Climate is changing in the whole world. One of the causes is
the way the world is developing .The
world is developing because we have to
produce for more numbers, also because our per capita consumption needs to rise.This development results in emission of greenhouse gases,
global warming and climate change.Climate change can pose several problems like sub-mergence of islands under water,
untimely and excessive rains and floods,
deficit rainfall and drought in other parts.It can make agriculture vulnerable to
vagaries of nature and is bound to affect life and
health.This kind of development is not sustainable.Keeping the above in view,the UNO decided to keep one sustainable goal(SDG) devoted to climate change.This
is goal number 13 :Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
What
urgent action can we take to combat climate change and its impacts.There are
two types of action, one is the action
to eliminate the causes of climate
change,the other is the action to reduce
or mitigate the effects or impacts of
climate change.We shall take them up one by one .
The causes of climate
change lie in increasing consumption levels and
increasing human population.Thirdly the way we are developing , or producing goods and services for our
consumption so as to lead a better quality of life.The important factors responsible for climate change
are:1.Greenhouse gases.
2.Deforestation.
3.Land Use Change.
4.Energy Usage.
5.Vehicular Usage.
The way we are developing can
be green , eco-friendly or it can
be such as to destroy ecology and
environment around us.For example, electricity can be produced in a green way as Solar energy , and it can
be produced in a polluting way as
Thermal energy.If we opt for Solar energy , or Wind energy or Nuclear
energy, we can have less global warming
and less climate change.But why don’t we do this way?The first is that Sloar energy per unit is much more
costly than Thermal energy. Why should
any buyer buy Solar energy when cheaper energy is available?If there are no
buyers, why should any producer prodce Solar energy when there are no
buyers?This brings in the role of Public Policy , which can be formulated in
such a way as to encourage both
producers and consumers.One way is to grant subsidy to producers
or consumers or both so that they
produce and consume Solar energy as
compared to thermal energy , despite Sloar enegy production costs per unit
being higher.The second part of policy
should be to make public in general
aware of the beneficial effects of Solar
energy on climate change.
India’s share of CO2 in the total emissions in
the world is very insignificant in per capita terms.The per capita emission of an
Indian citizen is 1.2 tons of Carbon dioxide where his counterpart in USA
is contributing 20.6 tons as per UNDP
Human Development Report 2007-2008.The per capita emissions of UK and Japan are
8 and of USA 17 times higher than that of India.India’s contribution to the
world total is only is only 4.6% when
compared to USA’s contribution of
20.9% followed by 17.3% of
China.(Statistics related to Climate change in India , Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation ,
Government of India , Nov,2013.)
You may ask , if it were so simple ,
why it has not been done so far? Why is it that most of our energy still comes
from thermal sources(which use fossil
fuels) and very little fron Solar
sources.The reason is the failure of public policy and governance ,
technology and vested interests embedded
in thermal energy sources.It is here that the role of UNO as a
voice of the world comes in picture.It
has to impress on its member states to
adopt the SDGs and also achieve these goals.Before SDGs were approved
for 2030 , we had MDGs(Millenium Development Goals) for 2015.But the
performance in MDGs was not satisfactory, again due to political and other reasons.SDGs were approved by the
UN General Aassembly in 2015.
The stand of India
on SDGs has been to accept and support
them .But if we are really serious to achieve SDGs , we need to not only bring
our policies in line with these goals , but also improve
the working of governments , both at centre and at states level so
that a conducive environment is built in the whole country
for achievement of these goals.
The key word is
Urgent.Do we see any urgency to combat
climate change? Is there any evidence in place that the Union government and various State governments are
showing any urgency in combating climate
change?It is too early to say.But there are some really critical areas which need reforms if
this combat has to to be taken forward.One critical area is to
create a mechanism for educating all the concerned departments on the need to take steps to combat climate change.This
itself is a very big challenge.Where are the people who have the knowledge
about climate change ,and how to put them in place for education the departments? Secondly ,
there is a need to develop capacities and skills of the civil servants to formulate evidence based policies.This in
turn requires political leaders who themselves see the need for policies based
on evidence , and not on political expediency or ideology.This begs a big question as to how to get such political leaders.At
present , we produce political leaders who believe in vote banks , casteism ,
nepotism , and encourage only those policies which can bring them votes.Such
short sighted political leaders will never be able to bring out policies aimed
at combating climate change and its
impacts .
Finally ,it is the effort made by every citizen for combating climate change that matters the most.In our daily lives,we need to consume less, buy eco-friendly products, plant and encourage planting of trees,contribute in every possible way to make the deal on climate change a success.This will ensure a cleaner and healthier world with a promise of sustainable development with better control on climate change and its impact.
(This article was published in the February issue of the magazine Tree Take ,Lucknow,U.P.,India)
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