Emerging Environmental Issues
Kalipada Chatterjee

Significant progress has been made in the last decade in identifying and responding to environmental challenges in both developing and developed regions of the world in the form of institutional developments, international co-operation, public participation, and the emergence of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and private and business sector actions.  Legal frameworks, economic instruments, environmentally sound technologies and cleaner production processes have been developed and applied to some extent.  Environmental impact assessments have become standard tools for the initiation, implementation, and evaluation of major development and investment projects in many countries around the world.  Since Rio (June, 1992) a growing body of actors - governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the private/business sector, civil society - have responded to environmental challenges in a variety of ways.  Nevertheless, despite this progress on several fronts, from a global perspective the environment has continued to degrade during the past decade.  Therefore there is an urgent need for quick implementation of major policy reforms to lessen the chances of much more environmental surprises(1).

With the rapid growth of population, industrial pollution and pressure on land and other natural resources, several environmental issues may be thrown up in the coming decades.  It is therefore necessary to identify some of the important emerging environmental issues so that we can arm ourselves with the necessary data, information and policies to face the challenges of these emerging issues for minimising the adverse impacts on the earth’s eco system, people and the society. 

In a recent communication, the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) invited Development Alternatives (DA) to participate in an important new study of emerging environmental issues, as one of the 100 experts and innovative thinkers around the world.  The present study is an effort in that direction.

Development Alternatives at the headquarters at New Delhi along with DA’s other centres at Bangalore and Jhansi (Madhya Pradesh) are taking part in the study.  The emerging environmental issues were grouped into four categories.  They are:

Historical emerging issues

During the last two decades two very important environmental issues have emerged. They are:

The Ozone Layer

CFCs have a very long atmospheric life time of about 100 years.  Considering the crucial role of the ozone layer which has evolved over a geological time frame in protecting all life forms from the biologically harmful ultraviolet radiation (UV-B, 280-320 nanometer), the developing and developed countries agreed to sign the Vienna Convention  on the protection of ozone layer (1985) and Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (1987).  Actions are in progress to phase out the CFCs by 2010 but the health of the ozone layer will not be revived until the middle of the 21st century.  Therefore the adverse effects of the depletion of ozone layer will be severely felt in the coming decades particularly in developing countries which have very little infrastructure and resources to adequately address the issues like increased cataracts and blindness, loss of agricultural yields affecting food security of these regions from increased UV-B.  The UV-B also affects aquatic life.  In many developing countries marine species supply more than 50 per cent of the dietary proteins.  These impacts of the CFCs in the atmosphere will be felt sometime in the next century and should be considered as important emerging environmental issues requiring further scientific research, planning and policy actions in the coming years.

Climate Change

Carbondioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have natural as well as anthropogenic origins (human activities).  The anthropogenic emissions of these gases have contributed about 80 per cent of the additional global warming due to greenhouse gases since pre-industrial times (i.e., since about 1750 A.D.).  The contribution of CO2 is about 60 per cent of this greenhouse induced warming, about four times that from methane.  CO2 has a relatively long residence time in the atmosphere of the order of a century or more.

Therefore the impact of Global Climate Change would be felt by the different countries and regions much later from the time these greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere, may be after 2050 or later.  The impacts of climate change will be on (i) terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, (ii) hydrology and water resources, (iii) food and fibre, (iv) human infrastructure, (v) human health.

In fact the impacts of climate change will affect all aspects of economic activity of a country.  The degree of impacts will be different for different geographical locations and depend on the capacity of a country or a region to adapt.  The developing countries will suffer most, as most of these do not have adequate funds and appropriate technology for addressing the issues of climate change.  Since stabilisation of the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases need the active co-operation of all nations, the developing and developed countries signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Rio in June 1992.

The signing of the Framework Convention was only a global recognition of the problem and an agreement for global action to mitigate climate change.  However it is necessary to understand environmental issues that may emerge out of global action to curb climate change, and the nature and degree of impacts on each country and region.  This would need much concerted efforts.

Other related emerging environmental issues are how the ecosystems will respond to the new chemicals that are to replace CFCs  and their degradation products in the atmosphere and new technologies that are being adapted for bringing down anthropogenic emissions of  greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Emerging environmental issues based on DA’s own observation.  They are :

The process of identifying the emerging environmental issues and their scientific and policy responses would however continue and Development Alternatives would like to participate in the study as it evolves.    q    

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