Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Environment) – July 11, 2020

The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was formed in the year 2001.

• The vision of the council is, “To enable a sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment by 2025”.
• The council offers a wide array of services which include developing new green building rating programmes, certification services and green building training programmes.
• The council also organizes Green Building Congress, its annual flagship event on green buildings.
• The council is committee-based, member-driven and consensus-focused.
• All the stakeholders of construction industry comprising of architects, developers, product manufacturers, corporate, Government, academia and nodal agencies participate in the council activities through local chapters.
• The council also closely works with several State Governments, Central Government, World Green Building Council, bilateral multi-lateral agencies in promoting green building concepts in the country.

According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) report, Working on a warmer planet: The impact of heat stress on labour productivity and decent work, Globally two sectors projected to be hit worst are agriculture and construction, with agriculture worse affected.

• The ILO says 940 million people around the world work in the agricultural sector, which is projected to account for 60% of working hours lost due to heat stress by 2030.
• In construction, an estimated 19% of global working hours are likely to be lost.

The CCPI (released by Germanwatch) is an independent monitoring tool of countries’ climate protection performance.

• It aims to enhance transparency in international climate politics and enables the comparability of climate protection efforts and progress made by individual countries.
• The ranking results are defined by a country’s aggregated performance in 14 indicators within the four categories “GHG Emissions”, “Renewable Energy” and “Energy Use”, as well as on “Climate Policy”, in a globally unique policy section of the index.

‘Drought-forecasting toolbox’ was unveiled at UNCCD COP14 event. The 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

• It aims to track, assess and deliver relevant information concerning climatic, hydrologic and water supply trends.
• It is developed through the close partnership among, UNCCD, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and global bodies.

The international initiative “4 per 1000”, launched by France on 1 December 2015 at the COP 21, consists of federating all voluntary stakeholders  of the public and private sectors (national governments, local and regional governments, companies, trade organizations, NGOs, research facilities, etc.) under the framework of the Lima-Paris Action Plan (LPAP).

• The aim of the initiative is to demonstrate that agriculture, and in particular agricultural soils can play a crucial role where food security and climate change are concerned.
• An annual growth rate of 0.4% in the soil carbon stocks, or 4‰ per year, in the first 30-40 cm of soil, would significantly reduce the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere related to human activities.
• This growth rate is not a normative target for each country, but is intended to show that even a small increase in the soil carbon stock (agricultural soils, notably grasslands and pastures, and forest soils) is crucial to improve soil fertility and agricultural production and to contribute to achieving the long-term objective of limiting the temperature increase to the +2°C threshold, beyond which the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) indicates that the effects of climate change are significant.
• The “4 per 1000” initiative is intended to complement those necessary efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, globally and generally in the economy as a whole. It is voluntary; it is up to each member to define how they want to contribute to the goals.

The 1995 Basel Ban Amendment, a global waste dumping prohibition, has become an international law after Croatia ratified it on September 6, 2019.

• Croatia became the 97th country to ratify the ban, which was adopted by the parties to the Basel Convention in 1995, to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes, according to Basel Action Network (BAN).
• The Ban Amendment prohibits all export of hazardous wastes, including electronic wastes and obsolete ships from 29 wealthiest countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to non-OECD countries.
• However, countries like the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia, India, Brazil, and Mexico are yet to ratify the ban.

The Kerala State government is set to declare the 148-sq-km buffer zone of the Silent Valley National Park as Bhavani wildlife sanctuary.

• Encompassing parts of the Mannarkkad and Nilambur (South) forest divisions, the region will become the 25th protected area in the State.
• Home to abundant faunal and floral wealth, the Bhavani wildlife sanctuary is also known to be an emerging haven of dragonflies and damselflies.
• A recent faunal survey revealed the presence of several rare species of odonates here.
• There are currently five national parks, 18 wildlife sanctuaries, including two tiger reserves at Parambikulam and Periyar, and one community reserve in the State.
• The government had notified the Karimpuzha wildlife sanctuary in Malappuram in December last.

Project Tiger was formally launched in India on 1st April 1973, with the goal of saving the tiger and its habitat in India.

• With an initial 9 Tiger Reserves, the Project went on to cover 50 Tiger Reserves across the country, incorporating an area of 71,027.10 sq. km.
• Although Project Tiger tackled various issues over the past 45 years, it was unable to keep pace with the rapid changes that affected the tiger landscape, including increased human pressures.
• In 2006, it was replaced by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA).
  

Four species of fauna and 18 species of flora have gone extinct in India in the past few centuries, according to wildlife survey organisations.

• As per the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) 18 species of plants — four non-flowering and 14 flowering — have gone extinct.
• The notable among them are Lastreopsis wattii , a fern in Manipur discovered by George Watt in 1882 and three species from the genus Ophiorrhiza (Ophiorrhiza brunonis , Ophiorrhiza caudate and Ophiorrhiza radican ), all discovered from peninsular India.
• Corypha taliera Roxb, a palm species discovered in Myanmar and the Bengal region by William Roxburgh is also extinct.
• Among mammals, the cheetah (Acionyx jubatus) and the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensisi) are considered extinct in India.
• The pink-headed duck (Rhodonessa caryophyllaceai) is feared extinct since 1950 and the Himalayan quail (Ophrysia supercililios) was last reported in 1876.

NOTE: Director of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI) said India is home to 11.5% of all flora in the world. According to the International Union for Conservation Of Nature (IUCN), a new study has shown that since 1750, more than double the number of plants have disappeared from the wild than birds, mammals and amphibians combined.

The Nilgiri langur, also known as the hooded leaf monkey, black leaf monkey, Indian hooded leaf monkey, John’s langur, Nilgiri black langur, and the Nilgiri leaf monkey, is a species of Old World monkey endemic to South India.

• It is found in the Western Ghats, particularly in the Nilgiri Hills from which it derives its name, but also in other hilly areas in that region.
• They prefer to live between 980 and 6,500 ft (300–2,000 m) above sea level, and typically settle in at around 4,600 ft (1,400 m).
• Since they are an arboreal species, they seek out habitat with trees, and are known to inhabit secondary moist deciduous forests and evergreen forests. Other considerations include proximity to water and distance from humans.
• This is a diurnal species, meaning they are active during the day. While active, they spend approximately half of their time eating and the other half resting.