Why in News?

• The last longer international climate talks ended with major polluters resisting calls to ramp up efforts to keep global warming in control.

About the News:

• The major polluters resisted calls to ramp up efforts to keep global warming at bay and negotiators postponed the regulation of global carbon markets until next year.
• In the end, delegates from almost 200 nations endorsed a declaration to help poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change, although they didn’t allocate any new funds to do so.
• The final declaration called on the “urgent need” to cut planet-heating greenhouse gases in line with the goals of the landmark 2015 Paris climate change accord.
• This has fallen far short of promising to enhance countries’ pledges to cut planet-heating greenhouse gases next year, which developing countries and environmentalists had lobbied the delegates to achieve.
• The Paris accord established the common goal of avoiding a temperature increase of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.
• So far, the world is on course for a 3- to 4-degree Celsius rise, with potentially dramatic consequences for many countries, including rising sea levels and fiercer storms.
• Negotiators in Madrid left some of the thorniest issues for the next climate summit in Glasgow in a year, including the liability for damages caused by rising temperatures that developing countries were insisting on which was resisted mainly by the United States.

Effects due to Climate Change:

• The High-Income Countriesare also affected due to changes in global climate, where their damage is Predominantly Economical.
• Countries like Germany and Japan, the face of industrialized nations, face heat wave and droughts.
• The Low-Income and Middle-Income Countriesface both economic and human loss.
• These countries are more vulnerable as they do not have finance to adapt or infrastructure to mitigate the damages caused by the climate extremities.
• The Climate Risk Indexhas another set of ranking for the period 1999-2018 — which is based on average values over a twenty-year period.
• In the 1999 to 2018 period Puerto Rico is the most vulnerable followed by Myanmar, Haiti, Philippines and Pakistan.

What are the concerns for India?

• 10% of India’s wildlife is threatened with extinction.
• Agricultural bio-diversity has seen significant decline, in some regions the loss is severe, with loss of around 90% of the bio-diversity.
• Around half of the available water bodies are heavily polluted and they are neither potable nor can be used for agricultural purposes.
• More than 2/3rd of the land has been degraded to the level of sub-optimal productivity.
• The air pollution is growing, with more cities facing higher levels of pollution.
• Electronic and chemical wastes that are produced are far against our capacity to recycle or even manage.