Editorial

Climate change represents one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing our planet. The warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. The Earth’s average surface temperature has risen by 0.76° C since 1850. Most of the warming that has occurred over the last 50 years is very likely to have been caused by human activities. Human activities that contribute to climate change include, in particular, the burning of fossil fuels, agriculture and land-use changes like deforestation. These cause emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary gas responsible for climate change, as well as of other ‘greenhouse’ gases. India and other developing countries would be among those most seriously impacted by the consequences of climate change. To bring climate change to a halt, global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced significantly.

The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC) has reported that the impact of human activities on climate and climate systems is unequivocal. The AR4 projects wide-ranging implications and adverse impacts on the developing countries because of their lack of capacity to respond to rapid change. Alarmed by the findings, the governments of countries across the world are engaged in working out the impacts and associated vulnerabilities of their economies to the impending projected climate change.

The signs of growing global action to ward off this threat are also becoming more evident than ever. Increasingly, the major polluters are using both command-and-control and market-based mechanisms to contain their greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. Developing countries such as China and India are already taking bold steps and demanding that incentives, rather than binding commitments, may be the proper way to help reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. But will these efforts be enough? This question remains controversial, depending fundamentally on nature’s thresholds to react to the changing atmospheric composition due to increased carbon accumulation and human resilience to these changes. In simpler terms, it also means ‘how much of climate change is acceptable to human society?’ Most of us now seem to be agreeing on the 2°C temperature rise threshold. But even this will result in the loss of several species of flora and fauna.

Assessments of impacts of climate change to various sectors of the economy, directly or indirectly, are essential for devising approaches, strategies and action plans to respond to the changes. Thus, there is a need to have a comprehensive climate change assessment both at the national as well as state level. Such an assessment is necessary for timely preparedness and response to minimise impacts and cope with the adversities due to climate change. Adaptation is not a new concept. Over time, human beings and ecosystems have adapted to different environments and conditions. The current challenge lies in keeping up with the rapidly increasing need for adaptation measures as a consequence of climate change, ensuring that adaptation is considered in political and economic decision making and is translated into action. Adaptation is an important part of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol. In the early days of the UNFCCC, the majority of activities designed to address climate change focused on mitigation and setting up binding commitments for industrialised countries to reduce their GHG emissions. With time, however, adaptation has become a higher priority on the international climate change agenda. The convergence between mitigation and adaptation will be best possible with large-scale sustainable livelihoods and sustainable lifestyles. This would require appropriate technologies, efficient resource management and effective institutions. Social enterprises like the Development Alternatives that have set up financially self-sustaining systems to promote these on a large scale will, therefore, become all the more important since they will be ones to bridge the funding opportunities at the global level, (e.g., carbon market) and action at the community level. q

Anand Kumar
akumar3@devalt.org
 

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