Glasgow Climate Pact

● The Glasgow meeting was the 26th session of the Conference of Parties to
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP26.
● The main task for COP26 was to finalise the rules and procedures for
achieving targets of the Paris Agreement.
Important outcomes

1. Mitigation
● Asked countries to strengthen their 2030 climate action plans, or NDCs
(nationally-determined contributions), by next year to achieve the targets of Paris
Climate deal.
● India is the only country that strengthened its INDC at Glasgow(Panchamrit
Strategy).
● Has called for a phase-down of coal, and phase-out of fossil fuels.
● Countries led by India and China forcing an amendment to the word “phase-
out” in relation to coal changed to “phase-down”.

2. Adaptation
● Most of the countries, especially the smaller and poorer ones, and the small
island states, consider adaptation to be the most important component of
climate action.
● These countries, due to their lower capacities, are already facing the worst
impacts of climate change, and require immediate money, technology and
capacity building for their adaptation activities.
● Developed countries to at least double the money being provided for
adaptation by 2025 from the 2019 levels.

3. Finance
● Every climate action has financial implications.
● In 2009, developed countries had promised to mobilise at least $100 billion
every year from 2020.
● This promise was reaffirmed during the Paris Agreement, which also asked
the developed countries to scale up this amount from 2025.
● The 2020 deadline has long passed but the $100 billion promise has not
been fulfilled.
● The developed nations have now said that they will arrange this amount by
2023.

4. Carbon Markets
 ● Carbon markets facilitate the trading of emission reductions. Such a market
allows countries, or industries, to earn carbon credits for the emission
reductions they make in excess of their targets.
● A carbon market existed under Kyoto Protocol but is no longer there because
the Protocol itself expired last year. A new market under Paris Agreement is
yet to become functional.
● Developing countries like India, China or Brazil have large amounts of carbon
credits left over because of the lack of demand as many countries abandoned
their emission reduction targets.
● The Glasgow Pact has allowed these carbon credits to be used in meeting
countries’ first NDC targets.

Hints
Begin by giving context -India’s announcement at cop-26 at Glasgow.
Mention the five components of ‘Panchamrit’ declaration.
Steps
1. Mainstreaming solar-PM KUSUM, One Sun, One Grid, International Solar
Alliance
2. Harnessing nuclear energy
 3. Moving towards EV, bio fuels
4. Carbon capture and storage etc
5. National Biofuel Policy 2018

PM KUSUM Scheme
● PM- KUSUM aims to provide financial
support to farmers harness solar
energy capacities of 25,750 MW by
2022.
● Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy (MNRE)
● Enable farmers to set up solar power
generation capacity on their barren
lands-
a. Use it for their pumps
b. Earn by sell it to the grid.
PM-KUSUM consists of three components:
● Component-A: 10,000 MW of
decentralised ground-mounted grid-connected renewable power plants.
● Component-B: Installation of two million standalone solar-powered
agriculture pumps.
● Component-C: Solarisation of 1.5 million grid-connected solar-powered
agriculture pumps.

One Sun One World One Grid

● India and the United Kingdom announced a new initiative named One Sun,
One World, One Grid.
● The initiative was announced on the second day of COP26.
● The initiative is also called Green Grids Initiative.
● More than 80 countries have endorsed the initiative.
What is One Sun, One World, One Grid?
● Objective is to tap solar energy and have it travel seamlessly across borders.

Benefits of the One Sun One World One Grid

1. Sun produces immense Solar energy.
2. All the energy humanity uses in a year is equal to the energy that reaches
the earth from the sun in a single hour.
3. Solar energy is also a clean source of energy.
4. The sun never sets — every hour, half the planet is bathed in sunshine. By
trading energy from sun, wind and water across borders, the world can deliver
more than enough clean energy to meet the needs of everyone on earth.
Implementation of One Sun One World One Grid

● The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had developed an application

that could compute the potential solar energy at any point on earth and help
decide if it would be suitable for solar energy installations.
● A Ministerial Steering Group will work towards accelerating the making of
large solar power stations and wind farms in the best locations.
● The Ministerial Steering Group includes France, India, the United Kingdom
and the United States, and will also have representatives from Africa, the
Gulf, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

International Solar Alliance

● The ISA, is an Indian initiative that was launched by the Prime Minister of India
and the President of France in 2015 in Paris, on the sidelines of the
Conference of the Parties (COP-21) of UNFCCC.
● Objective- To develop cooperation 121 solar resource rich countries lying
fully or partially between the tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn as
prospective members.
● But an amendment was brought in the constitution of International Solar Alliance
in 2020.
● Now membership has extended to all members of UN.
● Secretariat of the ISA in National Institute of Solar Energy campus, Gurugram,
Haryana.

Micro irrigation techniques

● Traditionally most popular type of irrigation is Canal irrigation.
● Under it a channel in a river is created. It is known as canal. Water derived from
the canal for irrigation is known as Canal irrigation.
● Above types of irrigation lead to some wastage of water.
● It also has some associated problems like waterlogging and salinity.
● To avoid such problems, modern types of irrigation practices have been
developed. They use water judiciously. Thus they are known as micro-
irrigation.
Some important types of micro-irrigation are-
a. Drip irrigation- A type of localized irrigation in which drops of water are delivered at
or near the root of plants. In this type of irrigation, evaporation and runoff are
minimized.
b. Sprinkler irrigation- Water is distributed by overhead high-pressure sprinklers or
guns from a central location in the field or from sprinklers on moving platforms.
PM krishi sinchai Yojana-started in 2015
● It has mainly focus on 2 components-
1. ‘Har Khet ko pani’-vision of extending the coverage of irrigation
2. ‘More crop per drop'-improving water use efficiency.It focusses on making
micro irrigation techniques available to the farmers.

Antarctic Treaty
Marine protected areas
● Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries
or large lakes.
● MPAs restrict human activity for a conservation purpose, typically to protect
natural or cultural resources.
● According to the IUCN, there are around 5000 MPAs designated around the
world.
Current news
● The European Union proposed designating East Antarctica and the Weddell
Sea as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).
● India extended support for protecting the Antarctic environment and co-
sponsored the proposal.
● If the proposal is accepted illegal unreported and unregulated fishing in East
Antarctica and Weddell Sea will end.

Kigali Amendment to Montreal Protocol

Montreal Protocol
○ World countries have adopted the Montreal protocol in 1987 to protect
the earth’s ozone layer by eliminating use of ozone depleting substances
(ODS)
 ● Montreal protocol focuses on eliminating use of ozone depleting substances
like CFC and HCFC.
● It has already resulted in the phase-out of 98.6% of ozone-depleting
substances.
● The remaining 1.4% are the HCFCs that are in the process of being
transitioned.
● CFC and HCFC were used for cooling purposes like- Refrigeration, Air
Conditioning.
● Now they are being replaced with HFC for refrigeration and air conditioning
purposes.
Issues with HFC
● HFCs, though benign to the ozone layer, were powerful greenhouse gases.

Kigali Amendment
● HFCs do not cause ozone layer depletion, but will cause global warming
● To reduce this, Kigali agreement was signed in 2016.
● As per the agreement, countries are expected to reduce the manufacture and
use of HFCs by roughly 80-85% from their respective baselines.
Timelines for different countries
● India has to achieve this target by 2047
● Developed countries have to do it by 2036.
● China and some other countries have a target of 2045.

Current news
● Recently India has ratified the Kigali Amendment to the 1989 Montreal
Protocol for protection of the ozone layer.

Ramsar sites
Current Development
● Two new Ramsar sites (Wetlands of International Importance)
1. Khijadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat
2. Bakhira Wildlife Sanctuary in U.P were also announced on the occasion
With this there are total 49 Ramsar sites in India.
Significance of Wetlands
● A wetland is a place where the land is covered by shallow water or wet by
water.
● Wetlands are defined as lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic
eco-systems
● Marshes and ponds, the edge of a lake or ocean, the delta at the mouth of a
river, low-lying areas that frequently flood—all of these are wetlands.
● Wetlands are often referred to as “Earth’s kidneys” because they provide the
 same functions, absorbing wastes such as nitrogen and phosphorous.

Great Barrier Reef

● The reef is located in the Coral Sea (North-East Coast), off the coast of
Queensland, Australia.
● It was world heritage listed in 1981 by UNESCO.
Importance of Great Barrier Reefs
● Huge biodiversity-4,000 species of fish, 800 species of hard corals
● The Great Barrier Reef, which covers roughly 10 percent of the world’s coral
reef ecosystem.

Challenges faced by Great Barrier Reefs

Coral bleaching
● When corals face stress by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or
nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae living in their tissues,
causing them to turn completely white. This phenomenon is called coral
bleaching. It leads to decline of biodiversity.
Main reasons behind Coral bleaching
● In the 2019 Outlook Report prepared by the Australian government, it said
that
1. Climate change was the greatest threat to the Reef
2. Human Factors -like illegal fishing, construction etc

Current Developments
 ● World Heritage Committee of UNESCO proposed to label the Great Barrier
Reef as a World Heritage Site "in danger''.

Sunderlal Bahuguna
Context
● Environmentalist and Gandhian Sunderlal Bahuguna passed away
● Important environment movements by Sunderlal Bahuguna -
1. Chipko Movement
2. Anti Tehri Dam Movement

Chipko Movement
● Chipko movement was the uprising against the felling of trees in Uttar
Pradesh’s Chamoli district (now Uttarakhand) in 1973.
● The name of the movement ‘chipko’ comes from the word ’embrace’, as the
villagers hugged the trees and encircled them to prevent being axed.
● Sundarlal Bahuguna initiated this movement.
● He gave a slogan ‘ecology is permanent economy’.
Use it if a question comes on Ecology vs Economy.

IUCN
● The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a global
environmental organisation.
● It is headquartered in Switzerland and was created in 1948.
● Official Observer Status at the United Nations General Assembly.
Functions of IUCN?
1. Prepares the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
● It uses a set of quantitative criteria to evaluate the extinction risk of species.
2. Runs hundreds of conservation projects all over the world.
Funding of IUCN?
● Funded by governments, bilateral and multilateral agencies, foundations,
member organisations and corporations.
 Current news
● The IUCN officially launched its “green status” — the first global standard for
assessing species recovery and measuring conservation impacts.
Survival watchlist report
● In this report IUCN reported that some 28% of the 1,38,374 species assessed
by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for its survival
watchlist are now at high risk of vanishing forever.
● Three reasons behind sharp decline in population of flora and faunas-
a. Habitat loss
b. Hunting and illegal trade
c. Global warming

Invasive species
● Some alien species are destructive in nature and they can destroy the entire
ecosystem.
● Such alien species are known as invasive alien species.
Current context
● In a bid to reduce the country's dependence on edible oil imports,PM Modi
announced a National Mission on Edible Oils and Oil Palm(NMEO-OP)
● It will have investment of over Rs 11,000 crore .
 ● With palm oil having 55 per cent share in total edible oil imports, the National
Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) would focus on palm production.
● The programme will ensure that farmers get all facilities, from quality seeds to
technology, to promote cultivation of palm and other oil seeds.
● Focus- Andaman and Nicobar, Northeast states-due to conducive weather

Issues
● Northeast Environmentalists believe that Oil palm in Northeast may disturb
biodiversity of Northeast.
● Oil palm is an invasive species.
● It may change the structural component of the soil of Northeast.
● Thus they demand proper study of impact of oil palm on soil of NE before
implementing it.

Environment Committees on Western Ghats

Western Ghats

● The Western Ghats, also known as ‘Sahyadri’, constitute a 1600 km long

mountain chain along the west coast of India
● It from the river Tapi in the north to Kanyakumari in the south.
● It covers a total area of 160,000 square kms and traverses through six States
viz. Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
● The western side of the Ghat receives more rainfall than the eastern side.
● Western Ghats was declared as a world heritage site in 2012 by the United
Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
 Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel
(WGEEP)

● Gadgil Commission, an
environmental research commission is named after its chairman Madhav
Gadgil.
● The commission is formally known as Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel
(WGEEP).
● The commission submitted the report to the Government of India on 31
August 2011.
Major recommendations
● The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) designated the entire hill
range as an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA).
● Western Ghats region to be classified in Ecologically Sensitive Zones (ESZ) 1,
2 and 3.
● ESZ-1 being of high priority, almost all developmental activities (mining,
thermal power plants etc) were restricted in it.
Criticisms of Madhav Gadgil Report
● It was more environment-friendly and not fit for development of the region.
● Recommendations were cited as impractical to implement.

High-level working group (HLWG)

● K. Kasturirangan committee was constituted to examine the WGEEP report.
The committee is often called HLWG –high-level working group (HLWG).
Kasturirangan committee Report
1. Instead of the total area of Western Ghats, only 37% (i.e. 60,000 sq. km.) of the
total area be brought under ESA under Kasturirangan report.
2. A complete ban on mining, quarrying and sand mining in ESA.
3. Current mining areas in the ESA should be phased out within the next five
years, or at the time of expiry of mining lease, whichever is earlier.
Current news
● Recently, Karnataka Chief Minister informed the Centre that the state is
opposed to the Kasturirangan Committee report on Western Ghats.
Concerns of Karnataka Government
● It said that declaring Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive zone would
adversely affect the livelihood of people in the region.
● According to the environment experts the state’s opposition disastrous for the
ecologically fragile Western Ghats.

Forest fire in Simlipal

● Recently, a fire which started in the Simlipal biosphere reserve area, was
finally brought under control.
● The forest fires in Simlipal is a recurrent annual phenomenon, generally with
the onset of summers and towards the end of autumn.
● This duration coincides with the shedding of deciduous forests, which are
more vulnerable to catching fire and facilitate the spreading of fires quickly
over the entire forest area.
Biosphere reserve
● Biosphere Reserve (BR) is an international designation by United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for
representative parts of natural and cultural landscapes extending over large
areas of terrestrial or coastal/marine ecosystems or a combination of both.
 ● Biosphere Reserve (BR) are designated under UNESCO’s MAB(Man and
Biosphere) Programme started in 1971.
● Biosphere Reserves tries to balance economic and social development and
maintenance of associated cultural values along with the preservation of
nature.
Criteria for Designation of Biosphere Reserve
● A site must contain a protected and minimally disturbed core area of value
of nature conservation.
● Core area must be a bio-geographical unit and should be large enough to
sustain a viable populations representing all trophic levels.
● The involvement of local communities and use of their knowledge in
biodiversity preservation.
● Areas potential for preservation of traditional tribal or rural modes of living for
harmonious use of the environment.
Structure of Biosphere Reserve
Core Areas:
● It is the most protected area of a biosphere reserve. It may contain endemic
plants and animals.
● A core zone is a protected region, like a National Park or
Sanctuary/protected/regulated mostly under the Wildlife (Protection) Act,
1972. It is kept free from human interference.
Buffer Zone:
● The buffer zone surrounds the core zone.Research and educational
activities are to be encouraged.
Transition Zone:
● It is the outermost part of the biosphere reserve. It is the zone of cooperation
where human ventures and conservation are done in harmony.
Black Tigers
What is the news?
● Many dark black striped tigers are found in Similipal Tiger Reserve.
● A team of scientists has decoded the reason behind black striped Tigers in
Simlipal.
● The reason behind excessive black strips is inbreeding.
Inbreeding- breed from closely related people or animals, especially over many
generations.
● Excessive inbreeding happens in Simlipal because of its small size ie only a
2,750-sq km .
● The closest breeding tiger population to Simlipal is around 800 km away.

Similar incident in Kaziranga

● Four golden tigers have been spotted at the Kaziranga National Park in
Assam.
● The reason behind anomalous color in tiger in Kaziranga is also inbreeding.
● ‘Kazi 106F’, described as the country’s first Golden Tiger,has emerged as the
social media sensation right after its picture tweeted by an IFS officer went
viral.
● It resides in world heritage Kaziranga National Park of Assam.
● It is also known as ‘Tabby tiger’ or ‘Strawberry tiger’.
Smog Tower
Smog= Smoke + Fog

Fog- Due to beginning of winters.

Smoke- Due to stubble burning by farmers of Punjab and Harayana.

● Delhi and surrounding areas are facing the problem of air pollution

Green Hydrogen
Grey, green and blue hydrogen

● The various hydrogen production methods produce varying levels of carbon

emissions, and the level of these emissions determines in part whether the
hydrogen produced is considered grey, blue or green.
 Uses
of
Hydrogen

1. Synthesis of ammonia and the manufacture of nitrogenous fertilizers.

2. Hydrogen is used as rocket fuel in many space research activities.
3. Hydrogen Fuel Cells
4. It can be used as an alternative to fossil fuels. Thus it is clean source of
Energy.

Considering its importance India recently announced National Hydrogen Mission.

EIA Notification 2020

What is Environment Impact Assessment?
● It is a process under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, which prevents
industrial and infrastructural projects from being approved without proper
oversight.
● It ensures that every project should go through the EIA process for obtaining
prior environmental clearance.
● EIA covers projects such as mining of coal or other minerals, infrastructure
development, thermal, nuclear and hydropower projects, real estate and
other industrial projects.
● The projects are assessed based on their potential impact on the environment.
● Based on the assessments, they are granted or denied environmental
 clearance by a panel of experts.

Recent development

● Recently, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC)

has proposed a draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification
2020, that seeks to replace the notification of 2006.
● Under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 the Central government has
powers take all such measures for “protecting and improving the quality of
the environment.
● Using this power the government has proposed to change EIA norms by a
notification Draft EIA notification 2020.
Some contentious provision of EIA notification 2020
1. Post-Facto Approval
● The new draft allows for post-facto approval for projects.
● It means that the clearances for projects can be awarded later even if they
have started construction or have been running phase without securing
environmental clearances.
2. Public Consultation Process
● The draft notification provides for a reduction of the time period from 30 days
to 20 days for the public to submit their responses during a public hearing for
any application seeking environmental clearance.

3. Compliance Report Issue

● The 2006 notification required that the project proponent submit a report every
six months, showing that they are carrying out their activities as per the terms
on which permission has been given.
● However, the new draft requires the promoter to submit a report only once every
year.
4. Bypassing EIA Process
● Through the draft notification, the central government gets the power to categorise
projects as “strategic.”
● Once a project is considered as strategic, the draft notification states that no
information related to such projects shall be placed in the public domain.
● No EIA will be conducted of that project.