At a time when efforts should focus on enforcing existing codes to improve sustainability of habitats, the Union Ministry of Urban Development has decided to bring in new rules to address concerns related to climate change. It has taken the first step towards putting in place legally enforceable habitat standards to promote green urban development. Regulations and control measures are effective policy instruments, but new ones will matter little if nothing has been achieved with what already exists. The Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), which could help reduce energy consumption by about 1.7 billion units of electricity a year, came into being four years ago. It remains voluntary, and is applicable only to large commercial buildings. Barring Orissa, no State has so far adopted it. Policymakers who argue that India has modelled itself on countries such as United Kingdom, which have kept the codes for sustainable buildings voluntary, are conveniently overlooking other innovations adopted by them to push their efforts forward. For instance, in the U.K., where about 42 per cent of all carbon emissions come from buildings, owners must produce Energy Performance Certificates of their properties put up for sale or rent. This helps buyers or tenants to choose efficient properties, which in turn ensures that the building design and construction are environmentally responsible.
In the absence of clear-cut emission targets in India, the goal posts for the proposed sustainable habitat standards remain unclear. This also raises the question of how to formulate regulation standards effectively. Metropolitan regions like Hamburg, the 2011 green capital of Europe with a population of 4.3 million, have shown that setting emission targets helps devise effective regulations and propel innovative urban schemes. Hamburg set an unambiguous goal to reduce CO2 emission by 40 per cent by 2020 from its 1990 base level and by 80 per cent by 2050. To achieve this, it adopted a mandatory energy-saving ordinance binding on its buildings, designed a public transport network that provided most citizens access within 300 metres of their place of stay, and created a 1,700 km bicycle lane network. The results are striking. The CO2 emissions are already down by 15 per cent. While comprehensive regulations and benchmarks are necessary, influencing major policy shifts to create sustainable habitats should be the priority. The thrust must be on making easy-to-implement codes at the local body level, and improve the supply of sustainable building technologies and materials.
It is very difficult to achieve anything without any defined goal, as India is trying to achieve in terms of carbon reduction. There is a need to have a target to achieve in a bound time frame, without which India will lead nowhere. Besides, its very true that our ministries keep on adding policies, institutions, etc. without making improvements in implementation of any existing policies.Moreover, lack of political consensus between center and state leads to delayed or no implementation of policies as in case of ECBC. Policymakers should, therefore devise mechanisms which are geo-targeted for carbon emission reduction, based on historical data and taking examples from international models,along with states consent.
In my opinion educated class is the one who cares for carbon emission
more but do nothing for it...Giving advice , will do attitude leads to
just disaster and increase in temperature ...Needy people have other
areas to sustain their life and to meet their both ends.A small good
and proactive efforts from our educated class will definitely make
things happen and help in this dire condition to save our atmosphere
and humanity.
Great!!!!!every day from the vision media to reading media, we have a news on climate change, global warming, CFCs etc etc.... and we are very much worry about this matter, that what will be our future. But are we all forgetting that, we are only wants to maintain a comfortable life from morning to evening. Even if we are living near a metro station, still we are using our Car to reach over there. So how we can challenge against the increase of emission unless until we will not corneous ourself.So only making rules and laws can't help to reduce emission.
The awareness of citizens and the implementation of law -- the two-pronged approach can mitigate carbon emissions. The dependence on fossil fuels has to be reduced and alternative sources of energy have to be developed. "One Indian-one plant" program me may be taken up.Less travel- More use of e-mail and cell communication, encouraging walking and cycling, efficient public transport system could go a long way in solving the problem.
India being a develping country eloped with poverty,majority of the people are primarily worried about their next meal and not about the environment.Having said that CO2 emmissions in India as a whole are bound to rise exponentialy.Due to various contraints one cannot inculcate the environment protection sense amongst the majority of our citizens and thats why voluntary implementation of protection measures,like UK,has little or no meaning in our society in short-medium term.So forceful policies like strict ECBCs & green-energy benifit points are the need of the hour.
Secondly,We repeatedly mention 'Measures for protection of the environment & the Earth'.It is said in tales 'Fish perceives its god as a fish,man perceives it as a man!'.I would like people to focus away from this human-centric approach.Our Earth has survived alot of major disasters in its long history.So our aim should be protection of human race,since,if time comes Earth will discard human race with a 'planetory shrug'.
We contrive to circumvent rules and regulations by influencing the seats of authority by means of bribe or core connections. This repulsive trait is encourged more by the moneyed segments of society. One is baffled at the fluency the well connected procure sanction or clearance for constructions or prjects. So long as such a tendency prevails, policies or regulations galore makes little impact.
Totally agree with your second part of the editorial and only partly the first part. The European energy conserving buildings are based on heating whereas in India we need cooling for majority of the buildings. We can implement their standards in spirit but we need good bit of research for design standards to be implemented back home.
Furthermore, energy rating of houses never going to work india, where getting a house itself is like a lottery and who cares about energy saving.
The famous saying of Margret Thatcher -"We have borrowed the earth from our children and not Inherited it from our forefathers ",is an eternal truth.Every aspect of environmental conservation should be given due attention to make earth a green planet in real sense.
Excellent !Hamburg shows that where there is a will,there is a way.But unfortunately before applying such codes in India,Indian public's must be enough vigilant.Most of the people don't know what is carbon emissions ,it's harmfulness and how we can mitigate the effects of the same.One thing is noteworthy here,most of us say that in Europe also there is an outburst in quantity of emissions ,so why only we care! But thing is that, there in Europe more or less all people are known of it's bad effects and they are trying to put it under control.On the contrary,in India most of people are unaware of it ,it would take long time to make it socially known.And who knows till that period ,we go to that state from where recovery is quite impossible.
We have got one of the best laws to deal with every problem but we are the worst people to implement it. An average law, if properly implemented will lead to great results, but a very good law, if not acted upon will give us only a big naught. THe problems lies not in the laws, but it lies in its implementation. There are so many ways by which we can consume lesser energy: walk or use cycle instead of cars or bikes, use CNG, turn off the light if not in use, watch t.v all at once or better still do not watch it, wash clothes and crockery manually. Two things if properly improvised can cut down carbon emission, they are: do it manually and keep it simple. But like I said, we have no scarcity of advises and laws, the real problem is that we do not improvise.
Climate Change Scenario after 2009 December Climategate: After 2009 Climategate at Copenhagen Summit there are lots of retroactive statements & summary reports by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – Pachauri is the Chairman” on what they released in their earlier reports. Also, several other UN agencies like WMO & UNEP brought out reports in this direction. Yet our media & scientists/institutions are still following the old versions of “global warming & carbon credits” and sensationalizing the issue and thereby diverting the real issue of climate change. Let me present some of these : We talk of global warming may reach as high as 3.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 under doubling of carbon dioxide scenario – now it reached 40% level. Based on this model predicted temperature raise, IPCC predicted impacts on sea level, glaciers, food, extreme weather, etc. For such hypothetical pronouncements IPCC and Al Gore received 2007 Noble Prize. However, after climategate, IPCC expressed regrets and withdrew the conclusion “most of the Himalayan glaciers disappear by 2030” and Al Gore withdrew his conclusion “Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years”. Arctic sea ice melts and refreezes in an annual cycle reaches the lowest point in late summer (varying from year to year), and highest point in late winter (in almost all years it reaches to 100%).
The summary report of 18th November 2011 released by IPCC in Kampala/Uganda [full report will be released in February 2012] finds medium confidence in a link between human activities and intensification of extreme rainfall on a global scale. The projected changes in climate extremes under different emission scenarios as signals are relatively small compared to natural climate variability over the coming two to three decades. It found no firm conclusion about a human influence on hurricanes, typhoons, hail storms or tornadoes. The observed data suggests that: Sea temperatures --- Some parts are warmer; Some parts are cooler; Some parts no change; Sea level --- Some parts raised, Some parts lowered, Some parts no change; for example --- Maldives, Sundarbans – no change in sea level; Glaciers --- Some are retreating, Some are strengthening, majority of them – no change; Hurricanes in USA follow opposite pattern to Typhoons in Pacific Ocean, follow a 60-year cycle; etc. We must realize the fact that “Ignorance is terrible but exaggeration is dangerous”. It exactly what IPCC & Al Gore and their PR groups around the world created. Greenhouse gases observational data is available since around 1960 only and prior to this period they were estimated indirectly with huge error variations. While predicting global warming by 2100 models used this type of data series only. When we analyzed the global temperature time series data using the WMO (1966) concept of climate change, the trend due to human action showed an increase of 1.13 degrees Celsius by 2100, which takes in to account all types of human interferences on climate; and over which superposed a 60-year cyclic pattern varying between – 0.3 to + 0.3 degrees Celsius, a natural variation. In fact IPCC put a cap of 2 degrees Celsius for bringing down greenhouse gases but so far there was no change in the carbon dioxide trend pattern. In view of this WMO/UNEP proposed a new plan of action, which was released in Nairobi/Kenya stating “let us concentrate on eradicating the urban pollution by 2050”. The urban pollution components such as NOx, VOCs help in the creation of ground level ozone in the presence of Sunlight, which is health hazard gas as well, more powerful greenhouse gas. This is possible only through pollution free public transport system and better urban planning.
We are talk generally without knowing what is exactly climate change means in scientific terms? It is a vast subject in which global warming component is one part only. The important component in this is systematic variations or cyclic variations in built in nature. They play vital role in agriculture and water resources availability but this was not taken into account either of IPCC or national governments. Now, IPCC in their summary report state that “Now IPCC is agreeing that the models are vastly wrong, for reasons of natural variability being more powerful than carbon. Thus the projected extremes signals are relatively small compared to natural climate variability over this time frame.
It is therefore, there is a an urgent need to revive research mode of 70s and 80s by research institutions using all available data series at local, regional & national level instead of spending time on IPCC mode “time pass” research. However, where the data series contain a cyclic pattern truncated data series lead spurious conclusions -- this is true in temperature as well precipitation. This is exactly what our Indian institutions are feeding to the government and misleading planning activities. All-India Southwest Monsoon precipitation data series present a 60-year cycle similar to our Astrological cycle. Observed data series show two 60-year cycles completed and third cycle started in 1987/88. In this the first 30-year part is above the average part in which floods are more and the next 30-year part that start in 2017/18 is below the average part in which droughts are more. That means floods and droughts follow this cycle. I myself studied these cycles in seven countries around the globe (Africa, Southern America, Australia, and India).
However, on the other hand in nature there are several other factors other than climate change impacts water resources, agriculture & ecosystems. The other factors include deforestation – reduction in precipitation, rise in temperature, destruction of biodiversity --; air, water & soil pollution – contamination of water resources and thus destruction of biodiversity & reduction in water availability --; natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanoes, cyclones, floods, forest fires, etc that destroy biodiversity, form new islands and disappear older ones and rises the temperature; agriculture technology after 1960s – destruction of biodiversity --, etc. Tourism, pilgrimage to Himalayas; mining, real-estate in hill tracts/forests affect weather & biodiversity. In general these are attributed to climate change to get instant publicity.
Therefore, to understand the climate change in its totality there is an urgent need to compile the historical climate data and analyze them at local, regional and national scales. Such studies provide better understanding of climate change and thus to develop adaptive mechanisms and to develop appropriate mitigation measures. Model based predictions with huge error variations lead nowhere!
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