Sustainable and Secure Future

The Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP)—a Bengaluru-based think tank—published a study on the climate of northern India titled ‘District-Level Changes in Climate: Historical Climate and Climate Change Projections for the Northern States of India’. The study projects changes in temperature and rainfall patterns in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh over the next three decades compared to the historical period (1990–2019). It analyses two representative scenarios: moderate emissions (RCP 4.5) and high emissions (RCP 8.5).

As we inch closer to another global climate summit, COP27, climate projection models will once again be thrust into the limelight as they play an important role in devising net-zero strategies. However, assumptions and estimates for India’s ‘net zero by 2070’ target need to be reviewed carefully given the deep uncertainties involved. There is no correct pathway to net-zero emissions.

The Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP)—a Bengaluru-based think tank—has published the Climate Atlas of India: District-Level Analysis of Historical and Projected Climate Change Scenarios. The report summarises the findings from CSTEP’s historical climate analysis and future climate projections at a district level for the 28 states of India (excluding union territories), published as regional reports in 2022.

Contemporary migration is complex and diverse. Since the 1980s, human mobility has been increasingly linked to climate change, particularly because of the impacts of sea-level rise and coastal erosion and the changes in frequency, occurrence, and intensity of natural disasters. While migration as a response to climate-induced phenomena can take many shapes and forms, research has shown that it is extremely difficult to isolate a clear link between the two.

There has in the last few years been a concerted push from policymakers and thought leaders in India to transition to a circular economy to, among other things, enable effective waste management. However, waste management in the solar photovoltaic sector still lacks clear directives.

With India’s ambitious 2030 clean energy targets and the 2070 net-zero goal, more was expected from the Union Budget 2023-24 to increase the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) and solar photovoltaics (PVs). Currently, the EV market is struggling because of low penetration rates, and solar PVs have high production costs. Integrating EVs and solar PV systems could be a viable option for electric mobility in India, but without concessional financing available, the cost of solar projects would be too high, resulting in increased EV charging costs for consumers.

The climate crisis is no longer a distant event that might happen in the future. It is here, bringing new and previously unimaginable challenges. Temperatures are rising, rainfall patterns are shifting, and extreme events such as record-high temperatures and heavy rainstorms are becoming more common.

This year in India, the month of February was the hottest so far since 1901. According to a study in The Lancet, published in July 2021, with two decades of data (2000-2019), more than five million people died on average each year worldwide because of extreme temperatures.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is a national poverty alleviation programme that provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment to rural households whose adult members demand unskilled manual work. The scheme includes more than 260 activities (called ‘works’) that are categorised into natural resource management (NRM)-based and non-NRM-based rural development works.

MGNREGS is a poverty alleviation programme implemented pan India. As an employment guarantee scheme, it successfully captures information on the number of jobs and assets created. However, assessment of the multiple climate co-benefits arising from assets created through the programme has been a blind spot. While there have been many studies that attest to the climate co-benefits of MGNREGS works, they have been limited in their geographical scope, resulting in constrained reporting of the accrued benefits.

India recently submitted an updated nationally determined contribution (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which includes two short-term commitments.