'Both international cooperation and self-reliance will now acquire new purpose.'
In a major report prepared for the World Bank by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Climate Analytics, the rise in temperature will trigger a cascade of cataclysmic changes that include extreme heat-waves, declining global food stocks and a sea-level rise affecting hundreds of millions of people.
US President Barack Obama has sought the help of major countries of the world including China and India in addressing the urgent issue of climate change and clean energy.
Climate Challenge India, a climate change mobilisation effort by Bangalore-based NGO Center for Social Markets has produced a film titled In Good Company: Corporate India and the Climate Challenge that partly tries to answer the question but also raises some red flags on the issue. The film was launched in May at the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen. As CSM's founder and climate change campaigner Malini Mehra explains that the film was a labour of love.
"Climate change is a global challenge. It can only be succesfully overcome through a global collaborative and cooperative effort. India is prepared to play its role as a responsible member of the international community and make its contribution. He said every citizen of this plant must have an equal share of the planetory atmospheric space. Long-term convergence of per capita emissions is, therefore, the only equitable basis for a global compact on climate change.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday told developed countries which powered their way to prosperity on fossil fuels that it would be "morally wrong" if they shift the burden of reducing emissions on developing countries like India.
Clinton has already said that she is visiting New Delhi to start a strategic dialogue which will include issues like climate change and clean energy. To put the issue of climate change on fast track, Clinton will be joined by President Barrack Obama's special envoy for climate change, Todd Stern, who is known as a man in hurry.
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
The government is finalising the national action plan on climate change and would release this in June, said Shyam Saran, Prime Minister's special envoy for climate change. The action plan would focus on key issues like improving energy efficiency, harnessing solar energy, studying the melting and cracking of icebergs on the Himalayas and understanding the dynamics of coastal and island territories.The plan would contain mechanisms for implementation of various policies.
'The Paris Conference is a decisive meeting on climate change.' 'Negotiating an agreement between 196 countries is indeed a challenge.' 'If we go beyond 2°C, the consequences will be extremely difficult to deal with.'The poor are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change.'
Former India World Cup-winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh on Thursday termed the raging bushfire in Australia as tragic, and said it's time some action is taken against the serious issue of climate change. Australia is facing one of its most devastating bushfire crisis which has already left at least 18 people dead.
The British risk analysis firm Maplecroft recently released a 2011 scientific report ranking the top 10 countries at extreme risk for impacts from climate change.
A global failure to respond to climate changes could result in about 8.7 per cent economic loss in India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2100, Asian Development Bank said.
According to an interim report on climate change to be released in Sydney on Thursday, without intervention before 2020, it would be impossible to avoid a high risk of dangerous climate change that was advancing more rapidly than previously thought.
For every 2.5 degree celsius rise in global temperature, the damage to India is predicted to be 4.9 per cent of the gross domestic product, highest for any country, according to a key finding of a research by global financial services firm Morgan Stanley.
From Venice and the tower of Pisa, dozens of UNESCO World Heritage sites are deeply threatened by rising sea levels, researchers warned Tuesday. According to a study by researchers at the University of Kiel, in Germany, all but two of 49 United Nations-recognised icons of human civilisation rimming the Mediterranean Sea risk being damaged by the rising watermark, soil erosion, or both, with few options for protecting most of them.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that he "really wanted" Prime Minister Narendra Modi to participate in a crucial climate change summit in New York next week to mobilise political will for a universal and meaningful climate agreement.
India and Africa on Wednesday asked the developed counties to take "ambitious actions" to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and also provide finance and technology to the developing counties so that they could effectively address the impact of climate change.
The DEFRA project with MoEF is yet to identify a research institute in India and the bidding process is to start now, Coyne added. However some green groups in India look at this rush for climate change research in India as a ruse to promote technologies like genetic engineering.
'At least we had an asteroid. What's your excuse?'
In Kerala's society, known for its high material standard of living, plunging into a state of having nothing overnight can be terrible for one's social standing and sense of self-esteem. Rehabilitation entails piecing a community back together after a disturbance and while its aim is noble, the act of reassembling will bring alive disparities and inequalities, explains Shyam G Menon.
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry president and Bharti Enterprises vice president Rajan Bharti Mittal chaired a symposium on corporate leadership on climate change in the presence of the Prince of Wales, who is here in connection with the Commonwealth Games.
'The novelist's dilemma in facing climate change is really the symptom of a wider failure.'
'The number of deaths attributable to warming is likely to rise in the future.'
Though out of 200 firms approached, only 44 responded, nevertheless the 'Carbon Disclosure Project Report 2009' noted the response reflects that not only they were adopting more accurate methodologies but also providing break-down of their greenhouse gas emissions.
'The link between global warming and weird, extreme weather events is being better understood every year.' 'India is particularly at risk from such events.' 'Indian communities and urban centres don't have the resilience needed to survive such disasters,' says Mihir S Sharma.
'It is absolutely critical on pure economic terms, but it's also smart politically, because a recent survey reported that 73 percent of Indians view climate change as the most pressing global concern,' US Secretary of State John Kerry tells a high-power audience in Washington, DC.
After locking horns with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the glacier melting issue, environment minister Jairam Ramesh said on Thursday the research of the Indian panel on climate change would be more 'robust and solid' than the UN body's.
On its 177th anniversary, Utkarsh Mishra explores the history and relevance of The Communist Manifesto.
'This is a message to the whole world about those responsible for climate change and its repercussions -- whether intentionally or unintentionally -- and about the action we must take,' the Al Qaeda chief said.
The developing countries fear that the mysterious draft prepared by Denmark would be sprung upon hours before the high-level segment of climate talks begins, making it difficult for any world leader to oppose.
Al Gore has reportedly resorted to poetry, as his editor did not allow him to publish a chapter in the book about the ramifications of uncontrolled global warming.
Shiv Sena's Dadaji Bhuse is the new school education minister while Uday Samant continues to be the industries minister.
We must bring a laser focus on our own interests, and define our friends and foes more clearly instead of trying to live by somebody else's rules. We must grow up, think for ourselves, think India First, asserts R Jagannathan.
Attributing to three studies on agriculture, energy and migration, the ADB said on Wednesday the impacts of rising temperatures in Asia would fall disproportionately on the region's poor, and rural women from developing countries would be among the most affected groups.
14-year-old Vinisha Umashankar has been creating a buzz with her solar-powered ironing cart. The youngest finalist of the Duke of Cambridge's The Earthshot Prize 2021, she is a shining example of why one is never too young to help the environment.
A top US delegate at Copenhagen summit denied the possibility that hacked e-mails had made the case for sceptics stronger and said the incident would not affect the fate of climate change bill in the American Senate.
China has reiterated its plan to build the world's largest dam over the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, near the Indian border. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has assured that the project, estimated to cost around USD 137 billion, will not have any negative impact on downstream countries, India and Bangladesh. The ministry has stated that the project has undergone rigorous scientific verification and will be conducive to disaster prevention and mitigation, as well as climate change response. India has expressed concerns about the dam, raising the issue during talks with the visiting US National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan. China has maintained that the project will not negatively affect the lower reaches and has committed to maintaining communication with downstream countries.
He said that as compared to global models costing 2.5 to 3 US dollars per hour usage, India's AI model will cost less than less than Rs 100 per hour (1.16 US dollars per hour) after 40 percent government subsidy.
'There are companies that are losing and there are companies that are rising.' 'And the companies that are losing are positioning it as an economic slowdown.'