LUCKNOW: World Bank has released a new report — On Thin Ice: How Cutting Pollution can Slow Warming and Save Lives. The report that talks about ways to mitigate the effects of climate change says fast action to cut common pollutants like soot (also known as black carbon) and methane will not only slow global warming, but save millions of lives.

Reductions of these so-called short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) would slow rapid melting in mountain regions with glaciers, like the Himalayas and the Arctic. More than one million premature deaths could be avoided annually in the Himalayan region from reducing emissions of black carbon and methane. It would also bring multiple health, crop and ecosystem benefits, and decrease risks to development from flooding and water shortages says a new scientific study.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/World-Bank-releases-new-report-on-climate-change-global-warming/articleshow/25488231.cms

The cotton growers’ hope of selling their rain-damaged produce to the government agency has dashed as the officials of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) have said that the existing guidelines do not allow them to purchase cotton with high moisture content.

The CCI Chairman and Managing Director B. K. Mishra, Director (Marketing) M. M. Chokkalingam and CCI General Manager of Guntur S.K. Chaturvedi visited Nakrekal Market Yard after repeated appeals from the district administration to set up cotton procurement centres in the district.

 

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/cotton-farmers-hardhit/article5327292.ece

The Union Environment and Forests Minister Jayanthi Natarajan and climate negotiators’ team got the approval from the Union Cabinet on Thursday to reassert the importance of historical emissions in the new climate agreement, which is to be discussed at Warsaw beginning November 11.

The Cabinet cleared the non-negotiable lines for the team deciding that India would ensure that in a pledge-based top-down agreement the onus to take emission cuts for meeting the 2 degree Celsius target lies strongly on the developed countries.

At the ongoing U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks, the 195-member countries have all but come around to having what is called a bottoms-up approach under the new global climate compact to be signed in 2015. In this format each country volunteers targets for emission reduction based on its capability instead of a top-down approach where targets are set down through the negotiations for each country. Some countries have suggested that the volunteered targets can then be assessed to see if they add up to meet the requirement of keeping the global temperature rise below 2 degree Celsius. The U.S. has disagreed and demanded that increasing the volunteered targets should be left to the respective country to decide and there should not be a formal mechanism forcing the nations to do so.

 

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/cabinet-clears-climate-negotiation-strategy/article5326773.ece

 

Saving Sikkim’s Shangri La

A community  in northeast India has fought off the tree-felling, pollution, poaching and tourism 

Cheap airline fares and package tours since the 1990s led to a flood of tourists but the consequent decline of the Khangchendzonga national park and biosphere reserve. Over the last 15 years a community effort in Yuksom has fought off the tree-felling, pollution and poaching that were destroying their Shangri La.

From on the northeast borders of the Khangchendzonga biosphere reserve I proceeded southwest to Yuksom in the Ratong Chu valley, the official entry point to the Khangchendzonga national park.

Lorded over by the mighty and most sacred Mount Khangchendzonga, the third highest peak (8,586 metres) in the world, Yuksom at 1,780metres sits comfortably at the ankles of the great mountain, nestled in forests of broad-leaved oak, birch, maple, chestnut, magnolia, rhododendron, silver fir, ash and alder trees.

 

http://www.thethirdpole.net/saving-sikkims-shangri-la/

The most important milestone to be set at Warsaw is on climate finance,” says Jayanthi Natarajan, Union Environment and Forests Minister, in an interview ahead of the climate negotiations beginning November 11.

What are your thoughts on the view that historical emissions should not play a role in deciding responsibilities under the 2015 agreement?

India has consistently held the view that historical emissions are a very important pillar of issues of equity under the UNFCCC. This was part of the 2009 Bali Action Plan. I believe historical emissions account for vast percentage, well over 70% of the emissions that are currently swirling around. The developed countries for long had no obligations or commitments to reduce emissions and have contributed largely to the levels of emissions today. Even today, those countries which are responsible for historical emissions have not made any attempt or are not even inclined to make any attempt to cap their emissions. They only talk about the world at large working towards the goal of capping the global temperature rise at 2 degree Celsius. They have not taken any concrete steps towards capping their own emissions. The important and significant achievement that I see has come out of the negotiations where India played an important role in Durban and Doha – particularly in Durban – is the fact that the EU countries – except for those who jumped off – did extend the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. It amounts only to about 15% of the total emissions. But, in terms of intention and as a signal in the right direction, I think, the extension of the 2nd commitment period of the protocol is very important.

So yes, historical emissions and the principle of common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR) are non-negotiable pillars of Indian strategy.

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/india-is-not-a-naysayer-on-climate-change/article5323166.ece

 

The Union Cabinet is likely to decide the non-negotiables for the upcoming climate change negotiations on Thursday. The Cabinet will take a call on the shape of the new global agreement that India would push for at these talks and over the next two years till the pact is signed in 2015.

The External Affairs and Environment Ministries have together recommended that India should seek to ensure that the new agreement remains firmly embedded within the existing U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. They have recommended that the principle of historical emissions should remain one of the critical parameters in deciding the responsibilities of countries to cut emissions under the 2015 agreement.

 

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/cabinet-to-decide-on-climate-talks-parameters-today/article5322265.ece

 

Furthering the daunting picture painted by the changing atmospheric conditions, the latest report by risk consultancy firm Mapelcroft has Mumbai among its list of cities that are at extreme physical and economic risk due to changes in climactic conditions. According to it, Mumbai’s proximity to the coast and the surrounding hilly terrain are the reasons why it is featured in Maplecroft’s sixth annual Climate Change Vulnerability Index.

“Pollution generated locally is usually swept away by wind blowing in from the sea. In Mumbai’s case, however, it is surrounded by hilly terrains and numerous mountain ranges that lock this air within the area. Also, the extreme humidity tends to hold on to particulate matter for a longer time.

We think it’s factors that put it at risk of extreme weather events and climate change,” explained Gufran Beig, scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.

 http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-mumbai-under-threat-from-climate-change-1913166

 

Climate change will pose sharp risks to the world’s food supply in coming decades, potentially undermining crop production and driving up prices at a time when the demand for food is expected to soar, scientists have found.

In a departure from an earlier assessment, the scientists concluded that rising temperatures will have some beneficial effects on crops in some places, but that globally they will make it harder for crops to thrive — perhaps reducing production over all by as much as 2 percent each decade for the rest of this century, compared with what it would be without climate change.

 

And, the scientists say, they are already seeing the harmful effects in some regions.

 

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Panel-warns-of-risks-to-food-supply-from-climate-change/articleshow/25108913.cms

LONDON: India is among the “extreme risk” countries of the world where economic impacts of climate change will be most keenly felt by 2025, according to new research released on Wedesday.

Kolkata and Mumbai are among the cities where the economic exposure to the impacts of extreme climate related events will be highest over the next 30 years, the report found.he annual release of British risk consultancy Maplecroft’s ‘Climate Change and Environmental Risk Atlas’ reveals that 31 per cent of global economic output will be based in countries facing “high” or “extreme risks” from the impacts of climate change by the year 2025.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/India-among-world-economies-at-risk-of-climate-change-impact/articleshow/24938473.cms

 

 

NEW DELHI: In what appears to be another grim outcome of climate change, a study has found that forests in eastern Himalayas are gradually ‘browning’, with trees withering and foliage declining even during productive seasons. Similar changes were noted in tropical mountain forests across the world.

Among the 47 protected areas across five biodiversity hotspots selected for the study, were Kangchendzonga national park in Sikkim and Namdapha national park in Arunachal Pradesh. It used satellite images from 1982 to 2006, which revealed a common trend: there was mild greening till the mid 1990s and then came a sudden and steady reversal which is making these forests appear drier and brown.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/East-Himalayan-forests-turning-brown-Study/articleshow/24455913.cms