• Under Climate Change Action Programme (CCAP) scheme, two scientific programmes, National Carbonaceous Aerosols Programme (NCAP) and Long Term Ecological Observatories (LTEO) have been undertaken.
• National Mission for a Green India or the commonly called Green India Mission (GIM), is one of the eight Missions outlined under India’s action plan for addressing the challenge of climate change -the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).
• GIM, launched in February 2014, is aimed at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s diminishing forest cover and responding to climate change by a combination of adaptation and mitigation measures.

• Solar Power For All - SUNRISE: Strategic University Network to Revolutionize Indian Solar Energy. It is a joint UK-India solar power project aiming to deliver low-cost photovoltaics to rural India
• The project is funded by GCRF (Global Challenges Research Fund), a UKRI fund set up to support research that addresses challenges faced by developing countries.
• Its goals include,

1. Building global collaboration
2. Developing research capability
3. Creating sustainable communities

• The Great Green Wall is launched in 2007 by the African Union, this game-changing African-led initiative aims to restore Africa’s degraded landscapes and transform millions of lives in one of the world’s poorest regions, the Sahel.

• Trees and other vegetation suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, sequestering nearly a third of global emissions. Researchers have found that afforestation and reforestation, enhanced soil carbon in croplands and grasslands.
• Ocean fertilization or ocean nourishment is a type of climate engineering based on the purposeful introduction of nutrients to the upper ocean to increase marine food production and to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• It is widely believed that soil disturbance by tillage was a primary cause of the historical loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and that substantial SOC sequestration can be accomplished by changing from conventional plowing to less intensive methods known as conservation tillage.
• In Carbon capture and storage, where carbon dioxide is removed from flue gases by trapping them(e.g., at power stations) before being stored in underground

• Particulate Matter is an important constituent of the atmosphere. The sources of PM can be natural or man-made sources.
• There are a number of natural sources that inject millions of tons of PM into the atmosphere. They include volcanic eruption, wind and dust storms, forest fire, salt spray, rock debris, reactions between gaseous emissions, and soil erosion.
• Man-made activities such as fuel combustion,persistent candle burning, tobacco smoke, industrial processes, steel industry, petroleum foundries, cement, glass manufacturing industry,construction activities, smelting and mining operations, fly-ash emissions from power plant, burning of coal, and agricultural refuse also contribute to PM in the atmosphere.

Leaded Petrol

• According to UNEP, globally, automotive fuel is completely lead-free now. Not a single fuel outlet sells leaded petrol anymore anywhere.
• Algeria was the last country to use the fuel.
• This feat is achieved after UNEP-led global Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV) began its campaign in 2002 to eliminate lead in petrol.
• Fumes from petrol vehicles using leaded petrol have been a significant source of lead exposures which affects multiple body systems and is particularly harmful to young children.
• It affects the brain, liver, kidneys and bones. Lead is measured in blood to understand exposure.
• Lead in bone is released into blood during pregnancy and becomes a source of exposure to the developing foetus.
• It affects emissions control systems of vehicles particularly catalytic converters.
• India started its phase down in 1994 and completed in 2000.

Highlights of the IPCC 6th Assessment Report

• Human’s role in climate crisis - Human activity is the cause of climate change and this is an unequivocal fact.
• Global temperatures have already risen by 1.1 degrees Celsius since the 19th century.
• Average global temperatures will continue to rise and could increase by 5.7°C by the end of this century as compared to 1850-1900.
• No region on Earth has escaped the impacts of the climate crisis.
• Extreme Weather Events - Every additional 0.5°C rise in temperature amplifies the intensity and frequency of heatwaves, heavy precipitation and droughts.
• The land surface will continue to warm more than the ocean surface.
• Ice free Arctic - The Arctic will continue to warm more than global surface temperature.
• The temperature on the coldest days will increase by three times in the Arctic.
• As a result, the frequency of marine heatwaves will continue to increase in the tropical ocean and the Arctic.
• This will amplify permafrost thawing and loss of seasonal snow cover of land and sea ice.
• The Arctic is likely to be practically sea ice-free at least once before 2050.
• Highest CO2 Levels - The levels of CO2, the primary driver of global heating, were higher in 2019 than at any time in “at least 2 million years”.
• Methane Cuts - In addition to slashing CO2 emissions, the world must also deliver “strong, rapid and sustained reductions” in methane in order to get to grips with the climate crisis.
• Sea Level Rise - A warmer climate will intensify very wet and very dry weather and climate events and seasons leading to flooding

Net Zero Emissions

• It is also referred to as carbon-neutrality.
• It does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero.
• Rather, net-zero is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
• Absorption of the emissions can be increased by creating more carbon sinks such as forests, while removal of gases from the atmosphere requires futuristic technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
• This way, it is even possible for a country to have negative emissions, if the absorption and removal exceed the actual emissions.
• A good example is Bhutan which is often described as carbon-negative because it absorbs more than it emits.
• India is currently the World’s third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, after the US and China.
• India has not yet committed to a net zero timeline.
• Several other countries, including the UK and France, have already enacted laws promising to achieve a net-zero emission scenario by the middle of the century.
• The European Union is working a similar Europe-wide law, while many other countries including Canada, South Korea, Japan and Germany have expressed their intention to commit themselves to a net-zero future.
• Even China has promised to go net-zero by 2060.

• The Geological Survey of India (GSI), an attached office under the Ministry of Mines (MoM), is the nodal agency for landslide studies in India providing quality geo-scientific information in order to minimize loss of life and damage to property from landslide hazards.
• The Landslide Hazard Zonation Map of India marks over 70% of the State as ‘high risk’ and 14% as ‘severe’ to ‘very high risk’.

Polar Amplification

• It is much stronger in the Arctic than in Antarctica.
• This difference is because the Arctic is an ocean covered by sea ice, while Antarctica is an elevated continent covered in more permanent ice and snow.
• In fact, the Antarctic continent has not warmed in the past seven decades, despite a steady increase in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.
• The exception is the Antarctic peninsula, which juts out further north into the Southern Ocean and has been warming faster than any other terrestrial environment in the southern hemisphere during the latter half of the 20th century.
• Satellite data also show that between 2002 and 2020, Antarctica lost an average of 149 billion metric tonnes of ice per year, partly because the oceans around the continent are warming.

Kigali Amendment to Montreal Protocol

• Union Cabinet has recently approved the ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the ozone layer.
• In 2016, Kigali amendment was agreed by more than 170 countries and came into force in 2019.
• It is legally binding.
• The amendment aims to phase down Hydroflurocarbon (HFC) i.e to achieve over 80% reduction in HFC by 2047.
• HFCs were introduced as a replacement to ozone depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons and hydro chlorofluorocarbons.
• Thus, HFCs have zero ozone depleting potential but known to be hundreds, even thousands, of times more potent than carbon dioxide in their ability to cause global warming.
• With the Kigali Amendment, the Montreal Protocol has become an even more powerful instrument against global warming.
• Under the amendment, India’s reduction of Hydroflurocarbon (HFC) will begin from 2028 and target is to reduce it by 80% by the year 2047.

• “Global Stocktake“ – a moment every five years for all countries to pause and account for what has been achieved so far, and what must still be done, to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. 

• Short-lived climate pollutants(SLCPs) include black carbon, methane, tropospheric ozone, and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and are commonly associated with refrigeration, diesel-fueled vehicles, and solid-fuel cooking fires. In the fight to tackle climate change, reducing SLCPs plays a crucial role.

• Race to Zero is the international campaign for a healthy, resilient, zero-carbon recovery.
• Led by the UNFCCC Champions for Climate Action, it aims to bring together net-zero commitments from cities, businesses and investors across the climate action community in the run up to COP26.
• Members of Race to Zero automatically join countries in the Climate Ambition Alliance, and their participation is registered on the Global Climate Action portal.

Short Lived Climate Forcers (SLCFs)

• These are compounds that warm or cool the Earth’s climate over shorter time scales – from days to years. They do not remain in the atmosphere for very long.
• Climatic effects of Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, lasts for decades, centuries or even more.
• The SLCFs include gases as well as tiny particles called aerosols, and they can have a warming or cooling effect on the climate.
• Warming SLCFs are either greenhouse gases (e.g., ozone or methane) or particles like black carbon (also known as soot), which warm the climate by absorbing energy and are sometimes referred to as short-lived climate pollutants.
• Cooling SLCFs, on the other hand, are mostly made of aerosol particles (e.g., sulphates, nitrates and organic aerosols) that cool down the climate by reflecting away more incoming sunlight.
• Some SLCFs do not directly affect the climate but produce climate-active compounds and are referred to as Precursors.
• Some of the SLCF Precursors includes sulphur dioxide (which produces sulphates) and nitrogen oxides (which produce nitrates and ozone).
• SLCFs are emitted both naturally and as a result of human activities, such as agriculture or extraction of fossil fuels.
• Emissions have increased since the start of industrialization, and humans are now the dominant source for several SLCFs and SLCF precursors.

• Nitrous Oxide has the third-highest concentration after CO2 and methane  in our atmosphere among greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
• It is a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2) increased by 30% between 1980 and 2016, according to a research paper published in Nature October 7, 2020.
• N2O can live in the atmosphere for up to 125 years. Its global concentration levels increased from 270 parts per billion (ppb) in 1750 to 331 ppb in 2018, a jump of 20%.
• N2O is also the only remaining threat to the ozone layer, for it accumulates in the atmosphere over a long period of time, just like CO2.
• A major proportion of the N2O emissions in the last four decades came from the agricultural sector, mainly because of the use of nitrogen-based fertilizers. The growing demand for food and feed for animals will further increase global nitrous oxide emissions

• Ozone is a gas composed of three atoms of oxygen. Ozone occurs both in the Earth's upper atmosphere and at ground level.
• Ozone can be good or bad, depending on where it is found.Called stratospheric ozone, good ozone occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere, where it forms a protective layer that shields us from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. This beneficial ozone has been partially destroyed by manmade chemicals, causing what is sometimes called a "hole in the ozone."
• Ozone at ground level is a harmful air pollutant, because of its effects on people and the environment, and it is the main ingredient in “smog."
• Motor vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and chemical solvents are the major anthropogenic sources of these ozone precursors.
• Although the ozone precursors often originate in urban areas, winds can carry NOx hundreds of kilometers, causing ozone formation to occur in less populated regions as well.
• NO and NO2 (nitric oxide or nitrogen oxide and nitrogen dioxide) emissions cause global cooling through the formation of (OH) radicals that destroy methane molecules, countering the effect of GHGs.
• Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming Human activities such as agriculture, fuel combustion, wastewater management, and industrial processes are increasing the amount of N2O in the atmosphere.
• Natural sources of atmospheric NOx include volcanoes, oceans, biological decay, agricultural fertilization and the use of nitrogen-fixing plants and lightning strikes. Human activities add another 24 million tons of nitrogen oxides to our atmosphere annually.

• Unlike the other important natural resources such as oil, coal, or natural gas, the spectrum resource is not destroyed by use - it is infinitely renewable.
• The level of aggregate radio noise from both natural and human sources tends to decrease as frequencies become higher, the intense interest in noise levels back in the days of short- and medium-wave radio has declined with the shift of critical wireless systems to higher frequencies.
• However, evidence is emerging that the radio noise floor is rising in higher-frequency bands that are especially important to both commercial and public safety applications.
• Spectrum pollution is a special form of Light pollution.

• It is a solid compound in which a large amount of methane gas molecules (CH4) are caged within a crystalline structure of water under low temperature and high pressure, forming a solid similar to ice.
• It looks like ice, but starts burning when an open flame is brought close to it; methane hydrate is often called “fiery ice.”
• They formed as frozen soils that were flooded when sea levels rose after the last ice age.
• If these hydrates thaw, they may release methane that can bubble up to the surface.
• The total amount of carbon in permafrost associated methane hydrates is much less than the carbon in permafrost soils.
• Global warming takes millennia to penetrate into the sediments beneath the ocean.
• As a result, only a small fraction of the existing hydrates could be destabilised during the coming century.
• Even when methane is released from hydrates, most of it is expected to be consumed and oxidised into carbon dioxide in the ocean before reaching the atmosphere.

Arctic Warming

• The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world.
• The rapid Arctic warming is referred to as Arctic Amplification.
• Researchers suggest that it may be blamed for some of the extreme weather episodes.

Arctic Amplification

• It occurs whenever there is any change in the net radiation balance of Earth, and this produces a larger change in temperature near the poles than the global average.
• It is typically measured as the ratio of polar warming to tropical warming.
• This amplification is primarily caused by melting ice - a process that is increasing in the Arctic at a rate of 13% per decade.
• Ice is more reflective and less absorbent of sunlight than land or the surface of an ocean.
• When ice melts, it typically reveals darker areas of land or sea, and these results in increased sunlight absorption and associated warming.

Effects of Arctic warming

• One of the most significant effects of Arctic amplification is the weakening of west-to-east jet streams in the northern hemisphere.
• As the Arctic warms at a faster rate than the tropics, this results in a weaker atmospheric pressure gradient and hence lower wind speeds.