CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABILITY

J.SRINIVASANDIVECHA CENTRE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCEBANGALORE

Sustainable development defined as development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

Brundtland Commission, 1987

“The economic imperialism of a single tiny island kingdom (England) is today keeping the world in chains. If an entire nation of 300 million took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts.”

Mahatma Gandhi, 1928

POLLUTION IS A PRICE WE MUST

PAY FOR PROGRESS

Heatwave: August 2003

35,000-50,000 extra deaths over a 2-week period

Land surface temperatures, summer of 2003, vs. summers of 2000-04. NASA satellite spectrometry

BANGALORE WARMING = GLOBAL + LOCAL

Climate Change and India

•India contributes less than 5% to global warming•India has many more urgent and short term challenges related to population growth and water shortage

Le Quéré et al. 2009, Nature-geoscience; CDIAC 2009

CO2 Emissions ( from fossil fuels)

Developed Nations

1990 2000 2010

5

4

3

2CO2 e

miss

ions

(PgC

y-1)

55%

45%

Developing Nations

Global Warming is a symptom of a much larger problem

The degradation of the quality of air,water and soil

Sustainability doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time before it is truly embedded in the way one conducts businessDr David Bresch, Swiss Re

(India)

CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSION (t/tcs)

2.13

2.282.31

2.42.462.48

2.732.82

2.91

3.08

3.19

2

2.5

3

3.5

96-97 97-98 98-99 99-2K 2K-01 01-02 02-03 03-04 04-05 05-06 06-07

Tonne of CO2 per tonne of crude steel produced

TATA STEEL

Deutsches Museum (2003)

RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

Sargsyan et al., 2011 World Bank Report

Richard A. Feely, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA, 2008

We are on the cusp of an energy transformation, driven by the rapidly falling cost of solar power….If you still think of solar power as some kind of hippie fantasy, blame our fossilized political system, in which fossil fuel producers have both powerful political allies and a powerful propaganda machine that denigrates alternatives…. Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize(Economics)

We’re just a few years from the point at which electricity from solar panelsbecomes cheaper than electricity generated by burning coal….if we priced coal-fired power taking into account the huge health and othercosts it imposes, it’s likely that we would already have passed that tipping pointPaul Krugman, Nobel Prize(Economics)

•Businesses cannot bring about the needed changes alone. •They need governments to regulate•They need financiers to reward moves towards sustainability. •Ultimately, citizens need to provide the driving forces for neweconomies through their decisions as consumersThe ability of citizens to balance long term human interests as citizens, parents and neighbours in making short-term consumer choices will have a significant impact on the feasibility of a transition to a new sustainable global economy

From “Future of Sustainability”The World Conservation Union, 2006

CONCLUSIONS

Lead Emissions in the US

The role of the scientist is increasingly to provide policy-relevant information and recommendations to government. Politicians are notoriously bad at dealing with scientific uncertainty, and when faced with it are prone to use science selectively

Nick Brooks, Tyndall Centre for Climate Research

Courtesy Reiner Grundmann

School of Languages and Social Science,Aston University, UK

Senate Resolution 98 (Hagel-Byrd Resolution)

U.S.Senate would not ratify any treaty

that would: (a) impose mandatory greenhouse gasemissions reductions for the United Stateswithout also imposing such reductions fordeveloping nations, or(b) result in serious harm to our economy.

In climate science as in medical science, prevention is better than a cure, but not everybody is wise enough to act early

Richard SomervilleScripps Institution ofOceanography

Vitousek (1994)

Among the 15 most polluted cities in the world 12 are in Asia

Air Pollution

Convective outflow of South Asian pollution by Li et al, GRL,2005

59

We do not have to worry about climate change if

• Global warming is a hoax• Global warming is due to natural causes

• We can adapt to global warming