Environment Conservation/GSIII
IPCC Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) on Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

What's the NEWS

• India welcomes the release of the Working Group II (WG2) contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
• The report reaffirms India's call for equity and climate justice and stated that the Developed countries must take the lead in urgent mitigation and providing finance for adaptation, loss and damage.

• The Report affirms that climate change due to historical emissions is leading to serious impacts which are already being felt globally including in developing countries with low contribution to cumulative emissions.
• The Summary for Policymakers (SPM) underlines the need for climate action on the basis of equity and climate justice to ensure the well-being of humanity and the planet.
• The Report is a clarion call for the world to abandon their unsustainable production and consumption and move urgently to climate resilient development.
• The Report fully acknowledges the importance of losses and damages arising from climate change.
• The Report notes that future climate-resilient development pathways depend on climate risks, adaptation measures and the remaining carbon budget.
• The Report recognizes the key role of agriculture and the great importance of food security in adaptation.
• India faces multiple climate hazards and has high vulnerability to climate change.
• Lucknow and Patna, according to one of several studies cited in the IPCC report, are among the cities predicted to reach wet-bulb temperature (a metric of humidity) of 35°C if emissions continued to rise.
• Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Mumbai, Indore, and Ahmedabad are identified as at risk of reaching wet-bulb temperatures of 32-34°C with continued emissions.
• Overall, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab will be the most severely affected, but if emissions keep rising, all States will have regions that experience wet-bulb temperature of 30°C or more by the end of the century.
• According to the IPCC report, global sea levels will likely rise 44-76 cm this century if governments meet their current emission-cutting pledges. With faster emission cuts, the increase could be limited to 28-55 cm.
• But with higher emissions, and if ice sheets collapse more quickly than expected, sea levels could rise as much as 2 m this century and 5 m by 2150.
• The impacts and the consequent limitations to adaptation would rise beyond 1.5 degree warming above pre-industrial levels.
• The Working Group I contribution to AR6 released in August, 2021 had made clear that developed countries need to rapidly decrease their emissions and reach net zero by 2050

• India is already walking the path of climate resilient development with its combination of several adaptation-oriented development actions and its contribution to mitigation.
• At COP26, as the implementation of the Paris Agreement began, India reaffirmed its commitment to climate actions, including the goal of net zero by 2070, and the one-word mantra of L.I.F.E. = lifestyles for environment.
• India notes that future reports should strengthen the "solution space" and more comprehensively assess knowledge regarding effectiveness, costs and benefits.
• India firmly believes that climate change is a global collective action problem that can be solved only through international cooperation and multilateralism.
• India has taken tremendous actions to combat climate change by taking several initiatives including, inter-alia, setting up of International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, ‘One Sun, One World, One Grid' and Infrastructure for Resilient Island States, raising the domestic renewable energy target to 500 GW by 2030, putting in place an ambitious National Hydrogen Mission and continuing efforts to decouple its emissions from economic growth.

• The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the sixth in a series of reports which assess scientific, technical, and socio-economic information concerning climate change.

1. The Physical Science Basis - RELEASED
2. Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability - RELEASED
3. Mitigation of Climate Change- TO BE RELEASED BY LATE 2022

• It is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations responsible for advancing knowledge on human-induced climate change.
• It was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and later endorsed by United Nations General Assembly.
• Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, it is composed of 195 member states.
• The IPCC provides objective and comprehensive scientific information on anthropogenic climate change, including the natural, political, and economic impacts and risks, and possible response options.
• It does not conduct original research nor monitor climate change, but rather undertakes a periodic, systematic review of all relevant published literature.
• Thousands of scientists and other experts volunteer to review the data and compile key findings into "Assessment Reports" for policymakers and the general public
• This has been described as the biggest peer review process in the scientific community.
• The IPCC is an internationally accepted authority on climate change, and its work is widely agreed upon by leading climate scientists as well as governments.
• Its reports play a key role in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),with the Fifth Assessment Report heavily informing the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015.
• The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for contributions to the human understanding of climate change.

• Union Minister of Science & Technology launched the International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) through a high-level virtual event on the occasion of National Science Day 2022.

• The International Monsoons Project Office (IMPO) will be hosted at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, an institution under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt of India, initially for five years.
• It would encompass activities and connections related to international monsoon research that would be identified and fostered under the leadership of the World Climate Research Programme and the World Weather Research Programme.
• Both the World Climate Research Programme and World Weather Research Programme are international programmes coordinated by the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

1. the seasonal variability of monsoons,
2. enhancing the prediction skill of monsoons and cyclones,
3. strengthening monsoon research for better support operations and services,
4. thereby promoting knowledge sharing and capacity building in areas of monsoon research crucial for agriculture,
5. water resources and disaster management,
6. hydropower and climate-sensitive socio-economic sectors.

• IMPO is a step towards making India a global hub for monsoon research and coordination in a seamless manner for addressing common and region-specific aspects of the monsoons around the world
• Setting up the IMPO will give huge impetus to global monsoon research yielding mutual benefits to both the international and Indian research fraternity.
• The IMPO would support activities of the Monsoons Panel, jointly established by the World Climate Research Programme's CLIVAR (Climate and Ocean Variability, Predictability, and Change) and GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Exchanges) projects.
• IMPO will also extend support to the World Weather Research Programme's working group on tropical meteorology research.
• The launch of IMPO is aligned with this year's theme of the National Science Day - 'Integrated Approach in Science and Technology for a Sustainable Future'.
• It also precedes the 7^th WMO International Workshop on Monsoons which is being organized in India jointly by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, World Climate Research Programme, and World Weather Research Programme in March 2022.

• National Science Day is observed every year on 28^th February to mark the discovery of the Raman Effect by Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman or CV Raman.
• One of the prominent figures in science and technology he discovered the Raman Effect or Raman Scattering which defines the inelastic scattering of photons by the matter.
• This means there is an exchange of energy and change in light's direction.
• He won a Noble Prize in 1930 for his discovery.
• On this day, Indian Physicist Sir C.V. Raman announced the discovery of the 'Raman Effect' for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.
• In 1986, Government of India designated 28 February as National Science Day. The day is aimed at spreading the message of importance of science and its application in human life.
• This year the theme of the National Science Day is- Integrated Approach in Science and Technology for Sustainable Future.
• On the occasion, National Science Communication Awards to this year's awardees, and prizes to the winners of various contests held as part of the Mahotsav would be presented.

• Prime Minister chaired a high level meeting to review the ongoing efforts under Operation Ganga to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine.
• As Russian invasion into Ukraine has left its major cities, including its capital Kyiv, under siege, India is making efforts to evacuate its citizens stuck in the war-torn country.
• ‘Operation Ganga' is the initiative launched by the government of India to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine.
• Under this, India has already successfully brought back more than a 1,000 of its nationals from the country.
• It has also set up 24×7 control centres to assist in the evacuation of Indians through the border crossing points with Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republic.
• Thousands of Indians, especially students studying medicine in Ukraine, have been stuck in the country since it closed its airspace as a security measure after Russia launched "special military operations".

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