Introduction
Sustainable development, in recent times, is the global issue on which there is a wide agreement. The Brundtland’s Report defines sustainable development as: “To meet the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This definition is mostly accepted as it recommends the concept of ‘sustainable development’. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCNNR) declares and confirms through the World Conservation Strategy report (1980) that the social, economic and ecological factors must be considered in order to carry out sustainable development. Some of the definitions by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) explain the relationship between climate change and sustainable development.
Climate Change: Sensitivity, Adaptability and Vulnerability
• Sensitivity is the degree to which a system is affected, either adversely or beneficially, by climate-related stimuli. Climate-related stimuli encompass all the elements of climate change, including mean climate characteristics, climate variability and the frequency and magnitude of extremes. The effect may be direct (e.g., a change in crop yield in response to a change in the mean, range or variability of temperature) or indirect (e.g., damages caused by an increase in the frequency of coastal flooding due to sea-level rise).
• Adaptive capacity is the ability of a system to adjust to climate change, including climate variability and extremes, to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities or to cope with the consequences.
• Vulnerability is the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude and rate of climate change and variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity and its adaptive capacity.
Climate Change: a Major Concern
Regarding freshwater supply, food processing, health and hygiene, natural ecosystems, etc. humankind is facing many major environmental challenges––one of which is climate change. The latest scientific evaluation confirms that since the pre-industrial age, the earth’s climate order has had a verifiable change on regional as well as global levels. The other proofs declare that human activities are responsible for the rise of temperature (at the rate of 0.1°C per decade) observed over the last 50 years. The IPCC predicts that the mean temperature of the world may rise between 1.4 and 5.8°C by 2100 probably affecting the ecosystems, sea level rise, global hydrological system, crop production and other related processes mainly of the developing countries in the subtropical regions including India.
As the climate change is the greatest challenge of sustainable development, effectual climate strategies must be considered in order to make regional and national development processes more sustainable. Otherwise, the different consequences of climate change, the responses of climate strategy, and related socio-economic development will, in turn, affect adversely the ability and opportunities of the countries to accomplish their targets of sustainable development. Especially, the technological and socio-economic features of different ways will adversely affect emissions, the rate, impacts and vastness of climate change, the ability to adjust and the capacity to alleviate.
In the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 guided to Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), which founded the framework in order to stabilise the greenhouse gases eventually in the atmosphere, by identifying the common but individualised accountabilities and respective abilities, and social and economic conditions. The Convention was enforced in 1994. Later on, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol came into effect in 2005, and reaffirmed the importance of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere in respect to the sustainable development principles. The protocol formulated guidelines and rules concerning the extent to which an industrialised country involved should cut down the rate of its emissions of six greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFC). The industrialised countries required cutting down the emissions of greenhouse gases by a weighted average of 5.2 per cent adhering to the 1990 greenhouse gas emissions, and to be achieved the target by the end of the scheduled five-year period, from 2008 to 2012. The Kyoto Protocol does not direct mandatorily the developing countries to cut down the emissions of their greenhouse gases.
Concerns of India on Climate Change
India––the emerging economic superpower in the world in recent time––has about 17 per cent of the total world population, which includes around 35 per cent poor and 40 per cent illiterate people in the world. The economic reform of India has brought about the economic growth, the rate of rise in foreign exchange, IT revolution, export growth and so on, in parallel to the growth of inequality in income distribution. The continuous rejection from the benefits of economic revolution with regard to low agricultural growth––without the reduction of dependent population in the agricultural sector, its share in GDP has been cut down to half, lower employment growth, focuses only on poverty the said certain groups: Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST); occupation––agricultural and casual labour; low development rate of women and children and sex ratio favourable to men. The sex ratio at birth is 500 females per 1000 males on the basis of the study report of the hospital statistics in South Delhi. The above reasons altogether have caused the growing social and economic discrepancy which is a possible danger to sustainable development, whereas the economic growth in recent years, with a tickle-down effect, creates job opportunities for people from the most educated section to the poorest section of the society.
About 700 million people in rural India depend largely on the climate-sensitive sectors: agriculture, fisheries and forests, and natural resources like water, grasslands, mangroves, coastal areas and biodiversity for their maintenance and livelihoods. Climate change and its negative impacts will gradually decrease the adaptive capacity of the forest dwellers, dry-land farmers, nomadic shepherds and fisher folk. The indispensible natural sources––air, water and soil––for living on earth have been dwindling at an alarming rate. Behind the impending water crisis in India, there lie plenty of factors: increasing demand of drinking water, inequality in regional distribution, lack of appropriate framework for just use, impotent knowledge and resources, major changes in land-use, long-term decline of water level and rising salinity and pollution. India is vulnerable to the vagaries of weather conditions and climate change though it has huge agricultural lands, steps for sustainable development.
India has to bring the comprehensive growth into effect widely including rapid labourreleasing agricultural growth, required employment creation, the reduction of poverty, improvement of social sectors––education and health—and women empowerment in order to combat the challenges posed by those situations. With regard to these improvements, we should learn from our neighbouring country, China, where there are equitable distribution of income through broad-based, high and labour-releasing agricultural growth, ready-at-hand infrastructure, higher rate of literacy and best-inclass skills, incentives for the foundation of business firms in rural areas, and quick and easy access to credit and inputs for the poor section of society altogether which are absolutely necessary for a developing country. Women should be empowered through the substitution of ‘Life-Cycle Approach’ of the girl child with the main objective of marriage and motherhood for ‘Capability Approach’––as propagated by the Nobel laureate Indian economist, Amartya Sen––where the girl child’s contributions both in economic and social terms are given due recognition. All measures and initiatives related the girl child, therefore, call for urgent and thorough review by the concerned authority with a view to promoting the status of the girl child as an asset rather than the burden just like conditional cash and non-cash transfer and so on.
Collaborative and continued campaigns are a must to combat the challenges posed by climate change and its negative impacts. In order to handle and carry out a solution to the problems of water scarcity and the decreasing level of groundwater table, the following call for urgent measures to be initiated: Practices of ground water conservation like construction of khadin (an Indian term for groundwater conservation popular in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat), renovating dams, recharge shafts, farm ponds, injection wells (in coastal region to fight problems of excessively pumped out aquifers), and contour trenching, detaining surface run-off at elevations and, at the same time, surface water conservation techniques, like construction of ooranies (an Indian term for surface water collection ponds with modernised catchments, popular and commonly found in Tamil Nadu). We can also implement rooftop rainwater harvesting and threshing floors by giving proper training and creating awareness among the masses for water conservation. The active participation of the Gram Panchayat/Village Health and Sanitation Committee in operation, maintenance, water quality surveillance can bring about a grand success as they did the National Rural Drinking Water Quality Monitoring and Surveillance Project. Some household measures like using waterefficient household equipment: proper metering of water, low volume flushing cisterns, the concept of a water-efficient home, rational tariff and recycling and reuse of water can decrease the demand of water and encourage its conservation.
By introducing long-term preventive actions such as pasture development, afforestation and livestock management––growing better top feed species surviving annual droughts and providing rich fodder, we can carry out united development in drought-prone regions. We can implement contingency crop schemes by growing diverse combinations of crop, fruits, grasses, and trees in order to decrease the risk of crop failure and keep farm income stable. Methodical land management and latest irrigation technologies: sprinklers and drip systems should be widely used aiming at increasing the production per unit of irrigation water. Other steps like human and livestock population management and creation of substitute methods of nonfarm employment can help us gaining far-reaching success. A survey report entitled,
‘Comprehensive Assessment of Watershed Programmes in India’ conducted by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, has marked that the wastelands decreased by around 8.58 Mha during 2000 and 2005, by using diverse techniques of integrated development of the droughtprone regions. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is now one of the most dependable programmes dealing with chronic hunger and poverty with the aim of promoting sustainable development in rural India. The government has fixed two-third of the measures under NREGA for water conservation (52 per cent) and land development (14 per cent).
With the objective of boosting the present ecological conditions, India has undertaken a string of strict measures, these are as follows:
i. India aims at registering 31 per cent projects under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)––the highest number in the world. Under the Kyoto Protocol, CDM or Carbon Credits Mechanism has been devised with a view to rewarding cashable points to eco-friendly projects based on the control of the carbon emissions.
ii. Mumbai has started with the organisation, Sustainable Technologies and Environmental Projects Ltd. (STEPs), which has found out a method of transmuting plastic, electric and organic waste into petroleum without any normal detrimental remnant. Such a plant which costs US $2–3 million can produce about 25,000 litres of petroleum every day, and the operating cost of which is only `12 per litre excluding the cost of raw materials. Aiming at reducing the emission of carbon, India is also attempting to substitute ecofriendly biofuels by mixing ethanol, doping, and nonedible oil for 10 per cent of its transport fuels by the next 10 years.
iii. India has now 2 billion square feet (sq. ft.) area of green building projects and is targeting 10 billion sq. ft. by 2022 to be the owner of the highest area of green building expanse. ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon (now Gurugram) was rewarded with the highest level––Platinum rating on November 11, 2004 for the world’s largest green building with an area of 170,000 sq. ft.––and the first non-commercial complex in India––by the Green Building Council-Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design of the United States (USGBC-LEED), a nonprofit organisation founded in 1993 that has undertaken an initiative to reward certificates at the platinum, gold and other levels by using the 69-point criteria with a view to encouraging green buildings through sustainable development. ITC now reports its performance in financial, environmental as well as social capital.
iv. India invites people to take part in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) so as to decreasing the social and economic discrepancy, and promoting ecological conditions through diverse activities with the inclusion of the corporate sectors: education, health, natural resource management, community support, infrastructure development, non-farm and farm-based subsistence development.
Current Development Agenda
The optimism which is based on the proper and practical imperatives of developing an equitable world and a sustainable planet has growingly appeared inevitable is emphasised in an outline prepared by the United Nations Open Working Group on Sustainable development Goals. Because of the moderate but optimistic progress which reduced the extreme poverty to its half five years before the given deadline–– achieved on the 2015 Millennium Development Goals––the hope of attaining these ideals has become positive. In 2010, the world clinched success targeted by Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on drinkable water on the basis of access to improved sources of drinking water, but failed to realise on sanitation.
Under the MDGs, the new development criteria set up eight anti-poverty targets the world pledged itself to attain by 2015. Considerable progress has been brought out on the MDGs, showing the value of an integrated agenda supported by goals and targets. In spite of this success, the indignity of poverty cannot be eradicated.
The members of the United Nations are now on their way to defining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) considering as part of a new agenda to execute the job of the MDGs, and leaving no job behind.
The Member States at the Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015 adopted an agenda.
The proposed 17 goals of Sustainable Development
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere.
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages.
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation.
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries.
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts (taking note of agreements made by the UNFCCC forum).
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss.
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development.
Conclusion
The most effectual means to discourse climate change is the adaptation of a measure for sustainable development by transferring it to technologies environmentally sustainable and the improvement of energy efficiency, reforestation, forest conservation, renewable energy, water conservation, etc. The most important factor to developing countries is controlling assailability of their natural and socio-economic systems to the assumed climate change. Other developing countries including India will combat the challenge of boosting alleviation and adaptation tactics, bearing the result of such an effort and its significance for economic development.
India is a vast developing country which has about two-third of the population depending only on the climate-sensitive sectors: agriculture, fisheries and forests. The assumed climate change under different situations will probably leave effects on water supply, food production, livelihoods and biodiversity. We have, therefore, a consequential scope in scientific advancement and international understanding to foster alleviation and adaptation which needs advanced scientific understanding, networking, capacity building, and widely acknowledged consultation processes. We can carry out sustainable development successfully by strategically directing all our initiatives to our targeted goal.