We began ‘Climate On Our Mind’ on World Environment Day with the word Resilience. It made sense. We are now face-to-face with the crisis. But resilience is the final act — the third of three pillars holding up how we are addressing Climate Change. In today’s post — we look at the first two: Mitigation and Adaptation — actions that will determine the future and how we cope with it.

Circular economy seems a vital enabler for sustainable use of natural resources which is also important for achieving the 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals. Therefore, a special session addressing issues of “sustainable solutions and remarkable practices in circular economy focusing materials downstream” was held at the 16th International Conference on Waste Management and Technology, where researchers and attendees worldwide were convened to share their experiences and visions.

We are witnessing the first signs of the climate crisis. While the word ‘crisis’ should jolt us awake, here’s another statistic: 75% of 10,000 youngsters reported that they thought the future is ‘frightening’. These are the findings of a study, published by The Lancet Planetary Health, which included respondents from Australia, Brazil, Finland, France, India, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugal, the UK, and the USA. More than 50% of the respondents reported feeling sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty.

Year after year, the many days marked for environmental awareness push for concrete actions to protect our planet.

Rather than jumping on the ‘Go Green’ bandwagon and hastily considering the on-the-horizon (and sometimes even the in-the-pipeline) options, it would be simpler to start off with correcting the wrong we are doing—by giving up the habits that are bad for the environment. This would be quicker too, which is crucial given the time we have for arresting or limiting environmental damage and climate change.

A 40 GW target of installed rooftop solar (RTS) capacity by 2022 was set by the Government of India in 2015. Measures such as government subsidies and mandatory RTS installation on government buildings and public offices were taken to help RTS grow. However, India’s total installed RTS capacity as of 31st March 2022 is only 6.65 GW.

A greater push for residential RTS space is needed to reduce the negative impact on DISCOM finances. This would help in increasing the overall uptake of RTS without harming the financial health of DISCOMs.

Climate Change may feel like an insurmountable problem and our future may look bleak. But all is not lost. On World Environment Day 2022, CSTEP launched a new campaign — Climate On Our Minds. Because there’s Only One Earth.
Through this campaign, we hope to enable climate action triggered by informed conversations on what this crisis means.

The impacts of climate variability, climate change, and extreme events are visible globally and in India. The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 ranks India seventh, considering the extent to which India has been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heatwaves, etc.). The index signals that the repercussions of escalating climate change are exacerbating and can no longer be ignored.

India needs to grow a lot more food, and do it sustainably to be able to meet its future food security and also keep its climate commitments. Precision farming is still nascent in the country, but could offer a way forward.

A spate of EV explosions in India has raised safety concerns about the technology. However, it is too early to write off EVs on the evidence of these incidents. Only detailed investigations and analyses will reveal whether the battery explosions in Hyderabad and other parts of the country occurred due to extreme weather conditions, battery mismanagement, or other reasons.