Climate change can manifest itself in gradual changes in temperature, precipitation and a rise in sea level, resulting in changes in the frequency, intensity and duration of extreme events.

Climate change will impact different regions and sectors differently based on their sensitivity and adaptive capacity, and therefore their vulnerability. For the Indian economy, which mainly depends on natural resources, climate change could represent an additional stress on agriculture, forestry, coastlines, water resources and human health. This paper discusses future emissions scenarios in India, highlighting the extent of India’s vulnerability to climate change, and critically analyzes the initiatives undertaken at home to mitigate GHG emissions.

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http://www.epw.org.in

In this paper, concrete actions regarding sea level rise for the short and medium term were identified: a) Knowledge and information, b) Planning, c) Institutional capacity building, d) Education and public awareness, e) International negotiation, f) Economical and financial aspects.

Moreover, seven critical zones were identified along the coasts. This new initiative follows the guidelines of the National ICZM3 Policy using an integrated coastal zone management approach to generate effective tools for local, regional and national authorities to support the difficult task of decision making towards the reduction of the potential effects of accelerated sea-level rise. The study looks into the effects over key economic sectors along the two vulnerable areas making especial emphasis on the evaluation of the adaptation capabilities of population under poverty conditions.

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http://nlcap.net

Climate change is one of the most important global environmental challenges, with implications for food production, water supply, health, energy, etc. Addressing climate change requires a good scientific understanding as well as coordinated action at national and global level. This paper addresses these challenges.

Historically, the responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions’ increase lies largely with the industrialized world, though the developing countries are likely to be the source of an increasing proportion of future emissions. The projected climate change under various scenarios is likely to have implications on food production, water supply, coastal settlements, forest ecosystems, health, energy security, etc.

The adaptive capacity of communities likely to be impacted by climate change is low in developing countries. The efforts made by the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol provisions are clearly inadequate to address the climate change challenge. The most effective way to address climate change is to adopt a sustainable development pathway by shifting to environmentally sustainable technologies and promotion of energy efficiency, renewable energy, forest conservation, reforestation, water conservation, etc.

The issue of highest importance to developing countries is reducing the vulnerability of their natural and socio-economic systems to the projected climate change. India and other developing countries will face the challenge of promoting mitigation and adaptation strategies, bearing the cost of such an effort, and its implications for economic development.

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www.ias.ac.in

The availability of adequate, safe water is critical to health, economy and environment. This is not only true for the arid and semi-arid regions of the world, but also for the humid regions. Insufficient water supply will seriously hamper the welfare of people, industrial and agricultural production and the quality of the environment. However, excess of water, resulting in floods and inundation, may cause many casualties and seriously damage property.

Human society depends very much on a timely and reliable supply of water and adequate handling of excess water. Climate change has the potential to alter the water boundary conditions of society.

The resources of water are highly irregularly distributed in both space and time. The Amazon carries 20 percent of global average runoff, while the Sahel region receives less than 1 percent. Thirty percent of the total runoff of Africa flows in a single river basin. Many regions receive their precipitation during a brief, intense rainy season. This large variability is responsible for many of the problems facing water management. Although the driving forces of the distribution of water are natural, mankind has intervened heavily in the flow of water. Man has built dams, reservoirs, canals, irrigation systems, dikes and sluices, all to ensure a proper operation of the natural system for human purposes. Nevertheless, modern water management has to deal with increasing stresses. Climate change has the potential to alter these stresses.

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http://www.carthago.nl

The threat of climate change that led to the Framework Convention on
Climate Change (FCCC) at Rio is perceived differently by different countries. This fact has delayed any effective international agreement on how to deal with the problem. In the case of the Montreal Protocol covering ozone-depleting substances, there was a wide consensus and effective action was mobilized quickly. Thus, an understanding of perceptions and positions of different countries makes it easier to explore possibilities of effective action.

In this paper, the authors present India’s perceptions on the problem of climate change and sustainable development; the kind of negotiating positions that follow from these perceptions; the policies India has undertaken so far and finally India’s possibilities for action that can help contain the threat of climate change.

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http://www.oecd.org

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned Monday that global warming is spurring the melting rate of glaciers in the Himalayan region, and will cause water shortage for people in China, India and Nepal.

The WWF said in a new report that the glaciers are now retreating at an average rate of 10 to 15 meters per year.

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http://www.china.org.cn

Economic growth is essential to reducing poverty and to reaching societal goals such as the Millennium Development Goals. By 2050 global population is expected to have increased by 50%, mostly in developing countries. World income is likely to have increased from its current US$35 trillion to US$135 trillion and per capita incomes for a large proportion of the world’s poor should reach levels where basic needs for food, clothing and shelter are readily met.

Trees and wild plants provide impoverished farmers in Kenya and Tanzania an alternative subsistence base in times of drought. This kind of local interactions tend to be ignored when climate changes are discussed at the global level.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released a report that claims that the world’s poorest populations will be the hardest hit by climate changes (IPCC 2001). The relationship between poverty and climate impacts has been known for some time –- and poverty has often been connected to a lack of capacity to adapt to climatic changes. Moreover, poor people often live in risk-filled environments and subsist on natural resources that are negatively affected by climate changes.

The IPCC’s new emphasis on the poverty issue represents a fundamental shift in focus from climate impacts as a purely natural scientific phenomenon to climate impacts as a development issue. This shift has important consequences for the design and implementation of climate measures.

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http://www.cicero.uio.no

Food and water shortages are likely to increase in Asia unless action is taken to curb the rise in greenhouse gases according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Increasing temperatures and extreme weather patterns are already taking their toll on crop yields which are declining in many parts of the Continent.

Future climate change is expected to put close to 50 million extra people at risk of hunger by 2020 rising to an additional 132 million and 266 million by 2050 and 2080 respectively, says the report of IPCC Working Group II.

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http://www.unep.org

Antarctica's ice sheets are melting much faster than they did in the past decade, raising concerns that global warming may be contributing more to sea-level rise than previously thought.

The findings, from a study co-authored by Kansas University researchers, will be published in the Oct. 8 issue of the journal Science.

"It's going to affect a lot of people, because hundreds of millions of people are living within a kilometer of a coastline," said Pannirselvan Kanagaratnam , a research associate professor at KU. "If this keeps going, it can be devastating."

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http://www.ittc.ku.edu