Global Warming: UN Experts Warn Of Food Crisis For India
NEW YORK, NY (IANS) – As a panel of UN experts warned that India’s food production could see a massive fall if global warming went unchecked, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that he was asking the G20 for a pact to keep warming to 1.5 degrees centigrade.
“In India, rice production can decrease from 10 per cent to 30 per cent, whereas maize production can decrease from 25 per cent to 70 per cent assuming a range of temperature increase from 1 degree centigrade to 4 degrees centigrade,” a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said.
Guterres said that he has proposed to the India-led G20, the group of major emerging and developed economies, “a Climate Solidarity Pact – in which all big emitters make extra efforts to cut emissions, and wealthier countries mobilize financial and technical resources to support emerging economies in a common effort to keep 1.5 degrees alive”.
Although he cautioned that “the climate time-bomb is ticking”, he also sounded a note of hope: “Today’s IPCC report is a how-to guide to defuse the climate time-bomb. It is a survival guide for humanity”.
The report shows that global warming can be kept down to 1.5 degrees centigrade, “but it will take a quantum leap in climate action”, Guterres said.
He said that he is presenting a plan to “a super-charge” the Climate Solidarity Pact.
It would require “leaders of developed countries committing to reaching net zero as close as possible to 2040 and developing countries as close as possible to 2050”, he said.
Guterres’s plan calls for an end to use of coal and net-zero electricity generation by 2035 for all developed countries and 2040 for the rest of the world.
It also requires an immediate stop to all licensing or funding of new oil and gas ventures, and expansion of existing ones.
The report known as the Sixth Synthesis Report of the IPCC said that temperatures have already risen to 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels because of fossil fuel burning and unequal and unsustainable energy use.
This has led to more frequent and intense extreme weather dangerously impacting people around the world, it said.
Without action to hold global warming, “in South Asia, extreme climatic conditions are threatening food security; thus, agro-based economies, such as those of India and Pakistan, are the most vulnerable to climate change in this regard”, the report said.
India is “emerging as the most vulnerable nation in terms of crop production” in South Asia, it said.
It said that in South Asia, “water demand in sectors such as irrigation, industry and households will increase by 30 per cent to 40 per cent around 2050 in comparison with 2010”.
“Within a country as well, the water scarcity could be exacerbated, such as in India and China, due to various drivers like population increase and climate change,” it added.
ashok kumar
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india needs to recycle more water and get more yield per drop of water like israel.
March 22, 2023Mike Desai
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I suggest Gov. Of india to give 3 bags of plastic ice cubes which is 100 pieces which 1by1by1 Inch sizes and restaurants to use stainless steel ice cubes which will save 50 hector of waters per day as I have been using for past 40 yrs in USA so, such water saving ideas need to come up faster n faster will help besides carbon free atmosphere. I hope UN make it easily available to all 3 rd world countries including Africa n Mexico n india n Pakistan n all Middle East counties. Thanks JSK
March 22, 2023Mike Desai
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These ice cubes made out of plastic and stainless steel have water with air inside so they can be frozen in refrigerator and reuse million times and good part is it cools the drink but never dilute the drink so first seep and last seep are same resting . This is comment added to previous one so please post it thanks or contact me for further details
March 22, 2023Anupam Varma
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Good idea
March 25, 2023P L Gautam
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It is an alarming situation. It calls for comprehensive actions as any lack luster approach is not going to help.Our food basket needs diversification and sustainablility. Water saving technologies to be promoted.The govt efforts alone will not suffice.The private sector,civil societies and public at large have to come forward ,act ,invest and respond to the call on scientific lines.The recent aberrant weather in some pockets is likely to affect rabi crop production.. Hence,holistic approach for resource conservation, resilient technologies,storage efficiency and minimum storage losses etc have become an urgency.Country can and will do it but there is no room for any complacency so that we are not taken by surprise. As an optimistic note ,reiterate the saying,arise,awake and move on.
March 22, 2023Jai Hind