Act of 1991

• To regulate development activity on India’s coastline
• The approach adopted by the first notification was to define the ‘High Tide Line’ and ‘Coastal Regulation Zone’ and thereafter specify the activities permitted and restricted in the vicinity of the CRZ
• This regulated zone was further divided into four categories (CRZ 1-4) as per permitted land use

• There have been about 25 amendments in this notification between 1991 and 2009
• Rules re-issued in 2011
  • The difference between 1991 and 2011 rule is that the ‘no development zone’ has been reduced from 200 m from the high-tide line (HTL) to 100 m only to meet the increased demands of housing of fishing and other traditional coastal communities.
  • CRZ has been expanded to include territorial waters as protected zone
  • The concept of ‘hazard line’ has been introduced
  • Concept of classification of CRZ into four zones has been continued
• CRZ I- ecologically sensitive areas such as mangroves, coral reefs, salt marshes, turtle nesting ground and the inter-tidal zone.
• CRZ II- areas close to the shoreline, and which have been developed.
• CRZ III- Coastal areas that are not substantially built up, including rural coastal areas.
• CRZ IV- water area from LTL to the limit of territorial waters of India
  • A new category called areas requiring special consideration has been created which includes
    • CRZ areas of Greater Mumbai, Kerala and Goa
    • Critically vulnerable coastal areas such as Sunderbans
  • The list of exceptions to the rule prohibiting setting up of new industries and expansion of existing industries has been expanded

 

Wetland Conservation Programme

• Wetlands are lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic system where the water table is usually near the water surface and land is covered by shallow water.
• Essential as: control floods, water treatment, recharging of water sources, reduce sediments, check soil erosion, bulwark against encroachment by the sea, winter resort for birds and important for flora and fauna. They also provide a variety of resources
• Ramsar Convention: mangroves, corals, estuaries, bays, creeks, flood plains, sea grasses, lakes etc included
• A programme on conservation of wetlands was initiated in 1987 with the basic objective of identification of wetlands of national importance, assessment of wetland resources, promotion of R&D activities and formulation and implementation of management action plans
• A steering committee in each state headed by the Chief Secretary consists of members from all departments related to the wetland conservation in the state. Successful model.
• India is a member of the Standing Committee of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, 1971

• Steps forward
  • Make use of the traditional knowledge of the people living near the wetlands for its conservation along with the engineering solutions
  • Monitor the impact of implementation of management action plans
• Wetlands of India under Ramsar Convention

Name	State	Remark
1.       Ashtamudi WL	Kerala
2.       Bhitarkanika Mangroves	Orissa
3.       Bhoj WL	MP
4.       Chilka Lake	Orissa	2nd largest in India: 116500 ha
5.       Deepor Beel	Assam
6.       East Calcutta WL	WB
7.       Harike Lake	Punjab
8.       Kanjli	Punjab
9.       Keoladeo National Park	Rajasthan
10.   Kolleru Lake	AP
11.   Loktak Lake	Manipur
12.   Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary	TN
13.   Pong Dam Lake	HP
14.   Ropar	Punjab
15.   Sambhar Lake	Rajasthan
16.   Sasthamkotta Lake	Kerala
17.   Tsomoriri	J&K
18.   Vembanad-Kol WL	Kerala	Largest in India: 151250 ha
19.   Wular Lake	J&K
20.   Chandratal	HP	2nd Smallest: 49 ha
21.   Renuka	HP	Smallest: 20 ha
22.   Rudrasagar	Tripura
23.   Upper Ganga	UP	Total area of these 26 wetlands: 677131 ha
24.   Hokarsar (Hokera)	J&K	Kerala has the highest area under wetlands
25.   Surinsar & Mansar	J&K	J&K has the largest number of wetlands (4)
26.   Gharana (2010)	J&K

 

 

The Montreux Record. Sites on the List of Wetlands of International Importance which are considered to have undergone, to be undergoing, or to be likely to undergo change in their ecological character brought about by human action may be placed on the Montreux Record and may benefit from the application of the Ramsar Advisory Mission and other forms of technical assistance.

• Keoladeo national park and Loktak lake from India are included in the list

Changwon Declaration

The primary purpose of the  “Changwon Declaration on human well-being and wetlands”,adopted by Resolution X.3 of the recent meeting of the Conference of the Parties, “is to transmit key messages concerning wetland-related issues to the many stakeholders and decision-makers beyond the Ramsar community who are relevant to the conservation and wise use of wetlands, to inform their actions and decision-making”

 

• Bruntland Report (1983) was the first publication and recognition of the term ‘Sustainable Development’
  • “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of the future generation”
• Three pillars of sustainable development (Bruntland)
  • Care and respect for People, Planet and Prosperity (Commercial Activities) <hence poverty alleviation, conservation and business development>
  • These three pillars are of equal importance
• SD is about a value system. It is not a scientific formula.
• Thinking beyond pure self-gratification to awareness that harm to one will eventually be harm to all.
• Interconnectedness and interdependence of all things
• All three pillars have equal importance. Focus on only one of them will unbalance the whole
• SD is a necessity, not a luxury that we can afford to miss.

Questioning Development <too detailed; at times peripheral. Be choosy>

• Current practices must change
• Should shatter the ‘development’ myth. Simply economic growth will not create more jobs and more wealth for all.
• Steady-state economics. Economic growth is measured in terms of how much we produce and consume, and what we destroy in the process need not be included in the calculations.
• 20% of the world consumes 80% of its resources
• According to UNDP, consumption of goods and services in 1997 was twice that in 1975 and six times more than in 1950.
• An estimated 1 billion people still do not have the means to meet their basic needs.
• Inequalities are increasing. The assets of world’s three richest men are greater than the combined national product of 48 poorest countries.
• Higher crime rates are associated with wider income gaps
• Jobless growth.
• Under-nutrition is still a huge problem among children

Economic Growth and Sustainability

• Over-consumption has led to depletion of resources
• Main environmental threats
  • Depletion of resources
  • Global warming
  • Expansion of waste arising from production and consumption
  • Population pressure
  • Pollution
  • Loss of biodiversity and extinction of species.
• Green National Income Account
  • Conventional national income accounting does not capture the environmental degradation due to production and consumption
  • This omission leads to misrepresentation of improvements in social welfare
  • Since there is no market for many environmental resources, it is difficult to place monetary values on them
  • Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare: adjusts the national income to make an allowance for defensive spending (i.e. that incurred in cleaning up for pollution and other forms of environmental damage)
• Economic Sustainability
  • Calls for reforms in the manner that we conduct our economic activity
  • Removing unfair trade barriers and subsidies that harm the environment
  • Upholding the polluter pays principle
  • Tax not on labour but on consumption <already there in the form of indirect taxes>
  • Pricing products in terms of value they have deducted from the common natural base
  • Increase resource productivity
• Sustainable agriculture
  • Use of practices and methods to maintain/enhance the economic viability of agricultural production, natural resource base, and other ecosystems which are influenced by agricultural activities
  • Minimizing the adverse impact on the natural resources base
  • Flexible farming systems to manage the risks associated with climate and markets

Ecological Sustainability

• Sustainable forest management
  • ‘Forest Principle’ adopted at the 1992 Rio Summit
  • In 2007, GA adopted the Non Legally Binding Instrument on All Types of Forests. The instrument is the first of its kind and is committed to promote SFM by bringing all stakeholders together
  • Ministerial Conference on Protection of Forests in Europe defined SFM as the attainment of balance between society’s increasing demands for forest products and benefits, and the preservation of forest health and diversity.
  • Forest managers must assess and integrate a wide array of sometimes conflicting factors to produce sound forest plans
  • Ecosystems approach has been adopted by the CBD. The CBD definition of Ecosystems Approach is known as the Malawi Principles.
  • Ecosystems Approach is a strategy of management of land, water and living resources in a way that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable way. Focused on use of scientific methodologies for each level of biological organisation and their interaction.
  • SFM was recognised by the parties to CBD in 2004 to be a concrete means of applying the Ecosystems Approach to forest ecosystems
• Objectives of SFM
  • Maintain environmental stability through preservation of ecological balance that has been adversely affected due to the depletion of forest cover
  • Preserve the natural heritage of the country
  • Improve productivity of forests
  • Protecting through cooperation with local communities on the principle of Joint Forest Management
• India
  • One of the 12 mega biodiversity countries of the world
  • National Forest Policy 1988 emphasizes environmental stability and maintenance of ecological balance
  • Existing infrastructure for forest protection is inadequate
  • Surveys not carried out in many areas. Question of tribal rights
  • Protect from forest fires
• Integrated Forest Protection Scheme
  • 10^th FYP. In all States and UTs
  • Formed by merger of two 9^th FYP schemes: ‘Forest Fire Control and Management’ and ‘Bridging of Infrastructure Gaps in the Forestry Sector in the North Eastern Region and Sikkim’
  • Components
    • Infrastructure development: survey and demarcation, strengthening the infrastructure for Forest Protection Division
    • Forest fire control and management
  • Implementing agencies
    • Central Component: Forest Protection Division, MoEF; Forest Survey of India, Dehradun; Central institutions like Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (Dehradun), IIFM (Bhopal) etc shall be involved
    • State Component: Forest dept of the concerned state/UT

Social Sustainability

• Fairness in the access to and benefits from the Earth’s resources
• Impact of poverty on environment/Environment and poverty are related issues
• Diverting resources to non-productive areas
• Health and SD
  • Environment and public health are inter-related
• Agenda 21 was adopted at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) [Earth Summit] in 1992
  • It also places particular emphasis on the need to take health considerations into account in planning for SD
• Urbanisation
• Need for holistic approach

Water and SD

• Agriculture consumes nearly 70 pc of water consumption worldwide, industry -22 pc and household activities – 8 pc [WDR, 2010]
• Geographical distribution of water: just nine countries account for 60 pc of all available freshwater supplies
• Industrial use takes about 60 pc of water in rich countries and 10 pc in the rest.
• Suggestions
  • Use of sea water
  • Judicial use of freshwater
  • Development of salt-resistant crops

SD in a globalising world

• Globalisation is increasing the gap between the rich and the poor
• It has to be steered so that it serves not only the commercial interests but social needs of development
• Mechanisms to safeguard trade and livelihoods, especially in developing countries, must be evolved and negotiated to make globalisation an effective vehicle of SD
• Industrialised countries must continue to assist the developing countries as well as promote trade
• Environment and social causes must not be used selectively to erect trade barriers against developing countries

 

• Main aim was to establish a global climate agreement for the period from 2012 when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol expires
• The conference did not achieve any binding agreement for long term action
• A ‘political accord’ was negotiated by approximately 25 parties
  • Collective commitment by developed countries for new and additional resources , including forestry and investments through international institutions to a tune of $30 bn for the period 2010-12.
• Copenhagen Accord
  • Not legally binding and does not commit countries to agree to a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol
  • Annex 1 parties would commit to economy-wide emissions targets for 2020 to be submitted by 31 Jan 2010. Delivery of reductions and finance by developed countries will be measured , reported and verified (MRV) in accordance with COP guidelines
  • Non-annex 1 countries would implement Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions to slow their carbon emissions
  • Commits $30 bn for 2010-12
  • Copenhagen Green Climate Fund
  • The accord shall be assessed in 2015

 

The Kyoto Protocol has put in place three flexibility mechanisms to reduce emission of Green House Gases. Although the Protocol places maximum responsibility of reducing emissions on the developed countries by committing them to specific emission targets, the three mechanisms are based on the premise that reduction of emissions in any part of the globe will have the same desired effect on the atmosphere, and also that some developed countries might find it easier and more cost effective to support emissions reductions in other developed or developing countries rather than at home. These mechanisms thus provide flexibility to the Annexure I countries, helping them to meet their emission reduction obligations. Let us take a look at what these mechanisms are.

What are the three flexibility mechanisms put in place of the Kyoto Protocol for reducing GHG emission?

• The three mechanisms are joint implementation. Emissions Trading and Clean Development

What is Joint Implementation?

• Through the Joint Implementation, any Annex I country can invest in emission reduction projects (referred to as joint Implementation Project) in any other Annex I country as an alternative to reducing emissions domestically.
• Two early examples are change from a wet to a dry process at a Ukraine cement works, reducing energy consumption by 53 percent by 2008-2012; and rehabilitation of a Bulgarian hydropower project, with a 267,000 ton reduction of C02 equivalent during 2008-2012.

What is Clean Development Mechanism?

• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows-‘l developed country with an emission reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to implement an emission reduction project in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. In exchange for the amount of reduction In emission thus achieved, the investing gets carbon credits which it can offset against its Kyoto targets. The developing country gains a Step towards sustainable development.
• To get a CDM project registered and implemented, the investing country’ has to first take approval from the designated national authority in the host country, establish “Additionally”, define baselines and get the project validated by a third party agency, called a Designated Operational Entity (DOE). The Executive Body of CDM registers the project and issues credits, called Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), or carbon credits, where each unit is equivalent to the reduction of one metric tonne of. C02 or its equivalent. There are more than 4200 CDM projects in the pipeline as on 14.3.2010. The expected CERs till the end of2012 is 2,900,000,000

What is “Additionality” in a CDM project ?

• The feature of “additionality” is a crucial element of a CDM project it means that the industrialized country that is seeking to establish the CDM project in the developing country and earns carbon credits from it has to establish that the planned carbon reductions would not have occurred on its own, in the absence of the CDM project. They have to establish a baseline of the project. Which is the emission level that would have been there in the absence of the project. The difference between this baseline level and the (lower) emission level achieved as a result of the project is the carbon credit due to the investing country

What are some of the concerns regarding CDM ?

• The risk of “false Credits” is a cause for concern with regard to CDM projects. If a project does not actually offer an additionally and the reduction in emission would have happened anyway Even without the project.

 

• IPCC
• UN Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), 1992
• Agenda 21
  • An action plan of UN relating to sustainable development adopted at the Earth Summit, 1992
• UNFCCC
• Kyoto Protocol

IPCC

• 1988 by World Meteorological Organisation and UNEP
• tasked with reviewing and assessing the most recent scientific, technical and socio-economic information produced worldwide relevant to the understanding of climate change
• Nobel Prize in 2007
• The IPCC does not carry out its own original research, nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself.
• A main activity of the IPCC is publishing special reports on topics relevant to the implementation of the (UNFCCC)
• Till now, it has released four assessment reports (1990, 1995, 2001, 2007)
• Fifth assessment report is due in 2014

UNFCCC

1992 at the Rio Summit.

194 members. Secretariat at Bonn.

Parties to UNFCCC are classified as:

• Annex I countries – industrialized countries and economies in transition
• Annex II countries – developed countries which pay for costs of developing countries
• Developing countries.

 

Conference	Place	Outcome
1995 COP1	Berlin	The Berlin Mandate
1996 COP2	Geneva
1997 COP3	Kyoto	Kyoto Protocol
1998 COP4	Buenos Aires
1999 COP5	Bonn
2000 COP6 /2001 COP6	The Hague/Bonn	CDM and Joint Implementation adopted at Bonn
2001 COP7	Marrakesh
2002 COP8	New Delhi	Delhi Declaration: Calls for efforts by developed countries to transfer technology and minimize the impact of climate change on developing countries
2003 COP9	Milan
2004 COP10	Buenos Aires
2005 COP11/MOP1	Montreal
2006 COP12/MOP2	Nairobi
2007 COP13/MOP3	Bali	Bali Action Plan
2008 COP14/MOP4	Poznan, Poland
2009 COP15/MOP5	Copenhagen
2010 COP16/MOP6	Cancun
2011 COP17/MOP7	Durban, South Africa

 

Tarawa Climate Change Conference

• In the lead up to COP16, the leaders of the world’s most climate-change vulnerable countries met in Kiribati in November 2010
• Ambo Declaration was adopted
  • It calls for more and immediate action to be undertaken to address the causes and adverse impacts of climate change.

CoP-16/CMP-6, Cancun

COP-16 President: Patricia Espinosa, Mexico’s foreign secretary

COP-17 will be held in Durban

Issues

• Forestry issues and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) plus
• The developed countries are pushing for transparency from countries where they will fund climate change mitigation.
  • The assessment of carbon emission mitigation for developing countries is right now through domestic communication but is subject to international consultation and analysis. This push for transparency is a major contentious issue.
• Fast-track finance: $ 30 bn had been committed at CoP-15. A large part of this funding is yet to come through.

 

Goals

Agreements Reached

• The outcome of the summit was an agreement, not a binding treaty, which calls on rich countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as pledged in the Copenhagen Accord, and for developing countries to plan to reduce their emissions, to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels.
• There should be no gap between the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in December 2012, and the second phase.
• The agreement calls on the developed countries to “raise the level of ambition of the emission reductions to be achieved by them individually or jointly, with a view to reducing their aggregate level of emission of green house gases”
• Allows flexibility in choosing the base year for setting emission reduction targets
• Emissions trading and the project based mechanism under the KP shall continue to be available to Annex 1 parties as a means to meet their quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives.
• The agreements recognize that in all climate change related action, human rights must be respected. They also recognise the need to engage with a broad range of stakeholders, including youth and persons with disability, and call for gender equality and effective participation of women and indigenous people in effective action on all aspects of climate change.
• The BASIC group softened the three demands it had before the talks began
  • Necessity of a second commitment period to the Kyoto Protocol
  • Need to accelerate disbursement under the fast start finance in the form of new and additional resources through a multilaterally supervised mechanism
  • Continued dialogue on IPRs as part of the technology development and transfer issues.
• REDD is a part of the package and proposed mitigation actions include conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks and sustainable management of forests.
  • REDD is a set of steps designed to use market/financial incentives in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases from deforestation and forest degradation. Its original objective is to reduce GHGs but it can deliver ‘co-benefits’ such as biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation
  • REDD+ calls for activities with serious implication directed towards the local communities, indigenous people and forests which relate to reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation. It goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks
• A Cancun Adaptation Framework has been proposed to strengthen and address implementation of action, and various kinds of assessments, apart from R&D and host of other issues.
• Green Climate Fund The fund will be designed by a transitional committee, with 15 members from the developed countries and 25 from the developing nations.
• Pledge by the developed countries to provide $100 bn annually till 2020.

 

Conclusion

• UNFCCC secretary-general Christian Figueres emphasised that the main achievement of the Cancun meet has been to restore some degree of faith in the multilateral process.
• The agreements don’t mention any reduction targets.
• Though the agreements recognize the need to reduce the GHG emissions and curb the increase in global average temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, in the absence of any firm target, this could be an inadequate and vague provision
• Bolivia has rejected the agreement, saying that it won’t support agreement without binding emission cuts.
• In a sense, the summit was both a major step forward as well as a failure
• It was a step forward because in recent years climate change negotiations had stumbled and this meeting helped overcome that
• It was a failure because it failed to reach an agreement for binding restrictions that are required to avert global warming.
• There was no agreement on how to extend the Kyoto Protocol, or how the $100 billion a year for the Green Climate Fund will be raised or whether developing countries should have binding emissions reductions.

Under the Cancun Agreements, the targets set by industrialised countries for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions are recognised as part of the multilateral process. They must now draw up low-carbon development plans and strategies and also report their inventories annually. In the case of developing countries, actions for emissions reduction will be recognised officially; a registry will record and match their mitigation actions to finance and technology support from rich countries; and they will report their progress every two years. These form a good preamble for target-setting for all member-countries under an agreed framework at Durban next year.

Trivia

• A large amount of energy used during the conference came from renewable sources
• Around 10000 trees and bushes will be planted in Cancun

Role of India and its relevance

• India can act as a mediator between the developing and developed countries
• India’s approach to climate change negotiations has been governed by three factors – how to protect the country’s economic interest and environment agenda, to use climate change as a tool of global diplomacy and consolidate its position on world forums.
• At Cancun, India was responsible for having made five insertions into the Agreement
  • In the section on shared vision, the figure of 50 pc has been dropped from identifying a global goal for substantially reducing emissions by 2050
  • The phrase access to sustainable development has been introduced in the context of working towards identifying a time-frame for global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions based on the best available scientific knowledge
  • International Consultation and Analysis (ICA) finds mention the agreements. It proposes to enhance the reporting for the non-Annex 1 parties or developing countries on mitigation  action and its effects and support received
• At Cancun, India also proposed legally binding emission cuts.

 

 

• Alternative Energy sources
  • Renewable energy
  • Nuclear Power
  • Reduce the carbon intensity of fossil fuels
• Energy efficiency and conservation
  • Transport and urban planning
  • Building design
  • Reforestation and avoid deforestation
  • Eliminating waste methane
• Geoengineering
  • Greenhouse gas remediation
    • Biomass
    • Carbon air capture
    • Carbon capture and storage
  • Societal control
    • Population
    • Sustainable life-style

• An increase in the average temperature of Earth’s near surface air and oceans since the mid-20^th century
• 4^th assessment report of IPCC: global temperature increased 74+0.18 degree C during the 20^th century.
• Caused by greenhouse gases
  • Water vapour, Co2, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Ozone, CFCs (in order of abundance)
• Since the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels has increased the levels of Co2 in the atmosphere from 280 ppm to 390 ppm.

• It is the long term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time
• Though it has been happening naturally for millions of years, in recent years it has accelerated due to anthropogenic causes and has been causing global warming.
• UNFCCC defines climate change as – “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods”

BT Brinjal

• In 2006, Maharashtra Hybird Seeds Company submitted biosafety and efficacy data to the GEAC and applied for permission to conduct large-scale trials
• At the same time SC imposed a ban on the on-going field trials
• An expert committee was constituted by GEAC to look into the concerns raised by several civil society actors
• SC later lifted the ban on field trials
• After a series of reviews the environment ministry declared a moratorium on Bt Brinjal in Feb 2010

Risk assessment

• Civil society has demanded that the science of risk assessment be made rigourous, independent and peer-reviewed