Civil Service Bytes

The historic agreement on climate change  marked a milestone (on 22, April 2016), with a record 175 countries, including India, signing it. Paris Agreement on climate change was signed by 175 countries World leaders made it clear that more action is needed and it has to be quickly, to fight a relentless rise in global temperatures. Concerns  – planet heating up to record levels, sea levels rising and glaciers melting The ceremony was held on  Earth Day (April 22, 2016) The world is in a race against time. The era of consumption without consequences is over. Today world countries are signing a new covenant with the future. This covenant must amount to more than promises. The agreement  will come into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 per cent of global emissions formally join it, a process initially expected to take until 2020. But following a host of announcements at the signing event, observers now think it could happen lat...

India submitted its first Biennial Update Report (BUR) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), towards fulfillment of the reporting obligation under the Convention. The inventory covers six greenhouse gases, viz. Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) and five categories, namely- energy, industrial processes and product use (IPPU), agriculture, waste and Land-use, Land-use, Change and Forestry (LULUCF). Biennial Update Report states: India emitted 2,136.84 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases in 2010. Energy sector was the prime contributor to emissions and with 71% of total emissions in 2010. Industrial processes and product use contributed 8%; Agriculture and waste sectors contributed 18% and 3% respectively. About 12% of emissions were offset by carbon sink action of forests and croplands,. India’s per capita GHG emissio...

Peak  pollution  controlled despite fog and adverse weather   Load of particulates and nitrous oxides from cars reduced by about 40%   Areas with higher car density recorded more improvement in air quality   Decongestion of roads, leading to better utilisation of vehicles and reduced travel time OTHER POSSIBLE TEMPORARY MEASURES Extending odd-even rule to two-wheelers   Shutting power plants and industries   Declaring school holidays LASTING MEASURES THAT  DELHI  NEEDS Congestion charges on the basis of time and location of travel   Tax benefits for CNG and electric vehicles   Phase out old vehicles   Timely completion of phase-III of Delhi Metro   Remove entry taxes for cabs, autos and buses within NCR cities   Rationalise taxes on buses   Substantially hike car parking charges   Expand bus fleet to 11,000 from around 6,000 at present   Build dedicated lanes for cyclists and pede...

The South Asian Monsoon has been weakening since the 1950s with an increased incidence of extreme rainfall events. Now, a paper in the journal  Climate Dynamics  lead authored by Dr. R. Krishnan attributes this weakening to increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, atmospheric aerosols and land-use changes. Dr. Krishnan is a scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. The monsoon is mainly driven by thermal contrast between the Indian subcontinent and the adjoining ocean. As the land warms up the air above the land surface is heated and rises up and is less dense than the cool air over the ocean. This contrast in temperatures and densities causes the cool moisture bearing winds from the western Indian Ocean to move into the land mass and bring monsoon rains to the subcontinent. This scenario, however is  changed due to the presence of greenhouse gases, aerosols in the atmosphere or if the land has been subjected to increased deforestation. ...

Persistent above normal temperatures have been recorded in many regions of the country After the monsoon, it’s the winter season which has played truant with India. More than half of the winter season has passed, but the characteristic chill felt in many parts is missing due to persistent above normal temperatures. Palam in New Delhi witnessed a maximum temperature of 25.7°C on January 12, 2016, which was 6°C above normal. Minimum temperature in this region on the morning of January 13 was 13.9°C, 7°C above normal. Srinagar, which is in the middle of  Chilai Kalan  (40-day harsh winter period), witnessed minimum temperature of -2.5°C on January 13, which is still 5°C above normal. Most places in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, western Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha in Maharashtra witnessed maximum temperatures which were 2-5°C above normal on January 12.  This warm weather might be good news fo...

China’s capital and its adjoining areas will end coal usage by 2020 to reduce the recurring  smog  in Beijing and improve air quality . Beijing wants to replace coal-fired stoves with that of electricity and gas. Beijing has declared that it will wipe out coal use in its most rural areas by 2020. 60 per cent of smog content is caused by coal burning in the starting phase of each smog . 30 per cent of the pollution comes from automobiles. Burning coal for winter heating has been listed as one of the primary causes of air pollution. Background : The capital and other places in northern China experienced several smog alerts in November and December, when peak readings were many times higher than the national safety level. Last month Beijing declared its first red alert as the city of over 22 million people was enveloped by heavily polluted smog leading to a host of emergency measures including closure of schools and restriction of traffic with odd and ev...

Opinion on The  Centre’s decision  to  adopt Bharat Stage VI   automotive fuels nationwide by skipping BS V by April 1, 2020 . Summary of the opinion: This has significant cost implications for fuel producers and the automobile industry, but its positive impact on public health would more than compensate for the investment. Major pollutants such as fine particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide emitted by millions of vehicles on India’s roads are severely affecting the health of people. Past national policy of implementation of the BS IV fuel standard failed primarily because this was not done all over the country and the technical standard also permitted a higher level of sulphur in the fuel. Higher sulphur results in high volumes of fine respirable particulates measuring 2.5 micrometres (PM2.5) being generated in emissions. The monitoring of diesel passenger and commercial vehicles – the biggest contributors ...

In a bid to curb vehicular pollution, the government on Wednesday decided to implement stricter emission norms of Bharat Stage (BS) VI from April 1, 2020 by skipping BS-V altogether. The development comes at a time when air pollution, especially in the Capital, has become a major issue. While Delhi is currently observing odd-even scheme, Supreme Court has cracked down on diesel vehicles by banning registration of diesel cars and SUVs with engines above 2,000 cc.  By April 1, 2017, the whole of India is scheduled to come under BS-IV norm. BS-IV fuels contain 50 parts per million (ppm) sulphur, while BS-V and BS-VI grade fuel will have 10 ppm sulphur. What is the then plan and the present ? Previously, the fuels meeting Euro-IV or Bharat Stage-IV specifications were to be supplied throughout the country by April 2017, and BS-V or Euro-V grade fuel by April 1, 2020. But now instead of a step-wise upgrade from BS-IV to BS-V and then from BS-V to BS-VI, the government plans ...

Study says expansion of rice agriculture in Myanmar and conversion of mangroves for oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia are leading to massive deforestation         More than 100,000 hectares of mangroves in Southeast Asia have been lost from 2000 to 2012  National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers have found out that conversion of mangrove forests for other uses such as rice cultivation and palm oil farming is posing a threat to their existence in Southeast Asia. In a press release, the NUS said that two per cent or more than 100,000 hectares of mangroves in the region have been lost from 2000 to 2012. According to the statement, mangrove forests play an “important role” in mitigating carbon dioxide emissions and are important ecosystems globally. “This is the first study to systematically quantify the conversion of mangroves to different land use types in Southeast Asia and identify the key drivers of mangro...

India’s strategy at the Paris Climate Change summit will be to work with emerging economies and press the developed world to concede that responsibility for cutting carbon emissions after 2020 cannot be shared equally by rich and poor nations.   Two major issues that New Delhi will focus on at the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are failed ambitions on transferring low carbon technologies to the developing world, and the lack of support for a plan to fund mitigation and adaptation efforts. The UN Convention on Climate Change has followed the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR), reflected in the Kyoto Protocol and reinforced last year at Lima. Under this, poor countries were not required to cut emissions. India is emphasising this again, informed sources in the Ministry of Environment and Forests said, and demanding that developing nations be allowed greater room in cutting emissions beyon...