by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Nitish Kumar
Patna : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said climate change has been affecting the state over the years and its impact is visible, with monsoon getting delayed every year and the volume of rain also showing a downward trend.
Although the state had hardly contributed to the phenomenon of global warming, it had to face the impacts of climate change, he said.
“Climate change is affecting Bihar and its impact is bad for the state. Not only monsoon arrival is getting delayed year after year, the rain volume during the season has also declined,” Nitish Kumar said in his inaugural address at a two-day East India Climate Change Conclave that began here on Sunday.
Nitish Kumar said climate change was posing a new challenge to Bihar’s agriculture and water resources.
“We have been working to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the state,” the Chief Minister added.
Nitish Kumar and Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan together inaugurated the climate change conclave.
He also raised the issue of increasing siltation in the river Ganga and urged Harsh Vardhan to take up this issue on priority.
“Centre’s ambitious National Waterway-1 (NW-1) project will not succeed unless the issue of siltation is addressed to ensure free and adequate flow of water,” Nitish Kumar said.
According to him, siltation in Ganga is the result of construction of several dams, including Farakka dam, which are interrupting the river’s natural flow at the bottom, leading to deposition of silt.
Ministers and officials from six eastern states — Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Assam — also attended the conclave. They will discuss issues related to the impact of climate change in the region.
“The eastern part of the country is prone to disasters like floods, drought and earthquakes, and climate change has increased the threat of such disasters,” Harsh Vardhan said.
The Union Minister said that personal initiative in addition to global initiative was important to save the world from the perils of climate change.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi said that the state government had set a target of either generating or buying 2,000 MW of solar power by 2022 in order to cut carbon emission.
The conclave has been organised by the Bihar Environment and Forests Department in association with two think tanks — Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) and Action on Climate.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Emmanuel Macron
Sydney : Visiting French President Emmanuel Macron has urged the Australian government to intensify its efforts in the fight against climate change and expressed his concern for the future of the countries in the Pacific.
“Numerous states in the Pacific are at direct risk of disappearing completely in only a few years if we do not take action,” Macron said at a dinner on Tuesday night at the Sydney Opera House, attended by the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife as well as French politicians, businessmen and expatriates.
Macron stressed that the fight against climate change is an “absolute priority” and urged the Turnbull administration to show the “power of conviction” in confronting this global issue, despite the opposition they may face, reports Efe news.
“I am aware of the political and economic debate surrounding this problem in the country, and I respect it, but I believe that the real leaders are those who can respect existing interests and at the same time decide to participate in something broader and more strategic,” the president said.
“There is no Planet B,” Macron said, stressing that the fight against climate change is an “historic opportunity”.
Australia committed in the Paris Accord to reducing its emissions by 26 to 28 per cent from the 2005 levels by 2030, a target that Canberra says it will meet “without compromising economic growth and jobs”.
On Wednesday morning, Macron joined a special ceremony honouring Australian and French war veterans in Sydney.
It is expected that later Wednesday the two leaders will discuss the growing influence of China in the Pacific, where France maintains overseas territories, as well as the Iran nuclear deal.
Regarding trade, Macron and Turnbull are expected to discuss France’s resistance against a potential free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union (EU).
Although not on the agenda, it is expected that both leaders will also talk about the contract of French company Naval Group (DCNS) to build Australia’s new fleet of 12 submarines in the shipyards in the southern city of Adelaide.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Success Stories
Chewang Norphel with his wife.
By Kushagra Dixit,
Leh : Years back, on a harsh winter morning in Ladakh in the northernmost Himalayas in India, a young and curious boy in a remote mountain village of the cold desert observed water coming out of a semi-frozen pipe, collecting in a small crater on the ground and freezing, just like a glacier.
A few decades later, in 1986, the boy, Chewang Norphel — as a civil engineer with the Jammu and Kashmir Rural Development Department — took inspiration from his childhood observations and made a breakthrough by devising the first artificial glacier in picturesque Leh, thereby solving a water crisis faced by the local community, of which at least 80 per cent were farmers growing barley and wheat.
Spurred by the success of his experiment, he went on to create 17 such artificial glaciers across Ladakh, thereby earning his nickname — “The Ice Man of India”. Most of his projects received financial aid from several state-run programmes, the army and various national and international NGOs.
Now an 80-year-old source of inspiration, Norphel’s journey was not easy, as people initially used to laugh at him and called him “pagal” (crazy). But that did not deter him as all he saw was a grave problem which needed a solution that he could provide.
“Ladakh has a distinct climate where you can get frost bite and heat stroke at the same time. About 80 per cent of the population consists of farmers and their biggest issue is unavailability of water at the time of sowing in April-May because glacial streams are frozen and rivers flow way too low to fetch water,” Norphel told this visiting IANS correspondent.
Sitting in his living room full of plaques and awards, and overlooking a lawn that he has converted into an agricultural haven, Norphel said rivers are the main source of fresh water, but since they flow at lower altitudes, they are hardly of any use to villages at relatively higher altitudes.
“So we built those glaciers near the villages,” said the “Ice Man” who was awarded the Padma Shri award in 2015. He was also recognised for his achievements by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2011.
Winters are severe in Ladakh due to which there are no winter crops. Whatever water flows during this time is wasted while during the sowing season, there is hardly any water available because natural glaciers, situated some 5,000 feet above and 20-25 km away from the villages, only melt after June.
“So I thought: What if there were glaciers at lower altitudes which would melt sooner due to relatively higher temperature? Thus came the idea of artificial glaciers.
“It’s a technique to harvest winter waste water in the form of ice. And by creating artificial glaciers at relatively lower altitudes, it was possible to get water when it was needed,” Norphel said.
The work to construct a glacier starts in October when the villagers divert the glacial streams, and create embankments in the form of steps to slow down the velocity of water.
“We assure that the depth is kept only a few inches, so that it freezes easily,” he said.
Norphel has built glaciers at the toughest terrains in Ladakh including one at Dha, the native village of the Brokpa tribe which is renowned in the entire region for their distinct culture and their role during the Kargil war.
But close to his heart is the 1,000-feet-wide glacier that he built at the Phukte valley which supplies water to five villages. The glacier was built at the cost of approximately Rs 90,000.
Norphel said that the cost of an artificial glacier today could go up to Rs 15 lakh, depending on its size and capacity.
Norphel recalled how everyone laughed at him, calling him mad when he was making his first artificial glacier in Phukte village. Since it was something that had never been done before, he had to work like a crazy person, albeit with a really good plan and immaculate calculations.
“No one would take me seriously; today they all are benefited. These glaciers are my pride and the fact that my concept has helped so many people gives me peace of mind,” said the humble old man, rarely seen without a pleasant smile on his face.
Retired from his government post in 1994 after 34 years of service, Norphel doesn’t believe in sitting idle. If he is not travelling for work, making new glaciers or inspiring the youth, he is either seen meditating in his room, spending time with his wife or in his kitchen garden where he experiments on how climate change can be used for the benefit of community by growing vegetables otherwise cultivated in the plains like turnip, brinjal, capsicum and cucumber.
A hero for those who know him, Norphel wishes he had more energy at his age.
“Earlier I was full of energy; now I think old age is taking over. Now funds are available, but not the energy… I want youth to take over; they are practical; I want them to practically understand climate change,” he says.
His house is thronged by students from all over the world. At present he is assisting several NGOs in replicating his concept across the cold desert, including the high altitude Changtang district and the low altitude regions where there’s lack of at least one of the three elements needed for better agriculture — land, water and right temperature.
“Changtang region has land and water, but not the right temperature as it’s very cold. Leh has land, right temperature, but not water. And regions below Leh have water and the right temperature but not enough land. We have to make the best use of resources and techniques,” he says with enthusiasm, eager to embark on a new journey of challenges.
Norphel feels that India needs to replicate Israel in the agriculture sector.
“In Israel, they have less water, unsupportive temperature and limited land, yet they have very good production. We want to create something like that here,” he said.
He sees both the positive and negative aspects of climate change and believes in making the best use of them.
“Climate change has both positive and negative sides for Ladakh. Earlier, there were very few options for crops to grow. Now we have more, including vegetables. The negative side is that a lot of glacial streams and water get wasted.”
(The weekly feature series is part of a positive-journalism project of IANS and the Frank Islam Foundation. Kushagra Dixit can be contacted at kushagra.d@ians.in )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Arul Louis,
United Nations : Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is betting that the battle against climate change will be won through the technological advances and public mobilisation even if governments fail to act.
While “there are reasons to be alarmed” about the rapid pace of climate change, “we believe that the right bet is the bet that technology is pointing to, and that bet is the green technology, and cities, companies, consumers are making that bet,” he said on Monday.
“I think that what is clear is that the reality is changed by the companies that produce, the consumers, the cities that manage,” he said. “Very little depends today, in relation to climate change, on central government.”
“I am very confident that this battle will be won, because the realities of today’s economy are such that the wise decision is the green decision,” he added, while speaking to reporters announcing the re-appointment of Michael Bloomberg, the media tycoon and former New York mayor as his Special Envoy for Climate Action.
“Because of technological advances, the cheapest energy today is green energy,” Guterres said.
Reinforcing it is the “enormous capacity to mobilise the civil society, the business community and the cities” he said. “And we see cities, but also companies and civil society everywhere, leading climate action, leading the capacity of the international community to be able to beat climate change.”
In an apparent warning to US President Donald Trump, who has tried to roll back some of the environmental regulations and programmes for countering climate change, Guterres said without naming him, “Countries that do not back today the green economy will not be leading countries in the global economy of the future.”
Bloomberg said that “without any help whatsoever from the federal government” the US was way ahead in meeting the greenhouse gas reduction goals set for 2025.
“In fact, we have done more than any other industrial country in the world to meet those goals.”
The multi-billionaire is the founder of the financial news and information company that bears his name and he also runs a philanthropy devoted to fighting climate change and issues of immigration, gun control and public health.
He was first appointed the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action by Guterres’s predecessor Ban Ki-moon in 2015.
“Because of public pressure and the low price of natural gas, 268 of about 500 coal-fired electricity plants in the US have closed or are in the process of closing,” Bloomberg said.
“Corporations today are very, very sensitive to their responsibilities to be environment friendly,” Bloomberg said.
“When a big money manager goes to visit a corporation to check on their earnings, the first question that comes in this day and age is, ‘What are you doing to fight climate change?'” he said. This is because the pension funds, endowments and other investors want their money to be invested responsibly, he explained.
As for Trump, he said he hoped that the president “listens to his advisers and looks at the data and changes his mind.”
“And if that is the case, that shows a great leader, who, when facts change, they recognise something different, they are not bound to what they did before, they are willing to change,” he said. “And I think it is fair to say that this president does change his view, generally from one day to the next, but over a longer period of time, hopefully he will.”
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Vishal Gulati,
New Delhi : The Trump administrations decision earlier this year to pull out of the historic 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, saying the Obama-era deal was an attempt to diminish the US economy and take jobs away, has not stopped incredible global momentum to curb global warming.
Environmental advocates believe that, amidst the shadow of the US decision, 2017 has seen progress in new climate action, ranging from the World Bank announcing it won’t fund upstream oil and gas projects after 2019 to a range of commitments from brown to green investments by companies joining the Global Big Shift campaign.
In a major initiative, the World’s No.1 polluter, China, this week announced plans to start a market-based carbon-trading system, initially in over 1,700 power-generating firms, to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius and aiming to cut greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.
Taking the lead, French President Emmanuel Macron this month called “The One Planet” summit in Paris — the birthplace of the Paris Agreement — to mark its second anniversary, to speed up development of decarbonisation pathways by nations and to do something serious about climate mitigation and adaptations.
Observers say the summit was both a celebration of the historic achievement of the Paris Agreement and an opportunity for the countries that are willing to go further and faster in transitioning their economies to demonstrate the action they are taking.
“President Macron deserves a lot of credit for marking the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement by getting world leaders together. The climate challenge needs more than a single champion, but President Macron is certainly doing his bit,” British charity Christian Aid’s Senior Climate Change Advisor, Mohamed Adow, told IANS.
At The One Planet summit, more than 200 civil society organisations from nearly 60 countries released a letter calling on multilateral development banks, including the World Bank Group, and G20 governments to end public financial support for fossil fuels by 2020 at the latest.
With the US government withdrawing funds to deal with climate change, such as the $2 billion pledge to the Green Climate Fund, the European Union announced nine billion euro climate finance contribution at The One Planet summit to achieve climate goals.
In a related announcement at the summit, 225 of the most influential global institutional investors, with more than $26.3 trillion in assets under management, launched a new collaborative initiative to engage with the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to step up action on climate change.
The Paris gathering took place less than a month after the successful conclusion of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn (COP-23) in November and was the first in a series of international summits to help countries to raise the bar and bolster their national climate action plans — crucial to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals.
Interestingly, Trump is continuing support to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, one of the most successful international environmental treaties that celebrated its 30th anniversary in Montreal last month.
India, a signatory to the Protocol since 1992, has been proactive in compliance and played a key role in achieving the historic Kigali Amendment last year for phasing down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), powerful greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.
The parties to the Montreal Protocol committed $540 million for the developing nations during the joint 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention and the 29th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol that were held in Canada last month.
And the US alone will take a nearly 25 per cent share of the total funding.
“We’ve seen incredible support for the Kigali Amendment, and much of this is due to the fact that we’ve also had strong support from businesses,” UN Environment head Erik Solheim told IANS.
“The process is proceeding very well and financial support for the mechanism has also been very strong. As such, I’m optimistic that this trend will continue,” Solheim added.
At the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, India reiterated provisions for finance — both for adaptation and mitigation – and technology transfer for climate actions from the developed nations.
A day after a major victory for India and developing countries on climate action before 2020 that the developed world agreed to discuss in subsequent two years, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan told IANS that provisions for finance, technology transfer and capacity-building support to developing nations are critical.
Stressing that COP-23 was crucial as it would set the stage for the 2018 Facilitative Dialogue, accelerate pre-2020 action and firm up the modalities for implementing the Paris Agreement, he said India has undertaken ambitious mitigation and adaptation action.
The Centre for Science and Environment’s Deputy Director, Chandra Bhushan, however, believes this year was a damp squib as far as global environmental negotiations and actions are concerned.
“There is a big gap between the global action required and the collective action of countries to address issues like climate change. In 2017, this gap was further widened with the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement; 2017, therefore, was a damp squib as far as global environmental negotiations and actions were concerned,” Bhushan, who was given the Partnership Award by UN Environment last month for providing policy and research support to the negotiations during the Kigali Amendment, told IANS.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
—IANS
