EDITORIAL ANALYSIS : The Climate Change Generation

Source:  Indian Express, Indian Express

• Prelims: Current events of international importance, COP, IPCC, G20 etc
• Mains GS Paper II: Bilateral, regional and global grouping and agreements involving India or affecting India’s interests, Important international institutions etc

 ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

• At COP27, India released its Long-Term Low Emissions and Development Strategies (LT-LEDS).
  • Education can be used as a tool of innovation for the climate change generation.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

COP: (held annually)

• It stands for the annual ‘Conference of the Parties’ to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol(1997) or the Paris Agreement.
• Meetings review the progress made by countries in the fight against climate change and in the implementation of decisions taken in earlier COPs.
• The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany, 1995.

What Long-Term Low Emissions and Development Strategies (LT-LEDS) by India depict?

• Priorities for carbon-intensive sectors like electricity and industry and transport
• Emphasizes the role of a Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) as a mass movement towards sustainable consumption and production.
• From behavioral shifts of individuals to the re-shaping of markets,

Role of education:

• Education has a vital role in the LiFE movement.
• Reduction of gases: It can make a significant dent in reducing planet-warming gasses
• Demand-side actions have the potential to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40-70 percent in 2050(according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Issues faced by education sector and children:

• School closures during the pandemic have led to a learning deficit that’s getting reflected in reduced test scores.
  • Impact:
    • One year of school closures could reduce GDP levels(OECD)
    • It can hinder economic mobility for a generation of Indians
    • Alter the arithmetic for public finance.
  • Climate impacts are disrupting children’s learning and well-being globally:
    • Extreme heat reduces students’ learning levels and causes physiological harm.
    • Schools are temporarily shut down
    • children’s health is affected due to persistently poor air quality in cities like Delhi.
    • Permanently displacing families, often leading to children (and disproportionately girls) dropping out of schools and being trafficked etc
  • Lived experiences of climate-induced disasters and anxiety about the future:
    • They are causing despair and dread among young people.
    • Digital platforms and news cycles: They don’t linger long enough to build a widespread understanding of breakthroughs like the significant reductions in the costs of renewable energy.

What steps need to be taken?

• The education system ought to be leveraged to both avert crises and shape opportunities.
• At a national level: A strong enabling framework for a climate-resilient education system could cover matters from curricula to nutrition to school building codes in a climate-changed world.
• India should create a framework: through a consultative exercise with educators, students, experts from the humanities and sciences, and relevant ministries and departments.
• Design and implementation in states and districts should be shaped by existing local needs and anticipated climate risks.
• Infrastructure investments so school buildings can double up as emergency shelters in cyclone-prone areas.
• Children should be able to access clean water and nutritious food.
• Students’ mental health needs should be served through an empathic expansion and an emphasis on social and emotional learning.
• Curricula can be infused with scientific and technical know-how alongside indigenous and local knowledge.
  • Efforts like:
    • Range from the buffer zone of Kanha National Park where Baiga and Gond students are learning about the potential of integrating biodiversity conservation with regenerative agriculture.
    • By-lanes of Bengaluru where youth are taking civic and climate actions from waste management to lake restorations to make their city more liveable.

Climate Financing:

• COP27 meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt: countries agreed that a complete transformation of the international financial system was needed to significantly scale up resources for climate action.

Sharm el-Sheikh agreement:

• It includes an estimate of the scale of money required.
• Global transition to a low-carbon economy: It will require about US$ 4-6 trillion every year till 2050.
• Renewable energy: About US$ 4 trillion would need to be invested annually in the renewable energy sector till 2030 if the net-zero emissions targets were to be achieved.
• Requirement of the developing countries: For implementing their climate action plans is about US$ 6 trillion between now and 2030.

Problems associated with climate finance:

• Availability
• Access
• Current rules and regulations of the global financial system

How to increase climate finance?

• Developed countries to increase their contributions.
  • It will be a marginal increase in the overall pie.
• Private sector: The more significant finance would come from businesses and corporations investing money into green projects.

Where will the new money come from?

• Bulk of the additional financial resources to fight climate change would come from the pockets of the common citizen.
• Different types of carbon taxes, even at the consumer level
• Newer forms of carbon tax: to be imposed on businesses as well.

Where should it be used?

• Clean technologies: It has to be utilized mainly for investing in clean technologies.
  • Example: Clean Ganga Mission and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Way Forward

• India can lead with an approach that’s better for both people and the planet.
• A climate-resilient education system:
  • This will enable Indians to move from vulnerability to agency, for forest-dwelling youth to be entrepreneurs in a nature-based economy, for children displaced by climate-induced disasters to attain a transformative education and be on pathways towards green jobs.
• Infrastructure: we must prepare the infrastructure, content, and delivery of the public education system to protect the most vulnerable citizens, many of whom will be climate refugees.
• Public school system: With its scale and reach, the public school system is not only a source of learning but also shelter, clothing, food, and community for millions.
• Critical thinking: The cross-cutting imperative should be to foster critical thinking instead of rote learning so that the next generation can embrace complexity and make informed choices.
• Strive for abundance and equality: We must strive for abundance and equity, societies and individuals will likely need to negotiate scarcity and trade-offs.
• There is a need to prioritize technical training in colleges and universities so we can rapidly accelerate our decarbonisation pathway.
• Decades of data reflect how investments in primary and secondary education are the greatest lever for development and can often be net positive for public finance in the long term.
• Analytical capabilities and holistic thinking: We should develop strong analytical capabilities and holistic thinking about societal transformations and how new technologies will be embedded in communities.
• Elizabeth Kolbert(the Pulitzer Prize-winner): “the ‘invisible hand’ always grasps for more”.
• Issues of availability and access to climate finance: The transformation of the financial sector needs to address both of these.
• International financial institutions can engage with governments, central banks, commercial banks and other financial players operating at national or regional levels to create the right environment for investments in green projects.
• Incentivising climate-friendly investments and discouraging, or even penalizing dirty investments.
• Transparency: There are widely differing assessments of the quantum of climate finance currently being mobilized in the form of loans having transparency issues. This needs to be addressed.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

Q. Discuss global warming and mention its effects on the global climate. Explain the control measures to bring down the level of greenhouse gasses which cause global warming, in the light of the Kyoto Protocol, 1997.(UPSC 2022) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)