Global Climate Change

As Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, has said, we are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator. Climate change, global warming, etc has been the concern areas of Environmentalists, Researchers and Scientists for many decades, and to their credit they have done a great job in forewarning about the risks ahead. Probably all Governments, Industrialists and now people in general understand the risks of climate change much better. But the sad part of the story is when it comes to growth, development and profits, all other initiatives to protect the environment are not given due priorities. Even the recent outcome in G7 summit in this area seems more to manage the optics.

There is no doubt Government of India has taken several mega initiatives on their part such as targeting 500 GW of renewable energy installed capacity by 2030, green hydrogen, roof top solar, etc, and others are equally supporting the same. And if one has to take everything on the face value of it, our Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the first India Climate Summit of the Times Network has mentioned that India has achieved many of such targets multi-year in advance. But is that enough? Seeing at the floods in deserts, melting of glaciers, droughts, landslides, coral bleaching, etc, the answer seems to be a clear big NO.

Similarly, efforts are on all across the globe, but far short from the required minimum. While one had a choice to open up or not its border for foreign trade and capital, the environmental impact doesn’t needs any territory’s permission. In fact the climate change impact has strongly reminded us of famous Indian phrase “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (The World is One Family).

I think a lot needs to be done collectively by all of us to save our mother Earth and ensure we leave sustainable and safe habitable planet for our future generations. In fact the evaluation matrix should change. Among other things, we should not be impressed by increase in power generation and coal production by ~12% and ~ 9% respectively in April- May, 2024 over previous year but instead we need to ensure that increase in GDP (a reasonable measure of economic activity) is accompanied by much lesser incremental energy consumption, and we should simultaneously work on making existing production processes, etc much more energy efficient.

With the above background, have been thinking this for some time and thought of sharing a few pointers. From an Environment specialist perspective these might not be great and might look very basic, given I am not an environmental scientist but I think these will be good food for thought. All these are primarily in the areas of reducing power consumption

1.?????? We should promote and incentivize the innovative design of buildings and use of materials that limit the heat of the sun from entering a space, thus avoiding or reducing the need for active cooling, which in turn will result in energy savings. National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has published a handbook – House owners guide to Alternate Roof Cooling Solutions. It contains various ways to protect heat from getting inside the building.

There is a huge scope in incentivizing the innovation and development in this area for eg: promoting further research in the area of coating materials which reflects the sun’s heat and reduce the amount of heat absorbed by the material; promote construction of buildings in a manner that they make maximum use of natural sun light.

We are already witnessing water crisis and the need for rationing of water. Similarly before it is too late, I think limit on power consumption should be imposed based on the size of the house, no. of rooms, inhabitants, etc. While we are capable of increasing the supply of power to meet the increasing demand but we need to change the focus towards demand management. Affordability should not be the only criterion allowing the excessive consumption of power. Energy efficiency should be the core focus area in each and every area of growth.

2.?????? The way Bureau of Energy Efficiency is responsible for giving star ratings regarding energy efficiency to electrical appliances, whether there should not be a similar system for say, Electric vehicles! Currently, we are promoting EVs over ICE but we need to even think of rating EVs on energy efficiency so that the consumers can make informed decisions while choosing among available EVs. Further, why it should not be mandated that the roofs and body of all vehicles including public transport vehicles be painted with heat reflective paints…..you would have noticed the difference in fuel efficiency during summers and winters. Imagine the difference this single initiative can make!

3.?????? Why the building of energy efficient offices and homes should not be made mandatory? Even the conversion of existing homes, offices and other buildings into energy efficient structures should be made mandatory and incentivized. There is a plan to build ~ 3 crores homes under PM Awas Yojana. Imagine if these are built considering energy efficiency as the one of the priority area; imagine if these are built under the natural shade of planted trees; how much the need for incremental energy can be minimized!

Government should consider how they can incentivize corporates and citizens on various initiatives which will help protect our mother Earth. One such way could be to award carbon credits based on reduction in installed capacity of power input meters. Even Corporates can incentivize their employees for adopting environment friendly measures.

Lastly, I think even climate protesters can make a more productive contribution by understanding the development and growth needs and suggesting innovative means to protect the environment. There is a need for working collectively with the Government so that the multiple agendas are achieved simultaneously without any compromise. Every one of us should feel this as one’s responsibility and duty to protect the environment, if not for others, for one’s own future generations.

Indian Ministry of Finance Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Confederation of Indian Industry