Move into the countryside in the hills and it is common to see women washing clothes by narrow streams gushing alongside roads. The song of trickling water is the continuous magical music of the Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh, which is crisscrossed by thousands of irrigation canals. Locally known as the kuhls, these canals bring water from melted snow and rain to the fields and hamlets in the alluvial plains that slope down from the snow-capped Dhauladhar ranges of the western Himalayas. These community-managed kuhls date back to the pre-colonial Katoch dynasty (1690 to 1805).
Today, however, the kuhls are in danger. Rapid urbanisation, changing lifestyles and socio-economic factors have led to an increase in the levels of pollution in these waters. At many places garbage, plastic bags and bottles are seen floating in the open kuhl water, and even the drinking water, sourced from here, is not safe anymore.
"A few years ago when the number of patients with water-borne diseases and various allergies started rising, I was alarmed that all was not well with the water," says Barbara Weiser Nath, an Austrian doctor, who has been living and working in the area since the last 25 years. Nath, who married a local sadhu, runs the Nishta Rural Health, Education and Environment Centre at Rakkar village. The centre has a clinic that provides free medical help to 20 villages in the area. Besides, it has helped build six toilets at the local government school.
With the population increasing manifold and the rural areas turning into suburbs of Dharamsala, the major town in the region, the water of the kuhls has become contaminated. Over the last few years, the area has seen a lot of construction activity. Stores selling consumer durables, beauty salons, restaurants and large shopping areas have mushroomed. As tourists from home and abroad frequent the valley, there is so much vehicular traffic that one can be held up in a traffic jam for an hour or more. All these factors have contributed to the increase in pollution levels here.
So Nath, through the centre, decided to launch an initiative to clean and save this largest traditional network of community-managed irrigation systems. The first thing that she did was to engage a private firm to collect water samples and get them tested. As expected, the samples were found to be polluted.
Mohinder Sharma, director of the project, elaborates: "The water from melted snow and rain is stored in tanks and then sent through pipes and narrow streams to villages and fields. This, besides an odd spring or two, is the only source of water. When we presented the report of polluted water to the Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department, they said they would conduct tests themselves." Sure enough, even the IPH samples indicated increased levels of pollution. This prompted the department to clean the storage tanks and ensure that water was chlorinated from time to time.
The reason for the pollution of water is that only 12 per cent people have toilets in this area, and people defecate in the open. The rainfall is the second highest in the country, next only to Mawsynram and Cherrapunji in Meghalaya. "The rainfall makes the natural filtration ineffective, and all the waste and dirt is washed up into the kuhls. The water showed pathogens, the bacteria found in human waste.
Besides, animals also litter the kuhls. If this continues, the ground water will be so contaminated that it could cause damage to the crops," adds Sharma. It is interesting to recall that with the massive earthquake in the Kangra valley in 1905, which had a high human toll and which had led to roads and bridges being destroyed, the original gravity-flow irrigation system was damaged extensively. At that time the British colonial government had got soldiers in the military engineering services to repair it so that irrigation would not be interrupted.
However, J. Mark Baker, a research associate with the Sierra Institute of Community and Environment in the US, who has done extensive research on the community-managed irrigation, points out in his book, The Kuhls of Kangra, that the recent rapid changes pose a threat to these kuhls. Through the centuries, the villagers have participated in the cleaning and maintenance of the kuhls, with the kohli, the caretaker, having the supreme authority. The pipes, tanks and open kuhls need regular mending of leakages to ensure the flow and distribution of water.
Interestingly, while one man always occupied the position of the kohli and others did the maintenance work, most of the kuhls have a female deity, called kuhl mataji (mother goddess of the kuhl). Before the onset of the monsoon, a puja is performed to receive her blessings. The kohli begins the puja, which is an integral part of the annual cycle of kuhl management. Now, women are strengthening their participation in the kuhls' maintenance. Thanks to Nath's initiative, they have joined hands to create awareness about keeping the kuhls clean, and educate villagers about the importance of proper sanitation and clean drinking water.
This is being done at the village-level through mahila mandals (women's groups) and youth clubs. Youth clubs are autonomous village-level groups to encourage welfare activity. There is government provision at the block level for mahila mandals. NGOs in the state have rejuvenated these groups so that they provide not only a political platform to women but also become a pressure group for implementation of schemes, and participate in gender sensitisation activity. All women above 18 can be part of these groups.
Mishro Devi (48), president of the Rakkar Mahila Mandal, says: "Most of the women wash clothes in open kuhls, and rashes and allergies had become common. Things had become so bad that baby snakes and insects would emerge from the piped drinking water. Our members did a house-to-house campaign, cautioning the villagers to boil the
water and also take care not to litter the kuhls.
Kiran Bala (17), a youth club member from Rakkar, adds: "The boys and girls of our club have been demonstrating how taps and filters have to be cleaned, and the message has spread in at least a dozen villages covered by the Rakkar water tank." The tank is above Rakkar and it serves 12 villages, including Rakkar Sidhbari, Mauli and Sidhpur.
Shekhar Attri (28), a resident of Sidhbarhi village, explains: "We always boil the water and then filter it through the candle filter at home. But all the households do not follow this practice. Many simply can't afford to do this."
Informs Sharma of the Nishta project: "Cleanliness is especially important during the summers and the monsoons when the water gets more polluted. So chlorination of the water and cautioning the villagers during this period is a continuing process. We also test the water during this period with equipment brought from a company in Delhi."
The Tribune (Chandigarh), 1 Feb. 2009
While the Uttarakhand government has been going whole hog to make the state a truly energy state by allowing tapping of its huge hydro-electric potential of more than 20,000 mw, concerned citizens and social activists who joined hands to mobilise locals against the “anti-river” policies of the state last year, have resumed their campaign.
Several social organisations had resolved to declare 2008 as "Save the Rivers Year" and held padayatras from January 1 to 15, 2008, in a dozen river valleys of Uttarakhand to awaken people on the impact of these hydro projects.
More than 5,000 people in 15 teams walked 2,000 km as part of the campaign and converged on Ramnagar on January 16 to share their experiences about the state of the rivers.
The second leg of the campaign began this year from February 2-10 with activists, particularly women, marching in the river valleys of the state to make people aware of the impending dangers of the official policies regarding rivers.
"Official policies have viewed water as a mere commodity and not a community resource essential for survival," said Radha Behan, chairperson of the Gandhi Peace Foundation.
The second leg of the campaign focused on the negative impact of the large number of hydro-electric projects. The land cave- in at Chai village located above the Vishnuprayag hydro project on account of construction of a 11 km-long underground tunnel, subsequent shifting of the entire village and fear of displacement due to other projects like Maneri Bhali Phase-II, Loharinag Pala and Pala Maneri were highlighted.
People were also told of the cave-in of Pato village caused by the Roopsuiabagad-Khasiabagad tunnel on Gauri Ganga and the damage caused to Singoli village following blasts during digging of the Singoli-Bhatwari tunnel in Rudraprayag were the other subjects taken up by campaigners.
"The existence of rivers, including the holy Ganga, is threatened as 330 big, medium and small dams will be built in the state in the coming years. Not only are rivers and their ecosystems in peril, but so are the lives, livelihood and culture of villages," warned Dr. Ravi Chopra of the People’s Science Institute here, who is coordinating the campaign.
"We are not campaigning against hydropower generation. We believe there are better ways to generate hydropower that do not threaten lives and livelihoods. The state government needs to study the issues and prepares a policy with involvement of communities likely to be affected so that they can be partners in the development process in the real sense," said Dr. Chopra.
The campaign members alleged that development policies would ultimately sound the death knell of rivers and rivulets in this Himalayan region. “The state government as well as the central government has turned a blind eye to the plight of snow-fed rivers and the continuous decrease in the discharge levels in these rivers has become a matter of grave concern for the common man,” said Basant, a volunteer from Kumoan.
“It is the first campaign in the country that calls for conservation and preservance of rivers, rivulets and water resources besides protecting the state’s forest cover in totality,” claimed Laxman Singh Negi, a volunteer from Uttarkashi.
He expressed opposition to the policies of the government that interfered in sustainable lifestyles of the people of Uttarakhand, earning money by exploiting natural resources like rivers and forests, the very basis of sustainability of life in the Himalayas.
Activists allege that glacier-fed rivers are threatened by power projects while spring-fed rivers are drying up due to deforestation. "Rainwater runs off the denuded slopes leading to very little recharge of rivers after the rainy season and over-extraction of water for the ever-increasing demand further depletes the water flow. “Sustained community-based efforts are needed to save the Himalayan rivers," argued Ayan Biswas, one of the campaign coordinators.
The campaign members demand a comprehensive development policy taking into consideration the ecological sensitivity of the Himalayas and the people dependent on it.
The water policy of the state should be people-oriented rather than biased in favour of
multinationals. The campaign activists demand that all hydro-electric projects that destroy agricultural land, forests and rivers should not be allowed to be built.
They want that a time-bound programme be launched for afforestation of slopes with broad-leave trees like the oak to tackle the problem of decreasing water levels in the rivers. Locals should be involved in decision-making on developmental schemes.
And to spread the message, many eminent activists, including Rajendra Singh, Dr. Sandeep Pandey, Arvind Kejriwal, Dr. Sudarshan and S.R. Hiremath, have joined the padayatra at different stages, say organisers.
“We will not rest until we are able to turn the tide against the anti-people policies of the government,” said an undefatigable Radha Behan. Face behind the campaign.
The Tribune (Chandigarh), 12 Feb. 2009
The spring-fed rivers of Uttarakhand are under grave threat. Experts have warned that these non-glacial perennial rivers, most of which are tributaries of the Ganga and Yamuna, will dry up in the next few decades, if timely steps are not taken to conserve them.
“Once these spring-fed rivers dry up, not only would human existence be under severe threat but also all types of eco-systems in the region would be wiped out”, warned Prof. J. S. Rawat, a well-known geographer and a hydrological expert.
“Drying up of rivers will also result in a massive reduction of water flow in the twin perennial rivers of Ganga and Yamuna originating from the region, which would spell a disaster for vast swathes of the highly fertile Gangetic plains”, observed Rawat.
Terming the spring-fed perennial rivers drying up fast as “impending doom” awaiting the region, Rawat said he had, in fact, sought Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri’s “immediate intervention so that the problem can be resolved before it goes completely out of hand.
In a letter to Khanduri, the expert has also shared with him (Khanduri) some very startling facts about a case study relating to the fast drying up four spring-fed rivers in the Almora region of the Kumaon hills.
In the letter, the expert has warned that all the four (spring-fed perennial) rivers, namely Saryu,
Western Ramganga, Kosi and Suyal would dry up in the next three decades, if timely mechanical measures are not taken to conserve all the 66 spring sanctuaries that feed those streams.
These facts are truly an eye-opener. Sample this: The total length of those streams in 1962 was measured at 1,693 km, which reduced to a mere 855 km, as per a survey carried out in 2007 and 2008 – a drastic loss of length by 838 km in the last a little over a mere four decades. In other words, on an average, these perennial streams are disappearing at the rate of 17.04 km per year. Ditto for the lean period water discharge of these spring-fed streams, which is decreasing at the rate of 4-9 per cent per year.
“At this rate, Almora district may be without perennial rivers within the next about 30-40 years”, says Prof. Rawat in his letter to the chief minister. However, maintaining the spring sanctuaries are drying up across Uttarakhand due to deforestation caused by factors like human interference and global warming he told HT that as a result, non-glacial perennial rivers were vanishing everywhere be it the Lesser Himalaya or the Shivaliks (Outer Himalaya).
Rawat suggested if spring-fed rivers across the region were to be conserved immediately all spring sanctuaries in their headwater regions would have to be recharged by initiating mechanical measurees.
Hindustan Times (New Delhi), 18 Feb. 2009
IIT Alumni Join Hands to Save the Ganga
An alumni forum of the Indian Institutes of Technology established to preserve the heritage and ecology of the Ganga has demanded suspension of the Loharinag Pala hydro-power project in Uttarakhand.
The forum, called “IITians for Holy Ganga”, has also expressed its solidarity with environmentalist G.D. Agrawal, former dean of IIT-Kanpur, who has been on a “fast unto death” since January 14 this year demanding that the Ganga be allowed to flow in its natural form.
Sharing details on the damage being caused to the ecology of the Ganga basin because of “indiscriminate development work”, former chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board Paritosh Tyagi said: “The Government of Uttarakhand suspended work on two state-sponsored projects after people raised their concern over it. But work on the central government-sponsored Loharinag Pala project is still going on.”
The 600 MW project is being undertaken by NTPC, the erstwhile National Thermal Power Corporation.
“The central government gave a commitment in June 2008 to ensure environmental flow in all stretches of the river Bhagirathi and assured that it would fulfil its promise in three months. On this assurance, Prof. Agrawal, who was on a fast that time, suspended it,” added Mr. Tyagi, an alumnus of IIT Roorkee.
“Disastrous project”
The forum pointed out that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had declared the Ganga a
national river and announced that a Ganga Basin Authority would be constituted to take all decisions on the activities in the river basin. However, despite these developments, the NTPC was continuing with the construction forcing Prof. Agrawal to resume his fast.
“The Ganga is a sacred river, revered and worshipped by millions of Indians. We need to sensitise the masses about the damage being caused to the holy river by treating it like an ordinary one and harnessing it for irrigation and hydro-electricity,” said “Waterman” Rajendra Singh. “Taking into cognisance the Himalayan geology, construction of the Loharinag Pala project would be disastrous to the cultural and environmental identity of India,” said the Magsaysay Award winner.
Stifling the river
Noted environmental lawyer and another Magsaysay winner M.C. Mehta asserted that the construction activities were stifling the river and destroying the water repository of the region. “We demand that the union and state governments take immediate steps to free this holy river from bondage and ensure its uninterrupted flow from Gangotri to Dharasu (Uttarkashi),” he added.
The Hindu (New Delhi), 20 Feb. 2009
An eight-kilometre stretch of the Bhagirathi river has dried up. Google Earth shows the river snaking through the Himalayas as one long, sand and rocky stretch without water. A similar view of one kilometre long stretch was last seen in 2004. However, recent satellite pictures taken by the Google Earth evokes worst fears of environmentalists. Other rivers emanating from the Gangotri glacier including the Bhilangana, the Assi Ganga and the Alaknanda - all tributaries of the Ganga- are apparently running out of flow. Recent water samples collected in Varanasi had fecal-coliform counts of about 50,000 bacteria per 100 milli-litres of water, 10,000 per cent higher than the government standard for safe river bathing.
These were some of the startling revelations that came to light at a conference conducted by IITians for Holy Ganga, an open forum involving experts and environmentalist for protecting the heritage river in the capital recently. That this ancient river in trouble is old hat. However, what’s more disturbing, claimed the environmentalists during the interaction is that despite the Ganga being declared as the “National River” by the government last year, no substantive measures have been formulated or are in the pipeline to ensure the natural flow of the river. And indiscriminate and ill-conceived developments coupled with construction of dams (read power projects) are going on across the river basin.
“When the Tehri dam was built around a decade ago, environmentalists had warned it would bring about a demise of all major rivers emanating from the Gangori glacier. If the Bhagirathi, one of the largest tributaries of the Ganga, can dry then we can imagine what will be the fate of the rest,” says environmentalist Rajendra Singh, also the former chairman of CPCB.
The controversial Tehri dam (a sum of Rs. 8,298 crore had been spent till March 2008) is today under threat of closure because of reduced flow in the Bhagirathi. Enviromentalist Paritosh C Tyagi confirms this by saying, “Its projected power generating capacity was 2,400 MW. Currently, it is generating only 1,000 MW, less than half its capacity far outweighing the initial planned costs,” adding, “It is because of supply to the upper Ganga canal is on the decline as they are receiving less water from the Tehri dam. There is no availability of water from Deoprayag. The entire water supply system, which is based on the Ganga canal, has collapsed.”
The Threat is imminent. Four more hydroelectric dams, according to experts, are in the process of planning, construction and operation at the source of Ganga, between Gangotri and Dharasu (Uttarkashi). The river is being diverted through tunnels for many kilometers, impeding its free flow and resulting in a crisis situation. These dams will further choke the life from the Ganga, reducing her flow in many areas to a mere trickle. The result will be the destruction of essential ecosystems and entire economies. As deep and traumatic will be the damage done to the spiritual lives and traditions of an entire nation, aver experts.
Environmentalists also fear these projects will swallow the river once they start building their tunnels. The Tehri pioneered the concept of big dams wreaking havoc on the lives of nearly a lakh people. Even in Pithoragarh, the 280-MW Dhauliganga project jolted Ailagarh village, from where several families were uprooted a few years ago. “Nearly 50 km from Ailagarh, the central government is now planning to construct the mega 6,000 MW Pancheshwar hydel project, thrice the size of the Tehri dam, on river Kali on the Indo-Nepal border. This is likely to uproot nearly 80,000 people,” says Tyagi.
Another mega project on river Alaknanda near Joshimath is already creating a slope instability problem for Joshimath town. The list goes on. “Sadly, except for towns like Uttarkashi and Harsil, the Bhagirathi river would be forced to pass through long, dark tunnels,” says Singh.
G.D. Agrawal, a much sought after EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) consultant and a passionate Ganga devotee, has been on a “fast-unto-death” for the past 36 days to oppose the foul meddling going on with the stream of Ganga, especially in 125 km area from where the holy river emanates and that includes Uttarakhand too. Says Agrawal, “Crippling this holy river is far too great a sacrifice to the production of a few hundred megawatts of electricity. The power generated from these dams may benefit a select few but will rob millions of their spirituality, heritage, and drinking water.”
Apart from spiritual and economic importance, this unique river also supports a complex ecosystem, comprising countless species of plants and animals, not least among them the endangered Ganga river dolphin, of which only a few survive. Many fear that such huge hydropower projects in an ecologically rich and a seismically fragile zone will have an irreversible effect on the region, destroy the five prayags and will block the Ganga from flowing freely, an attribute integral to its religiosity . Instead, a cascade of dams will turn the river into multiple stagnant pools. In fact, the very origin of the Ganga at Dev Prayag will be permanently under a 10 metre column of water.
“Ganga is becoming a stagnant pool. Since it is our common heritage, finishing the river’s sanctity is a violation of Article 25,” says environmental lawyer M.C. Mehta. Most of the dams being planned are run-of-the-river dams and officials involved in the projects say they are less
damaging. However, enviromentalists say it’s not true. They have to create big tunnels over long distances through fragile mountains. They also dry up stretches of the river, killing it and everything connected with it. This will create problems downstream,” adds Mehta.
The counter-argument - India is growing and it needs power – is also true. However, the question that needs to be asked now is whether the cost of generating power includes all cost and if it is done then whether the projects would be economically viable. Economist Bharat Jhunjhunwala is trying to do exactly that: Using the tools of his subject, he is quantifying all kinds of losses including those not mentioned in government assessments. Jhunjhunwala questions the contention that hydropower is cheap as there are no variable costs like fuel. He says, “Every additional unit of power produced imposes higher costs on society and provides lower benefits. The correct level of generation has to be arrived at by looking at these costs and benefits.”
Take, for example, health costs of people living near dams. “Miles of slow moving water are ideal breeding grounds of malarial mosquitoes. But when project costs are calculated, only loss of land and displacement are calculated. The medical costs are not taken into account as this would be borne by the people later,” he says, adding, “The cost-benefit analysis also does not take into account the indirect services provided by forests, the disturbance to the fragile Himalayan environment and proprietary value of submerged forest land.”
In the long run, if such illogical works continues, experts point out the water flow in the Ganges could drop by two-thirds by 2030, affecting more than 400 million people who depend on it for drinking water. The other problem is that dams are cleared as individual projects and no cumulative assessments of all dams on a river, a practice in other countries, are made. Only once such assessments are done, we will know what effects these dams that are being built in high seismic zone will have in the future. “As of now,” says Singh, “it’s imperative to immediately stop all hydel projects under construction in Ganga catchments. Also, what needs to be done is to carry out a social and ecological assessment with full people’s participation on dams functional such as Tehri others. To fully rehabilitate those displaced so far due to damming activities.
The Pioneer (Dehradun), 20 Feb. 2009
An eight-kilometre stretch of the Bhagirathi river has dried up. Google Earth shows the river snaking through the Himalayas as one long, sand and rocky stretch without water. A similar view of one kilometre long stretch was last seen in 2004. However, recent satellite pictures taken by the Google Earth evokes worst fears of environmentalists. Other rivers emanating from the Gangotri glacier including the Bhilangana, the Assi Ganga and the Alaknanda - all tributaries of the Ganga- are apparently running out of flow. Recent water samples collected in Varanasi had fecal-coliform counts of about 50,000 bacteria per 100 milli-litres of water, 10,000 per cent higher than the government standard for safe river bathing.
These were some of the startling revelations that came to light at a conference conducted by IITians for Holy Ganga, an open forum involving experts and environmentalist for protecting the heritage river in the capital recently. That this ancient river in trouble is old hat. However, what’s more disturbing, claimed the environmentalists during the interaction is that despite the Ganga being declared as the “National River” by the government last year, no substantive measures have been formulated or are in the pipeline to ensure the natural flow of the river. And indiscriminate and ill-conceived developments coupled with construction of dams (read power projects) are going on across the river basin.
“When the Tehri dam was built around a decade ago, environmentalists had warned it would bring about a demise of all major rivers emanating from the Gangori glacier. If the Bhagirathi, one of the largest tributaries of the Ganga, can dry then we can imagine what will be the fate of the rest,” says environmentalist Rajendra Singh, also the former chairman of CPCB.
The controversial Tehri dam (a sum of Rs. 8,298 crore had been spent till March 2008) is today under threat of closure because of reduced flow in the Bhagirathi. Enviromentalist Paritosh C Tyagi confirms this by saying, “Its projected power generating capacity was 2,400 MW. Currently, it is generating only 1,000 MW, less than half its capacity far outweighing the initial planned costs,” adding, “It is because of supply to the upper Ganga canal is on the decline as they are receiving less water from the Tehri dam. There is no availability of water from Deoprayag. The entire water supply system, which is based on the Ganga canal, has collapsed.”
The Threat is imminent. Four more hydroelectric dams, according to experts, are in the process of planning, construction and operation at the source of Ganga, between Gangotri and Dharasu (Uttarkashi). The river is being diverted through tunnels for many kilometers, impeding its free flow and resulting in a crisis situation. These dams will further choke the life from the Ganga, reducing her flow in many areas to a mere trickle. The result will be the destruction of essential ecosystems and entire economies. As deep and traumatic will be the damage done to the spiritual lives and traditions of an entire nation, aver experts.
Environmentalists also fear these projects will swallow the river once they start building their tunnels. The Tehri pioneered the concept of big dams wreaking havoc on the lives of nearly a lakh people. Even in Pithoragarh, the 280-MW Dhauliganga project jolted Ailagarh village, from where several families were uprooted a few years ago. “Nearly 50 km from Ailagarh, the central government is now planning to construct the mega 6,000 MW Pancheshwar hydel project, thrice the size of the Tehri dam, on river Kali on the Indo-Nepal border. This is likely to uproot nearly 80,000 people,” says Tyagi.
Another mega project on river Alaknanda near Joshimath is already creating a slope instability problem for Joshimath town. The list goes on. “Sadly, except for towns like Uttarkashi and Harsil, the Bhagirathi river would be forced to pass through long, dark tunnels,” says Singh.
G.D. Agrawal, a much sought after EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) consultant and a passionate Ganga devotee, has been on a “fast-unto-death” for the past 36 days to oppose the foul meddling going on with the stream of Ganga, especially in 125 km area from where the holy river emanates and that includes Uttarakhand too. Says Agrawal, “Crippling this holy river is far too great a sacrifice to the production of a few hundred megawatts of electricity. The power generated from these dams may benefit a select few but will rob millions of their spirituality, heritage, and drinking water.”
Apart from spiritual and economic importance, this unique river also supports a complex ecosystem, comprising countless species of plants and animals, not least among them the endangered Ganga river dolphin, of which only a few survive. Many fear that such huge hydropower projects in an ecologically rich and a seismically fragile zone will have an irreversible effect on the region, destroy the five prayags and will block the Ganga from flowing freely, an attribute integral to its religiosity . Instead, a cascade of dams will turn the river into multiple stagnant pools. In fact, the very origin of the Ganga at Dev Prayag will be permanently under a 10 metre column of water.
“Ganga is becoming a stagnant pool. Since it is our common heritage, finishing the river’s sanctity is a violation of Article 25,” says environmental lawyer M.C. Mehta. Most of the dams being planned are run-of-the-river dams and officials involved in the projects say they are less
damaging. However, enviromentalists say it’s not true. They have to create big tunnels over long distances through fragile mountains. They also dry up stretches of the river, killing it and everything connected with it. This will create problems downstream,” adds Mehta.
The counter-argument - India is growing and it needs power – is also true. However, the question that needs to be asked now is whether the cost of generating power includes all cost and if it is done then whether the projects would be economically viable. Economist Bharat Jhunjhunwala is trying to do exactly that: Using the tools of his subject, he is quantifying all kinds of losses including those not mentioned in government assessments. Jhunjhunwala questions the contention that hydropower is cheap as there are no variable costs like fuel. He says, “Every additional unit of power produced imposes higher costs on society and provides lower benefits. The correct level of generation has to be arrived at by looking at these costs and benefits.”
Take, for example, health costs of people living near dams. “Miles of slow moving water are ideal breeding grounds of malarial mosquitoes. But when project costs are calculated, only loss of land and displacement are calculated. The medical costs are not taken into account as this would be borne by the people later,” he says, adding, “The cost-benefit analysis also does not take into account the indirect services provided by forests, the disturbance to the fragile Himalayan environment and proprietary value of submerged forest land.”
In the long run, if such illogical works continues, experts point out the water flow in the Ganges could drop by two-thirds by 2030, affecting more than 400 million people who depend on it for drinking water. The other problem is that dams are cleared as individual projects and no cumulative assessments of all dams on a river, a practice in other countries, are made. Only once such assessments are done, we will know what effects these dams that are being built in high seismic zone will have in the future. “As of now,” says Singh, “it’s imperative to immediately stop all hydel projects under construction in Ganga catchments. Also, what needs to be done is to carry out a social and ecological assessment with full people’s participation on dams functional such as Tehri others. To fully rehabilitate those displaced so far due to damming activities.
The Pioneer (Dehradun), 20 Feb. 2009
Graphic ‘then and now ‘pictures of lakes photographed a year apart- with and without water – in and around the National Capital Region are stark warning signals of impending serious water shortage and ecological problems in the region. Surajkund, Badkhal and Damdama lakes in Haryana are dry today on account of unregulated mining in catchment areas. Besides helping promote the areas as tourist destinations, the lakes were a source of groundwater replenishment, which is what they were created for in the first place. Surajkund, for instance, was built more than 900 years ago to store rainwater that flowed from the hills.
Similar stories of dried-up water bodies in other parts of the country- in Rajasthan, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh, for example- raise serious concern. Few among the large, ancient man-made reservoirs that have, since long, served as viable sources of freshwater, have managed to survive seasonal droughts because of poor maintenance. Others have gone dry because of mining, construction and disuse, leading to their diversification as real estate, bus stands and landfill sites.
The Supreme Court has had to intervene several times to stop illegal quarrying and mining activity in western India’s Aravalli range. ‘Minor’ mining (a state subject) is leading to pits getting filled with rainwater in the catchment area instead of the water flowing into reservoirs. The non-porous rocks in pits inhibit groundwater rejuvenation, and the trapped water is lost to evaporation. This is happening despite rising public concern over erosion of the ecosystem here and in spite of lease
extension requests by mining companies pending in courts. Fresh auction notices have been issued by the Haryana government for stone quarrying despite court stay orders even as state Chief Minister B.S. Hooda declared the year 2010 as a deadline for reviving the Badkhal lake. A fact-finding committee in 2006 reported that the Aravallis were being severely exploited by miners. It recommended evaluation by a natural expert who could be asked to submit a scientific plan. Nothing happened.
Developers and miners continue to flout rules despite court orders to stay away from ecologically sensitive areas. Greater community participation in environment protection and accountability of developers and mining companies is crucial to save water resources from further destruction. A central environmental regulatory authority ought to deal with final clearances and disputes so that the Supreme Court need intervene only in the rarest of cases.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 24 Feb. 2009
निष्ठुर नीतियों से नदियों को बचाने की यात्रा
नदियों को हर हाल में बचाने की अनिवार्यता अब दुनिया भर में स्वीकार की जाने लगी है। लेकिन सरकारें विकास की जो नीतियां अपनातीं हैं वे नदियों के साथ भयावह छेड़छाड़ और कई बार उनके अस्तित्व को ही समाप्त करने वाली होती हैं। आधुनिक विकास के समर्थकों में भी ऐसे लोगों की संख्या बढ़ रही है जो यह मानने लगे हैं कि आर्थिक विकास जारी रखते हुए भी नदियां अपनी स्वाभाविक अवस्था में रह सकें, इनका रास्ता निकाला जा सके। किंतु विकास के आधुनिक तरीकों में यह संभव नहीं है। तो फिर किया क्या जाए? इस प्रश्न का उत्तर ढूंढते हुए नदियों को सरकारी नीतियों की निष्ठुरता से बचाने की एक सशक्त कोशिश उत्तराखंड में हो रही है। 3 से 10 फरवरी के बीच समूचे प्रदेश में मुख्य नदियों, उनकी सहायक नदियों पर कई श्रेणियों में पद यात्रा करते सत्याग्रहियों का दल लोगों के बीच अलख जगाते निकलेगा। अंत में सारी यात्राएं 12-13 फरवरी को राजधानी देहरादून में आयोजित नदी बचाओ उत्तराखंड सम्मेलन में समाहित हो जाएंगी।
अगर इसका आयोजन किसी राजनीतिक पार्टी ने किया होता तो उत्तराखंड क्या, देश के चप्पे-चप्पे पर पोस्टर व बैनर सज चुके होते। किंतु आज राजनीतिक पार्टियों के पास ऐसे अभियानों का नैतिक बल नहीं हैं। जो स्वयं इस मामले में लिप्त हो, वह इसकी मुक्ति का आंदोलन कैसे कर सकता है! हमारी उन जीवनदायिनी नदियों को जो हमसे बिना कुछ लिए हुए न जाने कब से सभ्यता के विकास एवं उसके पालन-पोषण, संरक्षण-संवर्धन में मुख्य भूमिका निभाती रही हैं। दुर्भाग्य यह है कि देश में राजनीतिक दलों के अभियानों को तो खूब प्रचार मिलता है, जबकि वे अल्पकालिक होते हैं और उनका पूरा सरोकार राजनीतिक हित तक सीमित होता है। इसके विपरीत बिल्कुल आम जन के हितों और केवल भारत ही नहीं सम्पूर्ण मानवता के हित का ध्यान रखते हुए जो गैर दलीय आंदोलन या अभियान चलते हैं उनकी ओर प्रचार तंत्र ध्यान तक नहीं देता। इस समय गंगा मुक्ति के लिए पर्यावरणविद जी.डी. अग्रवाल पुनः राजधानी दिल्ली में अनशन पर बैठे हैं, पर मीडिया में इसकी चर्चा तक नहीं। उत्तराखंड में नदी बचाओ अभियान के तहत पिछले लंबे समय से गांधी की विचारधारा से जुड़े लोग अभियान चला रहे हैं। सुप्रसिद्ध गांधीवाद राधा बहन उर्फ राधा भट्ट की प्रेरणा से न जाने कितनी छोटी-बड़ी यात्राएं, जनसम्पर्क अभियान आदि पिछले कई सालों में संपन्न हो चुके हैं। पिछले वर्ष ही 1 जनवरी 2008 से 16 नदियों पर 16 पदयात्राएं चली थीं। नदी बचाओं अभियान ने उत्तराखंड की पूरब से पश्चिम सीमा तक की अपनी दो जल यात्राओं में टौंस से कालीगंगा तक की पचासों छोटी-बड़ी नदियों की जो स्थिति देखी उससे नदियों पर छाए संकट का अहसास और गहरा हुआ। वस्तुतः ये पूरे वर्ष भर नदियों पर पदयात्राएं व गोष्ठियां करते रहे हैं।
संयोग देखिए कि इन यात्राओं के साथ पंचायत चुनाव के परिणाम भी आ गए थे और उनमें
महिला प्रतिनिधियों की
50
प्रतिशत आरक्षण के संदर्भ में बाधाओं के बावजूद इनकी काफी संख्या में विजय हुई।
इनमें संघर्ष से जुड़ी महिलाएं भी शामिल हैं। पद यात्राओं के दौरान जगह-जगह
चुनाव में पराजित एवं विजित महिलाओं के साथ संवाद के कारण उत्तराखंड में मिलजुलकर
अपनी समस्याओं के समाधान के लिए काम करने एवं पंचायतो को प्राकृतिक संसाधनों के
सवर्धन से जोड़ने का माहौल बना। इसको औपचारिक रूप मिला
21
दिसंबर को कौसानी में महात्मा गांधी के नाम से जुड़े अनासक्ति आश्रम में प्रदेश भर
की सक्रिय महिला नेताओं एव जन प्रतिनिधियों की बैठक में पारित प्रस्तावों द्वारा।
इनमें जल संरक्षण,
जल संवर्धन आदि के अलावा भ्रष्टाचार से संघर्ष सहित ऐसे अनेक मुद्दों पर काम करने
का निर्णय हुआ जो कि आम
जन,
जीव और वनस्पतियों के लिए जरूरी हैं।
वास्तव में यह स्वीकारने में कोई आपत्ति नहीं है कि इन यात्राओं के परिणाम कई स्वरूपों में दिखाई दिए हैं। एक ओर जल विद्युत परियोजनाओं के कारण नदियों को सुरांगों, नालों में परिणत कर उनकी धाराओं की सहजता और निर्मलता को रौंदने के खिलाफ सरयू, मंदाकिनी, गोरीगंगा, भागीरथी, काली आदि नदियों पर जनता लामबंद हुई है और आंदोलन ने व्यापक स्वरूप ग्रहण किया है तो दूसरी ओर इस विरोधी आंदोलन के सामानांतर महिला मंडल एवं जनमंच संगठित होकर नदियों एवं अपने गधेरों के जलसंवर्धन के लिए जंगल लगाने और चाल-खल बनाने का भी अभियान चला रहे है। साथ ही महिलाओं को ग्राम सभाओं में सक्रियता एवं बुनियादी योजनाओं में अपनी बात रखने, कमीशनखोरी का संगठित विरोध जैसी बातें भी हो रहीं हैं।
राष्ट्रीय सहारा (देहरादून), 5 Feb. 2009
गंगा को बचाना होगाः स्वामी निश्चलानंद
‘गंगा को बचाने के लिए कल-कारखाने को दूषित जल प्रवाहित होने से रोकने और गंगा पर बन रहे बांधों को हटाना होगा। मानव सभ्यता व संस्कृति, जीवन की शक्ति गंगा के न होने पर सभी जीवों का अस्तित्व खतरे में पड़ जाएगा। मां गंगा के अस्तित्व को बचाने के लिए सभी को मिलकर संघर्ष करने की आवश्यकता है।’ यह कहना है गोवर्धनपुरी पीठ के शंकराचार्य स्वामी निश्चलानंद सरस्वती का।
स्वामी निश्चलानंद सरस्वती काशी में संकटमोचन स्थित त्रिदेव मंदिर की प्राण प्रतिष्ठा करने काशी आए। उन्होंने कहा कि आकाश गंगा से कैलाश और हिमालय से गोमुख से होते हुए उत्तरकाशी हरिद्वार, कानपुर, इलाहबाद, काशी में गंगा संपूर्ण, उत्तर की दिशा में बाबा विश्वनाथ का चरण स्पर्श कर फिर पटना व बंगाल होकर गंगासागर में मिलती है। निर्मल धारा, अविरल धारा को रोकने तथा गंगा में मल-मूत्र, दूषित जल को प्रवाहित करने की साजिश है उसके दुष्परिणाम भोगने के लिए सभी बाध्य होंगे। शंकराचार्य ने कहा कि सभी प्राणियों की जननी है गंगा। गंगा किसी के भेदभाव की मोहताज नहीं हैं। गंगा साक्षात ईश्वर के ऊर्जा संचार का स्वरूप है। गंगा की अविरल धारा, निर्मल धारा के लिए जो भी संघर्ष कर रहे हैं वे सबके भले के लिए ही कर रहे हैं।
एक सवाल के जवाब में उन्होंने कहा कि प्रधानमंत्री ने गंगा को राष्ट्रीय नदी घोषित कर दिया। इसे संरक्षित करने के लिए सबको आगे आना चाहिए। उन्होंने कहा कि गंगा राष्ट्रीय नदी तो घोषित हो गई लेकिन केंद्र सरकार ने अभी भी वैधानिक प्रक्रिया की औपचारिकता पूरी नहीं की। इसे चुनाव के पहले कर देना चाहिए। उन्होंने साफ तौर पर कहा कि यदि प्रधानमंत्री की राष्ट्रीय नदी घोषित करने की बात मान ली जाए तो क्या गंगा पर बने बांधों को तोड़ा जा सकता है। कल कारखानों से गिरने वाले दूषित जल को रोका जा सकता है ?
स्वामी निश्चलानंद सरस्वती ने जनसत्ता से बातचीत में बताया कि राष्ट्रीय नदी गंगा की अविरल धारा भारत के नौ राज्यों से बहती है। उन नौ राज्यों के बीच सहमति बनानी होगी तथा मां गंगा के अस्तित्व को बचाने के लिए नौ राज्यों के मुखिया को सभी भेदभाव भुलाकर गंगा की निर्मल धारा बरकरार रखने के लिए आगे आना चाहिए। गंगा को अगर हम संरक्षित नहीं कर पाए तो यह आने वाले कुछ वर्षों में दुर्लभ हो जाएंगी।
उन्होंने एक सवाल के जवाब में कहा कि अभी भी समय है, हमें गंगा के प्रति चेतना जागृत करनी होगी। उन्होंने कहा कि पिछले वर्षों से गंगा नदी के प्राकृतिक व्यवहार में कुछ परिवर्तन हो रहा है। गंगा की दिशा के भी दूसरी ओर जाने की संभावना हो रही है। गंगा नदी में आ रहे इस बदलाव के लिए मानव स्वयं जिम्मेदार है। अगर ऐसा है तो इससे सभी को खतरा है। गंगा को बचाने से ही हम सलामत रहेंगे। गंगा की धारा में बदलाव से पृथ्वी की भूगर्भ जल की दिशा भी बदल रही है।
जनसत्ता (नई दिल्ली), 16 Feb. 2009
I spent a week at the climate change conference in Poznan, and realised the world is in deep trouble and deeper denial. Worse, the denial is now entirely on the side of action. It is now well accepted that climate change is a reality. Scientists say we need to cap temperature increases at 2°C, to avoid catastrophe. We know global average temperatures have already increased by 0.8°C and there is enough greenhouse gas in the atmosphere to lead to another 0.8°C increase. In short, there is still a window of opportunity, a very small one, to tackle the crisis.
But where’s the action? In the 1990s, when the world did even not understand, let alone accept, the crisis, it was more willing to move to tackle climate change. Today, we are in reverse gear. The agreement was that industrialised countries would reduce, so that the developing world could increase their emissions. Instead, between 1990 and 2006, their carbon dioxide emissions increased by a whopping 14.5 per cent, and even green countries of Europe are unable to match words with action.
So it was that, at the Poznan conference, rich countries aggressively pushed a new climate-tack. They cannot reduce at home, so they have decided to find every way to (1) ‘offset’ their fossil fuel emissions by buying emission reduction certificates in developing countries; or (2) pay to protect emission-absorbing forests; or (3) simply pump their carbon deep into the ground. Indeed, every dirty way not to cut, but to pay, bribe and cajole others to cut will do. Then if all this there is the easy fallback: Use China and India as punching bags.
In Poznan the biggest effort was to devise a mechanism to pay developing countries to ‘avoid’ deforestation. Why? Because the Nick Stern report said 20 per cent of the world’s emissions were from deforestation in the developing world. Now, this has become a quick-fix solution: stop deforestation and take a 20 per cent advantage in our carbon balance sheet, without doing anything at home.
As a result the mechanism, in negotiators’ parlance called REDD or ‘reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation’ — naturally, in developing countries — is being built with absolutely no understanding that forests here are not mere carbon sticks to beat the world’s conscience with, or sinks for garbage carbon, but habitats of millions of people. There is no comprehension of the role forests play in a developing country’s economy or in people’s lives. Instead, the intent is misbegotten and single-minded: pay as cheaply as possible to buy rights over forests in the developing world and build as many accounting and certification procedures as possible to make sure there are no ‘leakages’ in the transaction. It is clearly a great business for the crashed and failed consultancy companies of the western world — creative carbon accounting, this time in the forests of the poor. So, this opportunity, which could have enjoined the interests of forest-economies and its people to plant, protect and manage forests so that the world would in addition get the benefit of reducing emissions, is being lost to the self-interest of greedy polluters.
But this is not enough. The world’s addiction to fossil fuel is increasing. So, at Poznan, the second move was to aggressively push for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies — a delicious but still experimental and expensive way to bury carbon dioxide emitted from power plants deep underground — to be used, naturally, in the developing world. Rich countries piled on to include this technology in the Clean Development Mechanism. Now the developed world, instead of cutting emissions at home, would simply buy carbon credits to invest in this technology in the developing world. More seriously, we would become guinea pigs, for very little is still known of CCS’s risks and viability. As a Venezuelan delegate at the plenary asked, why, if this was such a great technology, was the developed world not building more CCS plants in its own backyard?
But why ask? Just look at the European Union’s much-awaited climate package, tactically released on the last day of the Poznan conference. It has a grand 20/20/20 objective — 20 per cent reduction in emissions by 2020, over its 1990 levels; 20 per cent renewables and 20 per cent energy efficiency target. But what the package forgets to highlight is that 80 per cent of these targets will be achieved through ‘offsets’ — payments for action abroad. In all this, let us not even begin to discuss the Australian government’s gutless climate policy, ironically of the new labour government which came to power on a climate vote, released in the week post-Poznan.
The gloves are off. And there are no real game-changers here. Today, western media, civil society and all its well-meaning and not-so-retired climate converts (Tony Blair to Al Gore and Nick Stern and others) have all bought this position — hook, line and sinker. They are all madly running around the world convincing Indians and Chinese to
change their behaviours and join the game. They all don’t speak of their country emissions. They only use our black smoke as their shield.
My cynical, year-end response is maybe the Indians and Chinese should join the party and take on emission reduction targets. We, too, should believe in the same non-solution: emit madly but pay and fix others to clean up.
But this is not acceptable. Let’s work on a new future, 2009 on. This is my promise.
Business Standard (New Delhi), 2 Jan. 2009
On December 7, the UN Climate Conference will open in Copenhagen and the world community will try to agree a solution to the gravest threat it has ever faced: global warming.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 officials, advisers, diplomats, campaigners and media personnel from nearly 200 countries, almost certainly joined by limousine-loads of heads of state and government from America’s President Barack Obama down are expected to meet in the Danish capital in one of the most significant gatherings in history.
All the world’s major governments, including the once-sceptical administration of the US President George Bush, now formally accept that temperature rises have already begun, are likely if unchecked to prove disastrous for human civilisation, and are being caused by emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from our power plants, factories and motor vehicles.
But if all the major governments now accept it, getting them to agree on how to tackle it still seems a very long way off indeed. The essential problem, to use the jargon, is burden-sharing. We know the world has to cut its CO2 emissions drastically, and soon. But which countries are to cut them, by how much?
The Chinese, for example, with their scarcely believable economy growing at 10 per cent a year, have now overtaken the Americans as the biggest carbon emitters; but historically, America has emitted far more; and on a per capita basis, US emissions still dwarf those of China. So the Chinese have felt (so far) that they have a moral right for their economy to grow unchecked, and their carbon emissions to grow with it; but many Americans have felt (so far) that they see no reason to act unilaterally to cut their own CO2 if the Chinese are not willing to do the same.
Differences like those stubbornly percolate the whole negotiating process and make achieving a universal agreement mind-bogglingly hard. “This is the most complicated deal the world has ever tried to put together,” says Tom Burke, visiting professor at Imperial College and an adviser on climate change to the Foreign Office. “In effect, you’re asking nearly 200 countries to align their energy policies – to create a common world energy policy. If you look at how hard it has been for the member states of the European Union to align their energy policies, you get an idea of the difficulty of attempting it with the whole world.”
Yet it has to be done, and the penalty for failure could not be higher. It is just 20 years since the world woke up to the danger of rising carbon emissions destabilising the atmosphere. Two decades ago it seemed a fairly distant threat, prefigured principally in supercomputer climate prediction programmes; something that was likely to happen a comfortably long distance away, such as at the end of the 21st century.
Three things have altered since then. First, the changing climate is now visible, not just in computer predictions, but all around us: spring in southern Britain, for example, is arriving about three weeks earlier than it did 40 years ago. At this time last year a red admiral butterfly, an archetypal creature of the summer, was photographed perching on a snowdrop, a flower of the winter – a previously unheard-of occurrence.
Second, it has become clear in the past five years that the Earth is responding to the increasing CO2 loading of the atmosphere much more rapidly than scientists initially thought. There are numerous examples but to instance just one, the summer sea ice of the Arctic Ocean is melting far more quickly than anyone imagined.
Third, it has become apparent, even more recently, that global emissions of CO2 are shooting up at a rate that far exceeds anything the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) thought possible when it sketched out future emissions scenarios in a special report in 2000. Even though we have had 20 years to think about emissions cuts, and 11 years of the Kyoto protocol, the treaty which actually prescribed the first cuts for the industrialised countries, emissions are soaring as never before.
Some leading climate scientists are now openly voicing concerns that this makes it increasingly unlikely we can meet the aim of keeping global temperature rise to about 2oC above the pre-industrial level, which is generally regarded as the most that may be endured by human society without mortal danger. (We are now at about 0.75 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial, and another 0.6 of a degree is thought to be inevitable because of the CO2 which has already been emitted).
Certainly, if we are to have any chance at all at holding the increase to two degrees, there is
wide agreement that global emissions have to peak very soon – probably by 2015 or 2016 – and then rapidly decrease, to 80 per cent below present levels by 2050. The later the peak, the greater (and therefore more difficult) the subsequent decrease would have to be.
The Tribune (Chandigarh), 12 Jan. 2009
The 44th President – and the First Serious Hope for Our Climate
Can there ever have been a weightier in-tray than that awaiting the 44th President of the United States? When Barack Obama assumes office in five days' time, three giant problems will dominate his agenda, each one capable of daunting the most accomplished of national leaders: rescuing the US economy, dealing with the aftermath of George Bush's "war on terror", and confronting global climate change.
While the first two are of the utmost concern to US citizens fearing for their jobs and fearing a repeat of 9/11, and to Islamic nations who see themselves in the firing line, the key characteristics of the third are that is of concern to everyone in the world, and even more dangerous, in the long term, than the other two.
Yet global warming was the issue the Bush government ruthlessly sidelined, withdrawing from the Kyoto Treaty only weeks after the Texan oilman president moved into the White House and making strenuous efforts to deny the mounting scientific evidence. There can be no greater illustration of the chasm in priorities between the outgoing and incoming administrations than that the new US leader, with no ties whatsoever to Big Oil, sees what is happening to the atmosphere as the crucial issue that it is.
In doing so, he has reignited hope around the globe that climate change can be tackled – hope that was badly dented by the eight years of Bush obstructionism. Obama ran for office on a platform that included proper action to deal with it, and now for many people inside the United States and outside, how he does so will be the defining issue of his presidency.
There is broad agreement that what he has to do is two-fold. The first priority is to lead the charge to the low-carbon economy, and build a completely new energy infrastructure that is less and less dependent on fossil fuels – and so enable US carbon dioxide emissions, the highest in the world along with China's, to be slashed. The second priority is to re-engage the US with the international
effort to construct a new climate treaty, which will come to a head at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December.
He has made a very good start, even as President-elect. He has said the right things: within days of winning the election, he committed the US to a drastic reduction of its CO2 emissions, pledging to cut them back to 80 per cent of 1990 levels by 2050 (Bush made no commitment). And he has appointed the right people: his new senior staff include some of the world's most respected climate scientists and advocates for radical action, such as Professor Steven Chu, the new energy secretary, Professor John Holdren, the new White House chief scientist, and Professor Jane Lubchenco, new head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "These are all people who have climate change as a central part of what they think is crucial," said Eileen Clausen, president of America's leading climate think-tank, the Pew Center.
In terms of substantive policy, President Obama is likely to act at once: climate-related spending, such as a new push for renewable energy, is likely to figure prominently in the economic-stimulus package he is discussing, and American energy suppliers are likely to be given a target of providing 25 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. But the key measure to get America's CO2 down will be a national emissions trading scheme along the lines of the one now up and running in the EU. The President will have to get this through Congress: the House of Representatives will be easier than the Senate, where the Democrats do not have the 60 seats out of 100 necessary to override a filibuster, but hopes are high that he will succeed.
Most of all, he has to engage with the rest of the world. There is a massive vacancy for a world leader in the fight to preserve the atmosphere and the habitability of the earth; many people in many countries are fervently hoping that the 44th President is the man who is willing and able to fill it.
The Statesman (New Delhi), 17 Jan. 2009
Emerging Economies Show More Interest to Tackle Climate Change
Consumers in emerging economies are more concerned and willing to take action against climate change than those in developed countries. Although the economic crisis has not reduced worldwide concern about climate change, 53 per cent people in emerging economies claim to be extremely concerned about it against only a third (31 per cent) in mature markets, according to Accenture.
A majority (56 per cent) in emerging economies think climate change will certainly have a direct impact on their life against only 28 per cent in developed economies. Yet, 70 per cent people in emerging economies are optimistic that climate change can be solved, against less than half (48 per cent) in developed economies.
The polarisation of concern and confidence is reflected in the difference in the willingness to act. Over half (53 per cent) in emerging markets said they would certainly switch to a new product if it was certified to minimise damage to the climate, versus a mere 24 per cent in developed economies. And 61 per cent said they would certainly switch to an energy provider offering lower carbon products and services if this was an option, versus only 30 per cent in developed economies.
“Low carbon investments will be drawn to the most concerned and active consumers and to those economies that can leapfrog to new technologies and implement cutting edge policies. There is a small window of opportunity for western governments to act before a global climate change policy agreement gives emerging economies the incentive to attract investment away from developed markets.”
Consumers need more help to reduce carbon emissions, the report added. “Governments in North America and Europe cannot assume their countries will lead climate change solutions or
policy,” said Sander van‘t Noordende, group chief executive of Accenture’s Resources operating group.
Accenture’s research indicates disparities have opened up in all countries between intentions and actions related to climate change. In 2007, 89 per cent people contacted said they would be willing to switch to energy companies offering low carbon emission products and services. But in 2008, only 12 per cent of those in countries where switching one’s gas or electricity provider was an option actually took that step.
Differentiation between energy providers is a major obstacle to consumer action. Three-quarters say their current electricity/natural gas provider’s climate friendly products and services are no different from those of competitor providers, against only 18 per cent who say they are better.
“Consumer power can compel companies to deliver products and services that address climate change,” said Luca Cesari, global managing director of Accenture’s Utility Industries Group. “Energy providers must provide a thriving market for low-carbon services and governments must enable this transformation with clear policy and properly aligned incentives. Utility companies are the linchpin and must see the commercial opportunities of delivering affordable low-carbon services.”
“Energy providers can learn from manufacturers of consumer goods how to differentiate themselves through further product and service innovation. Governments and businesses must work together to deploy new technologies,” said Sander van‘t Noordende.”
The Financial Express (New Delhi), 17 Jan. 2009
Can Aircraft Trails Affect Climate?
When all commercial air traffic in the United States was grounded after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, scientists got an unexpected opportunity to test ideas about the climate effects of the condensation trails left behind by jets.
A study in 2002 suggested that these contrails could have a significant effect on daily temperature patterns. But a new analysis now claims that altered US temperature patterns during the three flight-free days can be explained by natural variations in cloud cover, rather than the absence of planes.
Aircraft contrails can spread into cirrus-like clouds high in the atmosphere. Similar to natural clouds, they are thought to have an overall warming effect on the planet. But they can also moderate daily temperature extremes by trapping heat that escapes from the ground and reflecting sunlight.
What scientists say
This raises the lowest overnight temperatures and, to a lesser degree, reduces the highs during daylight hours, scientists have suggested. But atmospheric scientists are still unsure about the scale of the contrails' impact.
Two studies noted that when planes stopped flying on September 11–14, 2001, the average daily temperature range in the United States rose markedly, exceeding the three-day periods before and after by an average of 1.8°Celsius.
Unusual size
The unusual size of the shift, says David Travis of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, who led both of the earlier studies, implied that an absence of contrails gave the temperature range a significant boost.
But that idea, he says, was "more like a hypothesis" than a firm conclusion. Research led by Gang Hong, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University in College Station, now suggests that this hypothesis is wrong. Examining patterns of cloud cover and temperature in early September at US weather stations from 1971 to 2001, Hong and his colleagues found that thicker, low clouds are the dominant influence on temperature extremes, whereas high clouds such as contrails have a minor effect at most.
They add that the 2001 temperature swings seem to be within the range of natural variability over those decades.
Hong's work doesn't prove that the contrails have no effect on temperature, just that they are unlikely to have a major role, says Ulrich Schumann, director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the German Aerospace Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, near Munich.
The research by Hong and his colleagues, published in Geophysical Research Letters, follows other studies arguing that the September 2001 temperature variations can be explained by the clear, dry weather on the crucial days, and that climate-modelling results do not support the contrail
effects claimed by Travis's group.
Combined effect
Travis, however, stands by his findings. Absent contrails were never assumed to be the sole cause of the large temperature ranges, he emphasizes. "We've always said it's a combination of the lack of airplanes and the natural weather conditions," he says. Because Hong's analysis studied high-level clouds in general – and not contrails in particular – Travis says that specific conclusions cannot be drawn about the role of contrails from the survey.
The Hindu (New Delhi), 22 Jan. 2009
The Climate Change Safari Park
Barack Obama in his inaugural speech promised to “roll back the spectre of a warming planet.” In this context, it is worth contemplating a passage from his book Dreams from My Father. It reveals a lot about the way we view the world’s problems.
Obama is in Kenya and wants to go on a safari. His Kenyan sister Auma chides him for behaving like a neo-colonialist. “Why should all that land be set aside for tourists when it could be used for farming? These wazungu care more about one dead elephant than they do for a hundred black children.” Although he ends up going on safari, Obama has no answer to her question. That anecdote has parallels with the current preoccupation with global warming. Many people — including America’s new president — believe that global warming is the pre-eminent issue of our time, and that cutting CO2 emissions is one of the most virtuous things we can do.
To stretch the metaphor a little, this seems like building ever-larger safari parks instead of creating more farms to feed the hungry.
Make no mistake: global warming is real, and it is caused by manmade CO2 emissions. The problem is that even global, draconian, and hugely costly CO2 reductions will have virtually no impact on the temperature by mid-century. Instead of ineffective and costly cuts, we should focus much more of our good climate intentions on dramatic increases in R&D for zero-carbon energy, which would fix the climate towards mid-century at low cost. But, more importantly for most of the planet’s citizens, global warming simply exacerbates existing problems.
Consider malaria. Models shows global warming will increase the incidence of malaria by about 3 per cent by the end of the century, because mosquitoes are more likely to survive when the world gets hotter. But malaria is much more strongly related to health infrastructure and general wealth than it is to temperature. Rich people rarely contract malaria or die from it; poor people do.
Strong carbon cuts could avert about 0.2 per cent of the malaria incidence in a hundred years. The other option is simply to prioritise eradication of malaria today. It would be relatively cheap and simple, involving expanded distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, more preventive treatment for pregnant women, increased use of the maligned pesticide DDT, and support for poor nations that cannot afford the best new therapies.
Tackling nearly 100 per cent of today’s malaria problem would cost just one-sixtieth of the price of the Kyoto Protocol. Put another way, for each person saved from malaria by cutting CO2 emissions, direct malaria policies could have saved 36,000. Of course, carbon cuts are not designed only to tackle malaria. But, for every problem that global warming will exacerbate — hurricanes, hunger, flooding — we could achieve tremendously more through cheaper, direct policies today.
For example, adequately maintained levees and better evacuation services, not lower carbon emissions, would have minimised the damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. During the 2004 hurricane season, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, both occupying the same island, provided a powerful lesson. In the Dominican Republic, which has invested in hurricane shelters and emergency evacuation networks, the death toll was fewer than ten. In Haiti, which lacks such policies, 2,000 died. Haitians were a hundred times more likely to die in an equivalent storm than Dominicans.
Obama’s election has raised hopes for a massive commitment to carbon cuts and vast spending on renewable energy to save the world — especially developing nations. As Obama’s Kenyan sister might attest, this could be an expensive indulgence. Some believe Obama should follow the lead of the European Union, which has committed itself to the goal of cutting carbon emissions by 20 per cent below 1990 levels within 12 years by using renewable energy. This alone will probably cost more than 1 per cent of GDP. Even if the entire world followed suit, the net effect would be to reduce global temperatures by one-twentieth of one degree Fahrenheit by the end of the century. The cost could be a staggering $10 trillion.
Most economic models show that the total damage imposed by global warming by the end of the century will be about 3 per cent of GDP. This is not trivial, but nor is it the end of the world. By the end of the century, the United Nations expects the average person to be 1,400 per cent richer than today.
An African safari trip once confronted America’s new president with a question he could not answer: why the rich world prized elephants
over African children. Today’s version of that question is: why will richer nations spend obscene amounts of money on climate change, achieving next to nothing in 100 years, when we could do so much good for mankind today for much less money? The world will be watching to hear Obama’s answer.
The Economic Times (New Delhi), 23 Jan. 2009
Hundreds of industry leaders, opinion makers, and climate change experts are gathering this week for the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, dedicated to climate change. The summit, being held for the second year running, could not come at a more opportune time. 2009 is a defining year for the international climate change process. The world is poised to conclude one of the most complex international agreements ever to be negotiated, an agreement which has the potential to decide the fate of the human race.
India and the rest of the world cannot afford the worst predictions of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to come true, for example, the flooding of coastal cities and extreme food shortages. Failure to first slow and then reverse current greenhouse gas emission trends within the next 10 years or so would lead to a rise in global average temperatures that would completely undermine all efforts to combat poverty and achieve sustainable development. But there are good reasons to believe that the international community is progressing in the right direction.
In 2007 in Bali, the 192 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change committed themselves to launching negotiations on strengthened action on climate change, to culminate in an ambitious and effective international deal in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. Since then, there have been several highly significant events which make me optimistic that a solid agreement can be reached this year.
For example, at the end of last year, the European Union agreed to a climate and energy package with which it will be able to reach its target of a 20 per cent emission reduction by 2020 — and minus 30 per cent if other industrialised countries follow suit.
A new U.S. administration has assumed office, with President Barack Obama agreeing on 80 per cent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and to reduce his country’s emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. President Obama is not only firmly committed to taking action against climate change domestically, but has announced that he will re-engage his country in the international climate change negotiations.
Many pundits warn that the current global economic woes could throw efforts to combat climate change off-track. But even the financial and economic crisis is being used by countries such as China and the U.S. as an opportunity to change direction and to shift towards the greening of their economies. For the U.S., this includes unleashing $150 billion over 10 years to create five million new ‘green’ jobs.
China recently announced a $586 billion economic stimulus package, some 25 per cent of which is to help bolster conservation, environmental protection, and renewable energy efforts. All this has injected energy into the negotiating process.
At Bali, industrialised countries reconfirmed their commitment to lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In the context of the Copenhagen agreement, developing countries must receive measurable, reportable and verifiable funding for measurable, reportable and verifiable action on climate change. In 2008, the first year of the two-year negotiating process towards Copenhagen, India put forward important proposals. For example, a reinsurance fund to deal with the unavoidable losses arising from climate change and an international technology transfer mechanism.
Domestically, India has blazed a trail by drawing up an ambitious National Action Plan. In the field of mitigation, key elements of the plan are to boost solar energy, promote research and development into renewable energies and enhance energy efficiency. And the plan foresees effective adaptation measures, such as helping farmers by boosting the development of drought and pest-resistant crop varieties. The question is now how India can dovetail its existing actions with international cooperation in such a way that national development and the fight against climate change become two sides of the same coin.
India already benefits from international cooperation on climate change as a leading participant in a key mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol. The country globally ranks first in terms of the number of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects. Under the CDM, projects in developing countries can earn saleable certified emission reduction credits. Countries with an emission reduction commitment under the protocol can use these credits to cover a part of that commitment.
The current carbon market structures are a promising first step in the right direction. But in their present form, they are insufficient to meet the challenge of drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and need to be expanded. India could therefore now put forward proposals on how carbon market mechanisms could be considerably strengthened and scaled up.
The negotiating process of 2009 and the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen constitute a narrow window of opportunity that, if recognised and made the most of, could set the world on a path towards a truly green economy. India is ideally positioned to grasp the opportunities offered by the negotiating process and to help lead the rest of the world to an ambitious outcome in Denmark at the end of this year.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 5 Feb. 2009
The potential need for innovative solutions in environment expertise is universally recognised. In the future, environmental know-how and business will play a key role in solving environmental challenges. Clean technologies include all products, services, processes and systems which cause less harmful environmental impacts than their alternatives. They bring added value to clients while also contributing to reduction of adverse environmental impacts directly or through the value chain. Cleantech assists in increasing quality, profitability and eco-efficiency of the products, services and processes while also increasing well being.
Finland has launched a conquest of the global cleantech market. The Cleantech Finland is brand that unites the top Finnish cleantech companies and builds the country’s reputations as a leading cleantech country and the number one supplier of clean technology. Cleantech Finland is a guarantee not just for cutting-edge technology but also for efficient business practices.
“The global conquest of the Cleantech Finland branch has only just begun, but Finland has already come together to show a strong will to make clean technology one of the country’s strongest future footholds,” says Santtu Hulkkonen, executive director of Cleantech Finland.
Finland has been successful in breaking the fatal link between economic growth and environmental load, and is able to respond to one of the main challenges of sustainable development, i.e., fighting the climate change. The basis of this development lies in its instinct for applications of clean technology in products, production and business operations; including applications of modern automation, control and ICT technologies for cleaner production. Finland is speeding up on the way from a natural resources based economy headed by the basic industry to a knowledge-based economy where human capital play a larger role.
Finland has gained important reputation in several sector of the environmental business including, for example, energy intensive industrial processes and related automation, cogeneration of
heat and power, water and waste management and recycling. Finnish processes and process technologies for forest, metal and mining industries are imported throughout the world. One of the key factors of their success is the capability to use energy and resources more efficiently while reducing emissions and impacts of greenhouse gases. To respond to the challenges brought forth by tightening regulation and potential for cost savings, the Finnish environmental companies are continuously improving environmental compatibility and energy efficiency of the processes and operations. Thus, they can remain competitive in the fast growing global market.
The cooperation between Finland and India in the cleantech sector has great potential. Some of the most potential sectors, as recognised by Sitra (the Finnish Innovation Fund) may be found amongst the following:
All these sectors are critical to the sustainable development of India and Finnish cleantech companies can provide cutting-edge technology and knowhow to contribute to their development. Major Finnish cleantech companies such as Vacon, Wartsila, Ecocat, Vaisala and Ehovoc are already operating India. Many are yet to come, and new possibilities remain to be discovered.
Cleantech also plays a major role in the recently established new European Business and Technology Centre in New Delhi. Finpro, Finland Trade Centre will be responsible for the development of the cleantech sector in the Centre.
The future of India’s and Finland’s cooperation in the cleantech sector looks bright.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 5 Feb. 2009
Climate Change Could Be Even Worse Than Feared
It seems the dire warnings about future devastation sparked by global warming have not been dire enough, top climate scientists warned Saturday.
It has been just over a year since the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a landmark report warning of rising sea levels, expanding deserts, more intense storms and the extinction of up to 30 per cent of plant and animal species.
But recent climate studies suggest that report significantly underestimates the potential severity of global warming over the next 100 years, a senior member of the panel warned.
"We are basically looking now at a future climate that is beyond anything that we've considered seriously in climate policy," said Chris Field, who was a coordinating lead author of the report.
"Without effective action, climate change is going to be larger and more difficult to deal with than we thought."
Fresh data has shown that greenhouse gas emissions have grown by an average of 3.5 per cent a year from 2000 to 2007, Field told reporters at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
That's "far more rapid than we expected" and more than three times the 0.9 growth rate in the 1990's, he said.
While increased economic activity could have contributed to the growth in emissions, Field said it appears as though the bulk of the growth is "because developing countries like China and India saw a huge upsurge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal."
Further complicating the problem is that higher temperatures could thaw the Arctic tundra and ignite tropical forests, potentially releasing billions of tons of carbon dioxide that has been stored for thousands of years.
That could raise temperatures even more and create "a vicious cycle that could spiral out of control by the end of the century." "We don't want to cross a critical threshold where this massive release of carbon starts to run on autopilot," said Field, a professor of biology and of environmental Earth system science at Stanford University.
The amount of carbon that could be released is staggering. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution an estimated 350 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) have been released through the burning of fossil fuels.
The new estimate of the amount of carbon stored in the Arctic's permafrost soils is around 1,000 billion tonnes. And the Arctic is warming faster than any other part of the globe.
Several recent climate models have estimated that the loss of tropical rainforests to wildfires, deforestation and other causes could increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from 10 to 100 parts per million by the end of the century. The current level is about 380 parts per million.
"Tropical forests are essentially inflammable," Field said. "You couldn't get a fire to burn there if you tried. But if they dry out just a little bit, the result can be very large and destructive wildfires."
Recent studies have also shown that global warming is reducing the ocean's ability to absorb carbon by altering wind patterns in the Southern Ocean. Faster winds blow surface out of the way, causing water with higher concentrations of carbon dioxide to rise to the surface.
Sea levels are also rising faster than previously estimated as ocean temperatures warm and melting ice in mountain glaciers and at the poles flows into the ocean, warned Anny Cazenave, of France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales.
Fresh analysis using satellite imaging has shown that in the past 16 years, average sea levels have risen at a rate that is twice as fast as the last century: more than three millimeters a year.
Some regions have seen levels rise as much as one centimeter a year, Cazenave told reporters.
The expanding use of biofuels could also contribute to global warming because farmers are cutting down and burning down tropical forests to plant crops, said Holly Gibbs of Stanford University.
"If we run our cars on biofuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks," she warned.
The Asian Age (New Delhi), 16 Feb. 2009
Indian Industry Calls for New Global Financial and Technology Mechanisms to Fight Climate Change
Industry chamber FICCI has called for new financial and technology mechanisms to fight climate change. While a technology development fund can promote collaborative research and development for developing high cost technologies for reducing emissions, a publicly funded global venture fund can enable commercialisation of clean technologies, said the chamber in its new report, FICCI Climate Change Task Force Report (II).
The funds can enable the global climate change regime to build in provisions to help developing countries to have access to new technologies at competitive prices and provide the funding needed to enable these technologies penetrate a large scale market, added the report.
Another option, says the task force, is to develop technologies in developing countries and help facilitate transfer of technologies within developing countries. Such initiatives can enable developing countries like India play their role in the global climate change arena. “We need to be compensated for the additional costs that we incur in the process,” explained Prodipto Ghosh, chairman, FICCI Climate Change task Force, while releasing the report.
If funding is constrained, he added, the global IPR regime should be relaxed to promote transfer of technologies between countries/companies.
Besides, collaborative and co-operative R&D as well as sharing of IPRs should be encouraged with respect to technology development. Collaborative research and technology transfer should be pushed under government bilateral programmes.
The proposed global venture fund can also place IPRs for clean technologies needed to address climate change in the public domain, enable their compulsory licensing or provide for reduced IPR duration under the global climate change regime, suggested the FICCI climate
change report.
The role of the financial sector also needs to be revisited. It can be done by mainstreaming Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in the financial sector portfolio, coming up with modalities to suit the procedures of the domestic financial institutions, and capacity building of financial institutions to support project financing and risk assessment tools for carbon reduction projects, as well as by facilitating project identification for small and medium companies as aggregators in the market, said the report.
Besides, there is need to strengthen the CDM governance, ensure regulatory certainty, reduce transaction costs/project risks, make the CDM process simpler, timely and cost effective, enhance/broaden the coverage of CDM, enhance technology transfer through CDM and mobilise financing for CDM projects, said Amit Mitra, secretary-general, FICCI, during the launch of the report. “Our aim is to create an enabling environment to at least double: the number of CDM projects in India.”
The recommendations will be fed into the national climate change plan for the Cophenhagen climate change conference in December 2009, which will seek to establish the successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.
The Financial Express (New Delhi), 16 Feb. 2009
Eight Mission on Climate Change to Be Finalised Soon: Saran
The eight missions identified in the National Action Plan on Climate Change are being elaborated and the exercise is drawing to a close.
The missions are: National Solar Mission, National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, National Water Mission, National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, National Mission for a Green India, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, and National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change.
Talking to journalists here on Friday, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, Shyam Saran said comprehensive discussions were held with scientists, technologists, academia and the community representatives, including the non-governmental organisations, to consider their opinions also.
“The exercise is close to finalisation with the last meeting scheduled shortly following which the final draft would be prepared and placed before the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change,” Mr. Saran said.
Dismissing criticism that India was resisting calls by the developed countries to take on specific targets for the reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions, and thereby stalling any agreement at the international level, Mr. Saran said India had consistently favoured a fair and equitable outcome in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
Expecting an ambitious outcome at the 15th Conference of Parties at Copenhagen in December, Mr. Saran said as a developing nation, India would continue to be severely impacted by the climate change at a time when it is confronted with huge development imperatives. “We would expect the Copenhagen outcome to provide us with the space we require for accelerated social and economic development in order to eradicate widespread poverty.”
Further, Mr. Saran accused the developed nations of deviating from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on various pretexts, and said India had already declared that even as it pursued its social and economic development objectives, it would not allow its per capita emissions to exceed the average of the developed countries.
Appreciating the new recognition given to climate change by the U.S. President Barack Obama, who has announced a 10-year $150 billion Renewable Energy Initiative, Mr. Saran said the renewed focus on this sector fits very well into India’s strategy.
Investment in addressing climate change especially in renewable energy could create new industries, new jobs and spur technological innovation.
“Action on climate change must become
part of the solution to the financial and economic crisis,” he added.
The Hindu (New Delhi), 23 Feb. 2009
Poor Nations Shortchanged on Climate Pledges
Developing countries have received just 5-10 per cent of the money promised by rich nations to help them adapt to global warming.
The failure is fostering deep distrust between rich and poor nations and is undermining negotiations on a global climate deal. The world’s richest countries have together pledged nearly $18b in the past seven years, but despite world leaders’ rhetoric that the finance is vital, less than $900m has been disbursed and long delays are plaguing many funds.
Diplomats and U.N. climate talks negotiators have warned that a global agreement on climate change to succeed the Kyoto treaty is at risk if rich countries do not make the money available.
“It is poisoning the U.N. negotiations,” said Bernarditas Muller of the Philippines, chief negotiator for the G77 and China group of developing countries. “What [the rich countries] offer ... is derisory, the equivalent of one banker’s bonus.”
The analysis also found that the poorest countries have received the least help from the rich.
The analysis was based on data collected by the independent Overseas Development Institute in London and confirmed by the U.N. It found that: Britain has pledged nearly $1.5b but has so far deposited less than $300m.
Africa, the poorest continent, has received less than 12 per cent of all the climate fund money spent in the last four years. It can take poor countries more than three years to access money.
Most of the money promised for climate change comes out of official aid budgets, leaving less for health, education and poverty action.
The U.N. says $50b-$70b a year needs to
be invested immediately to help poor countries adapt to extreme weather events. “Contributions to funds have been disappointingly low and the least developed countries have received very little,” said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which oversees the talks. “Without significant finance you will not get developing country engagement.”
Rich nations have accepted their moral responsibility for climate change, and are legally obliged by the Kyoto Protocol to help poor countries pay to tackle climate change, but there is no enforcement or target. “The sums are ridiculously small and the whole system has broken down,” said Juan Lozano Ramirez, Colombia’s environment minister. “It is very risky for the U.N. negotiations and for mankind.”
So far, 12 rich countries, led by the U.K., Germany, Japan and the U.S., have pledged $6.1b to two climate investment funds administered by the World Bank. But no money has been deposited in them, and any money available will be in the form of loans, not grants.
The second big source of funds is the U.N., which through its financial arm, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), distributes nearly $250m a year to poor countries for climate change projects. Nearly one-third of the $760m distributed in the past three years has gone to China, India and Brazil. Less than $100m of this has gone to projects in the world’s 49 poorest countries.
Criticism centres on the GEF-administered Least-Developed Countries Fund (LDCF). In seven years, rich countries have deposited $172m, but only $47m has been disbursed. — (© Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009).
The Hindu (New Delhi), 23 Feb. 2009
Gujarat First State to Have Climate Change Department
The Narendra Modi government became the first state government in the country to set up a Department of Climate Change. The Chief Minister who made this announcement in the State Assembly said that the new department which shall initially be under him will prepare a comprehensive multidimensional policy on climate change of the state.
Underlining the steps already taken, Modi said that it was nevertheless necessary to comprehend possible impact of Climate Change in a manner so as to convert into an opportunity.” Gujarat thus becomes the first state in Asia and the fourth province in the world to have a dedicated department for global warming and climate change.
“By approving green credit movement we have gone a step ahead of carbon credits. Any new project would have to provide for protection of green cover in this green credit movement,” he added.
The chief minister pointed out that the state had already got 29 per cent share of the entire carbon credit earned by the country and said that the new department would act as a bridge between the government and society and help prepare a comprehensive climate change policy for the state besides undertaking detailed and extensive research and survey of the impact of climate change on coastal areas and the new challenges it is likely to pose to health and infrastructure facilities in the coastal areas. “We expect this department to become a nodal agency for turning green technology into a new economic driver by creation of extensive employment
opportunities,” he added.
Modi pointed out that educational curriculum on climate change would be prepared and introduced and universities would undertake introduction of new courses. “New technologies will be developed fore reducing GHG emissions in industries like cement, alkalis, chemicals and fertilizers and textiles and chemicals,” he added.
The Pioneer (Dehradun), 26 Feb. 2009
United on Climate Change: Obama's Chinese Revolution
Barack Obama is to invite China to join the United States in an effort by the world's two biggest polluters to stop global warming running out of control.
Hillary Clinton, his secretary of state, is to raise the prospect of a "strong, constructive partnership" to combat climate change on a visit to Beijing next week, and the president is seriously considering a proposal from many of his most senior advisers to hold a summit with the Chinese leadership to launch the plan.
Last week, China's ambassador to the U.S., Zhou Wenzhong, made it clear that his government would welcome "co-operation on energy and climate change" with the U.S. Such unprecedented teamwork would transform the world's prospects for agreeing radical measures to combat global warming, and – senior Obama administration officials believe – lay the foundation of a new relationship between the two most powerful countries in the world. For years, progress towards negotiating a new international climate change treaty has been bedevilled by the two superpowers, each refusing to commit itself to action unless the other goes first, and mutual suspicion has been growing. Between them, the US and China produce over 40 per cent of the world's emissions of carbon dioxide. About two years ago, China overtook the world's largest economy as the planet's biggest polluter. But Americans still emit more than four times as much of the gas per person as their Chinese counterparts.
Neither country has to reduce its emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. China, like other developing countries, is excused the reduction targets placed on industrialised nations. Former President George Bush rejected the treaty partly because of China's exemption.
The stand-off has dogged negotiations on a new, much tougher treaty as the US has been unwilling to agree to any targets until China commits itself to act on its emissions. China, for its part, has insisted the U.S. act first as it has made a far greater contribution to the crisis, spewing out more than three times as much carbon dioxide over the past two centuries.
The arrival of President Obama – and increasing concern about climate change within the Chinese leadership – has provided an unprecedented opportunity to break the deadlock.
Both, the president and Mrs. Clinton have made it clear that combating climate change is among their highest priorities, and top Chinese officials are now indicating that their government is ready to work with them. Both countries have included "Green New Deal" measures, amounting to scores of billions of dollars, in their stimulus packages.
Mrs. Clinton will visit Beijing for two days on 20 February, on her first overseas tour as secretary of state, with the climate and financial crises at the top of her agenda. Todd Stern, her special envoy for climate change, said last week; "Secretary Clinton is keenly aware that the United States, as the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases, and China, as the largest emitter going forward, need to develop a strong, constructive partnership to build the kind of clean energy economies that will allow us to put the brakes on global climate change. We need to put finger-pointing aside and focus on how our two leading nations can work together productively to solve the problem."
The Chinese ambassador to the US sounded much the same note and appealed to American commercial self-interest in helping his country tackle global warming. "Co-operation between our two countries on energy and environmental issues will enable China to respond to energy and climate change issues more effectively, while at the same time offering enormous business opportunities and considerable return to American investors," he said.
He was speaking at the Brookings Institution launch of one of two important reports on the prospects of a US-China partnership on climate and clean energy – published on Thursday by experts with enormous influence in the new White House – which both called on Mr. Obama to hold a summit with the Chinese leadership on the issue.
The Statesman (New Delhi), 10 Feb. 2009
Obama’s Green Drive May Benefit Indian Firms
When Barack Obama talked about harnessing the sun, wind and soil to fuel cars and run factories, a flicker of hope rekindled in the hearts of Indian entrepreneurs pursuing clean technology projects. There is optimism now that growth in the carbon sector could indeed pick up, leading to higher demand generation for carbon credits from India.
Obama has pledged to reduce America's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 80 per cent (below 1990 levels) by 2050. The new US president has laid out a comprehensive plan to invest in alternative and renewable energy projects which, over time, will not only improve US' image as a unrepentant polluter, but will also position it as a leading player in the climate change debate. President Obama also intends to introduce a market-based cap and trade system to meet these reduction targets. Any cap and trade system adopted by the Obama government should allow trade in CO2 offsets from developing countries, including India.
"While the government has not announced any caps yet, potentially two billion offsets can be traded annually in the US, with half of those coming from the developing world,'' said Vinay Bharathwaj, director, Green Ventures India.
With a probable price of $10 per CO2 offset,
this would make the offset market in the US worth $20 billion. Half of this is expected to open for the developing world. Thus, the climate change policy of Obama should potentially launch trade worth $10 billion in offsets from the developing world.
"India has already established its leadership in the field of carbon trade and is second only to China in the number of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects in the world. The opening of a new front in carbon trade in the US is good news for India and will open new opportunities for India in the field of carbon finance,'' said Bharathwaj. In addition to cap and trade, Obama's plan also includes, investing $150 billion over the next 10 years to catalyse private efforts to build a clean energy future, putting one million plug-in hybrid cars on the road by 2015 and ensuring that 10 per cent of electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012 (25 per cent by 2025).
According to Ram Babu, managing director, CantorCO2e India, even if a part of Obama's plans are implemented through the market mechanism route (cap and trade), it will lead to the doubling of the carbon market in a few years time.
The price at which certified emission reductions (CER) or carbon credits are traded remained unchanged at Euro 10 on Wednesday.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 23 Jan. 2009
Barack Obama’s Green Masterplan
When Barack Obama talked about harnessing renewables in his presidential address, he was summing up the agenda of his new green deal for an energy secure United States unveiled during his election campaign.
The New Energy for America plan provides for an investment of $150 billion over ten years to fuel private endeavours in clean energy, generate five million green jobs, do away with imports from the Middle East and Venezuela, generate 10 per cent electricity from renewables by 2012, deploy 1 million US-made plug-in hybrids by 2015, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 per cent by 2050 and make the US a leader on climate change.
Five millions new green jobs are sought to be created by not only generating 10 per cent of electricity from renewables by 2012, and 25 per cent by 2025, but also by focusing on energy efficiency, weatherising one million homes annually and developing and deploying clean coal technology.
US-based as well as Indian companies are upbeat about the business potential of the energy plan. DuPont is not only looking forward to the administration and Congressional efforts to stimulate the US economy and address short-term needs, such as job creation, but also long-term goals, such as creating energy security and reducing greenhouse gases. “Efforts to foster innovation that will lead to new technology solutions in the area of alternative energy are welcome,” says a DuPont spokesperson. The company with its diverse portfolio of products in markets such as solar energy, among others, is well-positioned to benefit from the stimulus package.
Indian companies share the optimism. Commenting on Obama’s plans, K. Subramanya, CEO, Tata BP Solar, says it will expand significantly the American market for renewable energy sources, including solar PV, which will in turn improve the prospects for Indian exports.
Subramanya adds, “America, as the world’s largest economy, has a demonstrative value for the rest of the world in terms of percolation effect.” As solar becomes more popular in the US, it is expected to catch on in the rest of the world helping expand market in countries like India, which will be accompanied by technological and new application development. Indian entities can benefit by entering into joint research, development and deployment of new renewable technologies, he explains.
He is not alone in thinking on those lines. Kamal Meattle, CEO, Paharpur Business Centre and Software Technology Incubator Park, says the US green deal means more research and a drop in the PV prices from $ 5 million/ MW to around $ 1 million/MW, thereby bringing it at par with coal-fuelled power plants. He adds, “More risk capital for ventures in the clean energy sectors will now be available to US firms and it is for Indian firms to tie up with them to share the benefits.”
Meattle is already doing it. His Green-Spaces project being constructed on the outskirts of Delhi is a flagship project for the Asia Pacific Partnership, which has the US as a partner along with India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, China and Canada. He is looking forward to support from the US administration for the project, which seeks to demonstrate the possibility of reducing energy use in green buildings by 75 per cent as compared to the conventional buildings.
At the heart of the US green agenda is the quest for energy security. It is sought to be achieved by improving fuel economy standards, formulating a low-carbon fuel standard, deploying 1 million US-made plug-in hybrids by 2015 and setting up $7,000 tax breaks for the purchase of advanced vehicle in a bid to do away with oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years.
Automakers have a big role to play here. Says Karl Slym, president and managing director, General Motors India, “GM is completely aligned to Obama’s vision for freedom from petroleum-based energy and is already in advanced stages of technology research and implementation to make it possible for the automobile.”
The automaker has been pursuing a multi-pronged strategy to displace petroleum through energy diversity, thereby reducing the dependence on fossil fuels and the environmental impact of the automobile. GM’s plans include, in the short term, to improve fuel efficiency of the conventional internal combustion engine, and in the longer term, develop viable technologies that include the electrification of the automobile, develop and deploy hydrogen fuel cell technology and conduct biodiesel research, he adds.
Indian automakers too have a cause to cheer the Obama plans. Chetan Kumaar Maini, deputy chairman and CTO, Reva Electric Car Company, says these policies will provide a tremendous boost for electric vehicles as well as technologies and components that go into such
vehicles. Over 50 per cent of the cost of an electric vehicle is due to batteries and electronics. Globally no country has a real early mover advantage and hence there is a fair level playing field. He adds, “India can take a lead by harnessing its R&D capabilities in hardware and software combined with a strong automotive component base to create new industries in electric vehicle technology areas.”
Importantly, the agenda aims to reduce 80 per cent greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with the help of a cap-and-trade programme. Says Vinod Kala, managing director, Emergent Ventures India, a climate change mitigation advisory firm, “It will kick-start investments not only in the US, but also worldwide. It will also create a large demand for carbon credits.”
Carbon trade will also get a boost if an international agreement on gradual but planned reduction targets for large emitting countries is achieved during the next round of climate change negotiations at Copenhagen by 2009-end. It will open up an international market for carbon credits, accelerating clean tech investment and financial flows to such countries. Opportunities for India and other developing countries are also likely to arise in outsourcing of transaction and research processes related to emission monitoring, accounting of greenhouse gases, triple bottom-line reporting, trading and carbon finance, he adds.
It’s only the beginning of the early days, though. Details about how the agenda will be pursued are still awaited. While it is very clear that more efforts will be made to harness renewable energy and to combat climate change, it is not clear how much of that effort would rely on market mechanisms and/or economic policy instruments, points out Ram Babu, managing director of CantorCO2e India, a carbon emission trading brokerage. “Carbon trade will get further push to the extent markets are relied on to address climate change mitigation.”
The new green deal is only a part of Obama’s change agenda. So, it will be also guided by how he implements his bigger action plan. Brushing aside apprehensions about a protectionist policy being pursued by the new administration, Ron Somers, president of US-India Business Council, says, “With the new US trade representative being pro-free trade, I am confident the Obama administration will not fall prey to protectionism but will forge an even stronger commercial and trade relationship with India.
The Financial Express (New Delhi), 26 Jan. 2009
Mapping Asia’s First Green Government
US President Barack Obama’s green call has found an early echo in the Himalayas, with the north Indian mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh becoming the first government in Asia in setting an administrative road map to being a carbon-free state.
Carbon emissions and resultant global warming cause 154,000 deaths annually, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) study at the turn of the millennium, with fatalities from malaria to malnutrition. Children in developing countries are expected to be worst affected and overall death are feared to double by 2020. India’s carbon and other greenhouse gas emission are ranked among the highest in the world, along with the USA, China, Russia, Japan and Germany.
In a proposed partnership with the US state of California that is known for landmark climate change law called the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, Himachal Pradesh’s “environment auditors” will keep carbon count of the functioning of all governmental departments. The state, that was once part of the ancient Central Asian trade routes to Tibet over the Shipki La mountain pass on the India China border, enjoys a progressive administration that Transparency International rates as one of the least corrupt in India. While much off India struggles dealing with the local police, Himachal Pradesh citizens can file a police complaint online.
The Himachal government’s green move is expected to produce cleaner lifestyle options for the six million residents of the state, in what is ironically already one of the most litter-free states in India. The popular Himachal tourist town of Manali, for instance, boasts a main street as clean as the proverbial whistle and offers a delightful visual contrast after the generally filthy, uncollected garbage across the nearby noisy eyesore of Uttar Pradesh, one of the dirtiest states in India.
Himachal had previously launched a series of environment protection measures such as the “Trans Himalayan Development Authority” to protect Himalayan ecology and to reduce damage from greenhouse gas emissions. The measures are expected to sustain the environment of the entire northern Indian region. In mid-January, the Himachal government announced an environment master plan “Policy and Strategy on Climate Change and Harnessing Carbon Credits”, with special focus on development projects, a critical area as the Himalayan region suffers from runaway land mafias and unplanned development often on encroached public-owned land. In September 2008, the Himachal government established a “Governing Council on Climate Change” and an Executive Council involving 21 governmental departments mandated to monitor the state implementing India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) or June 2008, an eight-mission plan – Solar Energy, Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Habitat, Conserving Water, Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, A Green India, Sustainable Agriculture, Strategic Knowledge Platform for Climate Change- announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
ensure that “India’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions would not exceed the per capita GHG emissions of developed countries”.
In October 2008, the Himachal Pradesh government announced a “green tax” on vehicle users to create a corpus fund for dealing with climate change, a first of its kind initiative in the country. Not surprisingly, Himachal topped the first Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) ranking, an index that the Centre for Development Finance, part of the Chennai-based Institute for Financial Management and Research, developed in December 2008 to rank, on a 1 to 100 scale, the environment performance of 28 Indian states and project their potential to protect the environment. Other Indian states and neighbouring countries could follow the Himachal carbon emission controlling route, more so as the state also expects its green map to earn US $2.27 billion from selling certified emissions reduction to the USA in carbon credit trading. Himachal’s Environment and Forest Minister I.P. Nadda told local media that 12,000 hectares has been made available for carbon credits. “A validator from World Bank is to verify that this land is available for only growing trees,” Nadda said. The overall greening of Himachal Pradesh has resulted in the state owing forest wealth at valued at over US $30.5 billion, estimates Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.
The Himachal government had also provided four energy-efficient CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) per family, as part of a $16.2 million project in a state that has a relatively rare achievement of having ensured electricity for all its 20,118 villages. In June 2004, Himachal Pradesh was also the first state in India to successfully ban the manufacture and use of small polythene bags, with about 20 government officials empowered to implement the ban. The new Himachal governmental’s plan also involves a new way of garbage disposal by civic bodies- Manali town, for instance, already has street cleaners more often seen swishing brooms during the day than anywhere else in India- and clearing debris of developmental work such as hydro-electric projects and bridge construction. Himachal has also approached year 2007 Nobel Laureate R.K. Pachauri, in his capacity as chairman of the United Nations Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, as part of strengthening its green governace template that the rest of pollution challenged Asian can use.
The Statesman (New Delhi), 30 Jan. 2009
Uttarakhand’s Flora Tell Tales of Global Warming
It’s winter but the hills of Uttarakhand appear to be suffused with the vibrant colours of spring. A feast to the eyes but, experts say, climactically it is not a very normal sign.
Forests across the region have begun turning leafy and colourful in winters in the recent years. Experts say the phenomenon of forests springing to life in the peak of winter is a cause for concern. They view it as a clear-cut sign of the Uttarakhand Himalayas beginning to bear the brunt of climatic changes occurring around the world due to global warming.
Signs of global warming, experts say, are now visible almost everywhere across Uttarakhand, be it the forests or the crop patterns.
One example is the rhododendron growing in the lower, mid and the higher reaches of Himalayas.
Known for their medicinal value, these have started flowering around three months before their natural flowering time. “There was a time not so long ago when rhododendron would begin flowering only after February. Now they can be seen flowering three months before the usual time,” said Dr. Jeet Ram, Head of the Forestry Dept., Kumaon University’s Th. Deb Singh Bisht Campus.
Significantly, horticultural crops, too, have been affected. “It is just the beginning of January and we have reports of pear trees flowering in different areas of this region. The normal flowering time of all kinds of fruit trees is spring,” said Y.P. Singh, district horticulture officer, Nainital.
Attributing premature flowering of fruit trees to global warming, Singh said the general rise in the atmospheric temperature of the Uttarakhand Himalayas has already taken a huge toll on the apple crop.
Consequently, around 20 per cent of the apple growers in that famous fruit belt have started growing peaches, said the official. The same goes for fruit growing regions like Dhari adjacent to the Ramgarh region.
Significantly, like horticulture, agriculture too is bearing the brunt of global warming. An example is there in Kotabagh area.
“As per reports, the wheat crop in the area has started bearing spikes of corn, while the process was never witnessed before February previously,” said Chief Agriculture Officer, Nainital, Abhay Saxena. Global warming, he said, has affected the crop pattern everywhere in the hills of Uttarakhand.
Hindustan Times (New Delhi), 3 Jan. 2009
Global Warming Threat Increased
An international team of climate experts has taken a new look at the threat of global warming, and they do not like what they see.
The Earth will not have to warm up as much as had been thought to cause serious consequences, including more extreme weather and increasing threats to plants and animals, the scientists report in this week’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that the risk of increased severe weather would rise with a global average temperature increase of between 1 degree Celsius and 2 degrees above 1990 levels.
The National Climatic Data Center currently reports that global temperatures have risen 0.12 degree since 1990.
Now, researchers report that “increases in drought, heat waves, and floods are projected in many regions and would have adverse impacts, including increased water stress, wildfire frequency, and flood risks starting at less than 1 degree of additional warming above 1990 levels.”
Tropical cyclones
Indeed, “it is now more likely than not that human activity has contributed to observed increases in heat waves, intense precipitation events, and the intensity of tropical cyclones,” concluded the researchers led by Joel B. Smith of Stratus Consulting Inc.
Other researchers, they noted, have suggested that “the likelihood of the 2003 heat wave in Europe, which led to the death of tens of thousands of people, was substantially increased by increased greenhouse gas concentrations.”
The new report comes just a week after Christopher Field of the Carnegie Institution for Science told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science that humans are now adding carbon to the atmosphere even faster than in the 1990s.
Carbon emissions have been growing at 3.5 per cent per year since 2000, up sharply from the 0.9 per cent per year in the 1990s, Field said. The new study says there is new evidence of greater vulnerability to climate change for specific populations, such as the poor and elderly, in not only developing but also developed countries.
The Hindu (New Delhi), 26 Feb. 2009
It's like wearing white clothing outdoors in a hot climate. The light colour reflects electromagnetic radiation, including light and radiant heat, and keeps the body cool. Wearing a dark suit under a searing midday sun only absorbs more sunlight resulting in the body getting hotter. As Arctic ice, for instance, melts and is replaced by darker water, the region's warming is expected to accelerate. It's known as the albedo effect and now, scientists at the University of Bristol in the UK have come up with a strategic farming proposal to utilise it by planting varieties of crops that reflect more light back into space in order to reduce global warming.
Their study, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that by choosing from among existing crop varieties their best estimate for how much solar reflectivity might be increased leads them to predict that summer-time temperatures could be reduced by more than 1 degree Celsius throughout much of central North America and mid-latitude Eurasia. This would be welcome relief for regions which are forecast to suffer dangerous heat waves in the coming century at very little cost. Ultimately, further cooling of climate could be achieved through selective breeding of plants with even greater reflective properties than those now available or by genetically modifying crop plants to optimise their albedo.
However, while it's true that the continuing lack of international agreement in limiting carbon
dioxide emissions is driving the state of the climate system closer to suspected points of catastrophic ecosystem disruption, a wholesale modification of farm practice should be undertaken with caution. Since we have no idea what kind of disruption this may itself cause, perhaps it might be more mature to test the idea on smaller turfs first.
Besides, there are other similar but less risky alternatives that could also be considered. One scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, US, has suggested painting roads and the rooftops of buildings white. That's an excellent idea because dark roofs reflect about 10-20 per cent of sunlight, while white surfaces tend to send back at least half. It's a non-biological albedo modification technique and, if enough of the world's dark urban landscape could be lightened up, it would not only delay global warming but grant precious breathing space in the struggle to control carbon emissions.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 23 Jan. 2009
Every success is embedded with failure. A sharp decline in crude prices has undoubtedly dampened inflationary pressures. In most countries it has also given more fiscal space for governments to pursue contra-cyclical measures to boost growth. One unwanted consequence is the encouragement of excessive use of fossil fuel and recalcitrance of governments to commit money for research and development on renewable forms of energy. In the United States, hybrid fuel vehicle sales in November shrank 53 per cent compared to a year ago. This is not surprising considering that petrol prices, which had climbed to $4 a gallon last spring now average at about $1.6.
This is equally true of India where prices of petrol and diesel are progressively coming down. Will this mean a slackening of effort and commitment on climate change? Market forces are no doubt pulling in the opposite direction. Any let-up in our efforts would have disastrous consequences for the future of the planet. Lower crude and food prices may be transient but the damage to the planet will be permanent and irreversible. Preventing this slide back needs concerted action in several directions.
First and foremost, there is a need for heightened awareness. The message that there is now incontrovertible scientific evidence that global temperatures are rising and that the atmospheric overload of carbon is blocking radiation which affects life as we have led needs wider dissemination. Further, it must be said loud and clear that this change is anthropogenic in nature, rising out of increased human activity which is perhaps 100 times more than what it was at the start of the industrial era. Jeffrey Sachs, in his book Common Wealth-Economics for a Crowded Planet attributes this to a vastly increased commandeering of the Earth's physical resources for human consumption. In fact, over 50 per cent of the Earth's photosynthetic potential is now directly appropriated for human use.
Second, parliamentarians and state legislators involved in the awareness campaign must be enlisted and their cooperation secured to craft better laws that seek tighter enforcement and foster greater understanding. In this context the Speaker of the Indian Parliament recently took an important initiative by constituting a Parliamentary Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change. The broad-based membership of the forum cuts across party lines and could create a political compact on many national issues that have an international footprint.
This forum is expected to seek the engagement of experts, national and international bodies, which could enhance the quality of debate in the Parliament and our public sphere. It will interact with similar bodies in the EU, Japan and the United States' Congressional Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change. This would help in better understanding the replacement arrangements for the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol, the only global treaty so far on emission controls, runs out in 2009 and unless governments reach an agreement by the end of this year there is little chance that the treaty can be ratified before 2012 when the present protocol runs out. The recent meeting on climate change in Poznan, Poland, on the broad parameters of the new international agreement unfortunately met with limited success. Sharp differences persisted on concomitant obligations of developed and developing countries on burden sharing, intermediate and final targets on emission reversals.
The parliamentary forum is also expected to engage with experts for a better appreciation of policy design to mitigate damage and adapt in the least disruptive way to the consequences of climate change. Of course, mitigation and adaptation require varied approaches. Mitigation involves consideration of energy policies, the trade-off between fossil fuel and non-conventional energy, avoiding technologies which are energy intensive, fostering urbanisation patterns with lower carbon footprints while designing newer cities, and restructuring the farming and animal husbandry industries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
On the other hand, non-disruptive adaptations entail dealing with rising sea levels and tidal surges, changing farming habits and cropping patterns tolerant to a rise in temperatures, dealing with the consequences of glacial retreat and better management of our river systems. Domestic action in India will necessitate pragmatism and acknowledge that economics of incentive, rather
than a reliance on altruism, would be more effective. Engagement of states by the central government to design incentives would be crucial. Studies on black carbon and atmospheric brown clouds have relevance for India as carbon soot is largely produced through use of animal waste, wood and biofuels. Third, emerging international negotiations mandate innovation and sophistication for which parliamentary engagement would be necessary. While we may not be a major contributor to the "stock of pollution" we are fast becoming a major contributor to the "flow of pollution" given our growth trends. There is a need for differential and differentiated obligations rather than total exemption.
An issue like climate change spans multiple sciences even though decision-making is embedded in the politics of change. The newly constituted parliamentary forum could seek to alter the climate of opinion. Getting parliamentarians to work on climate change serves this important objective of public policy.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 24 Jan. 2009
IT is not power plants, not air travel or too many cars, not just larger energy demands but the the larger number of people making the demands that has tipped the balance and pushed the Earth into what may be a spiral of warming.
Back in 1800, the population of the world was still below one billion (it reached that figure in 1802 and it is now seven billion). But in 1800, the population was low, machines and steam power had been discovered, there was only hope for the future with no reason to fear overcrowding. In fact, even India and China did not really wake up to the problem of over-population till the late 20th century.
Still, Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) had the vision to see that population growth would one day outstrip the capacity of the Earth to feed its occupants.
While Malthus also spoke of the tendency of scarce “means of subsistence” to be cornered by the richer classes in a growing population, the basic work was that the addition to the population itself increased when the population increased. The increase in food supplies, on the other hand, depended on farm inputs, etc. and these tended to decrease rather than increase as food production increased.
The dependence of the rate of increase on the population itself, as happens in compound interest, is called exponential growth. A handy rule to help calculations in exponential growth is the rule of 70 — that the population will double in 70 years if the growth is one per cent per annum, or in 35 years if the growth is two per cent per annum, etc. Now suppose two persons (a husband and wife) were to have three children by the time they were 40 years old — there is an increase (of reproductive people) from two to three, or 50 per cent, in 40 years. This is growth of 50/40 = 1.25 per cent per annum. According to the rule of 70, this implies doubling of the population every 70/1.25=56 years. This implies quadrupling in 112 years and is not far off from an increase of seven times in 200 years, if we take into account the effect of disease, wars and the very approximate nature of our calculation.
Rate of production
The Malthusian catastrophe refers to the runaway increase in population, which would outstrip the means of production of food. The great power for increased production and distribution that the industrial revolution enabled was considered by many to be the answer to Malthus’ grim prediction — that he had not counted for the ingenuity of mankind in increasing production to match demand.
The history of the world during the last 200 years has then been a drive to prove Malthus wrong — to produce so much and so well that all want is eliminated — and the so-called improvements in the quality of life through travel, housing and heating of cities during the winter has all the while caused the increase in population to march on.
The simple arithmetic of Malthus was probably answered by creating higher increases in production through technology and human effort, but what got left out of the reckoning was the capacity of the earth to sustain such unrestrained growth. The graph shows that the use of energy, particularly of coal and petroleum, the major sources, has increased dramatically since around 1800.
Global warming
The world is now coming to grips with what this has done to the environment — the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere, rising temperatures, melting of polar ice — and all that follows. There is massive investment in “green” technology, international protocols on containing emissions, public awareness programmes — but any reduction in the rate of emissions is not apparent.
The answer is clearly not in emission control alone. Even new, emission-free technology in a few fields may not help if the population keeps increasing. It seems there has to be a concerted population control strategy and the reduction of demands on the environment. Political and social devices need to be developed to restrain the urge of people with enough to eat to reproduce. Malthus had said that the tendency of populations is to increase. The demand now is to reverse this — to make the population shrink!
Even if some strategy or evangelism could make this happen, there would be demographic and political changes that would need managing too. The vast majority of the world’s population is of young people. They would live a long time. If births were restrained while this continued, the work force would steadily grow older — with changes in requirements and capacity. Trade lines and frontiers would be altered. And this would be apart from the changes in topography and population distribution that the climatic changes would cause in the coming century.
The Statesman (New Delhi), 26 Jan. 2009
Web Searches Wreck the Environment
Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea, according to new research.
While millions of people tap into Google without a thought for the environment, a typical search generates about 7g of carbon dioxide. Boiling a kettle generates about 15g. “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power,” said Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard University physicist whose research on the environmental impact of computing is due out soon. “A Google search has a definite environmental impact.”
Google is secretive about its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also refuses to divulge the locations of its dozens of data centres. However, with more than 200 million internet searches estimated globally every day, the level of electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions caused by computers and the internet is provoking concern.
A recent report by Gartner, the industry analysts, said the global IT industry generated as much greenhouse gas as the world’s airlines — about 2 per cent of global CO2 emissions. “Data centres are among the most energy-intensive facilities imaginable,” said Evan Mills, a scientist
at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Banks of servers storing billions of web pages require power both to run and cool them.
Though Google says it is in the forefront of green computing, its search engine generates high levels of CO2 because of the way it operates. When you type in a Google search for, say, “energy saving tips”, your request doesn’t go to just one server.
It goes to several competing against each other. It may even be sent to servers thousands of miles apart.
Wissner-Gross has also calculated the CO2 emissions caused by individual use of the internet. His research indicates that viewing a simple website page generates about 0.02g of CO2 per second. This rises about tenfold to about 0.2g of CO2 a second when viewing a website with complex images, animations or videos.
A separate estimate from John Buckley, managing director of carbonfootprint.com, a British environmental consultancy, puts the CO2 emissions of a Google search at between 1g and 10g, depending on whether you have to start your PC or not. Simply running a PC generates between 40g and 80g of CO2 per hour, he says.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 13 Jan. 2009
The country’s first carbon dioxide exchange tower has been set up in the Lamachaur forest area of Haldwani.
To measure the carbon dioxide exchange between the vegetation pool and the atmosphere, the Dehradun-based Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) installed the country’s first carbon dioxide measurement exchange tower.
Being installed in collaboration with an Italian university, the exchange will provide important data regarding the eco-system exchange needed to draft policies on environment.
"This is the country’s first carbon dioxide measurement tower. Such towers exist in big numbers in western countries,” said V.K. Dadhwal, dean with the IIRS.
There are around 600 such towers in the world, out of which 400 are showing excellent results.
The Haldwani tower is equipped with four types of sensors which monitor the degree of carbon dioxide, solely responsible for global warming. The IIRS would subsequently study various issues related to global warming and climate change.
“The institute wants to install more such towers,” said V.K. Dadwal. He said another such tower was planned for Barkot in Rishikesh. Outside Uttarakhand, a tower is scheduled to be set up in
Madhya Pradesh to study the carbon dioxide exchange in teak forests. The institute has been working for carbon estimation and plans setting up similar towers at a few places in Dehradun.
States with huge forest areas have been demanding compensation for their forest wealth which they say is keeping the environment healthy?
The Tribune (Chandigarh), 5 Feb. 2009
Pronouncements on climate change policies by multilateral organisations and industrial countries at the recent Delhi Summit on Sustainable Development will prove far from reassuring for emerging economies. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told an interviewer that climate change was “by far the most urgent and serious existential threat for all humanity... the whole international community must act together... Therefore I would sincerely appeal to the Indian government to really engage in in-depth negotiations. This year, we have only ten months left [before the UN renegotiates climate change policies at Copenhagen in December].”
In a video conference from the US, Senator John Kerry, who now chairs the Foreign Relations Committee and guides the US plan to combat climate change, said the US Congress would not ratify any greenhouse gas emission reduction target unless economies like India and China agreed to cap their own emissions at some level, at some point in the future. India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, he added, is “notably lacking in any fixed commitments and time-lines” on capping its greenhouse gas emissions.
While everybody is watching how the Obama administration re-engages with the world on the global environmental crisis, the European Commission has recently demanded that economies like India and China should be prescribed mandatory targets. It specifies that their emissions should be lowered by 15-30 per cent below business-as-usual levels by 2020. China overtook the US to become the world’s largest emitter in 2007; India is fourth, and may overtake Russia by 2015 as the third. However, per capita emissions in these developing countries are far lower — India’s being a tonne of carbon dioxide per person per year, as against 20 tonnes per American.
The EU has fired another broadside by expecting rapidly developing countries to fund their own domestic mitigation policies and was prepared to commit 30 billion euros (Rs 1.9 trillion) per year to help poorer countries only after 2020. This is condemnable, considering that industrial countries have, over 200 years, built up global warming gases in the atmosphere, which is now impacting the poorest in all developing countries. There is an exact parallel here with the global financial crisis that the US has caused, and is prepared to spend upwards of $800 billion to mitigate at home, but, as Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University observed in Delhi, is not sparing a penny for the rest of the world.
This is not the end of the story. The EU has also recommended that “advanced developing countries” should no longer be entitled to seek recourse in the Clean Development Mechanism, which will be renegotiated in Copenhagen. Under this Kyoto Protocol provision, industrial countries can pay developing countries to reduce carbon emissions at a lower price than the purchasers would incur domestically. India has the largest number of such projects, while China has the biggest in value. It also wants these countries to adopt emission curbs on “key emitting sectors” — read industries like steel, cement and aluminium — where they obviously have a competitive advantage.
In Delhi, several speakers called for market-based instruments and technological innovation to cope with the climate crisis. They forget that Nicholas Stern, who submitted his path-breaking report on the economics of climate change three years ago, characterised the phenomenon as the biggest market failure in history. One cited the World Bank’s experience in promoting the private sector to produce energy more efficiently, forgetting that the bank has increased its lending for fossil fuel-based projects in developing countries ten-fold in relation to renewable energy projects.
The one market instrument that had few takers in Delhi is the carbon tax. McKinsey has calculated that at 60 euros a tonne of carbon dioxide, this would yield sufficient revenues to meet the costs of mitigation, just 1-2 per cent of world GDP. Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is working on such a tax. As Sachs pointed out, if the rich countries didn’t agree to this tax, “everything else is mere words”. However, there is a catch here too. Countries will retain this revenue for domestic use, although the damage caused by emissions is global.
Speakers referred to a Green Deal or a new Marshall Plan for the massive transfer of resources for developing countries to tackle climate change. Development, someone said in Delhi, was the best form of adaptation.
However, rich countries are reneging on their aid commitments. At Gleneagles, the G8 had promised to double the aid to Africa, the poorest continent. But this has not materialised. Last June, the $12 billion promised in Rome to combat world
hunger proved to be a mere photo-op. On the contrary, countries like France and Italy have reduced aid. Only Scandinavian countries have proved exemplary in meeting the target of 0.7 of GDP as aid, with Norway reaching 1 per cent. The US provides 0.16 per cent.
Hindustan Times (New Delhi), 18 Feb. 2009
Saving the planet was never going to be easy. Avoiding the most catastrophic effects of climate changes will require cutting carbon emissions by 50 to 80 per cent over the next four decades, scientists say.
After years of deadlock, 2009 was shaping up to be the year the world got its environmental act together. Now it's looking like the global environment may be one of the biggest losers in the current financial crisis.
Lower prices for oil—which some analysts predict will hit $25 a barrel—is bad news for investors in green energy. But the big winner is likely to be dirty coal. It already accounts for about 40 per cent of the world's emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading cause of global warming. The fuel is plentiful, and its price has fallen about one third since last summer's peak to $80 per ton. In China, the world's largest coal burner, prices have fallen by half and are likely to plummet further. All the top emitters of greenhouse gases depend mainly on coal for electric power. Dirty coal is now getting cheaper relative to other fossil fuels, such as natural gas and oil.
New "clean coal" plants would capture carbon and store it away underground, or at least to extract as much energy as possible for each kilogram of carbon pollution. The problem is that clean-coal plants are a lot more expensive than conventional "dirty coal" technology, and the financial crisis is obliterating schemes that would have paid the extra cost.
There are lots of ways, in theory, to build low-emission power plants. One option is to turn coal into a gas and burn it in an ultra-efficient turbine. This "gasification" approach is not only highly efficient but it also produces nearly all of its carbon dioxide pollution in a concentrated stream that could be pumped safely underground, where it won't warm the atmosphere. So far, few investors are building plants that offer a model for how the technology would be deployed at scale. Before the crisis, a few power companies tried to build just the efficient gasification units, which are cheaper than the whole integrated plant, but most of those plans have evaporated in the last month. Only one large plant is still going forward in the United States, and that one won't include carbon storage.
Another route is to burn coal in pure oxygen without gasification, which also yields pure waste that can be pumped underground. A 30-megawatt demonstration plant is operating in Germany. A consortium of utilities is also testing a technology to remove CO2 from plant emissions, but no investor is willing yet to build a full-scale project. These options could double or triple the cost of a power plant. A 300-megawatt plant that cut emissions nearly 90 per cent would cost $1 billion to $2.5 billion. The European Union has no money for its plan to build a dozen "zero-emission plants." The price of CO2 in Europe is too low to attract investors to this technology.
Environmentalists, in their opposition to coal of any kind, may provide the coup de grâce. Greenpeace, riffing on James Bond, is hawking a "Coalfinger" spoof on the Internet and is deep in a campaign to stop all new coal plants. U.S. environmental groups recently announced a campaign to expose clean coal as a chimera. Thanks to such efforts, in the United States it's now nearly impossible to build any kind of coal plant, including tests of clean technology. As the world economy recovers, nations will once again turn to their old stalwart, dirty coal.
Victor, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is professor of law at Stanford Law School and director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development. RAI is research fellow and leader of the Stanford program's research on carbon storage.
The Indian Express (New Delhi), 11 Jan. 2009
Oil Major to Become Carbon Neutral Soon
Energy major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has planned an elaborate programme to become carbon neutral in coming years.
The corporation has set specific targets to achieve organisation-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting by 2011, as GHG certificate is a pre-requisite to be carbon neutral.
Being carbon neutral or having zero-carbon foot print means achieving net zero carbon emission by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequester (storing carbon-dioxide in a solid material through biological or physical processes) or offset.
CMD of ONGC, R.S. Sharma said, “ONGC will spearhead corporate action to mitigate climate change, leading to zero carbon footprint-a commitment for a green society.”
Sharma is also heading the Indian chapter of United Nation’s Global Compact formed to consolidate- corporate action to advance universal values about human rights, environment, labour standards and anti-corruption.
ONGC’s highest policy making body has approved a set of measures with timelines to reduce carbon emission across all field activities of the company, which is being adopted as a mission on carbon neutrality by ONGC.
During GHG accounting, emission
inventory of oilfield installations like rigs and platform would be calculated, based on which field-specific targets for GHG emission reduction will be drawn up.
This would be followed by engineering interventions to improve energy and carbon efficiency including energy audits at the installations. The organisational systems and processes would be reoriented to maintain the GHG accounting protocol.
Being carbon neutral would also help ONGC improve its operational processes in terms of energy efficiency and adoption of better technology, leading to better business economics.
Hindustan Times (New Delhi), 20 Jan. 2009
US Industry Leaders Ask for Emission Limits
Business and environmental leaders last week asked Congress to enact a mandatory timeline for slowing and eventually reversing the growth of greenhouse gas emissions.
The blueprint advanced by a consortium known as the US Climate Action Partnership includes a mandatory cap-and-trade system, under which oil refineries, power plants and other industrial operations could stay within federal limits for greenhouse gas emissions by buying and selling allowances to release pollutants.
Polluters would have to meet new limits for greenhouse gas emissions, which would be capped at 58 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030 and 20 per cent of 2005 levels by 2050.
The incoming Obama administration backs a cap-and-trade approach with more aggressive curbs on emissions, and Democratic leaders in Congress have promised to quickly advance broad energy and climate change legislation.
Corporate leaders who believe stepped-up greenhouse gas regulation is inevitable are eager to play a big role in shaping whatever Congress is developing. “It is critical we know the rules of the road of climate change as soon as possible,” said James Rogers, the CEO of Duke Energy Corp, a major electricity distributor operating in North Carolina, Ohio and Indiana. “Regulatory uncertainty is postponing investment.”
The two-year-old coalition of business and environmental groups outlined their proposal in testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is writing climate-change legislation. The group includes five environmental groups and 26 businesses, including such corporate giants as General Electric Co., PG&E Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Dow Chemical Co.
ConocoPhillips, B.P. America Inc., and Shell, which have US headquarters in Houston, are the major petroleum companies in the consortium. Other US petroleum producers, such as Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp., favour a carbon tax instead of cap-and-trade.
Henry Waxman, the energy and commerce committee chairman, said the companies are now “caught in a dilemma.” “They are reluctant to invest in old polluting technologies, because they know that tougher regulations are inevitable, but they can’t invest in new, cleaner technologies until they know what Congress is going to require,” Waxman said.
Under the economy-wide cap-and-trade programme envisioned by the consortium, the pollutant limits would apply to greenhouse gas emissions from large stationary sources that burn coal, natural gas, petroleum or other fossil fuels that emit pollutants.
Polluters could trade and sell allowances to stay within the emissions limits. For example, companies that exceed the caps could purchase allowances from businesses that pollute less and do not use their entire allotment. The USCAP plan also would allow businesses to offset some of their emissions in return for helping other countries cut their polluting.
A new Carbon Market Board would be tasked with setting annual limits on the amount of these offsets firms could use. The plan drew criticism from conservatives because it would lead to slower economic growth and higher energy costs.
“By design, a cap-and-trade works by increasing energy costs and slowing growth,” said representative Fred Upton (Republican-Michigan). “We can’t afford that situation.”
Representative Joe Barton, Republican-Texas, ran through a sobering roll call of the declining stock prices for business leaders in the coalition—and predicted that any move during a recession to clamp down on emissions would lead to further economic declines.
“You cannot tell me that if we adopt one of their principles of a mandatory cap-and-trade programme on carbon dioxide emissions... that it’s going to help their stock prices,” Barton said. He warned against doing “things to lessen carbon dioxide regardless of the economic consequences.”
Representative Gene Green (Democrat-Texas) was wary that a cap-and-trade approach would provide the economic certainty that industry and investors crave. Green said he had “concerns” that the prices for emission allowances would be too volatile under a cap-
and-trade programme.
“With a cap-and-trade (programme), it’s always trading... as compared to just a straight-up carbon tax,” which would be consistent, Green said.
Representative Jan Schakowsky (Democrat-Illinois) complained that the proposed emission limit—an 80 per cent reduction of 2005 levels—was “inadequate.” Instead, she said, Congress should seek an 80 per cent cut of 1990 levels.
The Financial Express (New Delhi), 26 Jan. 2009
Sometimes it is worth looking at the big picture. That is the idea behind monitoring greenhouse gases from space. In January, the Japanese space agency, JAXA, launched Ibuki, the first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide and methane. Later this month the American space agency, NASA, is due to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), which is also designed to monitor carbon dioxide.
The new satellites will work as carbon accountants by keeping a close eye on how the Earth breathes and returning regular audits. Ibuki, which means ‘breath’ in Japanese, orbits the Earth approximately every 100 minutes at an average altitude of 667 km. It will gather data from 56,000 points around the globe with two detectors. One is a spectrometer that measures sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface. Both carbon dioxide and methane absorb energy from sunlight and both leave a unique signature that can be measured to detect changes in intensity. JAXA says Ibuki can detect carbon-dioxide changes of around one part per million, which is akin to detecting the change in salinity produced by four drops of salt water in a 200-litre bathtub of water. The second detector takes readings of clouds and other aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere that can reflect or absorb radiation.
OCO will similarly study carbon dioxide and also oxygen signatures in reflected sunlight. It will fly at an average altitude of 705 km and orbit the Earth about every 99 minutes. Once launched, OCO will form part of a loose group of American satellites called the ‘A-train’. These carry instruments that complement one another in helping to provide a fuller picture of the Earth’s carbon and water.
With the additional data that the satellites provide, researchers hope finally to shed light on the Earth’s complicated carbon cycle. The concentration maps produced by Ibuki and OCO will help in understanding
where carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere and where it gets absorbed. Today, most big man-made carbon-dioxide emitters, such as a large power station, are known about and their outputs are measured. But there are global phenomena, such as forest fires, where the carbon-dioxide contributions are not fully understood. There are also some ecosystems, such as the boreal forests of Canada and Siberia and the Amazon rainforest, which are huge absorbers of carbon dioxide, but which are changing rapidly because of temperature increases and deforestation.
Researchers think that the carbon cycle turns over about 330 billion tonne of carbon dioxide each year. Oceans absorb about half this. Earth-based measurements suggest there is a large unaccounted-for surface ‘sink’ of atmospheric carbon dioxide, but its location is fiercely debated. The reason for this is the paucity of data over the tropics, where many of world’s dense (and highly inaccessible) rainforests are situated. The satellites will be able to look in detail there.
Although these data will not be as accurate as those taken on the ground, what they lack in precision will be more than made up for in coverage. It is believed that atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentrations have increased from about 280 parts per million to around 370 parts per million since the start of the Industrial Revolution. How much of this is because of human action is still a matter of conjecture, but it is widely accepted to be significant.
Ibuki and OCO should provide a better idea of what happens to carbon dioxide once it is produced. Some researchers, such as Paul Palmer at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, think satellites could also monitor the effect of policies such as carbon trading to see if they can rein in emissions. The new birds really would then become carbon accountants.
The Financial Express (New Delhi), 23 Feb. 2009
क्लाइमेंट चेंज और ग्रामीण विकास की चुनौती
भारत डोगरा
इसमें संदेह नहीं है कि ग्लोबल वॉर्मिंग और क्लाइमेंट चेंज हमारी पृथ्वी के लिए बड़ी समस्यांए हैं, पर कोई इस बारे में ज्यादा चिंतित नजर नहीं आता कि ये बदलाव दूरदराज के गांवों में किसानों, मजदूरों व आदिवासियों की जिंदगी, उनकी रोजी-रोटी और टिकाऊ विकास की संभावनाओं पर क्या और कैसा असर डाल रहे हैं। यह चर्चा भी ज्यादा नहीं होती कि इन कारणों से विकट होती आजीविका और पोषण की नई समस्याओं से जूझने के लिए क्या तैयारी हो सकती है और समाधान मिल सकते हैं।
पिछले अरसे में यूपी के बुंदेलखंड इलाके में सूखे का प्रकोप होने की खबरें आई हैं। पता चला है कि करीब पांच वर्षों से वहां मौसम बहुत प्रतिकूल चल रहा है। इस दौरान बुंदेलखंड के सभी 13 जिलों में वर्षा सामान्य औसत से काफी कम रही और विभिन्न महीनों में उसका वितरण भी असामान्य रहा। जिस समय खेतों को बारिश की खास जरूरत थी, उसी समय वर्षा बुंदेलखंड से रूठ गई। लेकिन जब फसल पक कर तैयार खड़ी थी, उस समय वर्षा, आंधी और ओलावृष्टि ने तबाही मचा दी। सिर्फ वर्षा ही नहीं, हाल के वर्षों में मौसम कई महत्वपूर्ण संदर्भों में बदला है।
देखने में आया है कि गेहूं जैसे महत्वपूर्ण अनाज की फसल सामान्य से ज्यादा गर्मी होने के कारण अधिक तेजी से परिपक्व होती है। यानी उसका तना तो तेजी से बढ़ जाता है, पर उसमें ठीक से फलियां (टिलर) नहीं निकलतीं, दाने ठीक से नहीं जमते। इस तरह गेहूं का कमजोर उत्पादन होता है। खेतों में कई बार भरपूर हरियाली तो नजर आती है, पर वास्तविक उत्पादन बेहद कम होता है। बुंदेलखंड में कई साल तक तो हालात इतने प्रतिकूल रहे कि बहुत सी धरती बिना बोई ही रह गई।
इसी इलाके में वनों पर निर्भर रहने वाले आदिवासियों के मुताबिक हाल के दौर में महुआ, आंवला, चिरौंजी, तेंदू पत्ते आदि लघु वन उपजों में उल्लेख्नीय कमी आई है। अकाल जैसे हालात में पोषण की कमी दूर करने वाले कई कंद-मूल तो अब मिल ही नहीं रहे हैं। महुआ, पलाश जैसे महत्वपूर्ण वृक्षों में फूल लगने का समय बदल गया है। या फूल बहुत कम नजर आ रहे हैं। चरागाहों व चारे की उपलब्धि पर बहुत प्रतिकूल असर पड़ा है, पशुओं की संख्या में कमी आई है और दुग्ध उत्पादन कम हुआ है। मनुष्य और पशुओं दोनो के लिए पेयजल का संकट बढ़ा है।
मौसम में जिस तरह के बदलाव यहां देखे गए हैं, उनका असर सामान्य सूखे की स्थिति से कहीं अधिक व्यापक व दूरगामी है। कृषि वैज्ञानिकों ने यहां वर्षा, तापमान व नमी (ह्युमिडिटी) सभी में महत्वपूर्ण बदलावों के संकेत पाए हैं। इस तेजी से बदलती स्थिति को विश्वव्यापी जलवायु बदलाव के संकट से जोड़ने पर आसानी से समझा जा सकता है।
जाहिर है, जलवायु परिवर्तन के असर बड़े गहरे हैं, इसलिए जरूरी है कि आजीविका की रक्षा और पर्यावरण के संरक्षण के बीच तालमेल बनाने वाले कार्यक्रम अपनाए जाएं। इस तरह के अनिश्चित मौसम के दौर में किसान ऋणग्रस्त नहीं हों, इसके लिए ऐसी सस्ती तकनीकों से उत्पादकता बढ़ाने का प्रयास करना चाहिए, जिनसे किसानों पर बोझ न पड़े। सरकार से अपेक्षा है कि वह जल व नमी संरक्षण के कार्य के लिए पर्याप्त संसाधन उपलब्ध करवाए और ग्रामीण रोजगार गारंटी योजना के तहत जिले व पंचायत स्तर पर ऐसे विकास कार्य करवाए।
नमी व जल संरक्षण के साथ ही वृक्षारोपण व हरियाली बढ़ाने, चरागाह सुधारने के प्रयासों को बड़े पैमाने पर और पूरी तैयारी के साथ करना चाहिए। इसके अलावा कई छोटे, पर महत्वपूर्ण उपायों की भी जरूरत है। जैसे, वृक्षारोपण करने से कई महीने पहले से ही उचित स्थान का चुनाव हो जाए, गड्ढे बनाने आदि की तैयारी कर ली जाए। परंपरागत जल-स्त्रोतों के उचित रखरखाव पर ध्यान दिया जाए और अच्छे जल-ग्रहण क्षेत्रों में तालाब आदि बनाए जाएं। देखा गया है कि जहां जल व नमी संरक्षण और हरियाली बढ़ाने का काम अच्छी तरह हुआ है, वहां कृषि व पशुपालन के उचित विकास की बुनियाद तैयार हो जाती है।
जिन कुछ दूसरे उपायों की जरूरत है, उनमें महत्वपूर्ण यह है कि हमारे किसान अपने परंपरागत ज्ञान से ज्यादा सबक लें। सरकार की कोशिश यह है कि वह अधिक जैव-विविधता वाले परंपरागत बीजों को एकत्र करने व किसानों को उन्हें उपलब्ध करवाने के प्रयास तेज करे।
गोबर-पत्ती की खाद तैयार करने और नीम जैसे कीटनाशक प्रकृति वाले वृक्षों से फसलों की खतरनाक कीड़ों की रक्षा के साधन हासिल करने चाहिए। जब मौसम की स्थितियां अनुकूल हों, तब रासायनिक खाद व कीटनाशक दवाओं के बिना ही अनाज, दलहन, तिलहन, सब्जियों का भरपूर उत्पादन हो सकता है। इन उपायों से मिट्टी की गुणवत्ता बनी रहेगी और भूजल के अधिक दोहन की जरूरत नहीं होगी। चारे की बेहतर उपलब्धि से पशुपालन व दूध उत्पादन में वृद्धि होगी। राहत की बात यह है कि बुंदेलखंड के कुछ इलाकों, जैसे पाठा क्षेत्र में इन्हीं नीतियों पर आधारित कार्यक्रम चलाए जा रहे हैं। वहां चित्रकूट जिले के मानिकफर ब्लॉक की पांच पंचायतों में वॉटर शेड कार्यक्रमों के तहत करीब 5000 हेक्टेयर भूमि के ट्रीटमेंट का कार्य हो रहा हैं। अभी तक पूरी तरह उपेक्षित रहने वाला आदिवासी युवा आज इन महत्वपूर्ण कार्यों का संचालन कर रहा है। गांववासियों के सहयोग के कारण चेक डैम आदि बनाने का खर्च कहीं कम आ रहा है। जहां इस तरह की परियोजनाओं को प्रोत्साहित करना जरूरी है, वहां यह सवाल उठाना भी जरूरी है कि बड़े पैमाने पर चलाई जा रही सरकारी परियोजनाओं के बड़े नतीजे क्यों नहीं नजर आ रहे हैं। सरकार के कृषि, वन, जल संबंधी कार्यों में यह नजर नहीं आता कि किसी ऐसी नई और बहुत बड़ी चुनौती से जूझना है, जिसका सामना पहले नहीं हुआ है। ध्यान रहे कि जलवायु परिवर्तन जैसी बड़ी चुनौती के असर से छोटे किसान अपने बलबूते नहीं निबट सकते। इसलिए सरकार को नीतियों में सुधार करते हुए अनुकूल कार्यक्रमों व प्राथमिकताओं में पर्याप्त निवेश करना होगा। तभी खेती और किसानी को मौजूदा संकट से उबारा जा सकता है।
नवभारत टाइम्स
(नई दिल्ली), 29 Jan. 2009ग्लोबल वार्मिंगः तो बुग्यालों में लहलहाएंगी फसलें
अरविंद शेखरग्लोबल वार्मिंग के भयंकर परिणाम तो सभी गिनाते है, मगर ऊँचे पहाड़ों को ग्लोबल वार्मिंग का फायदा भी हो सकता है। बढ़े तापमान की वजह से पहाड़ों के बुग्यालों जैसे वे क्षेत्र भी गेहूँ और अन्य फसलों के उगने लायक बन सकते हैं जहां ठंड की वजह से अभी फसलें पैदा नहीं होती हैं।
इंटर गवर्नमेंट पैनल ऑन क्लाइमेट चेंज (आई.पी.सी.सी.) की रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक 1750 के बाद से दुनिया तेजी से गर्म हो रही है। आज वैज्ञानिकों के पास 1000 ईसवीं से लेकर अब तक के तापमान के आंकड़ें मौजूद हैं। बीसवीं सदी में 90 का दशक सबसे ज्यादा गर्म दशक रहा है। इस सदी के अंत तक पृथ्वी का तापमान एक से 6.3 डिग्री सेंटीग्रेट तक बढ़ सकता है।
देश के जाने माने परिस्थितिकी विशेषज्ञ व गढ़वाल विवि के पूर्व कुलपति प्रो. एस.पी. सिंह के मुताबिक ग्लेशियरों का लगातार सिकुड़ना जलवायु परिवर्तन का एक संकेत हैं। पृथ्वी के इतिहास के मुताबिक आज से करीब 20,000 साल पहले वर्तमान में मौजूद ग्लेशियर बने थे। उनका कहना है कि अहमदाबाद के इसरो स्पेस एप्लिकेशन सेंटर के साथ मिलकर 1960 से 2004 तक के सर्वे ऑफ इंडिया के मानचित्रों और सैटेलाइट डाटा की मदद से व नंदादेवी ग्लेशियर क्षेत्र के अध्ययन से भी पता चला था कि हिमरेखा और वृक्षरेखा लगातार ऊपर की ओर बढ़ रही है।
नेपाल के त्रिभुवन विश्वविद्यालय के वनस्पति विज्ञानी प्रो. पी.के. झा ने भी अपने अध्ययन में पाया कि हिमालय के ठंडे इलाकों में गर्मी बढ़ने से वहां वो वनस्पतियां उगने लगी हैं जो ठंड की वजह से पहले वहां नहीं होती थी।
ऊंची चोटियों में मिट्टी न होने की वजह से वहां तो वनस्पतियां नहीं उग सकती मगर बुग्याल जैसे विशाल ढलवा मैदानों में भरपूर मिट्टी है। उच्च पर्वतीय क्षेत्रों का तापमान बढ़ने से भले ही वहां कि जैव विविधता खत्म हो जाए और कई दुर्लभ पौधे विलुप्त हो जाएं मगर ये इलाके खेती के लायक तो हो ही जाएंगे।
दैनिक जागरण (देहरादून), 19 Jan. 2009
मिथक तो नहीं ग्लोबल वार्मिंग
?क्या ग्लोबल वार्मिंग का महज हौवा खड़ा किया जा रहा है औप दरअसल इसका इतना विध्वंसकारी प्रभाव नहीं होता? वर्जीनिया यूनिवर्सिटी के पर्यावरण विज्ञान के प्रोफेसर फ्रेडरिक सिंगर का तो कम से कम यही मानना है। प्रो. फ्रेडरिक पूर्व अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति आइजेनहावर के अंतरिक्ष विकास पर विशेष सलाहकार भी रह चुके हैं। अपनी पुस्तक ‘अनस्टोपेबल ग्लोबल वार्मिंगः एवरी 1,500 ईयर’ में ग्लोबल वार्मिंग से संबंधित अनेक तथ्यों का खुलासा उन्होंने किया है। इसमें उन्होंने कहा है कि ग्लोबल वार्मिंग के तहत तापमान में होने वाली वृद्धि एक प्राकृतिक चक्र है, जो प्रत्येक 1,500 साल में घटित होती है। पिछली दो सहस्त्राब्दियों के दर्ज ऐतिहासिक आंकड़ों एवं प्राकृतिक भौतिक आंकड़ों का इस्तेमाल करते हुए उन्होंने इस अवधारणा को स्थापित करने की कोशिश की है। उनका मानना है कि प्रत्येक 1,500 वर्ष में सूर्य में विशेष चुंबकीय तरंगे उत्पन्न होती हैं जिससे सूर्य में धब्बे दिखाई पड़ते हैं। इस परिघटना से पृथ्वी का पर्यावरण नियंत्रित होता है और इसी से तापमान में वृद्धि होती है। मानवीय क्रियाकलापों से उत्सर्जित कार्बन डाइऑक्साइड का पृथ्वी की जलवायु पर बहुत ही कम प्रभाव पड़ता है। बीसवीं सदी के अस्सी के दशक के शुरूआत में ही 1,500 साल के इस चक्र का पता लगा लिया गया था। पेड़ के रिंग (जीवित, संरक्षित एवं जीवाश्म तीनों अवस्थाओं के पेड़ों), कोरल, ग्लेशियरों एवं समुद्री सेंडीमेंट्स आदि की माप से इन सब चक्र की विशेषताएं स्पष्ट होती हैं। इस चक्र के दो भाग होते हैं- कोल्ड एवं वार्म। चक्र के कोल्ड भाग के समय भूख एवं गरीबी आदि का प्रकोप पाया जाता है। वार्म भाग के समय जनसंख्या विस्फोट, कृषि भूमि का विस्तार, अनेकानेक फसलें एवं अतिरिक्त भवन आदि के रूप में इसका प्रभाव दिखता है। हालांकि 1,500 साल के इस चक्र के कारणों को ठीक से नहीं समझा जा सका है तथापि पिछले एक लाख साल के दौरान ऐसे 600 चक्रों की पहचान की गई है। पिछले 150 वर्षों से हम इस चक्र के वार्म भाग से होकर गुजर रहे हैं। वर्तमान में पृथ्वी में जो तापमान बढ़ने की प्रवृति देखी जा रही है वह खतरनाक नहीं है और ऐसी बात नहीं है कि इस स्थिति को मानवीय प्रयासों से टाला जा सके।
राष्ट्रीय सहारा (देहरादून), 19 Jan. 2009
ग्लोबल वॉर्मिंग की दर अभी तक लगाए गए पूर्वानुमानों से कहीं ज्यादा तेज है। इससे होने वाले वातावरणीय खतरे भी बहुत भयानक होने वाले हैं। मौसम के बदलाव पर बने इंटर गर्वनमेंटल पैनल के प्रोफेसर क्रिस फील्ड ने इस खतरे की ओर सबका ध्यान खींचा है। उन्होंने दावा किया कि बहुत तेज तापमान की वजह से जंगलों में आग लगने की घटनाएं और आर्कटिक की बर्फ पिघलने की रफ्तार तेज हो जाएगी। इसकी वजह से अरबों टन हानिकारक ग्रीन हाउस गैसें वातावरण में घुल जाएंगी।
अमेरिका की स्टेनफोर्ड यूनिवर्सिटी में प्रोफेसर फील्ड का कहना था, इस बात का जोखिम बढ़ गया हैं कि इंसानी दखल से जलवायु में आए बदलाव के चलते उन्हीं जंगलों से एनवायरनमेंट में कार्बन डाई ऑक्साइड घुलेगी, जो हजारों सालों से कार्बन को अपने भीतर सोखते चले आ रहे थे। हम यह कतई नहीं चाहते हैं कि वातावरणीय संतुलन अपनी सीमा लांघे और कार्बन डाई ऑक्साइड के उत्पादन पर हमारा कोई कंट्रोल ही न रहे। प्रोफेसर फील्ड शिकागो में अमेरिकन एसोसिएशन फॉर द अडवांसमेंट ऑफ साइंस की सालाना बैठक में बोल रहे थे। उन्होंने कहा, हमारे पास ऐसे आंकड़े हैं जो बताते हैं कि 2000 से 2007 के बीच ग्रीन हाउस गैसों के उत्सर्जन की दर में हमारे अनुमान से कहीं ज्यादा तेजी आई। इसकी एक वजह यह भी है कि चीन और भारत जैसे विकासशील देशों में बिजली उत्पादन में काफी इजाफा हुआ है। लेकिन इन देशों में ऊर्जा उत्पादन कोयले पर ही आधारित है। उन्होंने आगाह किया है कि अगर विकासशील देश कोयले और कार्बन पर आधारित ईंधन का ही इस्तेमाल करते रहे तो मौसम में इस तरह का बदलाव जारी रहेगा। प्रोफेसर फील्ड का कहना था कि किसी कारगर कदम के अभाव में इस बदलाव से निपट पाना हमारे बस के बाहर हो जाएगा। अगर हम एक समाज के तौर पर देखें तो जलवायु परिवर्तन के मसले पर आक्रामक रणनीति अपनाकर ही हम इस मुसीबत से निकल सकते हैं। अब हमारे पास बहुत ज्यादा समय नहीं बचा है।
नवभारत टाइम्स (नई दिल्ली), 16 Feb. 2009
तपती धरती के दबाव
ग्लोबल वार्मिंग यानी जलवायु परिवर्तन की वैज्ञानिक भविष्यवाणियां इतनी डरावनी होती हैं कि वे कई बार अविश्वसनीय लगती हैं। एक तरफ धरती के गर्म होने और दूसरी तरफ हिम युग आने का अनुमान सुन कर लगता है कि यह सब मौसम और भूविज्ञानियों के परस्पर विरोधी कयास हैं जिसे अपनी पीढ़ी को शायद ही देखना पड़े। लेकिन जब हम अपने आस
-पास उसके असर को पड़ते देखते हैं तो सोचने और करने को विवश होते हैं। ऐसा ही एक असर हिमाचल प्रदेश के कुल्लू के इलाके में देखा गया है। सेब की फसल पैदा करने वाले किसान अब संतरा, आडू और आलू बुखारा पैदा करने के बारे में सोच रहे हैं। संतरा गर्म &
