Page 47 - Climate Change

Central banks need to incorporate climate-related risks: RBI dy guv

Central banks need to incorporate climate-related risks into their supervisory frameworks in order to contribute to the development of frameworks and standards for green finance, said RBI Deputy Governor M Rajeshwar Rao. Participating in a panel discussion on 'Climate Implications for Central Banking', he stressed that financing the new green ventures alone will not be enough and there is a need for credible transition plans for existing emitting firms without compromising their output or growth. "For this to materialise, central banks can incorporate climate-related risks into their supervisory frameworks and can contribute to the development of frameworks and standards for green finance. These frameworks can help promote transparency, standardization, and integrity in the green finance market," he said. On Tuesday RBI released the remarks of Rao at the panel discussion organised by the IMF and Center for Social and Economic Forum on July 19 in New Delhi. The deputy governor furth

July heat waves 'virtually impossible' without climate change: Scientists

The return of the El Nino cycle, which warms the equatorial Pacific Ocean, plays a role in the recent heat. But the report is evidence that it can't be attributed to El Nino alone

India's food security under threat as climate change disrupts weather

India last week suspended exports of non-basmati varieties of rice after heavy monsoon rainfall damaged newly planted crops due to be harvested in winter

US Special Envoy on climate change Kerry to travel to New Delhi, Chennai

US President's Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry will travel to New Delhi and Chennai from July 25 to 29, an official statement said on Monday. The purpose of the presidential envoy's visit is to advance shared objectives on climate and clean energy, including mutual efforts to build a platform for investments in renewable energy and storage solutions, support the deployment of zero-emission buses, and diversify clean energy supply chains, the State Department said. In New Delhi, Kerry will meet senior government officials. In Chennai, he will attend the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Ministers Meeting, the statement said.

Environmental conservation key concern for 21st century: President Murmu

Threats of environmental degradation, depletion in forest cover, global warming and climate change are at the centre stage in the global discourse and partnerships making environmental conservation a key concern for the 21st century, President Droupadi Murmu said on Monday. Addressing the probationers of Indian Forest Service (2022 batch) and officers and officer trainees of Indian Defence Estates Service (2018 and 2022 batch) at Rashtrapati Bhavan, she said their journey as civil servants has begun at a time when India is acquiring a leadership role at global level. "India attracts global attention for its cultural prosperity as well as its technological advancements. India has shown to the world that technology and traditions can go hand in hand," she said. Addressing the probationers of Indian Forest Service (IFS), the President said India's climate and topography is closely connected to its forest distribution. "Forests and the wildlife that they support are invaluable resource

Scientists say record heat numbers paint the story of a warming world

The summer of 2023 is behaving like a broken record about broken records. Nearly every major climate-tracking organisation proclaimed June the hottest June ever. Then July 4 became the globe's hottest day, albeit unofficially, according to the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer. It was quickly overtaken by July 5 and July 6. Next came the hottest week, a tad more official, stamped into the books by the World Meteorological Organization and the Japanese Meteorological Agency. With a summer of extreme weather records dominating the news, meteorologists and scientists say records like these give a glimpse of the big picture: a warming planet caused by climate change. It's a picture that comes in the vibrant reds and purples representing heat on daily weather maps online, in newspapers and on television. Beyond the maps and the numbers are real harms that kill. More than 100 people have died in heat waves in the United States and India so far this summer. Records are crucial for

Greenland's ice has completely melted before, raising sea levels: Study

Greenland's ice sheet vanished completely and its land was covered with vegetation at sometime within the last half a million years, raising sea levels by at least 1.5 metres globally, an international team of scientists has found. Previously believed to have been a "fortress of ice" with mostly unmelted ice, Greenland's ice sheet history is undergoing a major and worrisome rethinking in light of these findings, the scientists from the University of Vermont (UVM), US, and other institutes said. Published in the journal Science, the study also provided "strong and precise evidence that Greenland is more sensitive to climate change than previously understood - and at grave risk of irreversibly melting off." As recently as two years back, an accidental rediscovery of a Greenland ice core, initially dug from a depth of about 1,400 metres, was analysed to be a direct evidence of sediment just beneath the ice sheet being deposited by flowing water in an ice-free environment during a ...

Delhi may suffer losses of Rs 2.75 trn by 2050 due to climate change

Delhi is projected to suffer losses of Rs 2.75 trillion by 2050 due to the impacts of climate change, with changes in precipitation and temperature patterns posing significant threats to the lives of the most vulnerable populations. The warning comes from the city government's draft action plan on climate change. The plan, which is pending approval, highlights "heat waves/higher temperature and heavy precipitation events over fewer number of days" as major challenges that the city will confront in the upcoming years. India introduced its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2008, following which state governments were instructed to create their own action plans. The State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) must be aligned with the strategies laid out in the NAPCC. In January 2018, the central government directed the states to revise and strengthen their SAPCCs, taking into account the evolving national and international climate action, science and policy ...

Our civilisation was built for a climate that's vanishing quickly

You can learn a lot about the climates we live in by the buildings we construct

Cities, climate change and urban flooding

Addressing the mounting dangers that cities face today also requires citizen-led action plans to assist the mitigation efforts at the municipal and govt level

Reimagining climate finance

To effectively facilitate a transition to climate-friendly development, global transfers must be tailored to each nation's specific needs

Global temperatures near record highs as US, China meet on climate change

Wildfires in Europe raged ahead of a second heat wave in two weeks that was set to send temperatures as high as 48C

A water crisis in slow motion

India's struggle with flood management, climate change, and its misaligned priorities pose a serious threat to clean water supply in cities

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded on Earth: NASA, NOAA

Last month was the hottest June on record going back 174 years, according to independent analysis by scientists including those from NASA and NOAA. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also found that it is virtually certain (above 99 per cent) that 2023 will rank among the 10-warmest years on record and a 97 per cent chance it will rank among the top five. The El Nino climate pattern is one reason temperatures are so hot right now, NOAA said. The cyclic pattern causes hotter than normal water in the Pacific Ocean, and the extra heat alters weather around the world and raises global temperatures. June this year was the warmest globally at just over 0.5 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average exceeding June 2019 the previous record by a substantial margin, according to European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Globally, June 2023 set a record for the warmest June in the 174-year NOAA record. The year-to-date (JanuaryJune) global surface tempera

World must attack all emissions, everywhere, says COP28 President

The head of this year's United Nations' climate talks called on Thursday for governments and businesses to tackle global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in all regions and sectors if they want to stop the planet from passing a key temperature limit agreed on more than seven years ago. Sultan al-Jaber of the United Arab Emirates, who also heads one of the country's state oil companies, told senior officials from Europe, Canada and China gathered in Brussels that record-breaking heat seen in parts of the world recently shows the need for urgent action to curb emissions. Laying out his strategy for the upcoming COP28 global climate talks in Dubai this fall, al-Jaber said that leaders must be brutally honest" about what has caused the sharp rise in temperatures since preindustrial times and how to stop them from climbing further. While many fossil fuel companies have pledged to reduce direct and indirect emissions from their operations known as scope 1 and 2 many have ...

Climate change has shifted colour of over half of world's oceans: Study

The colour of over 56 per cent of the world's oceans, larger than Earth's total land expanse, has changed significantly over the last two decades and human-caused climate change is likely the driver, according to researchers. These colour changes, subtle to the human eye, cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone, the researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, and other institutes write in their paper published in the journal Nature. Ocean colour, a literal reflection of the life and materials in its waters, in regions near the equator was found to have steadily turned greener over time, indicating changes in the ecosystems within the surface oceans. The green colour of the ocean waters comes from the green pigment chlorophyll present in phytoplankton, the plant-like microbes abundant in upper ocean. Scientists are, therefore, keen to monitor phytoplankton to see their response to climate change. However, the authors of this study sho

Ground beneath us is heating up, civil infra not designed for it: Study

The ground beneath us is heating up, giving rise to the phenomenon of "underground climate change" and our civil infrastructure was not designed for it, scientists say. The continuous heat diffusion from buildings and underground transportation, seen in many urban areas around the world, causes the ground to warm at an alarming rate, found to be 0.1 to 2.5 degrees Celsius per decade by researchers. The heating up of ground leads to its deformation that includes both expansion and contraction, causing building foundations and the surrounding ground to move excessively and sometimes develop cracks, thereby impacting structures' long-term performance and durability. "The ground is deforming as a result of temperature variations, and no existing civil structure or infrastructure is designed to withstand these variations," said Northwestern University's Alessandro Rotta Loria, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and who led the US-based study published in the .

IFSCA, Climate Policy Initiative sign pact on sustainable finance

Offshore financial transaction regulator IFSCA on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with think tank Climate Policy Initiative for cooperation to increase mobilisation of global sustainable capital flows into India. Sustainable development is a key priority of G20 working groups. Mobilisation of sustainable finance is critical to achieving transition to green and resilient economies. IFSCA (International Financial Services Centres Authority) has taken significant steps to accelerate global sustainable capital flows by creating a conducive regulatory environment, based on international best practices, focused especially on the needs of India and developing countries, the regulator said in a statement. With deep expertise in finance and policy, Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) is an analysis and advisory organisation that works to improve the most important energy and land use practices around the world, it said. CPI's mission is to help governments, businesses, and financial ...

Parliament expected to take up forest bill in Monsoon Session's first week

Parliament is expected to take up the Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill in the Monsoon Session's first week as a joint committee of parliamentarians examining the proposed law's provisions adopted its report on Tuesday amid dissents by some opposition members. The committee's chairperson Rajendra Agarwal said its report has been adopted and it will now be tabled in Parliament in the upcoming session. He, however, declined to give details of the report. The bill was introduced by Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav in the Budget Session this year. It seeks to exempt certain categories of lands from the purview of the Forest Conservation Act to fast-track strategic and security-related projects of national importance. Some rights groups and opposition parties have criticised its provisions, asserting that these will compromise safeguards for the country's forests. Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, a member of the committee, said he has given a dissent note against several provisions

EU faces cliffhanger vote on conserving nature, fighting climate change

Protesters and legislators converged on the European Union parliament on Tuesday as the bloc prepared a cliffhanger vote on protecting its threatened nature and shielding it from disruptive environmental change, in a test of the EU's global climate credentials. Spurred on by climate activist Greta Thunberg, a few hundred demonstrators demanded that the EU pushes through a bill to beef up the restoration of nature in the 27-nation bloc that was damaged during decades of industrial expansion. A counter-demonstration of farmers demanded a slower approach that would lessen the impact on their income. Inside the legislature in Strasbourg, France, parliamentarians put in last-minute efforts to sway Wednesday's vote, which could push a key part of the EU's biodiversity protection plans off the table. The legislature's environment committee last month was deadlocked at 44-44 on it. The bill is a key part of the EU's vaunted European Green Deal that seeks to establish the world's most ...