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Dear readers,
Welcome to the Climate Weekly newsletter by the Centre for Science and Environment’s Climate
Change programme and Down to Earth.
2023 has officially been declared the warmest year on record. A new study has found that snow cover in the northern hemisphere has declined over the last four decades because of climate change, writes DTE’s Akshit Sangomla. The study, published in the journal Nature, focuses on snowpacks, large quantities of accumulated snow that does not (typically) melt for several months. The authors of the report attributed snow decline in 31 river basins out of 169 analysed by them to the warming of the Earth due to human activities. More melting is expected with rising planetary temperatures. Documenting the scale and causes of snow loss is important to ‘benchmark the pace of climate change’ and manage water security risks. Glaciers are crucial sources of freshwater, including for rivers such as the Ganga and Indus, which support the lives and livelihoods of millions. If snow decline continues to rise drastically, as has been the case in 2023, the impacts could be deleterious.
The need to reckon with climate induced risks extends to the workings of the global trade system, CSE’s Director-General Sunita Narain explains in her latest DTE editorial. The inception of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) coincided with the agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1990. Export economies sought to benefit from decreased costs of manufacturing in countries with relatively lax labour laws and weaker environmental safeguards. But the inclusion of China in the WTO caused a drastic shift in the geopolitics of trade (and a rise in CO2 emissions). Two decades since, the original notion of globalization holds little water, with old proponents abandoning ideas of unbound global trade. A question thus arises: what should globalization look like in a climate-risked and fragmented world? How is the struggle for resources required for ‘greening’ economies – from critical minerals to new technologies – likely to shape up in the coming decades? Only time can tell if ‘de-globalisation’ implies a delay in green transitions, or new rules fit to serve the people and planet.
Closer home, forest fires in Himachal have increased seven times in the last year, and India’s agricultural emissions rose by 3.2 per cent in 2019 compared to 2016 levels.
Register for the online training on ‘Demystifying Environmental and Sustainability Data for Effective Communication in the 21st Century’ to be held from 31st January to 14th February.
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By - Sehr Raheja
Climate Change, CSE
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| EXTREME WEATHER TRACKER |
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Extreme cold still happens in a warming world – in fact climate instability may be disrupting the polar vortex, 18 January 2024
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Himalayas on fire: Uttarakhand recorded maximum fire alerts countrywide in snowless January, 17 January 2024
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CLIMATE NEWS | SCIENCE| IMPACTS| POLITICS |
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