Down To Earth (September 16-30 2023)

Climate Change and Food Security

Context:

There is an urgent need for sustainable and resilient food systems to guarantee sustainable diets that are nutritious and aligned with the changing ecosystem and climate change.

About:

• In 2018, some 11% of the global greenhouse gas emissions were from food the world produced; of this, the bulk of emissions (about 40%) were from enteric fermentation in the digestive systems of ruminant livestock.
• Another 26% of the agriculture-related emissions were nitrous oxide from livestock manure applied in fields or dumped.
• Synthetic fertilisers used on crops then added 13% nitrous oxide and methane emissions from rice cultivation contributed 10% of the total agriculture-related emissions.
  • It's recently been estimated that the global food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gas emissions—second only to the energy sector; it is the number one source of methane and biodiversity loss.
• The number of people suffering acute food insecurity increased from 135 million in 2019 to 345 million in 82 countries by June 2022, as the war in Ukraine, supply chain disruptions, and the continued economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed food prices to all-time highs.

Industrial agriculture model:

• The food is manufactured in factory farms; the size of animal holdings and the amounts of chemical inputs used to produce such food is massive, as an ownership pattern. It differs from the subsistence type of agriculture.
• In subsistence agriculture, farmers with small landholdings are engaged in growing food for their consumption or for their livelihood. It is the same for livestock — a few cattle or other animals kept in homestead farms.
  • India, for instance, has the distinction of having the world's largest livestock population which is also in the hands of very small farmers, contributing 25-50% of an individual farmer's income
  • According to the ‘2021 Third Biennial Report' of MoEF, methane emissions from enteric fermentation add up to 8% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions.

Who is most affected by climate impacts on food security?

• About 80% of the global population most at risk from crop failures and hunger from climate change are in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, where farming families are disproportionately poor and vulnerable.
• A severe drought caused by an El Nino weather pattern or climate change can push millions more people into poverty.

Impact on Farmers:

• Up to a certain point, rising temperatures and CO2 can be beneficial for crops. But rising temperatures also accelerate evapotranspiration from plants and soils, and there must also be enough water for crops to thrive.
• Farmers are the first victims of climate change impacts. In our world, it is a multifold crisis that threatens their very survival.

1. The increasing cost of agricultural inputs and the lack of public infrastructure, including for irrigation, hits their livelihood.
2. Increasing food costs are unaffordable to most consumers and governments step in to import food from intensive farming systems that are also invariably subsidised.
3. Farmers are being hit repeatedly by extreme weather events; their crops are lost to floods, droughts, pest attacks and unseasonal cold and heat.

What could be possible solutions?

• It's possible to reduce emissions and become more resilient, but doing so often requires major social, economic, and technological change.
• Use water more efficiently and effectively, combined with policies to manage demand.
  • It includes better management of water demand as well as the use of advanced water accounting systems and technologies to assess the amount of water available, including soil moisture sensors and satellite evapotranspiration measurements.
• Switch to less water-intensive crops, like rice farmers could switch to crops that require less water such as maize or legumes.
• Improving soil health by increasing organic carbon in soil that helps and allows water plants to access water more readily, increasing resilience to drought.
• Nature-based solutions to environmental challenges that could deliver 37% of climate change mitigation.

Burp Tax: New Zealand, where cows are highly productive and contribute almost half of the country's greenhouse gas emissions, has proposed a ‘burp tax' — farmers would have to pay based on the numbers of cattle and feed. So, the tax has been deferred and the country continues to count its emission reductions without factoring in the agriculture sector's contribution.

Way Forward:

• More than 40% of the Earth's land is now used for agriculture, making agricultural systems the largest terrestrial ecosystems on the planet. The food industry contributes up to 30% to the world's greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and 70% to freshwater use.
• The urgency of addressing these pressing issues through the transformation of food production and distribution systems that harmonise environmental, social, and economic dimensions is imperative.

Global Rice Supply

Context:

• India's decision to temporarily ban export of non-basmati white rice threatens the global food supply system.
  • The supply chain is threatened by the Russia - Ukraine war as well as the collapse of the Black Sea Grain Initiative that enabled movement of foodgrains from the conflict-ridden countries.

About:

• Non-Basmati White Rice constitutes about 25% of total rice exported from the country.  The prohibition on export of Non-Basmati White Rice will lead to lowering of prices for the consumers in the country.
• Last year, India exported 22 million tonnes of rice to 140 countries. Of this, six million tonnes was the relatively cheaper Indica white rice. (The estimated global trade in rice was 56 million tonnes.)

Rice and India's Export:

• India is the world's top rice exporter, accounting for some 40% of the global trade in the cereal. (Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan and the US are the other top exporters).
• Among the major buyers of rice are China, the Philippines and Nigeria.
• There are ‘swing buyers' like Indonesia and Bangladesh who step up imports when they have domestic supply shortages.
• Consumption of rice is high and growing in Africa. In countries like Cuba and Panama it is the main source of energy.

Impact of the ban:

• Malaysia is most vulnerable to the impact of the ban, along with Singapore — which is now seeking from India an exemption to the export prohibition.
• Vietnam and Thailand have raised rice prices anticipating supply shocks.
• Countries of Africa and West Asia are highly dependent on rice imports.
• The UAE, which imports from both India and Thailand, has announced its own ban on the exports and re-exports of rice for four months.

Way Forward:

• However, there is no change in Export policy of Non Basmati Rice and Basmati Rice, which form the Bulk of Rice exports.
• This will ensure that the farmers continue to get the benefit of remunerative prices in the international market.

Food Inflation

Context:

• Food inflation is likely to remain above 6% for a longer period.

About:

• High inflation is due to the ongoing price rise in vegetables, foodgrains and pulses that are expected to continue rising in the near future.
• Usually, progress of the monsoon moderates food inflation, which ultimately cools the retail inflation.

Reasons for food inflation:

• Usually, a normal monsoon means good production and thus moderate prices at the retail level, and conversely, a deficit monsoon means less production thus high retail food prices.
• The ‘normal' monsoon of this year has been disrupted so much that there have been widespread crop losses. Cumulatively, such weather events destroy crops to the extent that the usual supply chain is disrupted and this even results in scarcity.
  • So, the monsoon as a unitary weather phenomenon is no longer a valid indicator for food prices because its progress and distribution have changed completely.

Impact of Erratic Monsoon:

• The southwest monsoon has entered its last month and is within the ‘normal' range (as defined by the IMD), with a deficit of 7% from normal rainfall, having erratic and uneven rainfall.
  • In July, the consumer food price index rose by 11.51 %, the highest since October 2020, resulting in the consumer price index rising by 7.44% in July.
  • In August, economists and agencies are forecasting that food prices will continue to rise at a higher rate than expected.
• In each of the last four normal monsoon years (2019-22), foodgrain production has been bumper or record-breaking. But consumer food price inflation has been above 6% in three of these years (barring 2021-22).

Loss associated with erratic monsoonal rainfall:

• Extreme weather events destroying onion crops in a major state like Maharashtra have added to the food inflation. Tomato crops too were ravaged by unusual weather events leading to the unprecedented price rise in July.
• In 2016-21, extreme events such as cyclones, floods, flash floods and landslides caused damage to crops in over 36 million hectares, a US $3.75 billion-loss for farmers in the country.
• The loss of production in such large areas will ultimately lead to a demand-supply crisis even in a normal monsoon year.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana

Context:

• The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India found irregularities and corruption in Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, a flagship health insurance scheme for the poor.

About:

• CAG tabled a report in Parliament highlighting gross irregularities in the Centre's flagship universal health coverage scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY).
• From fake beneficiary accounts to the empanelment of ill-equipped hospitals, the country's nodal auditing agency found many challenges with the implementation of the scheme.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY): It is the world's largest health assurance scheme, aimed at providing a health cover of Rs 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation to poor and vulnerable families. It has an aim of covering 107.4 million of the poorest households identified under the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) database. In reality, only 18.9 million or 17.5% of the poorest households were registered until July 2021.

What are the irregularities highlighted by CAG?

Old Data:

• The National Health Authority (NHA) has used the SECC database of 2011 which was more than seven years old at the time of inception of the scheme, since then, it cannot be denied that many households may have become ineligible for inclusion while others may have become eligible for the SECC under the existing criteria.
  • Owing to the poor quality of the database, CAG could not trace 30 % of the beneficiaries.
  • The beneficiary list also includes 110,000 government pensioners and their family members who cumulatively availed treatment worth 28.87 crore under the scheme.

In its reply to CAG in January 2022, NHA claimed that the government has approved the expansion of the beneficiary base to 120 million families based on National Food Security Act (NFSA) data. In January 2023, the agency issued directives to states and Union Territories (UTs) to align the beneficiary list as per NFSA.

Bogus Claims:

• The main aim of PMJAY is to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, but the audit observed patients to pay for their treatment despite the coverage, and found the scheme wasted 6.97 crore treating 3,446 patients who were already dead, as per the government records.
• The scheme guidelines state that SHAs must send an sms notification to registered mobile numbers to check for their eligibility at the time of hospitalisation for verification purpose.
  • 0.98 million beneficiaries registered against dummy mobile numbers like 9999999999, 8888888888, and 9000000000.

Ill-equipped hospitals:

• Adequate arrangements for round-the-clock support systems such as pharmacy, blood bank, laboratory, dialysis unit, post-operative ICU care and others like appropriate fire-safety measures, or waste management support services or standard treatment practices as mandated by NHA are not available in the hospitals.
• Hospital availability for every 100,000 beneficiaries remained low in Rajasthan (3.8 hospitals per 100,000 beneficiaries), Assam (3.4) Dadra Nagar Haveli-Daman Diu (3.6) and Uttar Pradesh (5).

Solution: India must realign its health priorities:

• The objective of any health insurance scheme is to provide cashless treatment to the needy. Instead of obsessing over health insurance schemes, the country must focus on strengthening the public healthcare system, instead of focusing on issuing insurance cards.
• Indians pay almost 70% of their medical bills. Of this, 63% is for doctor consultations and only the remaining 37% is for hospitalisations, which is covered by insurance schemes. If the country strengthens its public healthcare system, then even the 63% medical expenditures on doctor consultations can be brought down to zero.
  • This is exactly what Thailand has done. The entire population goes to public hospitals for all primary and secondary care. The country has a health insurance scheme only for tertiary care, which is not provided by public hospitals.

Man-Animal Conflict

Context:

• Maharashtra and Gujarat are seeing an increase in human-leopard conflicts and have proposed sterilisation programmes for the animal.

About:

• If the sterilisation programmes are permitted, Maharashtra will be the first state to engage in sustainable management of population for leopards.

Indian leopard:

• Indian leopard (Panthera Pardus Fusca) is classified as ‘endangered' under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the Appendix I category animal under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
• As per the latest national leopard census, ‘Status of Leopards, Co-predators and Megaherbivores-2018', Maharashtra has 1,690 leopards. This is the fourth highest after Madhya Pradesh (3,421 leopards), Gujarat (2,274) and Karnataka (1,783).
  • People have largely switched to water - intensive crops like sugarcane, pomegranate and grapes, which offers dense vegetation for the elusive leopards.

Is coexistence possible?

• Leopard-human conflicts cannot be effectively reduced without focus on conserving the animal's natural habitat.
  • The carnivore's small size means it does not demand much food, and hence it can survive on smaller-sized prey, making it supremely adaptive to almost any kind of habitat that makes conflict inevitable.
• Across the world, such situations of conflict are mitigated through various methods, including lethal (culling) and non-lethal (deterrent) approaches. Most lethal methods are controversial and unacceptable in countries like India.
  • Hence sterilisation is seen as one of the most humane and ethical methods of controlling populations. This is what Maharashtra is now mulling to adopt.

Hybrid seeds

Context:

• Hybrid seeds are becoming increasingly popular, and multinational firms' tool to monopolise agri markets.

About:

• Traditional varieties of seeds suited to grow in their native climes usually harvests 10 tonnes of rice from his 1.5-hectare farmland. But in 2022, the yield was just 1.9 tonnes.
  • Most of the crop was dwarfed due to a Fiji virus infection.
• Over the decades, the popularity of hybrid seeds has been increasing among farmers in India.
• Hybrid varieties get ready for harvest quickly as compared to traditional varieties or the open pollinated variety seeds.
  • The quicker harvest quality of hybrid seeds gives farmers a window to sow short-duration crops, such as potato, between two crop cycles.

Traditional varieties of seeds: These are handpicked by farmers from the field after harvest for use next year, and the process can be replicated for generations; Open pollinated variety seeds: These are mostly developed by agricultural universities and can be used for five to seven years.

Historical Background:

• The origin of hybrids can be traced to India's Green Revolution in the 1960s, when the government's effort was primarily to increase agricultural productivity. For this, the National Seed Corporation was set up to develop, store and distribute high yield variety seeds.
• Till the 1980s, the public sector had a firm control on the seed market and supplied open pollinated variety seeds to farmers.
• Towards the end of the decade, the government allowed development and distribution of hybrid varieties by private players. This trend has continued, but poses a threat to the country's crop diversity and the traditional varieties that are more suited to the local climates.

Findings of government report:

• The 25th report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, tabled in the Lok Sabha in 2021 found an increase in the share of private companies in India's seed market.
• A report by Indian Council of Food and Agriculture, 2019 said that the country's seed market reached a value of US $4.1 billion in 2018, registering a growth rate of 15.7% in 2011-18, and is expected to grow at 13.6 % in 2019-24, reaching a value of US $9.1 billion by 2024.

What are the issues related to hybrid seeds?

• Unlike traditional or open pollinated variety seeds, hybrid seeds are quite sensitive to temperature and rain. For instance, a hybrid variety of paddy requires rainfall within 15-20 of sowing.
• Hike in prices of seeds when the demand rises with no seed bank, supported by the government, and multinational firms pay private shops higher commissions to encourage farmers to buy and try hybrid varieties.
• Use of hybrid seeds can also damage the diversity of crops over the years, resulting in a decline of traditional varieties that are suited to the climes of their native place.

• The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, has already changed community ownership of seeds to individual, which favours seed breeders and developers.
• The way multinational companies are pushing for hybrids the day is not far when the market will only have hybrid seeds.

Rainwater Harvesting

Context:

• Rain Water Harvesting techniques as part of the conservation efforts in Rajasthan.

About:

• As per the Indian Water Resources Information portal under the Central Water Commission, western Rajasthan had received over 70% of its annual rain and by August, the entire state stood second in the country in terms of excess rainfall received.
• Western Rajasthan is one of the driest parts of the country and it has been experiencing more wet days in recent years.
  • The excess water is utilised by tens of thousands of traditional water harvesting structures.

Usage of harvested rainwater:

• Agriculture is experiencing a boom, with massive fallow areas under cultivation. In many desert villages, farmers have made preparations for a second crop in the coming winter season.
• The harvested rainwater will be enough to irrigate 60% of the total cultivable land in west Rajasthan.
  • The maximum irrigation potential exists in Pali, where the harvested water can be used to irrigate almost five times the existing land under cultivation.

Rain Water Harvesting: It is the collection and storage of rainwater that runs off from roof tops, parks, roads, open grounds, etc. This water runoff can be either stored or recharged into the groundwater. A rainwater harvesting systems consists of the following components: catchment from where water is captured and stored or recharged, conveyance system that carries the water harvested from the catchment to the storage/recharge zone, first flush that is used to flush out the first spell of rain, filter used to remove pollutants, storage tanks and/or various recharge structures. Rain may soon be the only source of clean water. Rainwater harvesting systems use the principle of conserving rainwater where it falls and have the following benefits: Helps meet ever increasing demand for water; Restores defunct water harvesting structures; Improves quality and quantity of groundwater; and Reduces flooding.

Why western parts are experiencing surplus rainfall?

• The mean rainfall over the semi-arid northwest parts of India and Pakistan has increased by 10-50% during 1901-2015 and is expected to increase by 50-200 % under moderate greenhouse gas scenarios.
• According to the IMD, the westward expansion of the Indian summer monsoon rainfall is facilitated by a westward expansion of the Indian Ocean warm pool.
  • An apparent eastward shift of the Indian monsoon has led to the arid conditions in the west and northwest regions of India where monsoon was once active, and the Indus Valley civilizations thrived (5,300– 3,300-year BP).
  • A reversal of the process and a westward expansion of the present day Indian monsoon would transform the west and north-west India.

Conclusion:

• The excess rainfall in the region provides a great opportunity for rainwater harvesting, which can enable greater groundwater recharge, increased domestic usage and even irrigation possibilities for farming.
• Harvesting the increased rainfall has the potential for significant increase in food productivity bringing in transformative changes in the socio-economic condition of people of the region.

Flood-prone Himalayas

Context:

• Regions in the Himalaya grappled with cataclysmic floods propelled by an erratic climate and it required more climate-resilient cities.

About:

• Due to its inherent nature and climatic conditions, the Indian Himalayan region is prone to various types of natural disasters. Like earthquakes ranging in severity, floods or flash floods, and glacial lake outbursts are common among other hazards.
• Such events are related to extreme hydro meteorological conditions leading to debris flow, landslides and eventually the blockade of river channels, which consequently wreak havoc downstream.
  • The Alaknanda flood of 1970, Bhagirathi in 1978, Sutlej in 1993 and 2000 and Teesata in 1968 are examples of flash floods by cloudburst.

In regions of Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH):

• The HKH is spread over eight countries, and is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world.
• For HKH cities to become resilient, it is crucial for local governments to enforce strict town planning, with the use of spatial land-use planning approaches and associated information technologies for climate change adaptation.
• Alteration of traditional farming practices, soil degradation and sedimentation worsened the crisis, impeding the land's ability to absorb rainfall.

A way ahead:

• Spatial land-use planning holds the key to multifaceted benefits—mitigation against floods, landslides, and climate change. Satellite-based EO techniques generate flood maps and assess damage to properties, infrastructure, and crops, facilitating early warnings and swift disaster management.
• Strategic infrastructure placement minimises susceptibility to disasters with established flood shelters through suitability mapping can mitigate the disaster risk.
• Embracing nature-based solutions—a broad range of actions inspired and supported by nature—can help address challenges people are facing as a result of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.
• The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in Kathmandu, Nepal, has developed a low-cost grassroots community-based flood early warning system that empowers local communities to safeguard their lives and livelihoods from the effects of floods.

Amendment to the Biological Diversity Act of 2002

Context:

• The Parliament of India amended the 20-year old Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

About:

• Amendments to the Biodiversity Act seek to address concerns of traditional systems of medicine, the seed sector, and the pharmaceutical industry.
• It aims to encourage Indian systems of medicine like Ayurveda, attract more foreign investment in the preservation and commercial utilisation of India's biological resources, and simplify and streamline processes so that it is easy for everyone to comply with its provisions.

• Certain categories of users of biological resources, like practitioners of Indian systems of medicine, have been exempted from making payments towards the access and benefit-sharing mechanism.
• Companies registered in India and controlled by Indians are now treated as Indian companies, even if they have foreign equity or partnership, thereby reducing the restrictions on them.
• Provisions have been included to speed up the approval process in cases of use of biological resources in scientific research, or for filing of patent applications.

Biological Diversity Act, 2002: It was in line with the goals set by the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), a global agreement to which India had acceded. It included a provision for Fair and Equitable Benefit Sharing (FEBS) from the use of biodiversity, or the knowledge associated with such resources, for local communities who had through the ages protected and maintained the planet's biodiversity. It was later codified into a supplementary agreement as the Nagoya protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing.

Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023

Context:

• The new data protection law severely restricts the scope of the Right to Information Act by providing wide discretionary powers to the bureaucracy.

About:

• Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 has two provisions that would seriously weaken the Right to Information Act, 2005.
  • The Right to Information Act (RTI) empowers citizens and recognises their role as rulers and owners of the country. It harmonises the need for an efficient government while preserving the ideals of democracy.
  • It has been of great help to every segment of society from the most disempowered to the powerful to obtain relevant information and protect their rights.

Key Features of the Act:

• Section 44(3) of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023, mandates amending Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI to exempt all personal information.
• Section 38 (2) DPDP Act says the Act will override all existing laws that will make it difficult for an official to disclose information under the RTI.
• Data fiduciaries will be obligated to maintain the accuracy of data, keep data secure, and delete data once its purpose has been met.
• The central government will establish the Data Protection Board of India to adjudicate on non-compliance with the provisions of the Bill.

Key Issues:

• Exemptions to data processing by the State on grounds such as national security may lead to data collection, processing, and retention beyond what is necessary.  This may violate the fundamental right to privacy.
• The Bill allows transfer of personal data outside India, except to countries notified by the central government.
• The members of the Data Protection Board of India will be appointed for two years and will be eligible for re-appointment.  The short term with scope for re-appointment may affect the independent functioning of the Board.

Climate Migrants

Context:

• It is high time India has a law that recognises climate migrants.

About:

• The Climate Migrants (Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2022, a private member bill was tabled to recognise climate migrants and ensure their holistic rehabilitation.
  • It offers a long-term solution to climate-induced migration in the country.
• If passed, it will for the first-time provide a framework to rehabilitate people who are affected by both sudden disasters such as floods and cyclones and slow onset disasters such as river and ocean erosion, drought and desertification.

Reasons for introduction of Bill:

Climate-induced migrants:

• A World Bank report estimates that by 2050, approximately 216 million people will be compelled to migrate within their own countries due to the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.
• As per the Climate Action Network South Asia and ActionAid, there are nearly 14 million climate-induced migrants in India, displaced due to environmental disruptions.
  • It estimates that the displaced population in the country will increase to 45 million by 2050.
  • 27 out of the 29 Indian states and seven Union Territories are already experiencing recurring natural hazards.

Highlights of the Bill:

• It is a first-of-its kind Bill that covers both sudden disasters like floods and cyclones and slow-onset disasters like droughts, erosion, glacial melt and desertification.
  • Current policies only address sudden disasters and do not take into consideration slow-onset events. They also focus on immediate relief at disaster sites, and often ignore holistic rehabilitation of the displaced.
• The Bill defines climate migrants. It calls for the establishment of a designated fund for their rehabilitation and proposes an inter-ministerial authority at the national and state levels, having four broad functions:

1. monitoring and assessing the risk of climate migration;
2. prevention and mitigation of climate migration;
3. relief and compensation for climate migrants; and
4. resettlement, rehabilitation, and reintegration of climate migrants.

What has been the role of large-scale infrastructure in the climate crisis?

• Mega hydel projects are being built on the upper stream of the Brahmaputra water system and they have severe environmental impact on downstream areas.
• Infrastructure development is crucial for a region like the Northeast. However, this cannot be the excuse for overbuilding infrastructure in a region that is arguably not ready for it.
• The recent Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023, severely weakens environmental regulation and puts an eco-sensitive region like the Northeast at great risk.

Way Forward:

• The Bill directs the rehabilitation of affected communities by providing alternatives to climate migrants in the form of land grants, aid in the form of livestock, access to water bodies, forests and other commons.
• India currently lacks a law that recognises climate migrants. The country urgently needs a uniform legal and policy framework that guarantees the rights of people who have been displaced or forced to migrate due to environmental disruptions. It is imperative to mitigate further displacements.

Green Credit Programme Implementation Rules 2023

Context:

• The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF) proposed the draft Green Credit Programme (GCP) Implementation Rules 2023—a first-of-a-kind instrument that seeks to incentivise individuals, industries and local bodies to earn from environmentally positive actions.

About Green Credit Programme (GCP):

• The proposed GCP is aimed at creating a market based mechanism to incentivize and encourage sectors and entities. to meet their existing obligations arising from various legal frameworks.
• A green credit is a singular unit of a credit provided for a specified activity undertaken.
• The draft rules identify eight sectors for these activities: tree plantation; water; sustainable agriculture; waste management; air pollution reduction; mangrove conservation and restoration; eco Mark (a government scheme to identify environment-friendly products); and sustainable building and infrastructure.
• The green credits issued can be further traded with stakeholders unable to adhere to or achieve the emission targets set by the government.

Importance of GCP:

• The green credit programme could be a harbinger of a new era of environmental consciousness.
  • It represents a much needed paradigm shift from the conventional focus on carbon emissions to a more holistic approach by recognising and incentivising efforts such as water conservation and waste management.
• With identification of eight key sectors, the programme lays the foundational framework for a market-based approach to environmental conservation.
• Encouraging community organisations to participate in conservation could democratise environmental stewardship, infusing it with local knowledge, could instil a sense of ownership.
• From the governance point of view, the scheme leverages financial incentives to drive environmental sustainability.
  • Complementing financial incentives, recognition and nonfinancial rewards could foster a more inclusive approach to conservation.
• The draft rules integrate mechanisms to quantify and support ecosystem services, providing invaluable support to organic farmers and farmer producer organisations.

Issues:

• Greenwashing: It involves making false or exaggerated claims about environmental sustainability to create a positive image without actually delivering significant environmental benefits. There is a concern that some entities might engage in superficial activities solely to generate green credits.
• Efficacy: This highlights the importance of establishing robust methodologies to ensure the programme's effectiveness and prevent misuse.
  • Moreover, questions arise about the efficacy of these mechanisms in achieving urgent emissions reductions. It is essential to consider whether resources should be allocated towards monitoring and fraud prevention or directed towards more transformative, government-led efforts to drive environmental improvements.

Conclusion:

• Green credits could be a game-changer for adoption of low emission and resilient farming practices, helping farmers, civil society and the environment. However, scientific implementation of the programme needs well-structured approach in a phased manner, with clear objectives, reliable data and effective monitoring.
• In-depth exercise on assessment and valuation of ecosystem services, developing harmonised protocols for monitoring, reporting and verification, financial instruments, certification, regulatory mechanism and public awareness are some aspects that need attention to implement the programme.

Subjective Question

1. How is climate change impacting global food security these days? What are the potential solutions to mitigate such impact?
2. What do you understand about food inflation and how it is affected by the changing pattern of rainfall in India?
3. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) plays an important role for financial accountability of the executive in India. Discuss by giving recent examples.
4. What do you understand about Man-animal conflict? Discuss some key measures to minimise it.
5. Critically examine the use of hybrid seeds in India.