Category: Environment

In Pakistan’s Jacobabad, temperatures are beyond human tolerance

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Summers are beyond brutal in Pakistan’s Jacobabad, where temperatures can scale 52 degrees Celsius — a level the human body is not designed to endure. In fact, Jacobabad in Sindh province is the world’s hottest place. The only other city that experiences similar heat is Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE.

How Jacobabad Bagged the World’s Hottest City Title

Jacobabad has always been known for its scorching summers. A city with a population of 200,000, it is one of the economically weakest regions in Pakistan. According to British daily Telegraph, the temperature here recently hit a life-threatening 52 degree Celsius. Scientists have attributed extreme heat waves across the world to climate change. Biologically, humans cannot withstand heat beyond the threshold of 52 degrees Celsius.

Among the locals in Jacobabad, very few can afford air conditioners, so they manage with fans, ice and water coolers. The erratic electric supply adds to their misery.

Why Jacobabad?

Geographically, Jacobabad is situated along the Indus Valley on the Tropic of Cancer. Its location ensures that the sun is directly overhead during the the summer months. A combination of high heat and humid air from the Arabian Sea makes the conditions near unliveable. The population here is mainly dependent on agriculture but they are forced to move to cities like Karachi and Quetta to escape the heat.

Rising Temperatures

The chances of the record-breaking temperatures rising even further in the coming years are more than likely, say researchers who analyse global weather data. As per an article in Telegraph, Tom Matthews, a lecturer in climate science at Loughborough University, said Indus Valley is the number one spot worldwide in the context of climate change. This can have serious consequences, ranging from water scarcity to extreme heat.

This city has witnessed searing heat earlier as well. The first recording was made in July 1987, then in June 2005, followed by a rise in June 2010 and July 2012. The ultra-heat had only persisted for a few hours, with the three-day average temperature under wet bulb measurement for the summer months of 2010 and 2012 at 34 degrees Celsius.

Killer Heat is New Normal

Apart from Jacobabad and Ras al Khaimah, a study by Tom Matthews and his team, which was published in the Science Advances Journal last year, mentioned that parts of eastern coastal India, Pakistan and north-western India recorded temperatures over 31 degrees Celsius (wet bulb) during the summer months. In 2015, two deadly heatwaves across India and Pakistan left more than 4,000 dead.

Other parts of the world that have experienced blistering summers are the shores of Red Sea, Gulf of California, and the southern Gulf of Mexico. Recently, a town named Lytton in British Columbia, Canada, saw temperatures of 49.6 degrees Celsius. Over 1,000 residents were evacuated due to wildfires that are yet to subside. An article in the Independent quoted the British Columbia Wildfire Service as saying the Lytton wildfire was burning out of control over an area of approximately 30 square miles.

Not only Canada, but Oregon and Washington in the US are also experiencing heatwaves killing hundreds of people across the two countries.

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NASA satellites show upper atmosphere shrinking due to climate change

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US have shown that parts of the upper atmosphere are gradually contracting due to greenhouse gas emissions.

The combined data of three satellites produced a long-term record that reveals the mesosphere (the layer which is 30 to 50 miles above the surface) is cooling and contracting gradually.

The observations over a 30-year period have indicated the summer mesosphere over Earth’s poles is cooling four to five degrees Fahrenheit and been contracting every 10 years by nearly 500 to 650 feet.

Scientists have confirmed these numbers would remain unchanged if human-made greenhouse gas emissions are not cut down.

The mesosphere is much thinner than the atmosphere that we live in. Simply put, heat generated from the earth easily escapes to the mesosphere as molecules are lesser in number.

Also Read: Rising sea levels to put over 400 million people at risk by 2100: Study

The toxic carbon dioxide, meanwhile, also emits heat and it escapes to space sooner than a molecule can absorb the gas. As more heat is lost to space, the upper atmosphere cools leading to contractions in the upper atmosphere.

While earlier studies did observe this cooling, none have used a data record of this length or shown the upper atmosphere contracting. The researchers say these new results will help them model the upper atmosphere’s complicated changes.

According to a published article in the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, a team led by Scott Bailey, an atmospheric scientist at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, analyzed how the temperature and pressure had changed over 29 years.

Covering the summer skies of the North and South Poles, they analyzed a stretch 30 to 60 miles above the surface and found the mesosphere cooled as carbon dioxide increased in effect proving the mesosphere was contracting.

Also Read | India’s Rs 4,077-crore Deep Ocean Mission: Importance and impact on marine ecosystem

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Rising sea levels to put over 400 million people at risk by 2100: Study

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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More than 400 million global citizens living close to the sea will be at risk by 2100 if the sea level continues to rise due to climatic changes. This could happen if the process to reduce global emissions doesn’t start now.

At present, over 267 million people live on land less than 2 metres above sea level, according to a paper published in Nature Communications. Rising sea levels could directly threaten their livelihood. And Indonesia faces the maximum possible risk, as per a study using a new elevation data model for accuracy.

Data analysis from the study indicates a sea-level rise of 1 metre, which is likely by 2100. This means more than 500,000 sq. km. of land could go below mean sea level.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers used a remote sensing method called Lidar, which leveraged laser light across coastal areas to measure elevation on the earth’s surface.

The tropics would account for 62 percent of the “most at-risk land” in the future, as per the images of the maps captured by the researchers. And 62 percent of the world’s population living in the tropics, including 52 percent living in Asia’s tropical regions, would face the risk in the future.

According to the lead author of the study, Dr Aljosja Hooijer, water resources expert for Deltares, an independent institute for applied research in water and subsurface and the National University of Singapore said:

“The tropical regions needed more focussed effort to prevent a long-term flood. He specifically mentioned regions in southeast Asia, the Niger Delta, and Lagos.”

The authors highlighted an immediate requirement of adaptation measures and spatial planning for long-term flood risk prevention.

Also Read | India’s Rs 4,077-crore Deep Ocean Mission: Importance and impact on marine ecosystem

Some countries have taken measures as seen in the case of Bangladesh. It has deployed evacuation techniques to reduce casualties from over a hundred thousand people in the 1970s to about 120 in the case of super-cyclone Amphan in 2020.

Researchers suggest that new data would help policymakers and experts in finding the location of vulnerable areas.

Researchers in the Netherlands or parts of the UK and the US use Lidar every four years and have data for their coastal zones.

The 2100 projection assumed zero population growth and sea-level rise of one meter (approximately 3.3 feet) by 2100.

Climate emergency can be expected due to the frequent rise in sea levels. This could cause severe storms more frequently; thereby increasing flood risks in the coastal areas.

Coastal cities need to prepare for 5-metre high sea levels by 2300, said 106 researchers in their survey published in Climate and Atmospheric Science (2020).

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India’s renewable capacity grows at CAGR of 17% in last 5 years, says Axis Capital

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The centre and states are focused on renewable energy like solar, wind, and hydropower. Corporate India is making aggressive renewable power generation capacity expansion plans, the most recent being Reliance Industries’ Rs 75,000 crore investment in the energy business in three years. NTPC also recently raised its renewable portfolio capacity target from 30 GW to 60 GW.

To discuss what all this means for the power sector going forward. CNBC-TV18 spoke to Sumit Kishore, Executive Director – Capital Goods, Power & Infrastructure, Axis Capital, and Subhadip Mitra Director – Power Utilities, Infra & Capital Goods Research, JM Financial.

Kishore said over the last five years India’s renewable installed capacity has grown at a CAGR of 17 percent and the all India renewable capacity is at about 96 GW excluding large hydro.“The government target of scaling to 175 GW by 2022 is going to clip because of COVID impact and other issues but the 2030 renewable target is about 450 GW and the required run rate to get over there is about 35 GW a year over the next ten years,” said Kishore, adding that India has till date added capacity at an average run rate of 8.5 GW over the last three years.

Renewable energy is the need of the hour and solar has been the leading renewable capacity addition in the country ahead of wind over the last four years.“We are optimistic that like the past five years renewable capacity addition in India will grow at mid to high teens CAGR,” said Kishore, adding that leading players in the industry have given growth aspirations.

According to Kishore, this is an exciting time for investors and a huge growth opportunity for them to ride on.

When asked from a profitable point of view, how the renewable portfolio would like for companies and the trajectory of tariffs that have come down, Mitra said, tariffs have come off from the highs of Rs 7-8 per unit from six-seven years to around Rs 2-3 per unit.“The big change has been because of reduction in capital costs, as well as cuts on the interest rates,” he said, adding that the lower cost of debt is helping renewable companies sustain lower tariffs.

Looking at the renewable target India has set, on average, we would be adding around 25,000 MW of solar on annual basis and 10,000 MW of wind per annum.

Disclosure: Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com, is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.

For the full discussion, watch video.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India’s Rs 4,077-crore Deep Ocean Mission: Importance and impact on marine ecosystem

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) last month approved the Rs 4,077-crore Deep Ocean Mission proposed by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. More than Rs 2,800 crore will be spent during the first phase of the five-year mission.

What is Deep Ocean Mission?

Deep sea is the part of the ocean which is 200 m below its surface, where light begins to dwindle. It comprises 90 percent of the ocean and 50 percent of the Earth’s surface. Only 0.0001 percent of the deep seafloor has been explored, according to an article published in The Guardian.

India wants to develop technologies for the exploration of the ocean floor, which is the main objective of the Mission. It wants to explore the ridges at depths of up to 6,000 metres, which would be a precursor to deep-sea mining, when it is permitted under international agreements.

A three-member crewed submersible vehicle, autonomous prospecting vehicles, and an integrated mining system would be developed. Such strategic technologies are currently at various stages of highly-protected development and deployment mostly by developed countries like the US, China, Russia, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea. All eyes are on a completely new and vast resource base for industrial raw materials.

India’s other objectives are to study the deep-sea flora and fauna and potential utilisation of bio-resources. Besides, the Mission involves production of renewable energy through ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology and linked desalination plants for freshwater. It also includes a proposed advanced marine station for ocean biology and engineering and on-site business incubators.

These are part of the Centre’s ‘Blue Economy Initiative,’ identified in the Vision of New India by 2030 that was enunciated in 2019, according to a report published in The Leaflet.

International Laws on Deep-Sea Mining

Humans have known for around 150 years that minerals exist on the ocean floor, but it was only in the 1970-80s that we developed the technology to exploit those resources.

In 1872-76, British warship HMS Challenger first dredged up some black matter made almost entirely of pure manganese oxide from over the eight km deep Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. Mariana Trench is considered to be the deepest point on Earth.

As technologies to study them developed, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly between 1967 and 1982 pursued efforts to regulate these resources, designated as “common heritage of mankind.” In 1970, it adopted the Declaration of Principles Governing the Sea-Bed and the Ocean Floor and the Subsoil Thereof Beyond the Limits of National Jurisdiction.

In 1982, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was adopted by 167 member states and the European Union.

Under the law, an International Seabed Authority (ISA) was mandated with its headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, “to organise, regulate and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area for the benefit of mankind as a whole.”

Since then, the ISA has issued 30 contracts for mineral exploration on an area of over 1.4 million sq km, mostly in the Clarion-Clipperton fracture zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean, according to The Guardian.

According to the article, the companies involved in exploration are eyeing potato-like polymetallic nodules — ores rich in manganese, nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals — that dot the deep-sea surface. The nodules, around 10 cm in diameter, reportedly form at the staggeringly slow rate of just a few centimetres every million years.

The Metals Company, one of the big companies in the nascent industry, describes them as “a battery in a rock.” Polymetallic nodules contain rich concentrations of the base metals needed to make batteries.

So far, licences have only been issued for exploration and not mining. The ISA, however, is working on a regulatory framework for mining.

It was due to release and adopt a code for the exploitation of deep seas in July 2020, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The ISA aims to resume meetings this year.

Environmental Impact?

According to The Guardian, The Metals Company (earlier DeepGreen) considers deep-sea mining less environmentally and socially damaging than terrestrial mining. It says deep-sea mining is crucial for transition to a greener economy as the nodules contain the minerals needed for manufacturing batteries used in electric vehicles.

Its proposal is to suck up the nodules through long pipes in the CCZ. It would then process the nodules on board ships and pump back the extra sediment into the sea.

The Metal Company also says it expects to submit its environmental impact statement in 2023, hoping to begin commercial mining in 2024.

Environmentalists, however, have raised concerns about the impact of the deep-sea mining on the marine ecosystem, particularly considering the fact that there is still a lot to know about it. Also, the reproduction and growth of marine life at those depths is very slow.

An experiment involving the extraction of nodules from the CCZ in 1978 points to the long-lasting damage. When the area was revisited in 2004, researchers could still find clear markings of the tracks left by mining vehicles 26 years ago. There was also a reduced diversity of organisms in the disturbed area.

Meanwhile, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an anti-deep-sea mining group, has been calling for a moratorium on such mining.

Environmental concerns range from noise pollution interfering with deep-sea species’ ability to communicate and detect food, rise in temperature from mining operation, waste accumulation and heavy vehicles crushing seabed organisms.

Several Pacific nations like Vanuatu, Fiji and Papua New Guinea have called for a regional moratorium on deep-sea mining to learn more about potential environmental harms.

This month, the EU parliament echoed the Pacific nations on promoting a moratorium until the environmental impact of deep seabed mining could be better managed.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Explained: What is a heat dome and why is it so hot in US, Canada

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Canada and parts of the US have been struggling with a record-shattering jump in temperatures over the last week. While Lytton, British Columbia sizzled at 49.6°C (121°F) in Canada on June 29, cities of Portland and Oregon saw blazing high temperatures of 47°C (116°F) and 38°C (100°F), respectively.

Hundreds have died due to extreme heat during this period, according to official data.

The “heat dome” broke an 84-year-old record when two towns in Saskatchewan — Yellow Grass and Midale – sizzled at 45°C (113°F) in July 1937, as per officials from Lytton climate station.

Homes in one of the coldest countries in the world are built to fight harsh winter and keep the inhabitants warm. Lack of air conditioning is making matters worse for them.

Lisa Lapointe, British Columbia’s Chief coroner, had said that there were at least 486 cases of “sudden and unexpected deaths”, an increase of 195 percent until June 30. The US state of Oregon also reported 60 deaths related to the increasing temperatures in the same period.

What is a heat dome?

According to the US National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration, “a heat dome occurs when the atmosphere traps hot ocean air like a lid or cap.”

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, explains, a heat dome “is really just sort of a colloquial term for a persistent and/or strong high-pressure system that occurs during the warm season, with the end result being a lot of heat.”

The event is caused when hot air, created by a temperature gradient over the Pacific Ocean, rises high up into the atmosphere and gets carried towards the Northwestern North American landmass.

Upon reaching there, strong jet streams trap the air and force it towards the ground level. The already hot air gets compressed and heats up further by the time it descends down, creating a self-sustaining high-pressure system.

Winds that can disperse the hot air, turning the system into a heatwave, are instead swept down in the high-pressure system. The same system also inhibits the formation of any clouds, which would disperse some of the pressure, since there is no vertical motion of air currents.

As the dome traps heat, it also exhausts natural heat sink mechanisms like evaporation by drying out most of the moisture in the land. This further fuels the ‘heat dome’ as more of the solar energy is used in fueling it.

“So after a certain point, once it’s been hot enough for long, it becomes even easier to get even hotter,” added Swain. “And so that’s why these things can often be really persistent because once they’ve been around for a little while, they start to feed off of themselves.”

How long does it take to dissipate?

The conditions of the ‘heat wave’ generally last for a week or two, as the high-pressure system slowly moves further inland, where it finds more heatsinks and loses its source of hot air from the ocean. The large pressure system collapses on itself as it is unable to sustain or fuel itself any longer.

David Phillips, a senior climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, a government agency, said that the ‘heat dome’ weakened as it moved east but was still intense enough to significantly raise temperatures over the areas it was moving over.

What are the long-term effects of a heat dome? 

Heat domes can cause a cavalcade of effects even after they have dissipated. The super-hot conditions evaporate any moisture from the underbrush and create dry regions where wildfires can start and spread much more easily.

The persistent conditions can also cause drought or drought-like conditions by evaporating a large amount of water while simultaneously increasing the demand for water for cooling purposes.

Heat domes can also wreak havoc on agriculture as most crops are unable to cope with such extreme heat. This can lead to short-term food shortages and long-term increases in food prices.

What can be done to prevent heat domes?

The current ‘heat dome’ event is neither the first nor the last. A previous heat dome event occurred less than a year ago, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While heat domes are a natural phenomenon, their intensity, rate of occurrence, and frequency are all exacerbated by the global rise in temperature. As the Pacific Ocean continues to grow warmer, which itself will lead to a heating of the world in a vicious cycle, the temperature gradient across the ocean also increases. It is this gradient that causes more frequent, and intense, heat dome events to occur.

Zeke Hausfather, a scientist at Berkeley Earth, a climate data non-profit, said the Pacific north-west had warmed by nearly 1.7°C (3°F) in the last 50 years.

John Horgan, British Columbia’s Premier, said, “This is not a British Columbia problem, it’s not a Canada problem, it is a global challenge.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau expressed similar sentiments. “We’ve been seeing more and more of this type of extreme weather event in the past years. So realistically, we know that this heatwave won’t be the last,” he said.

Jay Inslee, Washington’s State Governor, told MSNBC, “This is the beginning of a permanent emergency.”

“We have to tackle the source of this problem, which is climate change,” Inslee added.

US President Joe Biden added that climate change was the core reason behind the “dangerous confluence of extreme heat and prolonged drought.”

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon says its carbon footprint grew 19% last year

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon said Wednesday that its carbon footprint grew 19 percent last year as it rushed to deliver a surge of online orders during the pandemic.

The online shopping behemoth said activities tied to its businesses emitted 60.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide last year the equivalent of burning through 140 million barrels of oil.

Amazon’s carbon footprint has risen every year since 2018 when it first disclosed its carbon footprint after employees pressured it to do so.

The Seattle-based company said, while its carbon footprint grew, the amount of carbon it emitted for every dollar spent on the site fell 16 percent in 2020.

But the increase in its total carbon footprint shows how hard it is for a fast-growing company like Amazon to cut down on pollution.

The company has been buying up solar energy, making its gadgets out of recycled plastic, and has even renamed a Seattle hockey arena after its climate-change initiative.

However, Amazon depends on fuel-burning planes and trucks to ship billions of items around the world. In fact, it announced earlier this year that it would buy 11 jets to get packages to shoppers faster. Amazon’s emissions from fossil fuels soared 69 percent last year.

There was some improvement. Because more people stayed home and ordered online during the pandemic, the emissions from shoppers’ drives to Amazon’s Whole Foods grocery stores fell 32 percent, the company said.

Also Read | Explained: Link between global hunger and climate change

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Explained: Link between global hunger and climate change

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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NITI Ayog recently released the SDG India Index 2020-21, which highlights the national and state level progress on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of the most important objectives of the SDGs is to end hunger by 2030. The report can be accessed here.

However, global hunger is inexorably on the rise. The situation is expected to get worse as climate change grips the world.

Here is the relationship between global hunger and climate change in a nutshell.

Hunger Gains 

Global hunger is a growing problem. Around 690 million individuals across the world are undernourished, and 144 children suffer as a result of chronic undernourishment, according to the Global Hunger Index.

India has a significant proportion of the world’s hungry population, with 33.4 percent of children under five years old being underweight, and 34.7 percent of children in the same age range suffering from stunted growth.

Hunger is mostly caused by poverty, conflict, political instability, population growth, and food practices. But climate change also has a part to play in the rising levels of hunger. Over the last decade, increasing regional conflicts, and rising global temperatures have contributed the most to the rise of hunger.

While political instability and continuing conflict may have contributed to hunger in the worst hit nations, climate change has undeniably compounded the problems.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, South Sudan, Syria, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have nearly 80 percent of the world’s hungriest people, according to a report by the UN World Food Program.

At the same time, reports from Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Burkina Faso also identified that drought and increasing temperatures were leading to drastically lower agricultural yields.

Climate’s Vital Role 

Climate change decreases the level of agricultural productivity, which has a direct impact on hunger levels globally. The rise in global temperatures affects agricultural productivity through changing climatic conditions and increasing environmental disasters.

Environmental disasters like floods, droughts, erratic rainfall, and storms can cause a significant decrease in agricultural production in food sensitive areas like Africa and Asia.

In 2018, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) called climate change the leading factor for rising global hunger. The report from the international organisation looked at extreme weather events, land degradation and desertification, water scarcity and rising sea levels that were being caused by climate change, that led to food scarcity.

A pre-print report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that 80 million more people than today could be facing drastic levels of hunger by the year 2050, reported AFP. 

The Global Hunger Index also estimates that the world is not on track to hit the UN’s SDG of “zero hunger” by the proposed timeline of 2030. The report indicates that while progress has been made, much needs to be done to lift the people currently in the starvation category and to future-proof vulnerable populations against famines.

Needed: Wholesales Changes

While nations have signed and ratified international agreements like the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Deal, a greater scale of mitigatory action is required to achieve the goals set out.

Wholesale systemic changes in agricultural practices, consumer behaviour and even government support will be needed to bring about changes that can help India, and the world reach the goals set out before them.

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

The pandemic’s payoff: Seizing the green opportunity

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Just days ago, India’s biggest company announced a Rs 75,000 crore (over $10 billion) investment in green energy over a three-year period. Elsewhere, responding to a survey by US Cotton Trust Protocol and Sourcing Journal, over 40 percent of the participating global sustainability executives from the apparel industry revealed that the pandemic had positively influenced their future commitments to sustainability. Other studies reveal that the pandemic has fuelled demand for organic food in many markets. Governments, in several countries, have announced recovery plans with a strong focus on green projects in clean energy, public transportation and clean tech.

‘Going Green’ is the common theme in these recent news and findings. Are we set on a path of greening our economies, businesses and consumption? The pandemic has certainly chiselled a sentiment for pro-environment disruptions. Two factors have helped.

First, the pandemic has enhanced our awareness about the magic of nature. During lockdowns, we noticed with awe, the clear blue skies, mountain ranges visible from long distances, flamingos flocking on a big city beach, wild animals reclaiming urban spaces and more. Return of nature, was a theme of conversations in homes, on news channels and social media.

Second, the pandemic motivated a shift towards a more collectivist worldview. 24×7 news and visuals of deaths heightened peoples’ realisation about their own mortality and enhanced their anxieties. This, along with economic hardships, shortages and uncertainty made people seek refuge in relationships, in sharing and in helping and caring for others. Research too supports this change. In a big data study, published in Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies journal, psychologists Noah FG Evers, Patricia M Greenfield and Gabriel W Evers analysed content from google searches and social media posts on Twitter, internet forums and blogs in the USA. They noted a strong shift towards collectivist values in the USA after the pandemic was declared a national emergency in March 2020. Such a shift in values, they suggest, is consistent with predictions based on Patricia M Greenfield’s Theory of Social Change, Cultural Evolution, and Human Development.

However, the shift towards collectivist values may not be limited to just one country or society. Think for yourself—did you experience an enhanced urge to help others? Did you feel more connected to your families, friends and neighbours? Importantly, the above value shift also has pro-environment implications. The collectivist rather than individualist values (and societies) are more consistent with pro-environment attitudes and behaviours.

These pandemic-induced factors seem to have enhanced the awareness and support for pro-environment institutional actions, consumer behaviour and way of life. In a recent survey by Ipsos, more than 70 percent respondents from across the world considered climate change over time as serious a crisis as COVID-19. The numbers for China (87 percent) and India (81 percent) are even higher. The majority of respondents favoured a green economic recovery. Another study by Kantar suggests an increase of over 20 percent (2020 vs. 2019) in the percentage of ‘Eco Actives’, a term it uses for consumers who are high on environmentally conscious consumption.

Due to the pandemic, the consumers today have stronger than usual pro-environment attitudes, backed and prodded by a collectivist worldview. These would suggest a rising demand—a big of part of it, still latent—for green products and services. It is a moment that must be seized by businesses to adopt the triple bottom line—people, planet, and profits—mandate.

Businesses need to make sustainable innovation a part of their very DNA. They must align their structure, processes, and outputs to minimise their carbon footprint; strive to become carbon neutral. It is an opportune time to adopt green technologies, alter supply chains, re-educate workforce and modify product life cycles. This should help create a strong portfolio of eco-friendly products and services to satisfy environmentally-conscious consumers.

For businesses’ green shift to succeed, marketing managers role would be key. For in the final analysis corporates’ green investments would be guided by the stability and size of the pro-environment market and consumer demand. Marketing can help solidify consumers’ preference for green options despite the availability of competing cheaper, less green alternatives. Through well-designed marketing and communication, the environment-friendly brands, products and services can be firmly positioned as the ‘best’ options. Creative marketing and communication can help strengthen the narrative favouring eco-friendly consumption and nudge consumers towards greener choices. Marketing’s touchstone would be whether green alternatives become consumers’ first choice and way of life.

The pro-environment paradigm presented by a deadly virus is a great opportunity, but it may not last for long. For Greenfield’s Theory also predicts that post-pandemic, when mortality (and its salience) is lowered and economic prosperity returns, societal values will shift back to what they were. While we hope for pro-green values and behaviours to persist, a safer bet lies in governments and corporates exploiting the present-day soft corner for the environment, to invest in a sustainable future. With the right efforts, green consumption may come into vogue. In contrast, greenwashing or pseudo environment-friendly actions by corporates could greatly harm the cause. The change must be real and sincere. It will not be easy, nor will the results be immediate. But the journey must begin and begin now.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India mulls measures to encourage companies to shift to green energy

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India will introduce new regulations to encourage companies to shift towards low-carbon energy sources. The new policy will allow companies to directly buy renewable power from electrical distributors by paying “green tariffs”, the government has said.

The process of buying clean energy for business will also be made easier, Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of State for Power, New and Renewable Energy said at the virtual BloombergNEF summit on June 29.

Companies that opt for renewable energy will be given open access within 15 days instead of the usual waiting time of months, Singh said. The open-access policy would encourage distributors to also meet the demand for renewable energy, he added.

The move to promote the shift to renewable energy will be a key step in decarbonising the Indian electrical grid. Factories and offices are among the largest consumers of electricity in India. The decrease in dependence on high-carbon energy will take India closer to the goals set out by the 2016 Paris Climate Deal.

India plans to get to 450 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.

The minister said that 280 GW would come from solar energy and 140 GW from wind. He added that 100 GW of that solar energy would come from Reliance Industries’ new energy business.

While the scarcity of land has been a factor in the slow development of turbine farms, Singh said that offshore wind farms will be set up to bring up the quota.

In the coming days, nuclear power is also expected to form a crucial part of India’s fight against fossil fuel energy but may face hurdles.

India’s shift to renewable energy is important to keep rising global temperatures to less than 1.5°C. Failure to do so may lead to an ecological as well as an economic disaster as India may lose 3-10 percent of its GDP annually by 2100 directly as a result of climate change, according to a recent report.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow