ALL INDIA RADIO- 7TH NOVEMBER 2015

ARCHIVES

INDIA’S COMMITMENT TO CLIMATE CHANGE

AIR Spotlight topic on 7^th November 2015 is on “Special package to J&K”. This is not much useful for the examination. Hence we have picked up a topic on October 3 2015, “India’s Commitment to Climate Change”. Click here and search for October 3 2015.

• India has recently announced its intention to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33-35% by 2030 from 2005 levels, as a part of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), to be submitted at the Paris Climate Change Conference in December 2015.
• It is a highly ambitious target since India’s contribution to global GHG emissions globally, both per capita and total emissions, is far less compared to the developed countries
• Globally, India is the 4^th largest GHG emitter in the world
• By announcing this, India is set to become a part of solution to the climate change rather than contributing to the problem of climate change
• This requires huge investments in technology & its transfer and capacity building. The adaptation and mitigation funds should provide the money for this
• Also as part of INDCs, India plans to increase the forest cover from present ~23% to 25% in the short term. The National Forest Policy aims at 33% of forest cover in the country.
• The INDC targets 40% of renewable energy in India’s total power by 2030

Challenges

Deforestation

• Increasing land requirements for industries and infrastructure projects under Make in India.
• Afforestation under CAMPA is not much effective. Funds lying unutilized.

Urbanization

• According to a UN estimate, by 2030 roughly 40% of country’s population resides in urban areas
• Urban transport and industries emit more GHGs that deteriorates the air quality

Agriculture

• Nearly 70% of rural households depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
• Climate change has a strong potential to affect the agriculture by reducing yields, crop loss, changing patterns of rainfall, extreme weather events etc.

Energy mix at present (2012 stats as per NITI Ayog)

• Coal – 47%
• Oil – 27%
• Gas – 8%
• Nuclear, Renewables and Hydro – 3%
• Others – 14%

Clean energy contribution is very poor

Measures underway

• National Solar Mission – targets 100GW of solar power by 2022
• National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency
• National Smart Grid Mission to bring efficiency in power supply
• Green Energy Corridors
• Energy Conservation Building Code
• GRIHA – Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment – building – energy rating system
• Zero Effect, Zero Defect (ZED) – quality control and energy efficiency certificate for medium and small industries
• Smart Cities, AMRUT, HRIDAY – to develop climate resilient urban cities
• Bharat Stage IV fuel efficient standards to be implemented by April 2016 across the country and then move to Bharat Stage V and VI in the near future
• Mass Rapid Tranit System – moving people, instead of moving vechicles
• Green Highways Policy
• Dedicated Freight Corridors
• Jal Marg Vikas
• Sagarmala

There are several measures which are mentioned in the INDC document released by the GoI. Please go through the highlighted points in the document for other measures and also deeper understanding of the climate change measures. Click here