Day 16 – Q 3. Protecting livelihoods is the next frontier for India in the fight against climate change. Comment. (15 Marks)

3. Protecting livelihoods is the next frontier for India in the fight against climate change. Comment. (15 Marks)

आजीविका की रक्षा करना जलवायु परिवर्तन के खिलाफ लड़ाई में भारत के लिए अगला मोर्चा है। टिप्पणी करें।

Approach-

Candidates need to comment about how Protecting livelihoods is the next frontier for India in the fight against climate change.

Introduction:

At Glasgow, India committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2070 at the COP26 in Glasgow. India also asked developed countries to put a trillion US dollars a year into the climate fund. For a developing country like India, climate change is a big challenge. On the one hand, it would mean putting sectors like energy, transport, infrastructure and manufacturing on a path of lower carbon emissions. On the other hand, it would require building resilience to disasters without compromising on meeting goals of growth, development and poverty reduction. These two considerations have underpinned the policy discourse in the country.

Protecting livelihoods is the next frontier for India in the fight against climate

change:

• India is exposed to a whole range of climate- and weather-related hazards — floods, droughts, cyclones, heat waves, lightning, glacial lake outburst floods and so on. 
• There is mounting evidence that due to climate change some of these hazards are becoming more frequent and severe.
• More than 57 per cent of India’s farmland face the onslaught of extreme weather on a regular basis. 
• Not only have severe cyclonic storms increased over the northern Indian ocean, there is a rise in cyclonic storms in the Arabian Sea. These are projected to rise.
• So, while India prepares to set out on the path to lower emissions, at the same time, it has to protect its people and their livelihoods from the ravages of more intense, frequent and unpredictable disasters.
• Participation and governance at the local level is the key to building resilience. We need to understand how the signals that the climate system is delivering are affecting the biophysical systems and how they respond to those signals.
• Similarly, we need to understand the inherent social, economic and cultural vulnerabilities of people, and how these come together to produce risk at the local level.
• Money for resilience can be used in different ways, and must be done imaginatively. 
• The Finance Commission has given states resources to address the whole spectrum of disaster risk management needs, not just response, and this has to be used creatively.
• In cyclone- and heat wave-related work there has been an effort to connect science to society. 
• For adoption of new practices science has to be presented in an understandable, actionable, usable fashion.

Conclusion:

India has had remarkable success in saving lives from climate- and weather-related disasters. Protecting livelihoods is the next frontier. We need to learn lessons from the past, anticipate the future, and create more resilient systems, society and economy.