ANGAN 2.0 (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, a three-day international conference ANGAN 2022 (Augmenting Nature by Green Affordable New-habitat), second edition, titled “Making the Zero-Carbon Transition in Buildings”commenced.
Stakeholders:
- ANGAN 2.0, which is being organised by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power, in collaboration with Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation (SDC) under the Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP).
Key Highlights:
- Around 75 eminent speakers, representing more than 15 countries and international organisations, have gathered to debate and discuss issues related to building energy efficiency and reducing carbon emission from buildings in 8 plenary and 8 thematic sessions.
- The objective of this conference is to promote a healthy ecosystem which was mentioned at COP 26 in Glasgow by the Prime Minister Narender Modi on LiFE (Lifestyle And Environment) and Panchamrit, aiming to make India Net Zero by 2070.
- This conference also hosts an exhibition of various low carbon products, technologies and innovations applicable in the building sector.
NEERMAN award:
- The winners of the BEE’s 1st National Energy Efficiency Roadmap for Movement towards Affordable and Natural habitat (NEERMAN) Awards were felicitated.
- These awards are institutionalised with the objective to acknowledge and encourage exemplary building designs complying with BEE’s Eco-Niwas Samhita (ENS) and Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC).
- The NEERMAN award has seen participation of building projects across the country from Jammu & Kashmir to Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Background:
- Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) is a collaborative project between the Government of India and the Government of Switzerland.
- Over this period, BEEP has provided technical support to BEE in the formulation of Eco-Niwas Samhita (energy conservation building code for residential buildings), design of around 50 buildings and trained more than 5000 building sector professionals.
UNEP launches Green Fins Hub
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), along with UK-based charity Reef-World Foundation, recently launched the Green Fins Hub, a global digital platformto give sustainable marine tourism a ‘major boost’.
Mandate:
- The platform will help diving and snorkelling operators worldwide to make simple, cost-efficient changes to their daily practices by utilising tried and tested solutions.
- It would also help them keep track of their annual improvements and communicate with their communities and customers.
Salient features:
- The Green Fins Community Forum will be for operators around the world to raise industry needs, discuss environmental issues and share lessons and ideas with like-minded industry leaders, non-profits and governments.
- For example, dive centres experiencing outbreaks of invasive species like the Crown-of-Thorns Seastar at their dive sites can use the forum to gain the resources and expertise to take immediate conservation action.
- The Green Fins Solutions Library will give access to over 100 proven environmental solutions to common daily operational challenges.
- The Action Plan Tracker will enable members to receive an annual sustainability action plan with set goals. An advanced user interface will allow them to track their progress over time.
Membership:
- Green Fins Hub will host two types of membership. One would be digital membership available for diving, snorkelling and liveaboard operations globally.
- Throughout every year of membership, operators will receive environmental scores based on a detailed online self-evaluation and progress made on their action plans.
- Green Fins Certified Members will continue to be assessed annually and trained in person at their operation. The assessment process will continue to be based on set criteria using a scoring system (0-330 point system, with a low score implying low impact of a business on coral reefs).
- There will be a minimum threshold (>200 of a maximum environmental impact score) for becoming a Green Fins Certified Member and a ranking of bronze, silver or gold certified members according to performance.
Way Forward:
- Coral reefs, home to at least 25 per cent of marine life, are the mecca for marine-related tourism, contributing up to 40 per cent or more of the gross domestic product in some island nations.
- However, they are a most vulnerable ecosystem, especially to climate change with the difference between a global temperature rise of 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius being existential for reefs.
- Increasing accessibility of best practice, knowledge and citizen science through the Green Fins Hub could be a game changer in ensuring a future for coral reefs and other fragile marine ecosystems.
Iodine destroying Ozone Layer
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- While climate change continues to affect the mainlands, the cold frigid regions of Antarctica and the Arctic are no different to it.
- While the role of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) has been widely established, an international team of researchers has found Iodine, a new element that is damaging the Ozone over the Arctic.
Details:
- Over a hundred researchers from 20 countries, including the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, in collaboration with Extreme Environments Research Laboratory, Switzerland, The Cyprus Institute, and NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory, joined hands to analyse the changes in the Arctic.
- The researchers found that the chemical reactions between Iodine and Ozone were the second highest contributor to the loss of surface Ozone.
- Theobservations were conducted by the researchers during the ship-based Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition.
What is Ozone?
- The Ozone layer is found in the troposphere, the lower 10 kilometers of the atmosphere, and in the stratosphere that extends 10-50 km above the ground.
- Ozone is a form of oxygen with molecules carrying three atoms instead of two and acts as a shield protecting us against harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.
- The Ozone has been under attack from chlorine (chlorofluorocarbon, CFC) and bromine (halon) compounds that were largely being used in refrigerants, pesticides, solvents, and fire extinguishers. This led to the development of a major hole in the Ozone layer, which has since then closed.
- The main driver for this is the anthropogenic emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). However, similar, but shorter-lived, ozone depletion events are seen close to the surface of the Earth, during these depletion events, ozone concentrations drop to nearly zero.
How is Iodine damaging Ozone?
- The researchers conducted observations from March to October 2020 in the high Arctic region and found that Iodine enhances springtime tropospheric Ozone depletion.
- They developed a chemical model to show that chemical reactions between Iodine and Ozone are the second highest contributor to the loss of surface Ozone.
- The study further suggests that the atmospheric increase in Iodine loading due to enhanced anthropogenic Ozone-induced ocean Iodine emissions, as well as the thinning and shrinking of Arctic sea ice expected in the near future, will probably lead to increases in Iodine emissions.
Way Forward:
- These results indicate that iodine chemistry could play an increasingly important role in the future and must be considered for accurate quantification of the ozone budget in the Arctic.
- The new findings are set to change the decades-old paradigm on the drivers of Arctic photochemical Ozone loss.
UN warns of global emergency as nearly 345 mn people face acute starvation
(GS Paper 3, Food Crisis)
Why in news?
- Recently, theU.N. World Food Program said the world is facing a global emergency of unprecedented magnitude, with up to 345 million people marching toward starvation and 70 million pushed closer to starvation by the war in Ukraine.
Details:
- It told the U.N. Security Council that the 345 million people facing acute food insecurity in the 82 countries where the agency operates is 2 times the number of acutely food insecure people before the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.
- About 50 million of those people in 45 countries are suffering from very acute malnutrition and are knocking on famine's door.
Factors responsible:
- The factors responsible are rising conflict, the pandemic's economic ripple effects, climate change, rising fuel prices and the war in Ukraine.
- Since Russia invaded its neighbour on Feb. 24, soaring food, fuel and fertilizer costs have driven 70 million people closer to starvation.
- Despite the agreement in July allowing Ukrainian grain to be shipped from three Black Sea ports that had been blockaded by Russia and continuing efforts to get Russian fertilizer back to global markets, there is a real and dangerous risk of multiple famines in 2022.
Nations facing food crisis:
- The Security Council was focusing on conflict-induced food insecurity and the risk of famine in Ethiopia, northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen.
- But U.N. World Food Programwarned about the food crisis in Somalia and also put Afghanistan high on the list.
- The widespread and increasing food insecurity in Africa is a result of the direct and indirect impact of conflict and violence that kills and injures civilians, forces families to flee the land they depend on for income and food, and leads to economic decline and rising prices for food that they can't afford.
- After more than seven years of war in Yemen, some 19 million people six out of 10 are acutely food insecure, an estimated 160,000 people are facing catastrophe, and 538,000 children are severely malnourished.
South Sudan:
- South Sudan faces its highest rate of acute hunger since its independence in 2011 from Sudan. About 7.7 million people, over 60% of the population, are facing critical or worse levels of food insecurity.
- Without a political solution to escalating violence and substantial spending on aid programs, many people in South Sudan will die, he warned.
Ethiopia:
- In northern Ethiopia's Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions, more than 13 million people need life-saving food. A survey in Tigray in June that found 89% of people food insecure, more than half of them severely so.
Nigeria:
- In northeast Nigeria, the U.N. projects that 4.1 million people are facing high levels of food insecurity, including 588,000 who faced emergency levels between June and August.
