Global Climate Change + MoP-18 Montreal Protocol + WMO's CAgM-14

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In This NEWS Bulletin ************************************ 1. MoP-18 Montreal Protocol Meeting in Delhi - Living in a dangerous world - Ozone depletion alarm still exists, despite best efforts of the Montreal protocol. Lot more needs to be done to arrest these climate change, writes Ashok B Sharma 2. Climate change affecting farming, say experts 3. Sibal asks WMO to work on climate change - 14th session of WMO's Commission on Agriculture Meteorology (CAgM-14) in Delhi 4. Farmers don weather man’s cap - Dissemination of quality weather forecast can help farmers manage risks, feels Ashok B Sharma - WMO's CAgM-14 meeting in Delhi 5. Give high priority to ozone layer protection, says Indian environment minister, A Raja - MoP-18 Montreal Protocol meeting in Delhi 6. Weather-based insurance mooted for farmers 7. Now, disaster alert right on your mobile phones ! 8. Sibal for reciprocal private sector participation in tech projects --------- Living in a dangerous world Ozone depletion alarm still exists, despite best efforts of the Montreal protocol. Lot more needs to be done to arrest these climate change, writes Ashok B Sharma http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=145619 Posted online: Monday, November 06, 2006 at 0139 hours IST The ongoing global climate change is one of the key issues scientists around the world are

grappling to resolve in their endeavour to make the world a better place to live. Several multilateral environmental pacts have been signed aimed at mitigating the factors responsible for the emerging phenomena, but no major results are forthcoming. Nevertheless, the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer adopted way back in 1987 has shown some encouraging results to the extent that parties to the treaty have been sincere in meeting their commitments. As many as 191 countries have expressed their desire to move forward in phasing out ozone-depleting substances (ODSs). The process is saving millions of people from skin cancer and other illness and protecting the world's ecosystems that are sensitive to increased ultraviolet radiations. Despite joint efforts put forth by countries since past 20 years, the precarious scenario fails to disappear. Early this year, the Antarctic ozone hole was

the largest ever recorded, both in extent and volume of ozone loss. The Science journal Nature has reported that in the winter 2004-05, the biggest ozone loss ever recorded over the Arctic. A 30% reduction in ozone levels occurred during the winter and early spring, including a 50% reduction in ozone levels at an altitude of 18 km. A recent study done in the National Academy of Sciences says that the last few decades of the 20th century were the warmest in the past 400 years and likely in the past 1,000 years. The recently concluded 18th meeting of parties to the Montreal Protocol (MoP-18) in Delhi expressed concerns over these developments and at the same time reaffirmed commitments to save the planet from the impending disaster. Not that the Montreal Protocol has not achieved anything. The situations could have been worse if the commitments under the protocol were not implemented seriously. Concurrent with the MoP-18 session was the 14th session of the World Meteorological Organisation's Commission for Agricultural Meteorology. It expressed concerns over the ongoing global climate change and deliberated on ways of rendering real-time warning to farmers. The WMO secretary-general M Jarraud said that warning systems should not be based on a single indicator—climate index. There is a need for bio-climatic index for drought monitoring and early warning incorporating new methodologies. One of the main reasons for the successful implementation of the Protocol is that the treaty was preceded by a strong scientific consensus about the cause of the problem, clarity about the responsibility to be undertaken, availability of mitigation technologies at reasonable costs and near accurate estimate of resources to be deployed to mitigate the problem. Technologies did have the role in the

reduction of ozone-depleting substances. In tune with the identification of newer and newer factors responsible for depletion of ozone, the Protocol has been amended from time to time to include new ozone-depleting substances and commitments sought from countries for its time-bound reductions. The amendments to the Protocol made in the London meeting was significant and it spelt out commitments for implementation of legally binding commitments on basis of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities’ by developed and developing countries. A serious area of concern for India and the developing nations is to commit for reduction in CFC used in metered dose inhalers . In the words of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it can only be possible if the developed nations facilitate capacity building in developing ones to manufacture ozone-depleting substances-free equipment. ---- Climate change affecting farming, say experts http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=145583 ASHOK B SHARMA Posted online: Monday, November 06, 2006 at 0019 hours IST NEW DELHI, NOV 5: Meteorologists and scientists are equally worried about the impact of the ongoing global climate change on agriculture. In the recently concluded 14 session of the World Meteorological Organisation’s (WMO) Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM-14) in Delhi, last week, issues like weather and climate information, sustainable agriculture, adaptation strategies to climate change, climate and land degradation was extensively deliberated. WMO

secretary general M Jaraud in his opening statement expressed the need for rendering real time weather information directly to farmers. He said, world over, meteorologists have brought together various kinds of historical and current information resulting in the development of new methodologies in support of drought preparedness and planning, and for better assessing and managing risks posed by climate variability. In a concurrent event in Delhi — 18th Meeting of Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MoP-18) — experts expressed concerns over depletion of ozone layer and suggested stronger commitments aimed at reduction in production and use of ozone-depleting substances (ODSs) Incidentally, agriculture scientists gathered at the 2nd International Rice Congress in Delhi also expressed concerns about the possible change in cropping pattern on account of climate change. Toshihiro Hasegawa of National

Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences, Japan, said climate change and variability will have significant impact on the rice production systems. While projected increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration will have a positive effect on growth and yield, biotic and abiotic stresses may increase as a result of global warming. Heat Is On • Meteorologists have brought together data resulting in development of new methodologies • High climate variability and limited water supplies are the major constraints for sustainable rice production in many countries• Ground-level ozone is emerging as a major air pollutant that damages natural and cultural vegetations Kazuhiko Kobayashi of the University of Tokyo was, however, of the view that rising surface ozone concentration may be an emerging threat to rice production in Asia. Surface ozone concentration is rising across Asia due to fossil fuel burning and is projected

to keep rising for the coming decades. Ozone has long been recognised as the major air pollutant that damages natural and cultural vegetations in the US and Europe. It has proven negative impact on crops like soybean and wheat. High climate variability and limited water supplies are the major constraints for sustainable rice production in many countries like Indonesia, according to a study by Yahya Abawi of the University of Mataram in Indonesia. “High temperature is a major determinant of crop development and growth, decreasing yields by 10% for each 1 degree Celcius increase in minimum temperature during the growing season. Spikelet fertility is an important component of yield that is sensitive to high temperatures”, says P Krishnan of the division of biotechnology, physiology and environmental sciences in the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack. Experiments

done by TA Johnson and S Singh of the division of environmental sciences in the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi, on Basmati rice varieties showed highest reduction in grain yields due to exposure to high temperatures.In recent years, deterioration in grain quality, by the occurrence of milky white rice, has been recognised an emerging problem in many regions in Japan.------ Sibal asks WMO to work on climate change http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=144996 ASHOK B SHARMA ECONOMY BUREAU Posted online: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, OCT 30: Minister for science and technology and earth sciences Kapil

Sibal suggested the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) to take up the issue of global climate change and study its impact. Sibal also stressed the need to modernising the AgroMet services for the benefit of farmers and food security. Sibal urged the WMO to take up the challenge to provide farmers the AgroMet information to meet the needs and dreams of humanity. Addressing the 14th session of WMO Commission for Agricultural Meteorology in Delhi on Monday, Sibal said the AgroMet services could solve the challenges facing the farming sector. “We need to increase agricultural productivity to meet demands of the growing population. We would probably have to produce two times higher in the context of rising population, he said.” Dissemination of information directly to the farmers is a big challenge, and there should be sustained efforts to meet

this problem, he said, adding that information should be in local languages and simple. The WMO secretary general M Jarraud said the application of science and technology in providing weather predictions is highly necessary. He said agricultural production is fully dependent on weather conditions. He said agricultural production is fully depended on the weather conditions. The Indian scientist Joseph Pichamuthu was awarded the 20th "Professor Dr Vilho Vaisala Award" at the function. The award carries $10,000 and a medal. Meanwhile, inaugurating another event on India-Mexico workshop on water management in urban areas, Sibal said there are 16 million people in both Mexico City and Delhi each, in need of better water management. He said technology would be the answer. His Mexican counterpart looked forward for collaboration with India in biotech and information technology Sibal launched the scene-of-crime application developed in partnership with Microsoft for digitising manual investigation process by the police.- Farmers don weather man’s cap Dissemination of quality weather forecast can help farmers manage risks, feels Ashok B Sharma http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=144940 Posted online: Monday, October 30, 2006 at 0046 hours IST Around the world, farmers are grappling with uncertainty in the weather pattern that is having a direct bearing on their agricultural production. The onus on the scientific community, therefore, is to deploy the right technology tools and processes to safeguard their crops from nature’s fury.

Meteorologists from across the world are now brainstorming to find out ways how best they could provide meteorology services to farmers in the remote regions at the Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (CAgM-14). WMO secretary-general M Jarraud says, “The scientists all over the world are now engaged in working out how best they can agriculture meteorology services to the farmers, using recent technologies for data processing, analysis and dissemination.” First, the forecasts need to aim at near accuracy and then the process of quick dissemination to farmers at the village level. Needless to say, to improve the quality of forecast, real-time data needs to be generated and appropriate forecast models need to be devised to process this data. The meteorologists are at their job. They have been able to resolve the issue of the co-relationship of El Nino with the Indian monsoon.

El Nino is the periodic warming of the Pacific waters above the normal level that is responsible for droughts in many parts of the world. The Pacific Ocean is divided into four regions. In India, severe droughts have occurred in some El Nino years and in some years when El Nino has not occurred, droughts have occurred in some parts of the country. Martin Hoerling of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder in United States and his colleagues say that the El Nino phenomena extending westwards into central Pacific Ocean causes droughts in India. They analysed 23 strong El Nino years and their links to 13 drought years and 10 drought-free years in India. They used satellite observations of sea surface temperatures and historical data of rainfall over central India. To confirm their findings, Hoerling and his team used computer models to mimic the patterns.

The Hoerling team suggested that the ‘two flavours of El Nino’ is likely to impact Indian monsoon differently through the tropical Walker circulation, an east-west wind over the Pacific. The team, however, said that there may be over factors causing droughts in India—the sea surface temperatures of the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal may have a role to play. It now depends upon Indian meteorologists to carry forward the work done by the Hoerling team and investigate the link between Indian monsoon and the sea surface temperatures of the surrounding waters! According to experts, there are 127 agro-climatic zones in India. Each zone has its unique weather pattern. However, due to the ongoing global climate change there is marked variation in the weather pattern in many of these agro-climatic zones. Hence, there is a need to caution

farmers about the weather variability through short-term or daily forecasts. At present, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has set up 22 AgroMet Advisory Units across the country. But this is not enough, says the science and technology minister, Kapil Sibal.-------- ‘Give high priority to ozone layer protection’ http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=144988 ASHOK B SHARMA ECONOMY BUREAU Posted online: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, OCT 30: The Union minister for environment and forests A Raja wants the world community to take into consideration the health of people while giving high

priority to protect the ozone layer. Referring to the use of Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) in metered dose inhalers, he added some developing countries including India face difficulties in manufacturing these inhalers, which use CFC. He said till date neither economically viable and well adaptable technology nor suitable guidelines have been evolved to extend financial support to developing countries to help them meet the incremental cost of CFC in MDI sector. Keeping with the spirit of the Montreal Protocol, measures should be taken for safe disposal of unused Ozone Depleting Substances, Raja said. Inaugurating the high-level segment of the 18th meeting of the parties to the Montreal Protocol, he said the protocol is one of the first international environmental agreements which includes trade sanctions to achieve the goals of the treaty. The Protocol,

together with control measure, has also mandated to undertake research development, public awareness and exchange of information. A well-structured Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) has been undertaking studies and reviewing the ozone science, alternative technologies and future needs as requested by the concerned parties on all the contentious issues relating to implementation of the Montreal Protocol, he added. The five-day meeting has been organised by the United Nations Environment Programme. The meeting will address the issues relating to the monitoring the trans-boundary movement of ODS to prevent illegal trade, treatment of stockpile of ODS for both developed and developing countries, identiication of key challenges to be faced by the parties in preparing the ozone layer in future, review of nominations for essential use exemptions, clarify the source of discrepancies between

emissions determined from bottom-up methods and atmospheric measures, sources of carbon tetrachloride, emissions and opportunities for reductions, methyl-bromide issues, quarantine and pre-shipment matters besides other issues. ------- Weather-based insurance mooted for farmers http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=144522 ASHOK B SHARMA ECONOMY BUREAU Posted online : Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, OCT 25: With a view to help farmers in managing risks against the vagaries of the variable climate and weather, a senior Planning Commission member mooted weather-based insurance

schemes and other financial instruments. Inaugurating a three-day international workshop on agro-meteorological risk management in the Capital on Wednesday, VL Chopa of the Planning Commission said, “India, with its rich repository of weather/climate data, is an ideal place where weather-based agricultural insurance schemes and other financial dispensations can be seriously considered.” He, however, cautioned that this would require enforcement of stricter standards of meteorological observations and enhancement of agro-meteorological observation network. He said reinsurance and other financial safeguards also need to be considered simultaneously. Chopra also emphasised the need for providing agro-meteorological services directly and instantly to farmers at the the village-level. He urged for rapid technological advances in data management for use in natural

disaster mitigation and climate change strategies for sustainable agriculture. Chopra also remarked that the very sustainability of intensive agriculture based on current technologies being questioned in the debate on global climate change. He called for agroclimatic analysis as the basis for agriculture risk management. The effectiveness of ‘Agromet’ advisories depends on the timely input of all relevant crop and weather data, he said and added that this would, however, warrant a multi disciplinary approach and co-ordination between research and operational wings of meteorological and agricultural institutions. Chopra, however, cautioned that the tendency to over exploit technology was also fraught with danger and cited examples of over irrigation of crops, which lead to soil salinity. Caution must be exercised to ensure technological management does not destroy the agro-environmental balance while pursuing enhanced

productivity, he said. Speaking on the occasion, secretary, ministry of earth science, PS Goel said the agro-advisories should be fine-tuned to suit local conditions and the farmers' needs. He said that 20% to 30% of crop loss was due to unfavourable weather conditions. ------ Now, disaster alert right on your mobile http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=144747 ASHOK B SHARMA ECONOMY BUREAU Posted online: Saturday, October 28, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, OCT 27: An alert system, which will caution people in the remotest corners of the country about natural disaster, has been developed. The new system sends out SMSs in local languages to mobile sets, followed by voice mails to both mobile sets and landline phones. The technology, developed by Geneva Software Technologies Ltd (GSTL), quickly process and disseminate any natural disaster warning issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The processed information will pass through the infrastructure of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited. The service will be free of cost. The dissemination system is named Geneva natural disaster information service (GNDIS). Launching the service, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal said, “This is a low-cost solution for the benefit of the common man. We have successfully leaf-frogged and bypassed infrastructural constraints.” GSTL has invested Rs 18 crore for the project, of which Rs 8 crore was for the development of GNDIS. The government’s

contribution was Rs 4.3 crore. “We have devised the technology to process and relay IMD’s warnings within 30 seconds. The first SMS would be in the regional language, followed by the same message in Hindi and English. The voice mails will follow the same sequence. We have arranged for simultaneous translations for 14 regional languages,” said GSTL’s marketing director, Amar Singh. GSTL have test-trailed its technology recently among fisher folks in Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu. Sibal said GNDIS could be used as alert warnings not only for imminent natural disasters, but also for man made disasters like riots, terrorism. He said that this technology has been given to the Union home ministry, which would decide on its process of implementation. --- Sibal for reciprocal private participation in tech projects http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=144647 ASHOK B SHARMA ECONOMY BUREAU Posted online: Friday, October 27, 2006 at 0000 hours IST NEW DELHI, OCT 26: The ministry for science and technology is planning to seek Cabinet approval on guidelines for government collaboration with the private sector in several scientific projects. Briefing mediapersons here on Thursday, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal said: “I personally feel that such collaborations by the government should aim at derieving

maximum benefit to the comman nan in the country. Science and technology projects need huge investments which may not be possible for either the public or the private sector to invest on their own. Therefore, collaborations are necessary. We are drafting necessary guidelines to this effect.” Sibal informed that a two-day technology summit and technology platform would be held in Delhi from November 6, in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Talking about the technology summit, Sibal said: “I want to make clear to the world that if you want have any technological collaboration with India, you must be prepared to give value to India and not just take away value.” He said that in general, most of foreign colloborations were based on investments and profits and less on solving the problems of the

country. He said technological solutions aimed at servicing the needs of the poor like cheap availability of medicines and treatment for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, cost-effective harnessing solar energy. The technology summit has selected areas for deliberations on food and marine technology, space science, new materials and welding technologies, biotechnology and ICT. Sibal said India and the ASEAN region had much in common. They could make joint endeavours to solve the problems relating to poverty, agriculture and health. Besides ASEAN alongwith its partners—India, Japan and Australia - have a 3 billion population, which is a big market. He said: "Barriers break down quickly in science and technology collaborations, while on trade and economic front it takes time to break national barriers. Connectivity among scientific community is quicker. We, therefore need to take the

advantage."---------

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