ADVERTISEMENTS:
Here is a compilation of essays on ‘Climate Change Mitigation’ for class 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Climate Change Mitigation’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Climate Change Mitigation
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Introduction to Climate Change Mitigation
- Essay on the Reasons for Climate Change Mitigation
- Essay on Sustainable Development Programmes for Climate Change Mitigation
- Essay on Sinks as Climate Change Mitigation Options
- Essay on the Barriers to Climate Change Mitigation Measures
Essay # 1. Introduction to Climate Change Mitigation:
The pace of change in our present day world is speeding up to a limit where it threatens to overwhelm the carrying capacity. Unprecedented growth in population, faster economic growth, increasing human needs and aspirations propelled by technological advances are among the agents for changing pace in the biosphere. Change is essence of evolution.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
But, the change in recent years has been much faster and unforeseen which calls for concern. Until the middle of the twentieth Century, the growth of population was slow and economic growth was sluggish. Today, it is difficult to grasp the sheer magnitude of population growth.
Since 1950, population has doubled, and the global economy has nearly quintupled in size, the demand for natural resources has grown at a phenomenal rate with the need for food-grain nearly tripled, consumption of seafood increasing more than four times and water use increasing three times.
The burning of fossil fuels has increased nearly fourfold and carbon emissions have risen accordingly. With the increase of emissions, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations have continued to increase. According to an assessment, doubling of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere or an equivalent increase of a mixture of greenhouse gases can cause 1.5 to 4.5°C rise in global temperature.
Although we have evidence of human induced change to the global climate, we cannot yet tell how the occurrence of extreme events such as storms, floods and droughts might change. It is not yet possible to describe the impacts of climate change globally or for individual countries, even though we can predict generally that the floods as well as droughts might become more frequent.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
An increase of temperature by 2°C would have a marked influence on the forests as well as 30% might no longer be well adjusted to the surrounding abiotic conditions. Finally, the sea level would rise by 15 to 95 cm, if no mitigation measures were taken.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) considers stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations and thereby also a stabilization of climate as the major objective, but sets no specific levels as a goal. Actually, such a level can hardly be determined accurately until better estimates of the likely damage due to changes in climate become available. Justifications for mitigation efforts must, therefore, be based largely on qualitative judgments.
Future greenhouse gas emissions are the product of very complex dynamic systems determined by driving forces such as demographic development, socio-economic development and technological change. A set of 40 scenarios has been developed to represent the range of driving forces and emissions reflecting the current understanding and knowledge about underlying uncertainties.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
The analysis entails technologies and measures that can be adopted in the end-use sectors such as commercial, residential and institutional buildings; transportation and industry; in the energy supply sector; and in agriculture, forestry and waste management sectors.
It is important to recognize the differences between technical, economic and market potentials for mitigation, which are defined as follows:
i. Technical Potential:
The amount by which it is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or improve energy efficiency by using technology or practice in all applications in which it could be technically adopted without considering its costs or practical feasibility.
ii. Economic Potential:
The portion of the technical potential for greenhouse gas emissions reduction or energy efficiency improvements that could be achieved cost effectively in the absence of market barriers. The achievement of the economic potential requires additional policies and measures to breakdown the market barriers.
iii. Market Potential:
The portion of the economic potential for greenhouse gas reductions or energy efficiency improvements that could be achieved under existing market conditions assuming no new policies and measures.
Essay # 2. Reasons for Climate Change Mitigation:
India is geographically vast, with varied climate zones and different kinds of representative ecosystems, such as coastal ecosystems, mountain ecosystems, desert ecosystems, flood-prone ecosystems, etc. India has a very long coast—more than 7,000 km long—and some of the coastal areas are very vulnerable to sea level rise due to global warming.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Impact studies carried out internationally particularly by the IPCC, have brought out clearly that in a country like India, climate change can have considerable impact on water resources, agriculture and food production, sea-level rise along the coast and human health.
Climate change can adversely impact on the types of cultivators and crops, can impact on groundwater tables and supply, and may adversely affect irrigation systems. Some of the Indian researchers have shown significant effect on wheat yields, as well as on the rice production with the rise in temperature.
There can be considerable economic and welfare impacts due to India’s vulnerability to climate change, particularly along the coasts and on islands, due to inundation of many coastal areas and displacement of people and consequent disruption of the coastal economy.
On the whole, India receives plentiful rainfall. India’s average annual surface runoff generated by rainfall and snowmelt is estimated to be about 1,869 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM). India’s rechargeable annual groundwater potential has been assessed at around 431 BCM in aggregate terms.
Many States in India, like Haryana and Punjab, have exploited about 94 percent of their groundwater resources. Areas with depleting groundwater tables are found in Rajasthan, Gujarat. Most of the western Uttar Pradesh and in all the Deccan States.
India’s finite and fragile water resources are stressed and depleting. At the same time, India’s total annual demand for water is increasing from 552 Billion Cubic Meters in 1997 to 1,050 BCM by 2025. India’s agriculture and food scarcity are highly vulnerable. Wheat and rice production will fall due to global warming.
Various reforms in the management of water resources are necessary and the role of Government and the society are very vital. There is considerable scope in the country for water harvesting through community-level efforts to cope with climate events like droughts and recharging groundwater by extensive use of check dams.
In a country like India, where a large percentage of population live below the poverty line, there is a need for rapid economic growth to address poverty eradication and improvement in the quality of life of people. In the process, the total emissions from India are bound to rise.
At present India is contributing 4% of the total carbon dioxide emissions in the world, though per capita emissions are still very low. It is necessary to examine the impact of CO2 emission reductions on economic growth and poverty using an economic model and various options. Reducing the levels of different economic activities can reduce the CO2 emissions. This however, has a direct effect on reducing income, consumption and a loss in the social welfare.
The other options are changing the consumption of production in favor of less CO2-intensive activities. This can be done in various ways, like changing the structure of trade or changing the structure of consumption or by reducing the share of CO2-intensive goods in the total demand. In addition, technology options are also available for reducing CO2 intensity, thus reducing CO2 emissions without any significant loss of output.
Large annual reductions in carbon emissions become possible by diverting substantial resources for this purpose and growth is adversely affected. As the world community is moving towards reduction of such emissions on an urgent basis, it also understands the need for the developing countries under the Protocol to not having any binding Greenhouse Gas reduction commitment.
Emission reduction imposes costs in terms of lower GDP and higher poverty. India cannot have any obligation to reduce its carbon emission for quite some time without sacrificing its basic development activities. Technological options such as low-cost and large-scale solar and wind generation, if and when these become available, may open up non-carbon energy options and carbon reduction at the lower cost than what is estimated to support the country’s sustainable development programme.
Essay # 3. Sustainable Development Programmes for Climate Change Mitigation:
Renewable Energy:
India has considerable renewable resources, which are being harnessed for the generation of power using solar, wind, hydropower, and biomass/agro-waste technologies. Besides these, there is potential for tidal, ocean thermal energy conversion and wave energy. The Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources recently formulated a renewable energy policy, which targets 10 percent of the additional generation capacity (by 2011) in the country using renewable energy sources.
An assessment of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in India on wind, small hydro, solar photovoltaic and thermal, biomass combustion, co-firing, co-generation, gasification and biogas bring out that India is the fifth largest wind-power producer in the world with the present capacity of 1,267 MW; so far, 26 project sites have been developed in high potential States like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The capital cost of wind-power projects ranges from Rs. 4.0 to 4.5 crore per MW, and the cost of generation is estimated to be Rs. 2.0 to 2.5 per kwh. These costs compare favourably with conventional power. Targeted capacity for the next five years about 1,000 MW.
Small hydropower (upto 25 M W capacity) sector has grown four times from 63 MW to 226 MW in the last 10 years. Solar photovoltaic (SPV) is regarded as the technology for the future. India’s solar potential is enormous. Solar thermal technology is also being used extensively for obtaining power. 1997-1998 estimates put India’s biomass potential at 545 million tonnes; of this about 150 million tonnes is expected to be available for power generation.
Provision of decentralized energy using renewable is a must for accelerating the development process in rural India, where 70% of India’s population lives but cost recovery is a key issue. Such energy, therefore, must be linked to rural industries like cold storages and oil mills.
Energy Supply:
Energy consumption in India is rapidly rising. Electricity demand is growing at 8.7% annually at present, much above the economic growth rate of 6.2%. The present capacity mix in the electricity sector includes a large share of coal (61%), followed by large hydro (24%), nuclear power (8%) and renewable at around 1.5%.
Due to unreliable power supply, there is a considerable growth in captive power to almost 16 gigawatts in 2000, with most of them using coal. T&D losses amount to over one-fifth of generated electricity; commercial losses like theft, non-metering and non-billing account for almost one-quarter of these losses.
The agricultural and household sector consumption has grown over 12% annually, while total power use grew at 8.7%. There are several environmental concerns associated with thermal generation of electricity. Analysis shows that carbon emissions from India will continue to rise from 212 to about 740 million tonnes between 1995 and 2035.
The per capita electricity consumption becomes three times the present value in the next 35 years. Coal dominates in the long-term electricity generation scenario. Advanced coal technologies like supercritical pulverized coal technology and the integrated gasification combined cycle penetrate in this sector. There are energy security implications for increasing the use of natural gas, as most of the gas requirement has to be supplied by imports due to limited domestic reserves.
At present, the nuclear power industry in India operates at very low capacity utilization. Large hydro capacity is projected to double in the next two decades. The capacity of other renewable technologies increase their capacity by more than three times in the past decade with a three and a half percent share in the capacity mix from the present 1%. Due to rising emission trends, it may be necessary to introduce policy induced mitigation measures such as a carbon tax.
It is technically possible to realize significant emissions reduction in the energy supply sector during renovation and modernisation to replace infrastructure and equipment as it wears out or becomes obsolete. The efficiency of electricity production can be increased from the present world average of about 30% to more than 60% between 2020 and 2050. Presently the best available coal and natural gas plants have efficiencies of about 45% and 52% respectively.
While the costs associated with these efficiencies will be influenced by numerous factors, such as advanced technologies that are cost-effective comparable to some existing plant and equipment. The combination of electricity generation with the utilization of the waste heat for local supply of heat for the residential/commercial/institutional sector provide many opportunities for saving energy, particularly in temperate and cold climates.
Historically, the energy intensity of the world economy has improved, on average, by 1% per year, largest due to technology performance improvements that accompany the natural replacement of depreciated capital stock. Improvements beyond this rate are unlikely to occur in the absence of specific measures.
Sustainable Development Programme in Transport Sector:
Managing the transport sector while minimizing externalities like local pollution, congestion and global pollution is a major challenge. India has witnessed a tremendous growth in urbanization since independence, with the urban population increasing from 62.4 million in 1951 to 217.2 million in 1991, a growth of nearly 3.5 times.
During 1980, the share of mass transport in total traffic passenger traffic was less than 55%. The composition of personalized vehicles in the Indian cities is very high, particularly in the four major cities (Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai & Chennai), where they form nearly 83% of the total. Metropolitan cities account for about one third of the total vehicles.
An analysis of energy consumption for transport in India during 1988 to 1997 indicates that petroleum products account for the major fuel consumption in this sector. An analysis of energy use in different types of vehicles; 2-wheelers, 3-wheelers, cars/jeeps, taxis and buses shows that vehicle composition determines energy intensity of a city in terms of energy per kilometre.
Air pollution due to road transport is of high significance in terms of the quantity of pollutants emitted. In India it is estimated that vehicular emissions of Carbon monoxide, Hydrocarbons, Oxides of nitrogen, Sulphur dioxide and Particulate matter account for about 60% of the total pollution from all sources.
The direct Carbon dioxide emissions in 1993-1994 due to the fuel consumption in the transport sector were 27.85 million tonnes of carbon equivalents. Road and other transport is responsible for more than 80% of the emissions, followed by rail (13%) and air (6%).
About 20% of today’s emissions of carbon dioxide come from the transport sector, and its relative contribution is expected to increase in the future, particularly from aviation. It may double within 25 years and triple by the middle of this century. It is technically feasible to reduce the gasoline consumption substantially already today. Rapid changes are difficult to achieve because of infrastructure that has developed during 20th century.
There is however several social and environmental costs associated with road transport at local, regional and global levels that can be addressed simultaneously. Market instruments such as road-use charges can be used to reflect many of these costs, especially those at the local and regional levels. These instruments can also contribute to greenhouse gas mitigation by reducing traffic. Fuel taxes are an economically efficient means of greenhouse gas mitigation, but may be less efficient for addressing local objectives.
The transport sector is vital for economic growth and quality of life; however, the present transportation trends are unsustainable in the future, as they call for high growth in vehicles, emissions, congestion and costs. A mass transport system results in the least energy consumption. Efficiency improvements in the vehicles can meet the future traffic demand with reduced energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Alternative transport fuels could provide energy security and a better environment.
Solid Waste and Wastewater Disposal:
Management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is a very effective means of reducing the methane emissions from solid waste disposal on landfills. Bacterial decomposition of municipal solid waste produces Land Fill Gas (LFG) under anaerobic conditions. The major constituents of the LFG are 45-50% methane and carbon dioxide.
The production of methane from an MSW landfill takes considerable time, depending on various factors like moisture, temperature etc. The Government of India (Ministry of Environment and Forests), through a Gazette Notification in 2000, has brought into force the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rule, 2000, applicable to every municipal authority responsible for the collection, segregation, storage, transportation, processing and disposal of MSW.
The municipalities are required under the notification to set up a waste processing and disposal facility by 31st March, 2003. Landfilling must ho restricted to non-biodegradable, inert waste and other wastes that iii o not suitable either for recycling or for biological processing.
There are various technological options for methane emissions reduction. It is estimated that there is a potential for generating about 1,000 MW of power from MSW in India. The Ministry of Non- Conventional Energy Sources, Government of India, has identified “Energy from Waste” as one of the thrust areas of its activities and has initiated a “National Programme from Urban and Industrial Waste.”
In spite of a major initiative taken by the Government of India and attractive financial and fiscal incentives being made available, the progress in setting up MSW-based Waste to Energy projects in the country so far is rather discouraging.
An estimated 50-80 Mt methane was emitted by solid waste disposal facilities and wastewater treatment facilities in 1990. Although there are large uncertainties in such emissions estimates for a variety of reasons, overall emissions levels are projected to grow significantly in the future.
Technical options to reduce methane emissions are available and in many cases may be profitably implemented by proper recycling, composting and incineration and also through methane recovery from landfills and waste water, which in turn may be used as an energy source. This might be cost- competitive with other energy alternatives.
Municipal Solids Waste and its improper handling and disposal methods pose a serious threat to human beings and their environment. A larger part of the total waste generated in India is simply dumped in open dump yards, giving rise to unhygienic surroundings, health hazards, contaminated groundwater, an unclean look of the cities, generation of methane contributing to global warming and other obnoxious gases. A proper municipal solid waste management system is a major challenge in the protection of the local and global environment.
Sustainable Development Programme in Construction Sector:
The construction sector is the driving force behind the Indian economy and it accounts for 36.5% of gross domestic income and contributes 5.6% of the total GDP in 1996-1997. When both direct and indirect emissions are considered, the construction sector is the most carbon-intensive sector in the economy as it requires energy intensive materials such as aluminium, steel, bricks, glass, cement, plastics and so on.
The cost of various inputs for new houses during 2000-2001 is 275 billion rupees and carbon dioxide emissions are estimated at 38.9 million tonnes. There are a number of technologies using cost effective low energy building materials available in India, such as hollow concrete blocks, fly-ash bricks and blocks, compressed mud blocks etc.
With a shift among different techniques of construction, there is substantial change in the cost and carbon dioxide emission levels. With a carbon dioxide constraint being imposed, the cost of construction rises by 2.54% for a 5% reduction in carbon dioxide from the common practice.
It is possible to construct houses using solar energy, photovoltaic and direct solar heating. It includes the use of specially designed walls and windows, energy storage through batteries and heat exchange systems for ventilation. The technical feasibility of such possibilities has been proven but the costs are yet excessive. A number of energy saving systems is available often at competitive costs.
However, such technologies and systems are not widely used because of administrative, institutional and political issues which include the following:
i. Difficulties in improving integrated systems
ii. Need for and shortage of skilled personnel
iii. Energy users are often not those responsible for paying the energy bills, creating a barrier to energy efficiency
iv. Lack of incentives for achieving cost-effective energy efficiency measures.
Sustainable Development Programme in Industrial Sector:
During the past two decades, the industrial sector fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions of most developed countries have declined or remained constant as their economies have grown. Still, the present emissions from this sector contribute 50% of total emissions, of which the industrialized countries are responsible for about three quarters. It is estimated that these countries could still lower their industrial sector emissions by 25% relative to 1990 levels, by simply replacing existing facilities and processes with the most advanced technological options currently available.
The national inventory of greenhouse gases shows, major contribution comes from energy intensive sectors such as iron and steel, fertilizer, cement, aluminium and pulp and paper. Therefore, substantial mitigation option in the industrial process besides change of more an efficient process method includes switching energy production options.
A few options available for energy efficient options in power, industrial and domestic sector are as follows:
Sustainable Development Programme in Agricultural Sector:
Agriculture continues to be the mainstay of the Indian economy. This sector contributes 24% of the Gross Domestic Product and also employs two-third of the country’s workforce. Several major industries, such as sugar, textiles, jute, food processing, distilleries and milk processing depend on agriculture.
Agriculture accounts for about 20% of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, primarily due to the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide, but only about 5% of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions come from agriculture. Considerable reductions of greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector can be accomplished, primarily from offsets by biofuel production on land currently under cultivation.
Reduction of anthropogenic methane production is primarily an issue for developing countries. It is still relatively small and is increasing only slowly. The need for systems analyses for determination of possible reductions of green-horse gas emissions from the agriculture sector is apparent.
Abatement strategy in this sector in India can be achieved through the following:
i. Increasing the digestibility of animal feed by supplementing it with molasses;
ii. Replacing open pit method of manure treatment with small scale digestors;
iii. Using improved paddy varieties and draining fields frequently;
iv. Encouraging cultivation of rice varieties that emit less methane per unit of output; and
v. Improving application efficiency of nitrogenous fertilizers.
Sustainable Development Programme in Forestry Sector:
High and mid-latitude forests are currently estimated to be a net carbon sink of about 0.7 ± 0.2 Gt C per year. Low altitude forests, on the other hand are estimated to be a net source of 1.6 ± 0.4 Gt. C/year, caused mostly by clearing and degradation of forests. These sources and sinks may be compared with the carbon release from fossil fuel combustion, estimated to have been 6 Gt C/year in 1990.
It is to be noted, however, that emissions due to fossil fuel burning represent injection of carbon that has been buried in the ground for millions of years, while increases and decreases of carbon in forests should be viewed as redistribution of carbon between terrestrial reservoirs, which will necessarily remain rather limited in a long-term perspective, because of the comparatively limited amounts that they contain. Still it is obviously important to halt deforestation. Governments in a few developing countries such as Brazil and India have instituted measures to achieve this.
Wood residues are used regularly to generate steam and electricity in most paper mills and rubber plantations, and in specific instances for utility electricity generation.
In the forestry sector, IPCC Second Assessment Report categorizes three broad options:
1. Conservation Management:
This strategy attempts to conserve the existing carbon storage capacity of forests by halting or slowing down deforestation and forest degradation.
2. Storage Management:
This strategy attempts to increase carbon stored in woody vegetation and soil in existing degraded forests, as well as to create new carbon sinks in areas where forests do not exist or have been cleared. These may be achieved by promoting natural regeneration, reforestation on deforested lands, afforestation of non- forest lands and agro-forestry on cropland and pastureland.
3. Substitution Management:
This strategy attempts the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable fuel-wood or other biomass products.
Essay # 4. Sinks as Climate Change Mitigation Options:
Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere by a number of processes that operate on different time scales, and is subsequently transferred to reservoirs or sinks. Or more simply, we may define ‘sink’ as any system that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The fastest process of removal is absorption into vegetation and surface layer of oceans.
Sinks are mainly of three types—oceanic, terrestrial and inferred or missing. The Kyoto Protocol has a provision that allows industrialized countries to take into account changes in emissions resulting from human induced land-use, land-use-change and forestry activities limited to afforestation, reforestation and deforestation since 1990.
Simply put in, it allows afforestation as a sink to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Further the Protocol states that additional human induced activities in the agricultural soils may be added to the three mechanisms—implementation, clean development mechanism and emission trading—already counted under the Protocol, subject to certain conditions.
In most of the tropical countries, as in India, government dominates forestry based institutions. These institutions, therefore, need support and new insight in order to effectively incorporate mitigation policies and measures in their resource management activities.
India has been relentlessly implementing one of the largest reforestation programmes in the tropics with over one million hectares planted annually. Nearly half of this reforestation is on degraded forests and village common land. It is estimated that carbon uptake in forests, degraded forests, and plantations is estimated to offset the gross carbon emissions from the forest sector.
Carbon dioxide emissions in India are projected to increase from no-net emissions in 1990 to 77 million tonnes by 2020. Promoting agroforestry, which according to a study by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, can abate 700,000 million tonnes of carbon on a dedicated 69 million hectares of land, can turn around this situation.
Essay # 5. Barriers to Climate Change Mitigation Measures:
Several barriers inherent to the process of development compound greenhouse gas mitigation measures. Sustainable development in a participatory framework can minimize these barriers, but the inequitable distribution of income and wealth forms a core feature of barriers to effective implementation of any type of intervention, and those related to climate change are no exception.
For any policy decision on greenhouse gases reduction any individual country can choose from a large set of possible policies, measures and instruments to limit domestic greenhouse gas emissions. These can be categorized into market based instruments, regulatory instruments and voluntary agreements of which some may fall into the category of market based instrument.
Also for any country, and more particularly for the developing countries, domestic structural reforms and policies on trade liberalization and liberalization of energy markets have a great impact on measures that acts as barriers to greenhouse gas reduction or enhance their sequestration by sinks.
These policies coupled with macro-economies, market oriented reforms, set the framework in which more specific climate policies would be implemented. During the 1990s several countries including India and China implemented drastic market oriented reforms that have had important effects on energy use and energy efficiency, and therefore on greenhouse emissions.
Another major barrier in climate change mitigation is the transfer of environmentally sound technologies from developed to developing countries. Provisions of the UNFCCC defines the nature and scope of technology transfer, which include environmentally sound and economically viable technologies and know how conducive to mitigating and adapting to climate change.
An effective transfer of technology requires fulfilling three major criteria the technology holder should be willing to transfer the technology, the technology must fit into the demand of the recipient country and the transfer must be made at reasonable cost to the recipient.
The IPCC Special Report on technology transfer (IPCC, 2000) identifies various important barriers that could impede environmental technology transfer, such as:
i. Lack of data, information, and knowledge, especially on emerging technologies;
ii. Inadequate vision about the understanding of local needs and demands;
iii. High transaction costs and poor macro-economic conditions;
iv. Insufficient human and institutional capabilities;
v. Inappropriate technology adopted; and
vi. Poor legal institutions and framework.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) noted that the largest share of historical and current global emissions of greenhouse gases has originated in developed countries, that per capita emissions in developing countries are still relatively low and that the share of global emissions originating in developing countries will grow to meet their social and development needs.
The power sector, transportation sector, and building sector are each major emitters of carbon dioxide in the environment. Mitigation of climate change through various energy efficiency measures and using clean technologies are viable options to reduce emissions. The thermal generation of power using fossil fuels increases global warming and has a global impact because of the long atmospheric lifetime of carbon dioxide.
At present the power sector has a very large share in the total energy consumption and has almost a 50 percent contribution to the total carbon emissions. There is a need to switch on the alternative fuels as well as rapidly introduce clean coal technologies. In addition, carbon-neutral technologies for generation of power using various renewable sources should be taken up, so that at least 10 percent of the power in India comes from renewable.
The transportation sector in India is also responsible for considerable Greenhouse Gas emissions in the atmosphere, along with other pollutants that are harmful, a health hazard and dangerous to global environment. The present need is to switch from personalized transport to a mass transit system. Many developed countries have adopted this type of transportation long ago.
There is also scope for India to abate climate change through vulnerability studies and adaptation measures, particularly in the areas of water resources, agriculture and food production, and coastal zone management. In the agricultural sector, there is a need to take up research for finding out cultivators which are not only temperature/drought resistant but should not necessitate any change in the present agricultural/irrigation practices.
India has a long coastline and some of the coastal areas are already vulnerable. The projected sea level rise due to global warming will have considerable impact on the life of the people and the coastal economies. Constructing dykes to prevent sea level rise impact is an option, but unfortunately this is economically not acceptable to the developing countries, due to very high cost of construction of dykes.