<\/p>\n
To Read Other Current Affairs Compilations<\/strong>\u00a0for UPSC Prelims 2022\u2013\u00a0Click here<\/a><\/p>\n CAFMD<\/strong>\u00a0is one of the two tracks of the\u00a0India-U.S. Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030<\/strong>\u00a0partnership launched at the Leaders\u2019 Summit on Climate in April 2021<\/p>\n Launched by<\/strong>: India and the United States of America (USA)<\/p>\n To\u00a0help both the countries move towards decarbonising economies in sync with their respective commitments to deal with climate change.<\/p>\n The dialogue would have three pillars:<\/p>\n Climate Action Pillar:<\/strong>\u00a0Under this, India and the US\u00a0will develop proposals together which can contribute to curbing emissions.<\/p>\n Finance Mobilisation Pillar:<\/strong>\u00a0It would involve collaborating on attracting finance to deploy 450 GW of renewable energy and demonstrate at scale clean energy technologies.<\/p>\n Note:\u00a0<\/strong>India has increased its\u00a0renewable energy target to 450 GW by 2030<\/strong>\u00a0from 175 GW by 2022. Currently, India has already achieved the target of 100GW<\/p>\n Adaptation and Resilience Pillar:\u00a0<\/strong>Under this, the two countries will collaborate in building capacities to \u201cmeasure and manage climate risks\u2019. They would include setting out a roadmap to achieving the 450GW in transportation, buildings and industry.<\/p>\n Researchers at UNESCO, the World Resources Institute and the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) have released a new assessment of greenhouse gas volumes emitted from and absorbed by forests in UNESCO World Heritage sites.<\/p>\n The researchers have assessed the gross and net carbon absorbed and emitted by 257 UNESCO World Heritage forests between 2001 and 2020.<\/p>\n They found that these 257 sites\u00a0stored\u00a0approximately 13 billion tonnes of carbon. If all this stored carbon were to be released into the atmosphere as CO2, it would be akin to emitting 1.3 times the world\u2019s total annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n The researchers have found that 10 of 257 forests emitted more carbon than they captured between 2001 and 2020 due to different anthropogenic disturbances and pressures.<\/p>\n The reasons for emissions to be greater than sequestration included clearance of land for agriculture, the increasing scale and severity of wildfires due to drought, as well as extreme weather phenomena such as hurricanes.<\/p>\n According to the research, India\u2019s Sundarbans National Park is among five sites that have the highest blue carbon stocks globally.<\/p>\n The other four sites are the Bangladeshi portion of the Sundarbans, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Everglades National Park in the United States and the Banc d\u2019Arguin National Park in Mauritania.<\/p>\n Note<\/strong>: Blue carbon is an organic carbon that is mainly obtained from decaying plant leaves, wood, roots and animals. It is captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems.<\/p>\n Strong and sustained\u00a0protection of UNESCO World Heritage sites<\/strong>\u00a0and their surrounding landscapes to ensure their forests could continue to act as strong carbon sinks and stores for future generations.<\/p>\n Maintaining and strengthening ecological connectivity through improved landscape management.<\/p>\n Integrating the continued protection of UNESCO World Heritage sites into international, national and local climate, biodiversity and sustainable development strategies.<\/p>\n According to Scientists, India\u2019s long spell of Heatwaves is\u00a0significantly due to human-induced climate change.<\/p>\n According to the Indian Meteorological Department(IMD),\u00a0Heatwave is a condition of air temperature which becomes fatal to the human body when exposed.<\/p>\n Quantitatively,\u00a0Heatwave is defined based on the temperature thresholds over a region in terms of actual temperature or its departure from normal.<\/p>\n For instance, Heatwave will be declared\u00a0if the maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 40 \u00b0C or more for plains and at least 30 \u00b0C or more for Hilly regions.<\/p>\n Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming<\/strong>: Accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere exacerbated temperatures in the oceans and the land and caused increased glacier melt, heightened sea level rise and led to changes in the biosphere.<\/p>\n \u2013 For instance, in Greenland warming waters around glaciers are heating even ice sheets, thereby accelerating warming.<\/p>\n Rising Sea Level:<\/strong>\u00a0Sea levels are rising only three millimetres a year. But even this minor rise was responsible for driving greater numbers of extreme climate events such as floods that could devastate coastal regions, particularly in India.<\/p>\n Increased Carbon Dioxide Emissions<\/strong>: If carbon emissions remain unchecked, half the planet would be in severe drought by the century. Along with carbon dioxide emissions, pollution from biomass burning combined caused 1.5 million deaths annually in India.<\/p>\n Provide Clean Cooking Fuel:<\/strong>\u00a0India could cut its pollution by half just by providing clean cooking fuel to rural households in the Indo-Gangetic plain.<\/p>\n Prepare a 10-year Action Plan:<\/strong>\u00a0India should prepare a 10-year plan to ensure that India\u2019s poor who stood to be most affected by climate change were protected from heatwaves and wildfires.<\/p>\n Increase Forest Area<\/strong>: Nearly a third of emitted carbon dioxide didn\u2019t make it to the atmosphere as they were absorbed back into the soil by forests and other vegetation thus slowing down temperature rise. Therefore, nature-based solutions such as increasing forest area would be valuable to India\u2019s climate adaptation programmes.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania has become the first major fossil fuel-producing state in the US to adopt a carbon pricing policy to address climate change.<\/p>\n The United States has adopted a less direct approach known as the\u00a0Social Cost of Carbon.\u00a0<\/strong>This approach\u00a0calculates future climate damages to justify tougher restrictions on polluting industries.<\/p>\n On the other hand, countries like Canada have adopted a\u00a0Carbon Pricing approach<\/strong>. For example, Canada imposes fuel charges on individuals and also makes big polluters pay for emissions. It\u2019s one of 27 nations with some kind of carbon tax.<\/p>\n Carbon pricing is an instrument that captures the external costs of greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions\u00a0and ties them to their sources through a price usually in the form of a price on the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted.<\/p>\n These GHG emissions include the costs of emissions that the public pays for, such as damage to crops, health care costs from heatwaves and droughts, and loss of property from flooding and sea-level rise.<\/p>\n A price on carbon helps shift the burden for the damage from GHG emissions back to those who are responsible for it and who can avoid it.<\/p>\n There are two main types of carbon pricing namely:<\/p>\n Emission Trading System(ETS)<\/strong>: It is a system where emitters can trade emission units to meet their emission targets.<\/p>\n Carbon Tax:\u00a0<\/strong>It directly sets a price on carbon by defining a tax rate on greenhouse gas emissions or \u2013 more commonly \u2013 on the carbon content of fossil fuels. It is different from an ETS in that the emission reduction outcome of a carbon tax is not pre-defined but the carbon price is.<\/p>\n The social cost of carbon attempts to capture the value of all climate damage centuries into the future.<\/p>\n Carbon pricing reflects how much companies are willing to pay today for a limited amount of emission credits offered at an auction.<\/p>\n In other words, the social cost of carbon guides policy, while carbon pricing represents policy in practice.<\/p>\n IIT Madras is developing an online platform called \u201ce-Source<\/strong>\u201d to tackle\u00a0electronic wastes (e-waste) by linking stakeholders in the formal and informal economy.<\/p>\n A new study has pointed out that crops and vegetables that use fluoride-contaminated groundwater have been contributing to an increase in the consumption of fluoride among locals in Bengal.<\/p>\n First,<\/strong>\u00a0the groundwater used for agricultural purposes deposits a good amount of fluoride in the soil.<\/p>\n Second,<\/strong>\u00a0this fluoride is absorbed by crops.<\/p>\n Third,<\/strong>\u00a0it enters the food chain system, causing harm to the human body.<\/p>\n Fluoride is an essential micronutrient and has both beneficial and detrimental effects on human health. However, exposure to high levels of fluoride causes\u00a0dental fluorosis, skeletal fluorosis<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0non-skeletal fluorosis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Fluoride is\u00a0not carcinogenic<\/strong>\u00a0like arsenic. It attacks the calcium in the body. It leads to painful and stiff joints.<\/p>\n Ligaments calcification, liver and kidney dysfunction, nerve weakness, developmental disorder, organ tissue damage, bending of legs etc., are some commonly seen health issues.<\/p>\n As a result of fluoride contamination,\u00a0pregnant women<\/strong>\u00a0show a lower birth rate.<\/p>\n Nano technology<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0electro-coagulation methods<\/strong>\u00a0can be used to filter out the contaminated water.<\/p>\n Rainwater harvesting<\/strong>\u00a0is also useful as it will lead to less dependence on groundwater.<\/p>\n Water pipelines<\/strong>\u00a0need to be installed in affected areas to provide large scale water supply.<\/p>\n Constant monitoring<\/strong>\u00a0of the fluoride-endemic regions is needed.<\/p>\n Proper watershed management<\/strong>\u00a0through treatment of surface water is another solution.<\/p>\n Recently,\u00a0black oil-emanating balls also called Tarballs were seen lying on the shore of Mumbai Beach.<\/p>\n Tarballs are dark-coloured, sticky balls of oil that form when crude oil floats on the ocean surface. They are transported from the open sea to the shores by sea currents and waves.<\/p>\n Some of the Tarballs are as big as a basketball, while others are smaller globules. They are usually coin-sized and are found strewn on the beaches<\/p>\n Tarballs are formed by weathering of crude oil in marine environments. They are also formed from oil-well blowouts, accidental and deliberate release of bilge and ballast water from ships, river runoff, discharges through municipal sewage and industrial effluents.<\/p>\n Fishing:<\/strong>\u00a0Tarballs that travel towards the coast can get stuck to the fishing nets installed in the sea, making it difficult for fishermen to clean.<\/p>\n Marine Life<\/strong>: Tarballs could affect marine life, especially filter feeders like clams and oysters.<\/p>\n Tarball pollution:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u00a0is a major concern to the global marine ecosystem. Microbes such as bacteria and fungi are known to be associated with tarballs.<\/p>\n Difficult to Break Down:<\/strong>\u00a0Tarballs are difficult to break down, and can therefore travel for hundreds of miles in the sea.<\/p>\n Tourism:<\/strong>\u00a0Tarballs\u00a0washed ashore on beaches will negatively affect local economies because tourists will be offended by the odour.<\/p>\n The government has issued the Plastic Waste recycling targets.<\/strong><\/p>\n The guidelines divide plastic waste into three categories.<\/p>\n Rigid plastics<\/strong>: These are plastic products that do not give easily when squeezed. For example, many large and bulky items like lawn chairs, buckets, toddler toys etc.<\/p>\n Flexible:\u00a0<\/strong>It contains packaging of a single layer or multilayer, plastic sheets and covers made of plastic sheet, carry bags (including carry bags made of compostable plastics), plastic sachet or pouches.<\/p>\n Multilayer:\u00a0<\/strong>It consists of products that have at least one layer of plastic and at least one layer of material other than plastic.<\/p>\n Mandatory collection<\/strong>: They mandate producers of plastic packaging material to collect all of their produce by 2024. It aims to ensure that a minimum percentage of it is recycled and used in subsequent supply.<\/p>\n EPR Certificates<\/strong>: The guidelines has also specified a system where makers and users of plastic packaging can collect\u00a0Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) certificates<\/strong>\u00a0and trade in them.<\/p>\n Disposal<\/strong>: Only a fraction of plastic that cannot be recycled such as multi-layered multi-material plastics will be eligible to be sent for end-of-life disposal such as road construction, waste to energy, and waste to oil and cement kilns.<\/p>\n Here too, only methods prescribed by the\u00a0Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0will be permitted for their disposal.<\/p>\n Centralized website<\/strong>: Producers of plastic will have to declare to the government how much plastic they produce annually, via a centralized website.<\/p>\n Targets for Collection<\/strong>: Companies will have to collect at least 35% of the target in 2021-22, 70% by 2022-23 and 100% by 2024.<\/p>\n Targets for recycling<\/strong>: In 2024, a minimum of 50% of their rigid plastic (category 1) will have to be recycled along with 30% of their category 2 and 3 plastic.<\/p>\n Each subsequent year will see progressively higher targets.\u00a0After 2026-27, 80% of their category 1 and 60% of the other two categories<\/strong>\u00a0will need to be recycled.<\/p>\n If entities cannot fulfill their obligations, then they will be permitted to\u00a0buy certificates on a \u201ccase by case\u201d basis<\/strong>. They can make up for their shortfall from organizations that have used recycled content in excess of their obligation. The CPCB will develop a \u201cmechanism\u201d for such exchanges on a centralized online portal.<\/p>\n Non-compliance would not invite a traditional fine. Instead, an \u201cenvironmental compensation<\/strong>\u201d would be levied.<\/p>\n NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman has launched the NITI Aayog \u2013\u00a0United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)<\/strong>\u00a0Handbook on\u00a0Sustainable Urban Plastic Waste Management.<\/strong><\/p>\n Globally, only about 9% of the total plastic produced gets recycled, about 12% is incinerated and energy is recovered and the rest about 79% gets into the land, water, and ocean and pollutes the environment.<\/p>\n In India,\u00a0Urban local bodies (ULBs)<\/strong>\u00a0are mandated under the\u00a0Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016<\/strong>, and the\u00a0Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016<\/strong>\u00a0to manage municipal solid waste and plastic waste at the city level.<\/p>\n Hence, the handbook has provided suggestions that can be adopted by the urban local bodies for\u00a0Sustainable Urban Plastic Waste Management.<\/p>\n The urban local bodies across states should adopt the Material Recovery Facility(MRF) model & implement it as a public-private partnership model for sustainable management of urban plastic waste.<\/p>\n A Materials Recovery Facility is a specialized plant that receives, separates and prepares recyclable materials for marketing to end-user manufacturers.<\/p>\n The Waste Pickers need to be institutionalized by Urban Local Bodies(ULBs) for long-term plastic waste management.<\/p>\n They should be provided with benefits like making them financially literate and opening bank accounts for them, linking them to various social protection schemes, providing occupational ID cards, health benefits and personal protective equipment while working, and creating self-help groups.<\/p>\n The Indore model of spreading mass awareness and explaining the importance of waste management at the household level needs to be adopted by other cities. It will be the key to make plastic waste management a people\u2019s movement.<\/p>\n Moreover, technology platforms need to be linked with relevant stakeholders such as bulk waste generators (BWGs), recyclers and waste pickers for more effective online reporting, monitoring and information exchange.<\/p>\n According to a study published\u00a0in the journal Science Advances, there is a rapid degradation in air quality and an increase in urban exposure to air pollutants hazardous to health.<\/p>\n Premature Deaths due to Air Pollution<\/span><\/p>\n Air pollution caused more than 100,000 premature deaths in some of India\u2019s largest cities from 2005 to 2018.<\/p>\n Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune recorded the highest number of such deaths.<\/p>\n Note:\u00a0<\/strong>The study did not cover\u00a0Delhi, Noida and Faridabad, which featured in the WHO\u2019s list of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world.<\/p>\n The study found significant annual increases in pollutants directly hazardous to the health of up to 14% for nitrogen dioxide(NO2), 8% for fine particles(PM2.5) and 12% for ammonia.<\/p>\n There is also a\u00a01.5 to four-fold increase in population exposure to air pollution in 40 of the 46 cities for NO2 and 33 of the 46 cities for PM2.5.<\/p>\n This rapid increase in exposure to air pollutants is due to population growth combined with road traffic, waste burning and widespread use of charcoal and fuelwood.<\/p>\n India had 123,900 premature deaths from long-term exposure to PM 2.5 in 2005 which increased to 223,200 in 2018.<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong>\u00a0PM 2.5 are tiny particles or droplets that are 2.5 micrometres or fewer in width that are linked to a host of diseases and premature death.<\/p>\n Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Kanpur has developed an Aquatic Autonomous Observatory named Niracara Svayamsasita Vedh Shala(NSVS) to monitor the \u201chealth\u201d of the River Ganga.<\/p>\n This observatory has been developed with the help of the Department of Science and Technology, the Government of India, and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF).<\/p>\n It is a low-cost, water quality monitoring platform that would enable in situ monitoring, real-time data transmission and web-based visualisation of River Ganga.<\/p>\n NSVS consists of an array of sensors and auto sampler on a stationary platform that is semi-submersible, all-weather, robust and perfectly stable.<\/p>\n The system can sense three parameters namely, pH (a scale to measure acidity\/alkalinity), conductivity and dissolved oxygen capacity of water. This can be further utilised to estimate total dissolved solids, specific gravity and the presence of metallic ions in water.<\/p>\n It can also autonomously collect data every 15 minutes and report it through a wireless network to the institute.<\/p>\n With its large riverine network, India battles frequent floods, foam-filled toxic water bodies, unexpected rise in water levels, polluted rivers and so on.\u00a0Hence, in this context, this river monitoring system is expected to aid conservation efforts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friends, This post is a part of our current affairs series for the UPSC IAS Prelims 2022. In this post, we have covered all of the current affairs linked to Climate Change, Pollution and mitigating measures. To Read Other Current Affairs Compilations\u00a0for UPSC Prelims 2022\u2013\u00a0Click here Topics related to Climate Change Climate Action and… Continue reading Current Affairs Compilation for Prelims 2022 | Climate Change, Pollution and mitigating measures in news<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10695],"class_list":["post-185362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public","tag-current-affairs-compilations-for-prelims-2022","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":13,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1698437655},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185362\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTopics related to Climate Change<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nClimate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD)<\/span><\/h3>\n
About Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD)<\/h5>\n
Purpose of CAFMD<\/h5>\n
\nGreenhouse gas emitted and absorbed by forests in UNESCO World Heritage sites <\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
Key findings of the report on UNESCO World Heritage Forests<\/h5>\n
About Indian Sundarbans<\/h5>\n
Suggestions given by the report<\/h5>\n
\nHeatwaves and Climate Change<\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
About Heatwave<\/h5>\n
About Climate Change and Heatwaves<\/h5>\n
Ways to reduce the impact of Climate Change<\/h5>\n
\nCarbon Pricing Approach<\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
Different approaches adopted by countries to address climate change<\/h5>\n
About the Carbon Pricing Approach<\/h5>\n
Types of Carbon Pricing<\/h5>\n
Difference between the Social Cost of Carbon and Carbon Pricing<\/h5>\n
\nPollution and mitigating effors<\/span><\/h2>\n
\ne-Source Platform<\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
About e-Source Platform<\/h5>\n
\n
Need for this initiative<\/h5>\n
\n
Significance of e-source platform<\/h5>\n
\n
\n
\nFluoride contamination<\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
About the three stages of fluoride toxicity<\/h5>\n
Harmful\u00a0effects of the Fluoride\u00a0contamination<\/h5>\n
Methods to control fluoride contamination<\/h5>\n
\nTarballs<\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
About Tarballs<\/h5>\n
Formation of Tarballs<\/h5>\n
Harmful effects associated with Tarballs<\/h5>\n
\nPlastic Waste recycling targets<\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
Various categories\u00a0of plastic wastes<\/strong><\/h5>\n
About the new rules<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Targets for collection and recycling<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Rules for not fulfilling the targets<\/h5>\n
\nNITI Aayog \u2013 UNDP Handbook on Sustainable Urban Plastic Waste Management<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u00a0News<\/h5>\n
Need for this handbook<\/h5>\n
Suggestions given by the handbook<\/h5>\n
Material Recovery Facility(MRF)<\/h6>\n
Institutionalization of Waste Pickers in governance bodies<\/h6>\n
IEC and Digitization<\/h6>\n
\nDeath due to Air pollution<\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
Key findings of the study<\/h5>\n
![\"Air](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.forumias.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/0.79994900_1649653681_premature-deaths-2.png?resize=471%2C294&ssl=1\")
Increase in Pollutants<\/h6>\n
Premature Deaths due to exposure to PM 2.5<\/h6>\n
\nNiracara Svayamsasita Vedh Shala(NSVS)<\/span><\/h3>\n
News<\/h5>\n
About Niracara Svayamsasita Vedh Shala(NSVS)<\/h5>\n
Working of NSVS<\/h5>\n
Significance of this platform<\/h5>\n
\n