2050 net-zero target can boost Indias GDP by 7.3% by 2032: Report
Why in news?
- Recently, the High-level Policy Commission launched the ‘Getting India to Net Zero’ report.
- The report comes ahead of a pivotal moment for Asian and Indian leadership especially, with India assuming the G20 presidency in 2023 and the Asia Pacific Group hosting COP28.
Details:
- A modelling and research commissioned by the High-level Policy Commission on Getting Asia to Net Zero, achieving net zero emissions by 2070 could boost India's economy by as much as 4.7 per cent above the projected baseline growth in GDP terms by 2036 worth a total of USD 371 billion.
- Launched in May, the commission has four members -- former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, former United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, former vice chairman of Niti Aayog Arvind Panagariya, and global head and director of Climate Business, International Finance Corporation, Vivek Pathak.
Notable benefits of Net zero for Indians:
- The transition will see a net increase in employment opportunities, creating 15 million jobs beyond a baseline scenario by 2047.
- Households could save as much as USD 9.7 billion in energy costs by 2060.
Challenges for India:
- Yet, achieving net zero emissions will require India to grapple with a series of challenges, the foremost being finance: according to the modelling, India will need around USD 10.1 trillion in cumulative economy-wide investment to meet its 2070 target.
- While India could decarbonise using carbon revenues or other domestic tax-raising mechanisms to fund green investments, leveraging international support would free up domestic finance for development, poverty reduction and management of social impacts, helping mitigate the negative impacts on households from higher prices and taxes.
India’s Net zero target:
- At the 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India will achieve net zero emissions by 2070. Net zero means achieving a balance between the greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere and those taken out.
- The commission said policies, especially to boost renewables and electrification, could make net zero possible by mid-century.
- Ending new coal as soon as possible by 2023 and transitioning from unabated coal power by 2040 would be particularly impactful for reaching net zero emissions closer to mid-century.
- The time is ripe for India to formalise and implement its 2030 and 2070 emission targets and to continue to strengthen them. India is already feeling some of the worst impacts from emissions and pollution, with extreme heat, floods, premature deaths and more.
Way Forward:
- India promises to emerge not only as a model for healthy, sustainable and strong economic growth, but also as a global manufacturing hub for the global net-zero economy.
- As the host of the G20 in 2023, India can showcase its action and encourage other countries to follow suit, cooperate and invest.
Perseverance rover to search for ancient life on Enchanted Lake
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- After successfully taking 12 samples from the surface of Mars, the Perseverance rover has set its eyes on the Enchanted Lake in the Jazero crater.
- The lake is a sedimentary outcrop southwest of the rover's current location and has been a priority science target since its arrival on the Mars.
Details:
- The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which operated the rover on Mars, said that the drive to the enchanted lake will begin in a few days and it will reach the destination in September.
- The rover is currently located on the ‘Wildcat Ridge’ within the crater that is believed to be home to an ancient lake on the planet.
- While the rover drives to its new location, engineers at JPL will continue to assess the foreign object debris that has been detected in one of the rover's coring bits.
Why is rover going to Enchanted Lake?
- The rover is poised to drive to Enchanted Lake, named after a landmark in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.
- It is a fan-shaped collection of rocks and sediment at the western edge of Jezero Crater, the delta formed at the convergence of a Martian river and a crater lake billions of years ago.
- The location provides one of the mission’s best opportunities to find rocks that could have preserved remnants of ancient microbial life a primary goal of the mission.
- While the rocks, igneous in origin, having formed billions of years ago from molten rock that cooled either underground or after volcanic eruptions, can offer a great deal of information about the interior of Mars.
- Sedimentary rocks like those that dominate the Jezero delta provide an ideal site to look for signs of past life.
Way Forward:
- The rover has been looking for signs of ancient microbial life on the planet and the Enchanted Lake offers to have all the ancient ingredients required for life.
Newly identified gene for treatment of fungal infection in immuno-compromised patients
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- A newly identified gene can hold the key to prevent fungal infection Candidiasis that often affects intensive-care unit (ICU) patients, cancer patients and patients receiving immunosuppressive therapy.
Collaboration:
- It was a collaborative study between Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, and Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
- They carried out a large-scale screen to identify regulators of chromosome stability in C. albicans, a clinically relevant fungal model system.
CSA6 in Candida albicans:
- The gene called CSA6 has been identified in Candida albicans a fungal species infamous for causing high rates of morbidity and mortality under certain immuno-compromised conditions such as AIDS or during cancer treatment.
- The fungal species residing in mucosal linings of the gastrointestinal and urogenital tract of healthy individuals turns into a pathogen under immuno-compromised conditions breaching the host defense causing superficial as well as life-threatening systemic infection.
Outcome:
- The authors individually screened the effect of overexpression of more than a thousand genes of C. albicans on genome stability and were successful in identifying a set of six chromosome stability (CSA) genes that are important for maintaining genome integrity.
- While five of the CSA genes identified in the study are known to be important for cell division in other species, the sixth CSA gene, named CSA6 encoded for a protein that is essential for viability in C. albicans.
- They found that Csa6 was a critical regulator of cell cycle progression wherein both overexpression and deletion of Csa6 lead to reduced growth of C. albicans cells.
Significance:
- The study represents the first-ever report of such an extensive screen in the human fungal pathogen C. albicans.
- It identifies and elucidates the functions of a novel regulator of chromosome stability that is exclusively present in a group of medically relevant human fungal pathogens.
- Besides, it also provides a systematic scheme for identifying genes whose products may serve as potential therapeutic interventions for fungal infections by posing lesser adverse effects on humans.
- Hence, small molecule modulators that alter expression levels of the gene called Csa6 offer potential avenues for treatment with no side effects in humans.
Dugong, the sea cow declared extinct in China
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Dugong, also known as the sea cow, is now extinct in China.
- With the destruction of their natural habitat and historical hunting, no Dugong has been sighted in China since 2008.
- This is the first functional extinction of a large mammal in China’s coastal waters.
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What are Dugongs?
- Part of Sirenia family, Dugong, weighs half a tonne, and is the only vegetarian marine mammal.
- Like other sea cows, Dugong feeds on seagrasses and hence could mostly be spotted at seagrass beds, a specific marine habitat that is constantly deteriorating due to human activities.
- With its whale-like tail, Dugong, which inspired the mermaid myth, frequents the coastal waters of Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean.
- The marine mammal has been declared vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
- The marine mammals have a life expectancy of around 70 years and are found in about 37 tropical regions. However, they face a similar threat to their extinction as in China.
How did they go extinct in China?
- The decline of the sea cow can be attributed to fishing, shipping accidents and human-created habitat loss.
- The mammal, which resembles a manatee, is targeted by hunters for its bone, skin and meat.
Some other extinct ocean animals:
- The Steller’s sea cow was a member of the family Sirenia and related to manatees and Dugongs. It was found around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea and was hunted for its fat and meat till it was declared extinct by 1768.
- The sea mink, found near New England coast, was wanted for its fur. Related to the American mink and a member of the Mustela genus, the sea mink was classified as extinct in 1880.
- The Caribbean monk seal, likely to be likely extinct by the mid-20th Century, was the first seal to lose its existence due to human actions, the United States government scientists had said in 2018, as per Marine Conservation report.
