Month: December 2022

Areas of the climate negotiations that are important to developing nations are either not covered at all or are covered insufficiently, while other areas are over-regulated. Sustainable development that is equitable is not even mentioned. The policy discussion was no longer supported by science at COP27.

Current negotiating process: problems

• National carbon dioxide emissions from consumption in developed countries: Most people in these nations are unaware that the majority of their GDP is made up of the transportation, residential, and commercial sectors, which together account for two-thirds of their national carbon dioxide emissions. These sectors are not separate silos; rather, they are a reflection of their citizens’ urban lifestyles.
• Ignores urbanisation and the need for fossil fuels in emerging countries: The approach ignores the fact that the population of developing countries will urbanise after a certain point, necessitating the use of fossil fuels for infrastructure and energy to reach comparable levels.
• Infrastructure development in developing nations is necessary, but the enormous amounts of cement and steel that are required, which are essential emissions as cities grow, are not taken into account.

Foundation of the Climate Treaty in international environmental law questionable

• US interpretation at the Stockholm Environment Conference in 1972: The United States Secretary of State claimed that “urbanisation has altered the nation with 75% of its population living in the urban area” in the run-up to the Stockholm Conference. We need to alter our habits of consumption and production in order to see ourselves as environmental aggressors rather than just environmental victims.
• US-instituted scientific committee’s finding: “Long-range planning to cope with global environmental challenges must take account of the whole ecological burden; limiting that burden by systematic reduction in per-capita production of goods and services would be politically unpalatable,” a scientific committee said. Technology ought to be directed toward reducing the severity of human demands on the environment
• Power play focused on risk management rather than technology transfer or the well-being of everyone within ecological bounds when it came to the utilisation of natural resources.

Climate negotiations: Differentiated common responsibility

• Neglecting the goal: The goal of the Climate Treaty is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, reduce cumulative carbon dioxide emissions, and promote sustainable economic growth.
• Climate initiatives and agreements: A 1.5°C global temperature target was agreed upon in the Paris Agreement of 2015. In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that net emissions should be eliminated by 2050. To cut down on upcoming emissions, discussions focused on coal in Glasgow in 2021.
• Ignored the key findings of the IPCC report: This initiative was not grounded in science and it disregarded the IPCC’s key finding on the centrality of the carbon budget, or the total emissions corresponding to a given level of global warming, which scientifically links the temperature goal to national action.
• The carbon budget and emerging nations: Carbon budgets are reliable because precise estimates may be made using climate models. They also combine the economics and climate in a way that is consistent with the science of both, making them the most useful for policy. The question of how late developers will achieve equal levels of well-being is raised by the IPCC’s 2018 estimate that 2,890 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide would be needed to have a 50% chance of avoiding more than 1.5°C of warming (it is currently less than 400 billion tonnes).

Weaknesses in Climate justice

• Not the Climate Treaty’s content, but the discussions are what lead to climate injustice.
• Rejected historical accountability and slowly shifted the weight to China and India: The process embraced the structure of international law in a way that rejected historical responsibility for an ongoing issue.
• The agenda’s weakness was that it focused on globalised material flows rather than energy waste, which is what is actually causing global warming (the symptom).
• Public finance is not employed to achieve a real goal; rather, it is used to achieve a political goal rather than to address the root of the issue. The incentive for developing countries to accept a global temperature goal—the $100 billion pledged in Paris together with pre-2020 commitments—has not materialised. A breach of trust will also occur since additional money for “Loss and Damage” will come from a “mosaic of solutions.”
• A longer-term tendency has gone unnoticed: In 2035, industrialised countries will still make up 30% of the world’s population, which is one-sixth of the total. With half of the world’s population, Asia’s emissions will increase to 40% while still staying within its carbon budget. Their human rights are being replaced by demands to reduce emissions even more.

@the-end

India’s emphasis on LiFE (or “Lifestyle for Environment”), which encourages people to reduce their wasteful use of natural resources, can be traced back to the original science. The “universalism” that has dominated the negotiations and its common course of reductions based on single models are challenged by consumption-based framing. The “diversity” of options is formalised by the carbon budget. For instance, replacing excessive red meat consumption with chicken in industrialised nations can help achieve half of the necessary decrease in world emissions by the year 2100.

It should come as no surprise that healthy soil is essential for producing wholesome food since it forms the foundation of food systems. This is in line with World Soil Day (WSD), which will be marked on December 5 in 2022.

Theme of the World soil day

With “Soils: Where food begins” as its overarching theme, WSD 2022 aims to increase public awareness of the value of preserving healthy ecosystems, soils, and human well-being by addressing the rising challenges in soil management, motivating societies to enhance soil health, and promoting the sustainable management of soil.

Soil

The loose earthen surface material known as soil is where terrestrial plants are grown. Usually, it is made of regolith or weathered rock that has undergone chemical, physical, and biological processes.

Importance of soil

• Healthy soils are essential for our survival: They support healthy plant growth, habitat for many insects and other organisms, It enhance both our nutrition and water percolation to maintain groundwater levels, act as a filtration system for surface water.
• Second largest carbon sink after ocean: Soils help to regulate the planet’s climate by storing carbon and are the second largest carbon sink after the oceans. They help maintain a landscape that is more resilient to the impacts of droughts and floods.
• Contribute to the economies: They support our cities’ infrastructure, including roads, buildings, and buildings. For instance, the coastal plains of Kerala and the rich, deep fertile soils of the Ganga plain, particularly its delta, support a large density of population through prosperous agriculture.

Consequences of Soil degradation

• Primary contributors to soil degradation include industrial processes, mining, waste management, agriculture, the extraction and processing of fossil fuels, and emissions from transportation. In addition, irrigation with tainted effluent and excessive fertiliser and pesticide use can pollute the land.
• Causes of the nutritional depletion include: The burning of crop leftovers, soil erosion, runoff, and leaching are some of the causes of soil nutrient loss.
• Food security is being threatened by rising soil contamination as a result of nutrient loss and pollution, which globally threatens soil health and nutrition.
• About 29% of India’s total land area is affected by soil degradation. Approximately 29% of India’s total geographical area is impacted by soil degradation in one way or another. In turn, this endangers agricultural productivity, the preservation of in-situ biodiversity, the quality of the water supply, and the socioeconomic well-being of communities that depend on the land. The soil on around 3.7 million hectares loses nutrients (depletion of soil organic matter, or SOM).
• Consequences that are beyond repair: The effects of soil degradation are extensive and may have permanent effects on ecosystem and human health.

India’s Soil conservation strategy

• Five-pronged approach: The Indian government is putting its five-pronged approach to soil conservation into practise. This entails removing chemicals from the soil, preserving its biodiversity, improving SOM, preserving soil moisture, reducing soil degradation, and stopping soil erosion.
• Program for Soil Health Cards (SHC): Before, farmers lacked knowledge about the type of soil, soil deficiencies, and soil moisture content. In order to address these problems, the Indian government introduced the Soil Health Card (SHC) programme in 2015. The SHC is used to determine changes in soil health over time and to evaluate the current state of soil health. The SHC shows indicators of soil health and the descriptive terms that go along with them, assisting farmers in applying the appropriate soil amendments.
• Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana: Another important initiative is the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, which aims to stop soil erosion and promote rainwater collection, natural vegetation regeneration, and groundwater recharge.
• Promote traditional indigenous practises like organic farming and natural farming through the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA): NMSA also has programmes that support these practices, which reduce reliance on chemicals and other agri-inputs and ease financial burden on smallholder farmers.
• Initiatives taken by the FAO to assist national efforts to conserve soil In order to help the Government of India’s efforts in soil conservation and the development of sustainable agrifood systems, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) engages in a number of programmes.
• Collaboration between FAO and developers of forecasting and data analytics tools: In order to help vulnerable farmers make informed crop selection decisions, particularly in rainfed areas, the FAO is working with the National Rainfed Area Authority and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) to develop forecasting tools using data analytics.

Way forward

• In order to identify, manage, and restore degraded soils and implement preventative measures, there is a need to improve communication between academia, policymakers, and society.
• These will make it easier for timely, fact-based information to reach all pertinent parties.
• Greater collaboration and partnerships are essential to ensuring knowledge is accessible, best practises are shared, and everyone has access to clean, sustainable technologies, leaving no one behind.

Conclusion

Healthy soil is essential for sustained food production because roughly 95% of the world’s food production depends on it. A key obstacle to producing food sustainably is the terrible status of the soil health today. Unprecedented soil deterioration. By 2030, India will have restored 26 million hectares of degraded land.