RESOLUTION

All most all scientists agree that the Earth’s climate is changing, having warmed by 0.6 to 0.8°C since Industrial Revolution. The Earth’s global average temperature is now approaching or possibly have passed, the warmest experienced since human civilization began to flourish about 12,000 years ago. Eleven of the last twelve years (1995-2006) rank among the 12 warmest years since human started keeping record of global surface temperature.

The impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed - the poorest countries and people will suffer earliest and most, even though they have contributed little to causing the problem. First, developing countries like India, are at geographical disadvantage: they are already warmer, on the average, than developed regions, and they also suffer from high rainfall variability. As a result, further warming will bring such countries high costs and few benefits. Second, developing countries are heavily dependent on agriculture, the most climate sensitive of all economic activities and suffer from inadequate health provision. Third, their low incomes and vulnerabilities make adaptation to climate change particularly difficult.

Possible impacts of a climate change, in a more regional level, will be manifold and West Bengal has reason to be concerned about it. Vast population depends on climate sensitive sectors like agriculture and forestry for livelihood. The adverse impact on water availability due to recession of glaciers, decrease in rainfall and increased flooding in certain areas would threaten food security and adversely impacts the coastal systems due to sea level rise and increased extreme events. Threats of increased incidence of malaria and other vector borne disease will also increase. Due to submergence of low-lying areas in Bangladesh, the pressure of illegal in migration into West Bengal will also increase. West Bengal is also home of some sensitive and critically endangered species like Red Panda, Rhinosores etc. whose habitat is likely to be altered due to climate change. Ours is one of the fourteen Biodiversity hotspots of the world, a place uniquely rich in biodiversity. Consequently, threat of species extinction from our region is also very high.

The main task of us is to identify adaptation needs specific to West Bengal and draw action plan. The evidence shows that ignoring climate change will eventually damage economic growth. On the other hand tackling climate change can be a pro-growth strategy for a longer term and it can be done in a way that does not cap development aspirations of developing countries. Therefore, the State government may play role in the following areas:

• Generation of high quality climate information and tools for risk management. Micro level; • Setting up land use planning and performance standards that should encourage public and private investment in infrastructure sector to take account of climate change; • Developing long-term policy for climate sensitive public goods, including natural resource protection, coastal protection and emergency preparedness. • Developing financial safety net for the people living below the poverty line, who are most vulnerable to the impacts and are least able to afford it.

Our country India is among the largest emitter of Green House Gases (GHG) in the world. But, it is a strong performer in energy intensity – bottom third of 70 countries on CO2 emissions per unit of GDP and is one of the lowest on per capita emissions. Energy access in the country is very low. Almost 400 million people still have no access to any form of electricity. Currently, thermal power accounts for 66% of the total power generated in the country. Hydro power contributes to 26% of the supply while renewable energy resources like mind and solar energy only accounts for 5% of the share. At the present rates, it is expected that the total demand in the country will exceed 7,00,000 MW by 2030. To reduce emission, India needs to increase the share of renewable energy to 20%. In order to achieve this, we must emphasize government to formulate suitable renewable energy policies and provide incentives for emissions free power generation. It is necessary to mainstream climate change in the National Energy Plan and create a National Renewable Energy Fund.

There are social, economic and environmental costs of global warming and associated climate change those perpetrates air pollution, loss of biodiversity, desertification, health problems, livelihood loss, adverse impact on water resources etc. These negative socio-economic and environmental impacts further accelerate and aggravate the process of climate change and global warming. Policies are therefore, required to mitigate the impacts of climate change and ensure sustainable development of socio-economic and environmental parameters. Developing nations like China and India are the highest potential emitters. However, if proper development strategies are adopted then economic growth can be guaranteed along with GHG mitigation. This would require the adoption of low pollution technology which is expensive for the countries whose priority lies in ensuring basic necessities like food, health, education etc. for its citizens. In countries like India, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) – key economic agents in production and employment generation in such economics, dominate metals, chemicals, food paper and pulp industries. However, the SMEs don’t hove the financial and technical capability to introduce mitigation measures in their operation processes. Therefore, we must see that the climate and development policy for mainstreaming climate change issues would not include cleaner production without having to compromise on employment in SME Sectors. Since the SMEs play a major role in the state economy, the government has initiated steps to involve them in technology up-gradation, fuel-switching and clean development mechanism (CDM) projects. There is need to disseminate information amongst SMEs about the need to adopt clean technology and thereby, reduce emissions.

Climate change currently contributes to the global burden of diseases and premature deaths. Human beings are exposed to climate change through changing weather patterns (temperature, precipitation, sea-level rise and more frequent extreme events) and indirectly through changes in ecosystems, agriculture, industry and settlements and the economy. At this early stage the effects are small but are projected to progressively increase in all countries and regions. Emerging evidence of climate change effects on human health shows that climate change has: • altered the distribution of some infectious disease vectors namely, malaria, etc; • altered the seasonal distribution of some allergenic pollen species; • increased heatwave-related deaths Projected trends in climate-change related exposures of importance to human health will : • increase malnutrition and consequent disorders, including those relating to child growth and development; • increase the number of people suffering from death, disease and injury from heatwaves, floods, storms, fires and droughts; • continue to change the range of some infectious disease vectors; • have mixed effects on malaria; in some places geographical range will contract, elsewhere the geographical range will expand and the transmission seasons may be changed; • increase the burden of diarrheal diseases ; • increase cardio-respiratory morbidity and mortality associated with ground-level ozone • increase in the number of people at risk of dengue; • bring some benefits to health, including fewer deaths from cold, although it is expected that these will be outweighed by the negative effects of rising temperatures, especially in developing countries like India.

Therefore, adaptive capacity needs to be improved everywhere; impacts of recent hurricanes and heat waves show that even high-income countries are not well prepared to cope with extreme weather events.

Adverse health impacts will be greatest in low-income countries. Those at greater risk include, in all countries, the urban poor, the elderly and children , traditional societies, subsistence farmers, and coastal populations.