COP26
COP26
The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making body responsible for monitoring and reviewing UNFCCC recommendations on global warming and climate change.reviewing UNFCCC recommendations on global warming and climate change.
International Efforts:
Last 25 COPs since 1995, have failed to limit the Global Warming.
The Global Leadership is yet to provide a clear direction for mitigating Climate Change impacts.
COP-26 starting from 31 Oct 2021 could be the last chance for Humanity to avoid catastrophic decline.
The Main themes of COP 26:
- Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees
- Global emissions must halve by 2030
- Globally reach ‘net-zero’ by 2050
- Mobilize Climate Finance
COP 21 at Paris in 2015 saw over 195 countries pledging NDCs to reduce CO2 emissions, But post- pandemic Economic recovery is seeing large rebound to Coal & Oil use with 2nd largest annual increase in CO2 emissions in the History
Will COP 26 be hijacked by finance issues, without committing emission reductions?
Taken from: CCP New Bulletin October 2021 https://www.climatecollectivepune.org/
COP26 Glasgow: Why equity is key to stopping climate change. Indepth presentation by Sunita Narain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ol888qg-le8 Oct 31, 2021
Sunita Narain Director General, Centre for Science and Environment traces the inequities of emissions that has led to run away climate change. Issues such as cumulative historical emissions are slowly being phased out of the climate change discourse thereby removing the responsibility of a handful of countries like the US, the UK, the EU, Japan, Russia, Canada and Australia for creating the problem of global warming. Since 2001, China too has become part of the problem. Together the seven rich countries along with China will control over 70% of the carbon space left between 2020 and 2030.
Sunita Narain traces unjust share of carbon emissions that have helped a certain group of countries to develop while putting pressure on poor countries which are still developing to take unjust mitigation measures. Will net zero emissions targets by 2050 help the mitigate climate change? Sunita Narain says probably not, because that will mean emitting now and trying to offset it later.
Climate change to deliver debilitating blow to seven Karnataka districts: https://www.deccanherald.com/state/top-karnataka-stories/climate-change-to-deliver-debilitating-blow-to-seven-karnataka-districts-study-1047482.html NOV 05 2021.
The study, which is part of Karnataka government's draft climate action plan, said the extremities caused by climate change will effect change in vegetation in Vijayapura, Raichur, Koppal, Ballari, Chitradurga, Kodagu and Hassan under both low-emission and high-emission scenarios.
Indu K Murthy, Principal Research Scientist, Adaptation and Risk Analysis, at the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy: , "This means that the future climate at such locations will not be suitable for existing vegetation or forest type and biodiversity. The forest type change may be accompanied by forest dieback and mortality,” the study added.
Interventions were needed to prepare districts, especially farmers, by including crops that are resistant to climate change.
The study suggested that forest and agriculture policies need to change at the earliest with measures adopted to promote biodiversity at every level.
“Allowing the market to drive such policies will lead to monocropping and monoculture. Instead, the rules related to social and agroforestry as well as agriculture have to adopt measures that proactively promote biodiversity. This can also prepare the farmers to face the future,” she said.
study Experts have called for detailed studies to understand the various facets of the problem Chiranjeevi Kulkarni, DHNS, Bengaluru, NOV 05 2021, 01:08 ISTUPDATED:..
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Small Hydro Power Projects Are Seen As Green. In The Western Ghats, Local Communities Disagree https://www.article-14.com/post/small-hydro-power-projects-are-seen-as-green-in-the-western-ghats-local-communities-disagree-6181f91fb3efc DISHA SHETTY 03 Nov 2021 11 min read Share
As India pushes for more renewables in its energy mix to meet its global climate-change pledges, one of these options, small hydropower projects, was once heralded as benign and beneficial, despite a dearth of studies on their impacts on local communities and ecology. The story of one such project facing opposition from locals in the lush Western Ghats.
Small hydropower projects, typically between 0.5 and 24.5 mega watts (MW), enough to light up a village on the lower end and a city on the higher, have increased human-elephant conflict, led to the loss of thousands of trees, disrupted riverine life and the lives of local communities....
“There is no governance mechanism surrounding small hydel projects in India, that is the main problem,” said Parineeta Dandekar, associate coordinator of the SANDRP. “They are exempt from the EIA (environment impact assessment) notification of 2006 and entire environment clearance procedures.”
Being exempt from the EIA notification implies there is no need for a public hearing before a project moves forward, which means local communities affected by it have no way to voice their concerns.
“SHP (small hydropower projects) are often defined based on their installed hydropower capacity, and most countries adopt 10 MW as the cut-off,” said Jumani. “In India, we define SHP projects as those that produce less than 25 MW.”..
That the threshold takes into account the power capacity of a project can be misleading.
“A 5 MW dam can cause more submergence or adverse environmental impact than a 25 MW dam based on dam location and characteristics,” said Jumani. “Instead, dam size definitions based on dam height and reservoir area are likely to be better indicators of impact.”
Ideal Small Hydropower Project
Small hydropower projects initially had the support of movements that were against large dams, said Manju Menon, a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, a public policy think tank.
But these projects were supposed to be designed around the needs of the local communities, in a way that doesn’t disrupt livelihoods.
Menon said these projects were regarded not just as technologies but as “decentralised institutional interventions”. “But governments have taken these projects from local discourses and put them into the hands of contractors and dam builders,” she added.
In Nagaland, for instance, localised hydro projects reach electricity to remote areas. Experts said instead of a small-versus-big debate, each project deserved to be assessed on environmental parameters, such as location, how it would change the flow of a river, what the benefits and impact would be.
As India scales up renewables, said experts, there is also a need to have conversations that involve local communities and assess the social costs.
The climate crisis explained in 10 charts https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/01/the-climate-crisis-explained-in-10-charts From the seemingly inexorable increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the rapid growth in green energy Damian Carrington and Paul Torpey
1 Nov 2021
TIME! - Peter Schmitt & Friends Aug 7, 2019
TIME! to stand and speak up for climate&justice and a “just transition” to a sustainable future
- Phasing Out Unabated Coal
- Global Climate Action: Where Do Indian Banks Stand?
- The ‘net-zero’ greenwash
- UN Climate Change Report Explained
- Climate Alliance—or Climate Conflict
- What Must Be Done to Avert Climate Catastrophe? New Economic Thinking
- Climate hazards are threatening vulnerable migrants
- European Commission proposes ambitious climate change policies
- Trump’s Moves to Dismantle Climate Action