Billions of people, in developed and developing nations, benefit daily from the use of wild species for food, energy, materials, medicine, recreation, inspiration and many other vital contributions to human well-being. The accelerating global biodiversity crisis, with a million species of plants and animals facing extinction, threatens these contributions to people.
A new report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) offers insights, analysis and tools to establish more sustainable use of wild species of plants, animals, fungi and algae around the world. Sustainable use is when biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are maintained while contributing to human well-being.
The IPBES Assessment Report on the Sustainable Use of Wild Species is the result of four years of work by 85 leading experts from the natural and social sciences, and holders of indigenous and local knowledge, as well as 200 contributing authors, drawing on more than 6,200 sources. The summary of the Report was approved this week by representatives of the 139 member States of IPBES in Bonn, Germany.
“With about 50,000 wild species used through different practices, including more than 10,000 wild species harvested directly for human food, rural people in developing countries are most at risk from unsustainable use, with lack of complementary alternatives often forcing them to further exploit wild species already at risk,” said Dr. Jean-Marc Fromentin (France), who co-chaired the Assessment with Dr. Marla R. Emery (USA/Norway) and Prof. John Donaldson (South Africa).
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https://ipbes.net/media_release/Sustainable_Use_Assessment_Published
Coastal Odisha under existential threat
Bay of Bengal is the hotbed of tropical cyclones. Estimates show that eight of the 10 deadliest tropical cyclones in the world have originated here. Over the past few decades, cyclones in Bay of Bengal have not only become frequent, the region is also experiencing the largest relative increase of flood risk and seawater ingression.
Of all the states along its coast, Odisha, because of its geographic location, bears the maximum brunt of these disasters. So far, the state has lost 153.8 km, or about 28 per cent, of its coastline to seawater ingression.
Many coastal villages in Odisha are also experiencing increased levels of inundation due to storm flooding, accelerated coastal erosion, seawater intrusion into freshwater aquifers and encroachment of tidal waters into river systems.
All these have led to massive economic losses, repeated displacements of communities and disruption of life, forcing the poor, living on the margins of subsistence, into greater poverty.
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Climate crisis: even temporarily overshooting 2°C would cause permanent damage to Earth’s species
The history of climate change is one of people slowly coming to terms with the truth. None but a small minority still question whether it’s real and caused by humans. Now most grapple with the reality of trying to slow down catastrophic warming, and the difference between solutions and false hope. The concept of climate overshoot is the next thing we will need to get to grips with.
Unless urgent action is taken, emissions are expected to cause the planet to continue heating rapidly over the next few decades, prompting the global average temperature to overshoot the Paris agreement’s target, which aimed to limit warming to between 1.5 degrees Celsius and 2°C. A period of higher temperatures will occur in the middle of this century as a result. Then, the idea goes, new but yet unproven technologies and techniques for pulling greenhouse gases from the atmosphere will eventually bring temperatures back down to a safer level.
Until now, scientists were unsure what temporarily overshooting (and then boomeranging back below) the Paris agreement’s temperature target would entail for nature. So, for the first time, we studied the consequences of allowing Earth’s temperature to exceed these precautionary limits, then fall below them again, for marine and land-based life. In other words, we looked at how damaging the journey of overshooting the 2°C temperature target would be, and not just the destination itself.
The results suggest that a temporary overshoot would cause waves of irreversible extinctions and lasting damage to tens of thousands of species. This is what the world can expect if humanity fails to make deep emission cuts this decade, and relies instead on future technologies to remove emissions later……
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High Carbon Emitters may get Sops to Curb Emissions
India is considering several measures to incentivise high carbon emitting industries such as steel, cement and thermal plants to set up carbon capture facilities. Incentives could be provided through production-linked incentive schemes, viability gap funding or carbon credits.
Niti Aayog, the country’s policy think-tank, will soon come out with a policy prescription for carbon capture and utilisation of carbon dioxide emitted by industries as part of the plan to achieve Net Zero by 2070, an official said requesting anonymity.
These industries constitute 6-10% of the total carbon dioxide emitted.
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https://www.news-next.in/high-carbon-emitters-may-get-sops-to-curb-footprint/
Mahim Church to become carbon neutral; first religious place in India to do so
St. Michael Church popular as the Mahim Church, one of the oldest places of worship in Mumbai, is on its way to become carbon neutral and the first church in India to do so.
Carbon neutrality involves calculating the church’s carbon footprint and finding ways to make this footprint zero to reduce global warming.
Initiated in 2018, St Michaels Church had incorporated six environmental initiatives in its activities — solar panels, solar water heaters, energy efficient lights and fans, composting of organic waste, biogas from flower waste, and greening the church area.
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MIAL Launches First-of-its-kind Vertical Axis Wind and Solar System
Mumbai International Airport, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has become India’s first airport to launch a one-of-its-kind Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) and Solar PV hybrid (Solar Mill) to explore the possibility of utilization of wind energy at the airport.
CSMIA has introduced this pilot program in collaboration with WindStream Energy Technologies India Pvt Ltd, which ensures 24/7 energy generation, harnessing maximum energy through wind power systems, while enabling a highly efficient and low carbon future for aviation…
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Indians losing 5 years of life due to air pollution: Report
According to a report by Air Quality Life Index, air pollution shortens average Indian life expectancy by five years, relative to what it would be if the World Health Organisation guidelines were met. (5 µg/m3).
The study also states that particulate air pollution takes 2.2 years off global life expectancy, or a combined 17 billion life years, relative to a world that met the WHO guideline.
This impact on life expectancy is comparable to that of smoking, more than three times that of alcohol use and unsafe water, six times that of HIV/AIDS, and 89 times that of conflict and terrorism.
The WHO recently revised its guidelines -from 10 µg/m³ to 5 µg/m³- for what it considers a safe level of exposure to particulate pollution, bringing most of the world—97.3 percent of the global population—into the unsafe zone.The report states that in no region of the world is the deadly impact of pollution more visible than in South Asia, where more than half of the life burden of pollution occurs
Residents there are expected to lose about five years of their lives on average if the current high levels of pollution persist, and more in the most polluted regions. Since 2013, about 44 percent of the world’s increase in pollution has come from India, the reports said.
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India aims to have 75 Ramsar sites on 75th anniversary of Independence
India is set to urge the Convention on Wetlands to fast-track designation of 26 wetlands in the country as Ramsar sites in addition to the existing 49 sites. If the Convention on Wetlands agrees to the proposal, India could have a total of 75 Ramsar sites in the 75th year of Independence.
Ramsar site is a wetland area designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, an intergovernmental environmental treaty, signed in Iran in 1971, that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
The 26 wetlands proposed to be designated as Ramsar sites comprise 13 from Tamil Nadu, four from Odisha, three from Madhya Pradesh, two from Jammu & Kashmir and one each from Maharashtra, Mizoram, Karnataka and Goa.
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Ban on RO systems to continue in Delhi, Supreme Court declines to stay
The Supreme Court on June 3, 2022 declined to interfere with the National Green Tribunal order which prohibited use of RO filters in Delhi areas with Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) less than 500 per litre. A bench of justices RF Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat asked Reverse Osmosis (RO) manufactures to approach the Centre and directed the government to consider their representation before passing a notification.
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One tree for every four persons: BMC census
The tree census data by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has recorded 29.75 lakh trees in the Greater Mumbai region. According to the census figures of 2011, the city’s population stood at 124.78 lakh, which makes it one tree for every four persons. Environmentalists have raised their concern at the alarming tree-human ratio in the city, asserting that there is a grave need to preserve the green cover in the city.
According to an Indian Institute of Science (IISc) report from 2014, the ideal ratio tree-human ratio should be seven trees for every person. “Gandhinagar in Gujarat has four trees per person, Nashik has two trees for every person,” said Mr T. V Ramachandra, professor at IISc and coordinator at the Energy and Wetlands Research Group. However, India stands among the countries with the lowest tree-human ration with one person for 28 trees. Countries like US and China have 716 trees and 102 trees for one person respectively, according to a 2015 study.
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India scored lowest in 2022 Environment Performance Index
India scored the lowest among 180 countries in the 2022 Environment Performance Index (EPI), an analysis by researchers of Yale and Columbia University which provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world. The EPI ranks 180 countries on 40 performance indicators including climate change, environmental public health, biodiversity, among others.
As per EPI estimates, only a handful of countries, including Denmark and the United Kingdom, are on track to meet net zero emission goals by 2050. Nations such as China, India, and Russia are headed towards the wrong direction with rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions.
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India has achieved the target of 10 % ethanol blending in petrol five months before the deadline
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Sunday that India has achieved the target of 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol five months before the deadline.
Making the announcement at a programme on the ‘Save Soil Movement’, which coincided with the World Environment Day, Modi cited a number of measures taken by his government to protect the environment, saying its efforts have been multi-dimensional despite the country having a negligible role in climate change.
The rise in ethanol blending in petrol from 1.5 per cent in 2014 to 10 per cent now has reduced carbon emission by 27 lakh tonnes and saved Rs 41,000 crore of forex reserve. This has also brought Rs 40,000 crore of income to farmers, he said, adding the feat was achieved on Sunday.
In his address, the prime minister said India has also achieved its goal of having 40 per cent of its installed power generation from non-fossil fuel-based sources nine years before the deadline.
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“Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) Movement’ launched
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the ‘Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE) Movement’, a global initiative, and asserted that its vision is to live a lifestyle that is in tune with our planet and does not harm it. The launch initiated ‘LiFE Global Call for Papers’ inviting ideas and suggestions from academics, universities and research institutions etc to influence and persuade individuals, communities and organisations across the world to adopt an environment-conscious lifestyle.
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https://currentaffairs.adda247.com/pm-modi-launches-lifestyle-for-environment-movement/
Mumbai: Tata Power’s green initiatives reduce 126 kilo tonnes of carbon emissions|
More than 17,000 Tata Power’s consumers in Mumbai have opted for greenenergy (solar and wind energy), an official said on World Environment Day.
“Besides, we have also promoted solar rooftop installations across the city. We have provided rooftop solar panels to 395 consumers who have opted for net metering,” said an official.
The official further said that the company’s annual green power sales has accounted for more than 180 MU’s (million units) which has helped mitigate 126 kilo tonnes carbon emissions.
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Failed SRA? Architects propose ways to improve Mumbai city
Twenty-five years after its inception, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority’s (SRA) failure to create a slum-free Mumbai has prompted around 80 city architects to come together and propose ways to make the city a better place.
The SRA has a dismal record of having built only 2.5 lakh homes during this period. Architects pointed out that what the SRA has created are vertical slums with even worse living conditions.
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Need strict norms in state groundwater act
The central groundwater authorities have reprimanded their state counterparts for not including stringent norms in its Groundwater Act in order to recover penalties and environmental damage compensation from those illegally indulging in groundwater extraction and its commercial sale without the requisite permissions.
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Greece passes first climate law
The Government of Greece May 26, 2022 passed the country’s first climate law to end the use of lignite / coal in the country’s electricity generation by 2028. The deadline for phasing out the fossil fuels will be reviewed in 2023.
The National Climate Law — Transition to climate neutrality and adaptation to climate change contains the establishment of a process for developing sectoral carbon budgets for seven sectors of the economy, an element that exists only in the most progressive climate laws in Europe.
It establishes measures and policies to optimise the country’s adaptation to climate change and ensure Greece’s carbonation path by 2050.
The country’s climate targets include cutting greenhouse emissions by at least 55 per cent by 2030 and by 80 per cent by 2040 and by 2050 zero-net emissions.
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https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/governance/greece-passes-first-climate-law-83114
Maharashtra partners with WEF to fight plastic pollution
Maharashtra has joined hands with the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) to advance regional efforts to fight plastic pollution.
The partnership will bring together Maharashtra’s leading policy-makers, business leaders, civil society organizations and experts to formulate a state-level plan to eradicate plastic pollution.
With this, Maharashtra has joined a growing list of global economies that will leverage the GPAP platform to drive localised solutions for the circular economy.
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Climate change boosted odds of recent deadly heat in India, Pakistan, scientists say
South Asia’s deadly heatwave in March and April was made 30 times more likely because of climate change, scientists reported Monday.
As April temperatures hit nearly 50 degrees Celsius in parts of northern India and Pakistan, at least 90 people died from heat-related causes, officials have said. The heatwave, which had delivered record temperatures in India in March, also badly damaged the country’s winter wheat crop.
Without climate change, such heatwaves would be “extraordinarily rare,” according to scientists with World Weather Attribution, an international research collaboration that works to tease out how much climate change plays a role in specific weather events.
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India’s Policy Challenges To Hinder Net-zero Progress, Putting Onus on Private Cos: Moody’s
India’s 2070 net-zero target and intermediate goals through 2030 present significant policy implementation challenges for the government, carving a more central role for private companies and investors to drive the transition, according to a new report by global financial services company Moody’s Investors.
The country’s significant economic development needs will present constraints to the government’s ability to extend sufficient financial support to fund its carbon transition.
“The country’s high growth potential, significant economic development needs and large agricultural sector will likely weaken the government’s policy resolve and financial capacity to drive the economy’s carbon transition,” said Nishad Majmudar,” Moody’s assistant vice president and analyst.
As such, India’s planned emissions reductions will be conditioned upon low-cost, long-term private capital, says Mr Majmudar.
Many of the country’s large private companies have announced net-zero targets that are well ahead of Indian authorities’ goals, while government-linked companies are comparatively behind.
Additional policy signals to encourage transition would drive higher private investment, the report said.“The pace of India’s carbon transition will depend on the extent to which the government can balance energy affordability and reliability needs against its emissions reduction commitments,” said Abhishek Tyagi, Moody’s vice-president and senior credit officer.
“Reduced storage costs and the scalability of renewable projects with storage would support a faster transition,” Mr Tyagi added.
Further, the report goes on to say that Indian banks’ significant loans to carbon-intensive sectors expose them to transition risks, and they will face pressure to decarbonise their loan books.
At the same time, green financing presents a significant lending opportunity given the banks’ dominant role in credit intermediation in the country, it said.
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North & Central India records highest temperature in 122 years
The average maximum temperature over Northwest and Central India for April this year has been the highest in the past 122 years, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data until April 28, 2022 show.
The average maximum over Northwest India and in the country as a whole in March was also the highest since 1900. Northwest and Central India began to experience early heatwave spells this year, with two such spells in March.
The average maximum temperature over Northwest India is likely to remain above normal in May as well, the IMD said in its forecast for the month issued on Saturday. Other parts of the country are, however, likely to witness normal to below normal maximum temperatures in May.
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Man-made Forest with 1 lakh trees in Navi Mumbai
Even as many trees are being axed in Navi Mumbai to make way for various infrastructure projects, the local body, NMMC, is in the process of creating a man-made forest with 1 lakh trees in Nerul. It is being developed on a barren patch along the ‘Jewel of Navi Mumbai’ lakeside, using the Miyawaki method of plantation. NMMC claims it is India’s largest urban forest.
The Japanese Miyawaki method of plantation is used to grow trees in a short duration. The Miyawaki forest model needs less water as compared to other methods. In this model, more trees can be accommodated in smaller areas as it designed for urban pockets where availability of land is a hurdle.
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349 BEST Consumers Go Green
The number of BEST electricity consumers in island city switching to rooftop solar photovoltaic panel installations is seeing a steady rise. Latest statistics released by the undertaking on Friday shows as many as 349 consumers have opted for such rooftop panels so far under the recently announced central scheme.
The maximum such consumers are in A ward (89connections), followed by D and F/North ward with 51connections each. While 79 residential consumers had rooftop panels below 20kWp (kilo watts peak) capacity of generation, there are 88 consumers/housing societies who went for panels above 20kWp, and this number is likely to increase, said officials.
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Future Cyclones will make 200% more people prone to damage
As cyclone Asani threatens the east coast a research study by the University of Bristol shows that future cyclones that hit the bay of Bengal will expose 200% more population to cyclonic damage and flooding. They will also be more devastating in nature….
The study revealed super cyclones, the most intense form of tropical storm, are likely to have a more devastating impact on people in future years. The international research, led by the University of Bristol, looked at the 2020 Super Cyclone Amphan — the most costly cyclone to make landfall in South Asia— and projected its consequences in different scenarios of sea level rise due to global warming.