Impact of Climate Change on India

 

Climate Change Impact on India

Crisis is already failing the Governmental Efforts

 

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

 

Over the last few years Media in India has been abuzz with all kinds of reports on Climate Change. This document tends to summarize a few that may be inter related & reflect upon what impact it would have on India. Many dozens of articles relating to CDM mechanism are not covered here.

 

1.     Climate Change Poses Profound Threat-Stern Warning: 27^th Oct 2006, The Hindu:

Sir Nicholas Stern report, commissioned by the UK Treasury,  warned that

a.      Global Warming will have many severe impacts, often mediated through water: Melting glaciers will initially increase flood risk and then strongly reduce water supplies, eventually threatening one-sixth of the world's population, predominantly in the Indian sub-continent, parts of China , and the Andes in South America.

b.     Climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world - access to water, food production, health, and use of land and the environment.

2.     Potable Water still a mirage for many in AP: 22^nd March 2007: Deccan Chronicle:

a.     Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board Director( technical) M.Satyanarayana said that only 240 MGD of water was being supplied to the city and surrounding municipalities though the demand is nearly 350 MGD per day. (A shortage of more than 30%).

b.     Ground Water in Vizag ( district) and its suburbs fell by more than 50 per cent during the last five months.

3.     Climate Change may cause India loss of 125 million Tonnes of Cereals: 8^th Aug 2007: The Hindu:

Climate Change can cause India a loss of 125 million tonnes of cereals, equivalent to 18 per cent of the country's rain fed production, Jacque Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations ( FAO-UN) said on Tuesday. Talking of the possible adverse impact of climate change worldwide.

 

Pointing out that 209 million people were still hungry in India, Dr.Diouf said the downward trend in the number of under nourished had been reverted in recent years. His organization, in its vision of a hunger-free world, advocated a village-by-village approach as a quick and effective way of achieving the goal.

 

4.     Spreading Deserts threaten Food Supply: 3^rd Sep 2007, The Economic times:

Spreading deserts and degradation o farmland due to climate change will pose a serious threat to food supplies for the world's surging populations in coming years, a senior United Nations scientist warned on Friday. MVK Sivakumar of the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said the crunch could come in just over a decade as all continents see more weather related disasters like heat waves, floods, landslides and wild fires.

"Today we feed the present world population of 6.3 billion from the 11% of the land surface that can be used for serious food production. The question is: Will we be able to feed 8.2 billion that we expect to populate the globe in 2020 if even less land is available for farming? He said. Africa , Latin America and parts of Asia , where Climate is already more extreme and arid regions (http://www.fao.org/ag/agl/agll/drylands/mapsasia.htm ) are common, will be most affected as rainfall declines and its timing becomes less predictable, making water more scarce, he said.

 

5.     Agrarian Crisis articles throughout the year, The Hindu: 5000 Farmers' suicide, Vidarbha Crisis: There have been dozens of articles in all Daily Newspapers in the country like Times of India, The Hindu, Hindustan Times and all have discussed this crisis of rain dependent Cotton Growing Framers in this ARID Region of India. Most notable articles have been written by Magsaysay Award Winner P.Sainath. Click on this link below to see hundred of articles over the last two years.

http://andolan.blogspot.com/2007/07/farmers-suicide-times-exposes-govt.html

 

6.     Indian Government Response: 1^st March 2007. The Economic Times.

a.     Budget speech of Union Minister, P.Chidambaram: 2007-08: India is not a significant contributor to green house gas emissions nor will it be so in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, in line with the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility", India has taken important steps to mitigate GHG emissions and adapt to climate change impact. India has also strongly promoted CDM under Kyoto Protocol and has world's largest number of CDM projects. Nevertheless, India is among the countries more vulnerable to climate change. Hence Government proposes to appoint an expert committee to study the impact of climate change on India and identify the measures that we may have to take in the future.

 

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