Environment

KEY POINTS

·         Measures to deal with climate change fall into three broad categories

a.      Mitigation

b.      Adaptation

c.       Loss & damage

·         Mitigation – is all about limiting further rise in global temperature.

·         Adaptation – is all about finding ways to cope with the effects of climate change that have already set in.

·         Loss and damage – has to do with the repair work that would need to be done after a certain climate event has occurred.

·         Logically, there ought to be equal attention on all the three - mitigation, adaptation and Loss and Damage.

·         But, the entire narrative around climate change has always been terribly skewed towards mitigation.

Issues with mitigation

·         Mitigation, for its outcomes, is important to the developed countries.

·         They are better equipped to handle disasters and they only need to ensure that the disasters don’t grow bigger than they can handle.

·         Adaptation, on the other hand, is crucial for developing countries such as India which are particularly vulnerable to climate risks.

·         The developed world has made the whole climate narrative mitigation-centric because it is easier to handle and falls within their interests.

·         There is a significant gap in allocation and utilisation of funds for adaptation as against that for mitigation.

·         United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its recent Adaptations Gap report highlights that adaptation had not gained much traction.

What India needs to do?

·         Given the fact that 2 degrees target is unrealistic to be met, it is highly critical that developing countries take measures on the adaptation front.

·         Thus in terms of its own interest as well as in respect of its development status, India should logically be more inclined towards the adaptation front.

·         India has its own National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change from the Budget.

·         However, given the demand, it also needs to seek more multilateral funding from the developed world going by the ‘polluter pays’ principle.

·         Beyond building physical defences, funds are essential for increasing the knowledge base of “adaptation science” for predicting weather, developing heat-resistant crop varieties, etc.

Mitigation & adaptation are two important measures to deal with the climate change problem.

Mitigation is about the ways to prevent the further rise in temperature .ex: abandoning the use of fossil fuel, use of renewable energy.It is realted to futuristic aspect to deal with climate change.

Adaption is the measures to cope up with the present problem of climate change. It's related about the present aspect to deal with climate change problem.

Mitigation requires technology & finance so most developed countries are focussed on mitigation because they can develop technology.

Most developing countries like India where huge population is dependent on agriculture & fisheries are climate dependent so any change in climate will affect the food security & livelihood of the country.Any rise in temperature will negatively affect the wheat production in India , rise in temperature will lead to submergence of temperature around the coastal area.

According to emission gap report of UNEP there will be rise in temperature of about 3 degree celsisus instead of 2 degree Celsius by 2100 above pre industrial level. So rise is temperature inevitable & hence we require measures to deal or cope with the present problem & hence adaption is best way to deal with the climate change problem.

India in its national action plan on climate change (NAPCC) in 2008 focussed on control & adaption measures.