It’s time to make deep emission cuts: 

It’s time to make deep emission cuts: 

Context:

• After consecutive disasters by climate change, any further delay in reducing emissions would put at risk many more lives, livelihoods and investments for decades to come.

What is global warming? What are its causes?

• Global warming, also referred to as climate change, is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the earth’s climate system and its related effects.

Causes:

• The primary reason for global warming is the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production.
• Other factors include methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals), nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes.
• The loss of forests adds on to global warming at a large scale that would otherwise store CO2.

What are Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)?

• There are many chemicals and compounds found on Earth that help in balancing and stabilizing the temperature. These are called green house gases.
• The primary greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.

Importance:

• When ultraviolet rays from the sun travel to the Earth, they are absorbed by these greenhouse gases and therefore these ultra violet rays are not capable of reaching the Earth’s surface.

What is the Paris climate agreement?

• It is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC dealing with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020.

Objectives:

• The objective is to limit global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
• For which, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to be cut by an estimated 40-70 percent by 2050, and by 2100 the planet must be carbon-neutral.
• Under the Paris accord, each country must submit its own plan to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and address the impact of climate change.

How is India affected by climate change?

• A study on the impact of climate change by the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, shows countries in the tropics will be the worst affected as a result of global warming.

Economic:

• India is one of the most affected ones, with its per capita output expected to fall by 1.33 percentage points.
• As a result, majority of the people of India continue to live in poverty, with malnutrition and diseases corroding the society.

Agriculture:

• Because of global warming, when there is a loss of output and lower productivity affects capital formation of the country.
• Lower productivity also poses a significant threat to the food security situation in India.
• Moreover, unabated global warming leads to exacerbation of the droughts, cutting down the water availability.

Environment:

• Global warming has lead to ocean acidification. When sea water reacts with carbon dioxide it creates carbonic acid and therefore acidifies the sea.
• Unprecedented floods take place every year at one place or the other, with the most vulnerable states of India.

What are the necessary measures to be taken to safeguard from the losses of global warming?

• Steps should be taken at both the individual country level and the global level.
• To prevent economic imbalance, emerging market and low-income economies will have to build significant macroeconomic resilience.
• Programmes are to be initiated that will help improve the quality of land and reduce the risk of climate change.
• There is a need for better agricultural practices that leave carbon in the ground, use of biochar, undertaking afforestation and reforestation.
• Methods and technologies are to be introduced so that the country can reduce its dependence on the monsoon.
• Better policies are needed to support practices that successfully keep carbon in the ground, prevent deforestation, support agricultural practice that sequesters carbon and promote sustainable land use practices that reduce emissions.
• Apart from framing policies, there should be strict enforcement of these laws.