CLIMATE CHANGE: A PERSPECTIVE FROM INDIA


CLIMATE CHANGE: A PERSPECTIVE FROM INDIA


Shri Kirti Yardhan Singh is a Member of the Sixteenth Lok Sabha of the India Parliament representing Gonda, Uttar Pradesh for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shri Singh was educated at Lucknow University receiving a M.Sc. in Geology and becoming an Agriculturist. In 1998, he was elected to the 12th Lok Sabha and has held positions on several Committees including Industry, Defence, Science & Technology and Environment & Forests. He has special interest in the conservation of the environment.


Two weeks of intense negotiations between the representatives of the 196 member countries at COP 21, held at Paris, in December 2015, finally led to the much awaited Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Hailed by many as a diplomatic triumph, it demonstrated the seriousness of the governments to tackle the threat of irreversible and catastrophic climate change confronting the world today. The Agreement itself has elicited varying responses from different sections. Emerging from the dissipating euphoria, are doubts regarding the effectiveness of the accord in achieving its goals. Nevertheless, it is seen as a historic accomplishment which will encourage countries to reduce their Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and pursue a low carbon path towards achieving their development goals.


Greenhouse gases, in particular carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels to meet the demands of the power and transport sector, are the key cause of global warming. Rapid industrialization, our impetuous rush towards the ostensible goal of development, as well as our wasteful consumption patterns are causing the ever increasing


20 | The Parliamentarian | 2016: Issue One


emission of these gases. The findings of the


Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, show that GHG emissions have grown by 70% between 1970 and 2004. The Energy sector, with an increase of 145%, is the largest contributor to this growth, followed by Transport with an increase of 120%, Industry 65%, Intensive farming and Land use change, a further 40%. These increasing emissions have led to a rise in global temperatures by 0.7°C over the past century and are projected to further increase by a minimum of 1.8°C to a maximum of 4°C before the end of this century. Scientists predict that this temperature increase will have a dramatic and devastating effect upon the world around us, leading to extreme and unpredictable weather events. These changes would severely impact our global food production, create havoc on people and infrastructure, and lead to widespread extinction of many animal and plant species. The alarming effects of global warming are already manifest with the increasing frequency and severity of cyclones and snow storms, droughts and floods, the rise in sea levels, rising average temperatures and the increasing incidences of vector borne diseases.


Ironically, it will be the world’s poor, those least benefitting from the development process, who would bear the brunt of its repercussions. Lacking the required resources, low income families have the least capacity to adapt to the disruptive effects of global warming. Increasingly unpredictable weather and unreliable rainfall patterns are already affecting the marginalized, subsistence level farmers, leaving them exposed to the risks of droughts, floods, disease of both crops and animals and subsequent market irregularities. Increasing incidences of vector borne diseases are afflicting people, especially children in the underdeveloped and developing countries. The declining rural economy is forcing the migration of young people to cities, creating additional pressures on the urban infrastructure with its related sanitation and health problems.


This is especially true of countries such as those under the Commonwealth jurisdiction. Most of these nations and small states, which account for over a third of the world’s population living in a fifth of the global land area, are classified as developing or underdeveloped. The disruptive effect of global warming is undermining their efforts towards achieving


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