• UGI USER
  • May 26, 2023
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Hot and humid conditions to prevail over city till next week

Context:

  • Recently, For the first time ever, global temperatures are now more likely than not to breach 1.5°C (2.7°F) of warming within the next five years, the World Meteorological Organization said on May 17. But that did not necessarily mean the world would cross the long-term warming threshold of 1.5°C above preindustrial levels set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Status of Global Warming:

  • 2016 was the warmest year ever, the annual mean temperature that year being 1.28 degrees Celsius higher than the pre-industrial times (average of the 1850-1900 period).
  • The year 2022 was 1.15 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial average which made it the fifth warmest year on record since 2021.
    • The last decade was the hottest in the history of India.
  • Sea level has risen to 4-8 inches in the last 100 years and will continue to rise between 4 and 36 inches in the next 100 years.
  • According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), limiting warming to around 1.5°C (2.7°F) requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43% by 2030;
    • The global average per capita GHG emissions was 6.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) in 2020. India remains far below the world average at 2.4 tCO2e.
  • As per IPCC, staying within a remaining carbon budget of 580 GtCO2 implies that CO2 emissions reach carbon neutrality in about 30 years, reduced to 20 years for a 420 GtCO2 remaining carbon budget.

Possible impacts of breaching 1.5-degree Paris Agreement target:

Immediate Short Term Impacts:

  • Extreme Events: Changes in rainfall patterns
    • g. 2015 Chennai floods, and the 2018 Kerala floods
    • Indian monsoon arrived earlier last year and withdrew before its normal date.
    • Northeast India experienced floods in June and dry spell in subsequent months.
    • Floods in Pakistan claimed 1500 lives and affected more than 30 million lives.
    • Heat waves led to record temperatures in European countries causing draughts and fall in river flows.
    • North America had its warmest August.
    • Forest fires raged in the US and Australia.
  • Global warming led deadly diseases:
    • ANTHRAX: 2016 when a 75-year-old reindeer carcass became unfrozen from soaring temperatures, causing the first anthrax outbreak since 1941. The outbreak killed more than 2,000 reindeer and sickened 13 people in Siberia.
    • ZIKA: The warmer it is, the faster they can develop from egg to adult, and the faster they can incubate viruses.
      • Diseases once confined to the tropics are now traveling far from the equator to the United States and other parts of the world.
    • ZOMBIE DISEASES: Neanderthal viruses, smallpox or other ancient illnesses could become released into the environment again after lying dormant for thousands of years.
    • TICK-BORNE ILLNESS: Ticks are another disease transmitter like mosquitos that will likely migrate to new regions and become more active as the climate changes and summers became longer and hotter. Babesiosis is a tick-borne disease that has been increasing in the United States.
    • DEADLY CHOLERA : Its outbreaks could increase with climate change because the bacterial disease that causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration is attracted to warm weather and warm water.
  • Food Security impacted: Global warming led climate change will influence irrigation, insolation, and pest prevalence.
    • Drought, flood, storm, and cyclone frequency will likely increase agricultural production variability.
    • Crop yields in temperate regions may benefit from moderate warming (an increase of 1 to 3°C in mean temperature), while crops in lower latitudes will suffer.

Medium- and Long-Term Impacts:

  • Sea Level Rise: Melting of the ice caps and glaciers and thermal sea expansion also contributes to sea level rise.
    • Almost one third of the world’s fertile coastal and delta lands will be submerged.
    • Saline water intrusions will degrade neighbouring land.
    • Groundwater in such areas will be rendered ineffective.
    • Populous cities lying on the coasts will be submerged under the sea.
    • Greatest impact is on islands nations like the Carteret Islands, which are in the Pacific Ocean northeast of Papua New Guinea, and the Tuvalu Islands, which are in the South Pacific about 1000 km north of Fiji, are two of the islands that are impacted.
  • Creation of Carbon Source: Permafrost melts as a result of global warming, releasing carbon in the form of carbon dioxide and methane like the tundra.
    • It indicates that global warming causes even more global warming.
  • Loss of Biodiversity: Loss of planktons and coral bleaching events in marine areas and extinction of species due to terrestrial habitat loss

Steps taken at the International level:

  • Paris Agreement (also known as the Conference of Parties 21 or COP 21) is a landmark environmental accord that was adopted in 2015 to address climate change and its negative impacts.
    • It replaced the Kyoto Protocol which was an earlier agreement to deal with climate change.
    • It aims to reduce global GHG emissions in an effort to limit the global temperature increase in this century to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing means to limit the increase to 1.5°C by 2100.
    • Before the conference started, more than 180 countries had submitted pledges to cut their carbon emissions (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or INDCs).
    • The INDCs were recognised under the agreement, but are not legally binding.
  • REDD+: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a mechanism developed by Parties of the UNFCCC.
    • It creates financial value for the carbon stored in forests to offer incentives for the developing nations to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths.
    • The developing nations will receive results-based payments for results-based actions.
  • The International Solar Alliance (ISA):
    • It is an alliance of 123 signatory countries, most being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
    • The primary objective of the alliance is to work for efficient consumption of solar energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
    • This initiative was first proposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a speech in November 2015 at Wembley Stadium (London HA9 0WS, United Kingdom), in which he referred to sunshine countries as Suryaputra (“Sons of the Sun”).
    • The alliance is a treaty-based inter-governmental organization. Countries that do not fall within the Tropics can join the alliance and enjoy all benefits as other members, with the exception of voting rights.

Steps taken by India:

National Action Plan on Climate Change:

  • FAME Scheme for E-mobility: Union Government in April 2015 launched Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) – India Scheme with an aim to boost sales of eco-friendly vehicles in the country. It is a part of the National Mission for Electric Mobility.
  • Atal Mission for Rejuvenation & Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for Smart Cities.
  • Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana: The scheme provides LPG connections to five crore below-poverty-line beneficiaries. The connections are given in the name of women beneficiaries to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and conventional fuel like cow dung for cooking food, thus reducing air pollution.
  • UJALA scheme: The scheme was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2015 with a target of replacing 77 crore incandescent lamps with LED bulbs. The usage of LED bulbs will not only result in reducing electricity bills but also help in environment protection.
  • Panchamrit and LiFE Movement at CoP26