoy a healthy and livable environment to breath in fresh air with minimal load of pollutants and particulate matters in the neighborhood air. The city has relied on its NMT planning to make it more citizen-friendly. Managing Director and CEO of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited Sri Sanjay Kumar Singh said “we always believe in inclusiveness and for a better city we include all communities into the mainstream. While the self-help groups (SHGs) of transgender communities are given the responsibilities of manning the parking spaces, their participation today in the cyclothon has again proved that we are going to include all socially disadvantageous groups in our citizen-centric activities and planning.’’ In July this year the Temple City bagged India Cycles4Change Challenge Stage-1 Award as it was adjudged among the top 11 Cycling Pioneers of the nation. All the 11 cities are going to receive an award of Rs 1 crore each to scaleup their cycling events in their respective cities. Speaking on the occasion, leading transgender leader of Odisha and organizer Meera Parida said “in the past we have always participated in the pan-city events for the city administration. Under the Smart City mandates we want to have more activities in future and we are ready to participate in them. We had a memorable participation during the Patha Utsav days along the Janpath on every Sunday, promoting NMT philosophy.’’ In fact, under the India Cycles4Change Challenge the Bhubaneswar Smart City has planned a series of activities in the coming days to promote cycling among all age groups and communities. This would, in a way could be a catalyst for change to make cycling a popular alternative and promote NMT to make the Capital city a clean and green city on every aspect. This year Smart City Bhubaneswar had come as the fourth ranked city among the top 10 Livable Capital Cities in India. Interestingly, the Temple City had topped in the Citizen Perception Survey with the highest score of 94.8 out of 100 as per the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE’s) Ease of Living Index Report, 2020.
Scientists, activists and environmentalists believe that the Glasgow summit, also known as COP26, could be the last opportunity to keep global warming to agreed upon limits. The United Nations climate summit that begins in Glasgow on Sunday could be the last chance for humanity to tackle the catastrophic changes due to unrestrained global warming, scientists and activists have said. Under current national climate commitments, the world is on track for a temperature increase of 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the United Nations Environment Programme warned on October 25, which is much above the goal of the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement to keep it below 2 degrees compared with the beginning of the industrial era. Unless countries agree to steeply cut carbon emissions, global temperatures will rise beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next 10 to 20 years compared with pre-industrial times, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s largest group of climate experts, had said in its scientific assessment in August. Scientists, activists and environmentalists believe that the Glasgow summit, also known as COP26, could be the last opportunity to keep global warming to agreed upon limits. Over 25,000 delegates are expected to gather in Glasgow for the climate talks. While one of the main agenda is keeping the 1.5 degrees goal alive, countries will have to negotiate and agree on several critical issues like carbon markets, loss and damage and long-term climate finance. In the previous conference held in Madrid in 2019, countries were unable to reach an agreement on new market mechanisms. Several other issues were left unresolved as well, including common time frames for implementation of voluntary national pledges, long-term climate finance and transparency on climate action, all of which will have to be resolved at COP26. COP26 begins with the World Leaders’ Summit on November 1 and 2, which will be attended by over 120 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Usually, the leaders’ summit is held in the second week of the annual talks. The world leaders are this time expected to set the tone for COP26 and declare their intent of containing global warming even before negotiations start. At the Rome summit of the G20 nations, the climate crisis featured high on the agenda. G20 leaders, including Modi, are expected to reach a consensus on how to deal with the crisis and transition to a low-carbon economy. “This time, world leaders will set the agenda for COP26, which is a positive development,” Sunita Narain, director general of advocacy group Centre for Science and Environment, said at a media briefing. “Over the past few decades, climate negotiations were going nowhere. COP26 must reclaim its leadership and the trust of people from across the world, both rich and poor. It must not be lost to the usual prevarication in negotiations and the tantrums and posturings of pusillanimous leaders.” For India, the two critical issues are climate finance and carbon markets. India seeks a level playing field for all countries by pushing for climate finance and technology transfer, environment minister Bhupender Yadav, who is the leader of India’s delegation, had told HT in an interview on October 29. Carbon markets are critical for India because trading can lead to both a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and can generate climate finance, he said. Carbon markets are touted to be one of the most efficient tools to keep mean global temperature rise to under 2 degrees by capping global emissions globally after 2020. Simply put, when a country limits carbon emissions through a project, it creates carbon credits, which can be sold to another nation that fails to meet its target. Under the Paris Agreement, nations will have to come out with a new market mechanism, but there are logjams over various issues. For example, India wants unused carbon credits from the Kyoto Protocol era to be recognised and traded, while experts from the developed world have raised concerns that these credits could flood and ruin the new market even before it starts. Climate finance is the other contentious issue expected to feature prominently in the summit. According to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s standing committee on Finance, developing countries need almost $6 trillion up to 2030 to implement their national commitments. The highly anticipated climate finance delivery plan released last week said developed countries will likely be able to mobilise the promised $100 billion a year only in 2023, a delay of three years from the 2020 deadline originally promised. “A successful outcome at COP26 will be a balanced package of measures to cut emissions rapidly in this decade and urgently scale up finance to adapt to climate impacts. Developed countries need to reassure developing countries that they will make up the shortfall in climate finance and set an ambitious new goal. Finalising the rules for carbon trading will help create a common currency that enables Indian industry to link its efforts to international markets and reduce the cost of emission reduction,” said Ulka Kelkar, economist and director, climate at World Resources Institute.
The air quality is, however, likely to improve over the next two days due to the change in the wind direction from northwesterly -- which carries smoke from stubble burning -- to the cleaner southerly, according to the air pollution monitoring agencies The air quality in Noida worsened on Sunday, but remained in the ‘poor’ category. The air quality is, however, likely to improve over the next two days due to the change in the wind direction from northwesterly -- which carries smoke from stubble burning -- to the cleaner southerly, according to the air pollution monitoring agencies. “The festival rush or increase in traffic movement, and dropping temperatures or wind speed, are the reasons behind the spike in the pollution levels over the past 24 hours,” said Shambhavi Shukla, deputy programme manager (air pollution), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the air quality index (AQI) reading, on a scale of zero to 500, for Noida on Sunday was at 292 against 260 a day earlier. The AQI in Ghaziabad was at 342 against 273 on Saturday, and 292 in Greater Noida against 273 a day earlier. An AQI reading between 101 and 200 is considered ‘moderate’, between 201 and 300 ‘poor’, between 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and above 400 ‘severe’. According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (Safar), the fire count has reduced slightly over the past 24 hours, and the air quality is likely to improve in the coming days. “The air quality is likely to improve to the upper end of the ‘poor’ category in the next two days due to an expected change in the wind direction to westerly or southwesterly, reducing the transport of emissions from stubble burning. Isolated rainfall is likely in the upwind region which would improve the air quality. Share of crop residue burning emissions in PM2.5 is about 8% at present. Prevailing shallow mixing layer height reduces dispersion of pollutants,” according to a statement by the SAFAR on Sunday. According to the Safar, the effective fire count (stubble burning) on Sunday was recorded at 1,734 against 1,826 a day earlier. Meanwhile, the daytime temperatures recorded a slight drop in Noida. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the maximum and minimum temperatures in Noida on Sunday were recorded at 29.2 degrees Celsius and 17.1 degrees Celsius, respectively, against 29.2 degrees Celsius and 14.8 degrees Celsius, respectively, a day earlier. “Maximum and minimum temperatures will hover around 30 degrees Celsius and 17 degrees Celsius on Monday,” said an IMD official.
Anish Yadav was sleeping in his home, a fragile hut made of wood and plastic, when the water rushed in. A concrete retaining wall that had previously held back monsoon floodwaters had collapsed, sending a deluge through Yadav's slum in Malad, a northern suburb in India's financial hub Mumbai. "We woke up to people screaming for help," said Yadav, 26, of that night in July 2019. "The water had risen to our heads ... and I saw people being swept away with the water with my own eyes." For his entire life, the wall had protected Yadav and his neighbors from increasingly severe monsoon storms. His house had never been damaged before -- but with the wall now gone, he has had to rebuild his home four times in three years. Every year, thousands of people die in India from flooding and landslides during the monsoon season, which drenches the country from June to September. The monsoon is a natural weather phenomenon caused by warm, moist air moving across the Indian Ocean toward South Asia as the seasons change. But the climate crisis has caused the event to become more extreme and unpredictable. India's poor, like Yadav, are among the most vulnerable. "The irony of it is that the poor of the world are actually victims of climate change," even if they aren't the ones who "created the problem," said Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment and veteran Indian environmentalist. This weekend, world leaders are gathering in Glasgow for the COP26 climate talks as they seek to reduce carbon emissions and avoid a catastrophic rise in global temperatures. Yet for millions of Indians, pledges on paper won't save their homes. The climate crisis is already at their front door -- and it's knocking down the frame. Four homes lost in three years Mumbai, the country's most populous city, boasts glittering skyscrapers and glitzy luxury hotels. It's also a city of widespread poverty and wealth inequality, where about 65% of its 12 million residents live in shacks of tarp and tin in crowded slums. Yadav and his mother were evacuated to a school after their home was first swept away in 2019. The flood had killed 32 people, and authorities said the slum was too dangerous to live in -- but when an offer of new housing didn't materialize, Yadav and his mother returned to the slum to rebuild. "My house is about 10 by 15 feet and the floor is made of dirt," Yadav said. "In that soil, we have hammered down wooden poles. We tie them together and then cover it with plastic sheets. If there is a cyclone or a strong wind, it will be uprooted entirely." Family members started keeping what scarce valuables they had in plastic bags, so they could evacuate quickly. But there's only so much you can protect. During the 2020 monsoon season, Yadav and his mother once again lost their home, clothing and precious food items to rain and flooding. It happened again in May this year, when a massive cyclone hit India's west coast -- an unusual event, since they typically strike the east coast. Yadav said at that point, people were fed up with authorities and the constant cycle of destruction, evacuation and rebuilding. "How can we live this way?" he said. The most recent disaster came in September, at the tail end of this year's monsoon season, when debris from past flooding swept toward the slum. "It was around 1:30 in the (morning) and debris started flowing down," Yadav said. "It was raining heavily and we heard it moving." Residents were again evacuated to the school, where they remain to this day with little clean water or electricity and no toilets. "We have no idea when we will go back or get another home," Yadav said. "(Authorities) are just saying that we will get housing in three to four days, but nothing is being done. People have lost their jobs and they don't have money for food. The system is to blame here." The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Mumbai's governing body, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Places are becoming unlivable As the climate crisis worsens, floods pose a particular danger to the 35% of India's population -- roughly 472 million people -- who live in urban slums, according to the World Bank. Muralee Thummarukudy, acting head of the UN Environment Program's Resilience to Disasters and Conflicts Global Support Branch, said slum dwellers tend to live in flimsy structures on the outskirts of cities where land is less stable and more exposed to natural disasters. They also often don't have any kind of insurance that allows them to rebuild or relocate. These residents are also more vulnerable to the secondary effects of flooding, including the spread of waterborne diseases, groundwater contamination, and the loss of food supplies. Rajan Samuel, managing director in India for Habitat for Humanity, says disasters wipe out livelihoods as well as homes. "The trend I am seeing is that livelihood gets disrupted with every disaster, and then there is shelter which goes as well," he said. "We need to mitigate both." Some states have taken action -- like Odisha, which built stormwater drains in its slums, or Kerala, which offers financial incentives for residents in climate-vulnerable places to relocate. Yet on a national level, progress has been slow. Several ambitious initiatives to improve slums and retrofit cities have flailed over the past two decades, stymied by a lack of funding, insufficient participation, poor planning or the red tape of Indian bureaucracy, according to a number of international organizations, researchers and local media. And though the government is now training cities across India to become "climate smart," experts say there are many other measures that need to be taken -- like improving evacuation processes and redesigning water systems and other urban infrastructure. Narain, from the Centre for Science and Environment, said existing systems were built "at a time when disasters were still once in 10 years, once in five years. Now, it is 10 disasters a year." Recent floods, droughts and other devastating climate events are "all showing us very clearly what will the future be," she added. Climate migrants For years, climate experts and scientists have warned the climate crisis could displace more than a billion people in the coming decades -- potentially forming a class of "climate migrants" and refugees. Flooding is one of the major dangers, with record rainfall causing devastation in Germany and China this summer. In India, people are already on the move. Natural disasters forced more than 5 million Indians to leave their homes in 2019, according to a study conducted by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace. And that number is expected to rise as the climate crisis worsens. Many of those displaced Indians, like Yadav, have no means to relocate and no choice but to continually rebuild their homes in disaster-prone locations. Yadav and his family are reluctant to move from their patch of land in the slum, unless the government provides an alternative. He and his mother are now surviving off their meager savings, money borrowed from relatives, and cash earned from pawning their jewelry. Right now, he's losing hope and dreading the thought of having to rebuild -- yet again. "It has been going on for so long," Yadav said. "You never know if the water will flood the house and destroy the house."
Anish Yadav was sleeping in his home, a fragile hut made of wood and plastic, when the water rushed in. A concrete retaining wall that had previously held back monsoon floodwaters had collapsed, sending a deluge through Yadav’s slum in Malad, a northern suburb in India’s financial hub Mumbai. “We woke up to people screaming for help,” said Yadav, 26, of that night in July 2019. “The water had risen to our heads … and I saw people being swept away with the water with my own eyes.” For his entire life, the wall had protected Yadav and his neighbors from increasingly severe monsoon storms. His house had never been damaged before — but with the wall now gone, he has had to rebuild his home four times in three years. Every year, thousands of people die in India from flooding and landslides during the monsoon season, which drenches the country from June to September. The monsoon is a natural weather phenomenon caused by warm, moist air moving across the Indian Ocean toward South Asia as the seasons change. But the climate crisis has caused the event to become more extreme and unpredictable. India’s poor, like Yadav, are among the most vulnerable. “The irony of it is that the poor of the world are actually victims of climate change,” even if they aren’t the ones who “created the problem,” said Sunita Narain, director general of the Centre for Science and Environment and veteran Indian environmentalist. This weekend, world leaders are gathering in Glasgow for the COP26 climate talks as they seek to reduce carbon emissions and avoid a catastrophic rise in global temperatures. Yet for millions of Indians, pledges on paper won’t save their homes. The climate crisis is already at their front door — and it’s knocking down the frame. Four homes lost in three years Mumbai, the country’s most populous city, boasts glittering skyscrapers and glitzy luxury hotels. It’s also a city of widespread poverty and wealth inequality, where about 65% of its 12 million residents live in shacks of tarp and tin in crowded slums. Yadav and his mother were evacuated to a school after their home was first swept away in 2019. The flood had killed 32 people, and authorities said the slum was too dangerous to live in — but when an offer of new housing didn’t materialize, Yadav and his mother returned to the slum to rebuild. “My house is about 10 by 15 feet and the floor is made of dirt,” Yadav said. “In that soil, we have hammered down wooden poles. We tie them together and then cover it with plastic sheets. If there is a cyclone or a strong wind, it will be uprooted entirely.” Family members started keeping what scarce valuables they had in plastic bags, so they could evacuate quickly. But there’s only so much you can protect. During the 2020 monsoon season, Yadav and his mother once again lost their home, clothing and precious food items to rain and flooding. It happened again in May this year, when a massive cyclone hit India’s west coast — an unusual event, since they typically strike the east coast. Yadav said at that point, people were fed up with authorities and the constant cycle of destruction, evacuation and rebuilding. “How can we live this way?” he said. The most recent disaster came in September, at the tail end of this year’s monsoon season, when debris from past flooding swept toward the slum. “It was around 1:30 in the (morning) and debris started flowing down,” Yadav said. “It was raining heavily and we heard it moving.” Residents were again evacuated to the school, where they remain to this day with little clean water or electricity and no toilets. “We have no idea when we will go back or get another home,” Yadav said. “(Authorities) are just saying that we will get housing in three to four days, but nothing is being done. People have lost their jobs and they don’t have money for food. The system is to blame here.” The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Mumbai’s governing body, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Places are becoming unlivable As the climate crisis worsens, floods pose a particular danger to the 35% of India’s population — roughly 472 million people — who live in urban slums, according to the World Bank. Muralee Thummarukudy, acting head of the UN Environment Program’s Resilience to Disasters and Conflicts Global Support Branch, said slum dwellers tend to live in flimsy structures on the outskirts of cities where land is less stable and more exposed to natural disasters. They also often don’t have any kind of insurance that allows them to rebuild or relocate. These residents are also more vulnerable to the secondary effects of flooding, including the spread of waterborne diseases, groundwater contamination, and the loss of food supplies. Rajan Samuel, managing director in India for Habitat for Humanity, says disasters wipe out livelihoods as well as homes. “The trend I am seeing is that livelihood gets disrupted with every disaster, and then there is shelter which goes as well,” he said. “We need to mitigate both.” Some states have taken action — like Odisha, which built stormwater drains in its slums, or Kerala, which offers financial incentives for residents in climate-vulnerable places to relocate. Yet on a national level, progress has been slow. Several ambitious initiatives to improve slums and retrofit cities have flailed over the past two decades, stymied by a lack of funding, insufficient participation, poor planning or the red tape of Indian bureaucracy, according to a number of international organizations, researchers and local media. And though the government is now training cities across India to become “climate smart,” experts say there are many other measures that need to be taken — like improving evacuation processes and redesigning water systems and other urban infrastructure. Narain, from the Centre for Science and Environment, said existing systems were built “at a time when disasters were still once in 10 years, once in five years. Now, it is 10 disasters a year.” Recent floods, droughts and other devastating climate events are “all showing us very clearly what will the future be,” she added. Climate migrants For years, climate experts and scientists have warned the climate crisis could displace more than a billion people in the coming decades — potentially forming a class of “climate migrants” and refugees. Flooding is one of the major dangers, with record rainfall causing devastation in Germany and China this summer. In India, people are already on the move. Natural disasters forced more than 5 million Indians to leave their homes in 2019, according to a study conducted by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace. And that number is expected to rise as the climate crisis worsens. Many of those displaced Indians, like Yadav, have no means to relocate and no choice but to continually rebuild their homes in disaster-prone locations. Yadav and his family are reluctant to move from their patch of land in the slum, unless the government provides an alternative. He and his mother are now surviving off their meager savings, money borrowed from relatives, and cash earned from pawning their jewelry. Right now, he’s losing hope and dreading the thought of having to rebuild — yet again. “It has been going on for so long,” Yadav said. “You never know if the water will flood the house and destroy the house.”
The summit aims at reviewing and amending promises by countries and companies worldwide to contribute to mitigation efforts The much-awaited United Nations’ COP-26 will kick off in Glasgow on Sunday even as host British PM Boris Johnson reportedly estimated the chances of a successful outcome to the climate summit at “about six out of 10”. India has assured full support to the UK COP presidency for the meaningful outcome of COP-26 with Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav stating that the summit should be about “action and implementation”. More needed to limit temp rise to 1.5°C Britain hopes the summit will adopt plans to help achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 CSE’s Sunita Narain says even that is enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C However, since combating climate change is a universal challenge, India wants global climate action to be guided by principles and values of climate justice and equity. In those terms, technology transfer and climate finance — the two factors essential for a level playing field between developed and developing countries — will form the basis of India’s pitch at the summit. The country will pitch for the $100 billion per year climate financing by developed nations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will participate in the high-level segment of COP-26, titled “World Leaders’ Summit (WLS)” along with 120 heads of states/governments from around the world on November 1-2, will highlight “the need to comprehensively address climate change issues, including equitable distribution of carbon space, support for mitigation and adaptation and resilience building measures, mobilisation of finance, technology transfer and importance of sustainable lifestyles for green and inclusive growth”. There are huge expectations from COP-26, including arriving at a consensus on unresolved issues of the Paris Agreement Rule Book, long-term climate finance and market-based mechanisms, etc. The summit (October 31 to November 12) aims at reviewing and amending promises by countries and companies worldwide to contribute to mitigation efforts.
Hosts Britain hopes the summit helps the world move closer to limiting global warming, but experts say even enhanced NDCs are not nearly enough to limit rising temperature rise to 1.5°C With host British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly estimating the chances of a successful outcome to the United Nations COP 26 at “about six out of 10”, the much-awaited climate summit kicks off on October 31 in Glasgow. India has assured the UK COP Presidency of full support for the meaningful outcome of COP-26 with Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav stating that the upcoming climate summit should be of “action and implementation”. However, since combating climate change is a universal challenge, India wants global climate action to be guided by principles and values of climate justice and equity. In those terms, technology transfer and climate finance—the two factors essential for a “level playing field between developed and developing countries”—will form the basis of India’s pitch at the summit. The country will pitch for the $100 billion per year climate financing by developed nations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will participate in the high-level segment of COP-26 titled ‘World Leaders’ Summit (WLS) along with 120 heads of states/governments from around the world on November 1-2, will highlight “the need to comprehensively address climate change issues including equitable distribution of carbon space, support for mitigation and adaptation and resilience-building measures, mobilisation of finance, technology transfer and importance of sustainable lifestyles for green and inclusive growth”. There are huge expectations from COP 26 including arriving at a consensus on unresolved issues of the Paris Agreement Rule Book, long-term climate finance, market-based mechanisms, etc. The summit (October 31 to November 12) aims to review and amend promises by countries and companies worldwide to contribute to mitigation efforts. Amid a growing number of extreme climate events, there is tremendous pressure on developing nations like India to revise nationally determined commitments (NDCs), cut-off coal/fossil fuels, and declare a Net Zero target. But with per capita carbon emissions per year “far less than countries like the USA, EU, and China”, India’s stance is that it is doing what is required to tackle climate change and is willing to contribute “constructively” to further efforts. But “fossil fuels are essential for its growth plans and targets” and “what is happening today is due to historic actions of developed nations”. India’s INDC pitch includes approximately 450-Gigawatt renewable energy by 2030, and other mitigation efforts. Indian negotiators are expected to move to establish a mechanism for ‘loss and damage’ due to climate change-related events and compensating regions most vulnerable and help them prevent and manage mishaps in the future. According to reports, Britain hopes the summit will adopt plans to help move closer to the target of limiting the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels and achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. While the Paris Agreement of 2015 pledged to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the world has already warmed by 1.1°C since then. CSE’s Sunita Narain says even enhanced NDCs are not nearly enough to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. “Many poor countries, with low annual emissions, have pledged higher targets than rich countries, which is a mockery of the principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and a human rights concern,” she says.
The arguments presented by the CSE advocated the concept of climate justice which calls for right of the developing world to grow to provide basic facilities to its people China will take away almost one-third of the remaining global carbon space between 2020 and 2030 and India just seven per cent, says a new analysis by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) based on trajectory of climate change causing emissions from across the world. The CSE said China with rich countries including Europe would occupy 70% of the world’s carbon space and very less carbon budget would be left for the developing world. The report comes two days before the start of climate conference of 192 countries in Glasgow, Scotland, to chalk out a plan to restrict temperature rise to less than 1.5 degree Celsius by the turn of the century. The CSE data analysis highlights the importance of carbon space for the developing world including India and Africa. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) in its sixth assessment report released in 2019, said starting 2020, the world was left with total carbon budget of 400 GtCO2 for all times to come. GTCO2 is short for gigatonnes of carbon dioxide. As per IPCC, global emissions need to reduce by 45 per cent over 2010 levels by 2030 to keep the temperature rise to 1.5°C. In 2010, global CO2 emissions were 33 Gt (Gegatonnes),” the CSE said. “Therefore, the world needs to keep its annual CO2 emissions under 18.2 Gt in 2030 to meet this target. But, even if the world achieves the enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), it would be emitting 37.71 GtCO2 in 2030. This is more than double the amount of CO2 the world should be emitting in 2030…The world will emit 409 GtCO2 in 2020-30, against the available budget of 400 GtCO2,” the CSE said, in its analysis. And, the CSE analysis says that available carbon space would be occupied by 2030 even with the enhanced NDCs, the voluntary mitigation submission of all countries, which so far 142 countries of the total 192 signatories to the United Nations Climate Framework Convention have submitted. Sunita Narain, CSE’s director general, said that even with enhanced NDCs the world will cross the 1.5 degree Celsius temperature rise threshold since pre-industrial era by 2030 and in this a major contributor would be China. “If we look at the emission data since 2000, China has been the foremost polluter,” she said. China accounts for 31% of the total global emissions and seven historical polluters --- United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Australia, Japan, Canada and European Union --- account for 34%. India, through the fourth biggest emitter in absolute terms, contributed just seven per cent. “So, the developed world and China is responsible for over 70 per cent of the carbon emissions so far,” she said. And, don’t expect China’s emissions to go down even though it has announced phasing out of coal by 2040 and achieving net zero emissions by 2060. “In the coming 10 years, China will take up 33% of the remaining carbon budget. Despite heavy reduction targets, the original seven big polluters, along with China will occupy 62%. The remaining world, with 66% of the population will be left with 38%,” CSE said. The arguments presented by the CSE advocated the concept of climate justice which calls for right of the developing world to grow to provide basic facilities to its people. In the past, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has explicitly spoken about climate justice saying any climate deal has been pillared on equity and common but differentiated responsibilities. Under these principles, the historical polluters have to take higher emission cuts and provide money to the developing world to adapt to the changing weather because of climate change whereas the developing world needs to take some mitigation measures. “There is a need to discuss the remaining carbon budget, necessary to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degree C, and how it should be allocated - not just appropriated. We cannot have an ambitious agreement unless it is equitable. So, CoP26 must not repeat the mistakes of the past by trying to erase equity and climate justice,” the CSE said. Chandra Bhushan, CEO, IForest, an advocacy group working in the area of environmental issues, said the debate on carbon space was unending. “China is now the new historical emitter and has replaced the United States in this debate on carbon budget. I don’t think there is any space left for this fight to go on. We need to think out of the box to reduce emissions and check devastating impacts of climate change.”
Vivek Chattopadhyaya, associated with the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, is an expert on clean air and sustainable mobility management. Vivek Chattopadhyaya, associated with the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, is an expert on clean air and sustainable mobility management. He has been closely involved in public campaigns, advocating the right to clean air. He has also been working on programmes aimed at improving the decision-making process related to air quality planning and mobility management as well as raising public awareness in cities. In an interview with SYED HASHIM NAJMI, he discusses, among other things, how the pollution crisis and the stubble burning issue in Delhi every year could be addressed. Q: The pollution level in Delhi goes up alarmingly with the onset of winter every year because of the rise in stubble burning in neighbouring states – Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan. The Delhi government has appealed to the Centre to tell neighbouring states to persuade farmers to use the Pusa Institute-developed bio-decomposer to effectively handle the paddy stubble problem instead of burning it. How do you see the Delhi government’s proposal? A: Since the bio-decomposer method has been approved by scientific and agricultural research institutions and it is an in-situ solution for crop residue management, states must implement it. However, farmers should also be properly trained for this so that its effectiveness is not compromised on the ground. Similarly, other crop residue management measures which are also supported by governments must be scaled up by providing support, considering availability and affordability. Since the scale of implementation is large, a special task force should monitor the implementation of all measures. Q. What should be done to force states to use the bio-decomposer to dispose of the paddy stubble? A: The solution to this problem has to be multi-pronged with an insitu approach (such as decomposing, use of agricultural machines and equipment and straw management system) and an ex-situ method (using it as pallets, fuels in boilers, industries, etc). Since the scale of the area to be covered is huge with differing ground situations, a basket of solutions should be implemented. The strategy should be constantly evaluated for effectiveness, handling the problems faced in implementation and results. So, if the bio-decomposer turns out to be most cost-effective, environment-friendly, scalable and affordable, such in-situ management solutions should be promoted in a big way. But, at the same time, crop diversification should also be promoted because we know that in the water-scarce areas paddy cultivation poses several other environmental challenges. So, a comprehensive approach can work with grassroots involvement and hand-holding support for multiple applicable solutions. Q: Is there any other method to effectively handle the stubble burning issue? A: As mentioned above, there are several in-situ and ex-situ methods that have been identified. The question is how to scale their implementation, make it affordable for farmers so that they do not resort to burning. The PM Task Force, the Niti Aayog, the Ministry of Agriculture and state initiatives have identified such solutions, but constant supervision, guidance and learning from the groundlevel situation is needed to implement all the solutions as per our needs. The preparations should start with the beginning of the cropping season so that it does not become a fire-fighting situation every year. Q: The Delhi government has claimed that the two smog-towers set up in the city – one at Connaught Place and the other at Anand Vihar have been found to be effective in purifying polluted air. The government, therefore, says that installing more smog-towers in various parts of Delhi can lead to the pollution problem getting under control. But experts questioned the Delhi government’s claim soon after the first smog-tower came up.What are your views about smog-towers? A: Air purification works in closed areas, but in open areas there is wind velocity and the volume of air constantly changes. Reducing a tiny fraction of outdoor pollutants will require hundreds of such towers, still they will not be successful because once a pollutant gets emitted from a source, it is in the concentrated form. But once it is in ambient air, it gets diluted. So, it is economically and technically prudent to install pollution-control devices at sources rather than trying to capture pollutants from the air. Such towers will be energy-intensive and wasteful of resources. Also, no country in the world has cleaned up its air with air purification systems. It is always tighter regulations, effective implementation, cleaner fuels and technologies and effective monitoring that help in reducing air pollution. Therefore, the government should rather invest in clean technologies and solutions (improve public transport systems with clean technologies, waste collection, segregation and recycling and reuse strategy, tightening emissions of power plants and industries, enhancing renewable energy supply, etc) that will provide long-term benefits. Q: Besides the smoke generated by stubble burning, vehicle emissions are a major source of air pollution in Delhi. The Delhi government is trying to handle the vehicular pollution problem through its policy of promoting the use of electric vehicles and banning the use of older vehicles.Will these measures help? A: Vehicles emit higher in congestion and during idling situations compared to optimal driving speeds. For instance, during idling it is wasteful fuel consumption and there is also an increase in emissions. Whenever engines are turned off when traffic lights are on, it will help reduce emissions and protect people from exposure to emissions caused by vehicles in an idling condition. It is a small but effective effort and it should be implemented irrespective of seasons. And for this, traffic light timers should be installed across the city at intersections so that vehicle drivers are aware of them. In fact, in other countries there are regulations that we cannot idle-run vehicles near schools as this causes emissions harmful to people. Therefore, in all pollution control strategies, several kinds of efforts have to be made. But at the same time, governments should substantially improve public transport connectivity, last-mile connectivity, so that vehicle numbers can also be reduced and, at the same time, mobility options are provided to people. Q: Is banning older vehicles which are in good condition a justifiable step? What do you say about allowing the use of vehicles which are in good condition and for which a fitness certificate can be obtained? A: At present, private vehicles do not undergo roadworthiness checks annually but this should be done in India. Driving unfit vehicles which fail roadworthiness and emission tests is a major problem in cities, and unfit vehicles can be found in all age groups. So, the criteria should be based on fitness and enhanced emission checking systems but, at the same time, we need to replace the older fleet of Bharat Stage norm-compliant vehicles (pre- BS norm, BS-I, BS-II) because they were designed to meet older emission norms which were much lenient (emissions compared to new vehicles can be 10-30 times higher). Gradually, we have to move to new emission norm compliant vehicles with a view to reducing total vehicular emissions. Therefore, the vehicle scrapping programme should consider all these aspects for renewal of the fleet. Similar efforts are needed for commercial vehicles too. Q: Some people argue that those who do not have proper parking arrangements should not be allowed to purchase vehicles in Delhi. This too will help in reducing pollution. What is your view? A: The city is choked with cars, and private vehicles particularly are parked almost 98 per cent of the time either at home, office or in commercial areas. The demand is so high that most streets get choked and since many parts of the city are not designed to cater to high numbers of parked vehicles or do not have spaces left – the public spaces like roads and footpaths get encroached upon for the parking of vehicles. Therefore, seeking proof of parking space is also an effective strategy to solve these issues so that parked vehicles do not eat away public spaces. Also, parking area-wise management policies should be implemented to promote shared parking wherever possible. The parking policy should be oriented towards demand management rather than keep on supplying more and more parking spaces. Rather public transport connectivity, walking, cycling and last-mile connectivity modes should be promoted.
About 20 men in a landfill in the Indian capital rummage through mountains of garbage, searching for a piece of plastic or glass bottle that could be re-sold. It is one of over 3,000 large landfills dotting Indian cities, which the Indian government pledged earlier this month to eliminate and replace with waste treatment plants with an investment of 1.4 trillion rupees (about $18.9 billion). Lachiram collects garbage from all across the capital’s posh south Delhi area up to four times a day, cautiously unloading it from his truck into the Okhla landfill, standing as tall as a 16-floor building. Twenty-five years of accumulated garbage dominate the ruins of the sprawling 14th-century Tughlaqabad fort, a hospital located adjacent to the site and a nearby slum area. “We receive between 300 and 500 trucks a day,” the junior engineer at the landfill, Ravi Kumar, told EFE from his office set up among the garbage piles. The trucks climb to the top of the garbage heaps and pour tons of trash there. Some 20 ragpickers then try to find some piece of plastic amid the unloaded piles although Kumar claims that they are technically forbidden from landfills under an order by an Indian environmental court. The ragpickers, between 1.5 and 4 million and among the lowest in the informal sector, collect and segregate garbage without any type of protection in many cases and make a living by reselling the plastic, metal, glass, and cardboard they find amid the trash. “The reason why we have not already drowned under our own garbage is this informal workforce that basically makes a living by collecting trash,” Atin Biswas, program director (municipal solid waste), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), told EFE. The CSE noted in a recent report that most of the ragpickers, who are stigmatized for working with garbage, are Dalits from the lowest rung of India’s caste hierarchy. “Few dispute the ubiquity of filth that is unique to India,” a society that “stigmatizes sanitation work as unclean and sanitation workers as untouchable,” writes academic Anand Teltumbde in “Republic of Caste”. Although about 70 percent of the Indian population still lives in rural areas, according to the last national census in 2011, there has been an urban explosion in recent decades in this country of 1.21 billion inhabitants. The amount of garbage generated each day has also grown accordingly. According to a recent CSE report on the informal garbage sector, the Asian country generates 62 million tons of garbage annually. Only 19 percent of this is treated in waste management plants while the rest ends up in one of the 3,159 landfills which, according to the Indian government, already have more than 800 million tons of garbage. “If you have to focus on the origin of all problems, it is because of very poor level of waste segregation,” Biswas says. Despite the laws in place, Indian households and large waste generating sectors such as the hotel industry and offices frequently mix organic waste with recyclable items. According to the expert, “once food waste is mixed with any other stream of waste like plastic or paper or metal or glass the value of both of them is kind of lost, and it makes it is extremely challenging to recover or recycle either of the waste.” The Indian government claims that the country “processes” 70 percent of the garbage generated but Biswas says that this is a much broader term than segregation, whose data the government stopped releasing since last year.