Weekly Current Affairs (8th to 14th November 2022) - 1 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Provisional State of Global Climate Report, 2022

Context:
Recently, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released the provisional State of the Global Climate report, 2022.

• The full and final report is expected to be published in April, 2023.

What is the WMO State of the Global Climate report?

• The report is produced on an annual basis, complementing the most recent long assessment cycle provided by the sixth IPCC Assessment Report.
• The report provides an authoritative voice on the current state of the climate using key climate indicators and reporting on extreme events and their impacts.

What are the Highlights of the Report?

Increase in Concentration of Greenhouse Gases:

• The concentrations of three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and Nitrous oxide (NO2), were all at record highs in 2021.
• The emissions of methane, which is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in causing global warming, in fact, increased at the fastest pace ever.
• At the climate change conference in Glasgow, countries had pledged to cut global methane emissions by at least 30% by the year 2030.

Temperature:

• The global average temperature in 2022 is estimated to be about 1.15 °C above the 1850-1900 average.
• 2015 to 2022 are likely to be the eight warmest years on record.
• La Niña (a cooling of sea-surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean) conditions have dominated since late 2020 and are expected to continue until the end of 2022.
• Continuing La Niña has kept global temperatures relatively low for the past two years - albeit higher than the last significant La Niña in 2011.

Glaciers and Ice:

• In the European Alps, glacier melt records were shattered in 2022. Average thickness losses of between 3 and over 4 metres were measured throughout the Alps, substantially more than in the previous record year 2003.
• In Switzerland, 6% of the glacier ice volume was lost between 2021 and 2022, according to initial measurements.
• For the first time in history, no snow outlasted the summer season even at the very highest measurement sites and thus no accumulation of fresh ice occurred.

Sea Level Rise:

• Global mean sea level has risen by an estimated 3.4 ± 0.3 mm per year over the 30 years (1993-2022) of the satellite altimeter record.
• The rate has doubled between 1993-2002 and 2013-2022 and sea level increased by about 5 mm between January 2021 and August 2022.

Ocean Heat:

• The ocean stores around 90% of the accumulated heat from human emissions of greenhouse gases.
• The upper 2000m of the ocean continued to warm to record levels in 2021.
• Overall, 55% of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2022.
• In contrast only 22% of the ocean surface experienced a marine cold spell. Marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent, in contrast to cold waves.

Extreme Weather:

• In East Africa, rainfall has been below average in four consecutive wet seasons, the longest in 40 years, with indications that the current season could also be dry.
• Record breaking rain in July and August, 2022 led to extensive flooding in Pakistan.
  • The flooding came hard on the heels of an extreme heatwave in March and April in both India and Pakistan.
• Large parts of the northern hemisphere were exceptionally hot and dry.
  • China had the most extensive and long-lasting heatwave since national records began and the second-driest summer on record.
• Large parts of Europe sweltered in repeated episodes of extreme heat.
  • The United Kingdom saw a new national record on 19th July,2022 when the temperature topped more than 40°C for the first time.

What are the Steps taken to tackle Climate change?

National:

• NAPCCC: To counter the emerging threats from climate change, India released its National Action Plan to Combat Climate Change (NAPCC). It has 8 sub missions including National Solar Mission, National Water Mission etc. India Cooling Action Plan: It provides an integrated approach towards cooling and related areas including reduction in the cooling demand. This would help reduce emissions thereby combating global warming.

Global:

• Paris Agreement: It seeks to keep the rise in global temperatures “well below” 2°C from pre-industrial times, while “pursuing efforts” to limit it to 1.5°C.
• UN SDGs: These are 17 broad goals for achieving sustainable development in the society. Amongst them Goal 13 exclusively focuses on tackling climate change.
• Glasgow Pact: It was finally adopted by 197 parties in 2021 during the COP26 negotiations. It has emphasized that stronger action in the current decade was most critical for achieving the 1.5-degree target.

What is the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)?

• The WMO is an intergovernmental organization with a membership of 192 Member States and Territories.
• India is a member of WMO.
• It originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was established after the 1873 Vienna International Meteorological Congress.
• Established by the ratification of the WMO Convention on 23rd March 1950, WMO became the specialized agency of the United Nations for meteorology (weather and climate), operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences.'
• WMO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

Way Forward

• There is a need to focus the efforts on bold policies and solutions that can quickly transform the way the resources are produced and consumed.
• People and partnerships have to be the central approach, whether it is to create new jobs, provide more access and affordability for everyone and to build a cleaner and greener living environment.

National Population Register (NPR)

Context: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has recently highlighted the need to update the National Population Register (NPR) database across the country.

• This is to incorporate the changes due to birth, death, and migration for which demographic and other particulars of each family and individual are to be collected.

What is NPR?

About:

• NPR is a database containing a list of all usual residents of the country.
  • A usual resident for the purposes of NPR is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more and intends to reside there for another six months or more.
• Its objective is to have a comprehensive identity database of people residing in the country.
  • It is generated through house-to-house enumeration during the “house-listing” phase of the Census.
  • The NPR was first collected in 2010 and then updated in 2015.

Legal Backing:

• The NPR is prepared under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.
• It is mandatory for every “usual resident of India” to register in the NPR.

Significance:

• It will streamline data of residents across various platforms.
  • For instance, it is common to find a different date of birth of a person on different government documents. NPR will help eliminate that.
• It will help the government formulate its policies better and also aid national security.
• It will help to target government beneficiaries in a better way and also further cut down paperwork and red tape in a similar manner that Aadhaar has done.
• It will help in implementing the idea of ‘One Identity Card’ that has been recently floated by the government.
  • ‘One Identity Card’ seeks to replace duplicate and siloed documentations of Aadhaar card, voter ID card, banking card, passport, and more.

NPR and NRC:

• According to Citizenship Rules 2003, NPR is the first step towards compilation of a National Register of Citizens (NRC). After a list of residents is created (i.e., NPR), a nationwide NRC could go about verifying the citizens from that list.
• However, unlike the NRC, the NPR is not a citizenship enumeration drive as it records even a foreigner staying in a locality for more than six months.

What is the National Register of Citizens?

• National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a register prepared after the conduct of the Census of 1951 in respect of each village, showing the houses or holdings in a serial order and indicating against each house or holding the number and names of persons staying therein.
• The NRC was published only once in 1951 and since then, it has not been updated for the nation until recently.
  • It has been updated in Assam only for now and the government plans to update it nationally as well.

What is the Difference between NPR and Census?

Objective:

• The census involves a detailed questionnaire - there were 29 items to be filled up in the 2011 census - aimed at eliciting the particulars of every person, including age, sex, marital status, children, occupation, birthplace, mother tongue, religion, disability and whether they belonged to any Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe.
• On the other hand, the NPR collects basic demographic data and biometric particulars.

Legal Basis:

• The census is legally backed by the Census Act, 1948.
• The NPR is a mechanism outlined in a set of rules framed under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

What is the Citizenship Act, 1955?

About:

• The Citizenship Act,1955 provides various ways in which citizenship may be acquired.
• It provides for citizenship by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation and by incorporation of the territory into India.
• In addition, it regulates the registration of Overseas Citizen of India Cardholders (OCIs) and their rights.
• An OCI is entitled to some benefits such as a multiple-entry, multipurpose lifelong visa to visit India.

CAA 2019: The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) was introduced in 2019 to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955.

• It provides citizenship on the basis of religion to six undocumented non-Muslim communities (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians) from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who entered India on or before 31st December, 2014.
• It exempts the members of the six communities from any criminal case under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport Act, 1920.
• The two Acts specify punishment for entering the country illegally and staying here on expired visas and permits.

All Employees Can opt for PF Pensions Scheme

Context: In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld the Employees’ Pension (Amendment) Scheme, 2014 but quashed the threshold limit of Rs 15,000 monthly salary for joining the pension fund. 

What is the Employees' Pension Scheme?

About:

• EPF Pension, which is technically known as Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS), is a social security scheme provided by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
  • The scheme was first launched in 1995.
• The scheme, provided by EPFO, makes provisions for pensions for the employees in the organized sector after the retirement at the age of 58 years.
• Employees who are members of EPF automatically become members of EPS.
  • Both employer and employee contribute 12% of employee’s monthly salary (basic wages plus dearness allowance) to the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) scheme.
  • EPF scheme is mandatory for employees who draw a basic wage of Rs. 15,000 per month.
  • Of the employer's share of 12 %, 8.33 % is diverted towards the EPS.
  • Central Govt. also contributes 1.16% of employees’ monthly salary.

EPS (Amendment) Scheme, 2014:

• The EPS amendment of 2014, had raised the pensionable salary cap to Rs 15,000 a month from Rs 6,500 a month, and allowed only existing members (as on September 1, 2014) along with their employers exercise the option to contribute 8.33% on their actual salaries (if it exceeded the cap) towards the pension fund. This was extendable by another six months at the discretion of the Regional Provident Fund Commissioner.
• It, however, excluded new members who earned above 15,000 and joined after September 2014 from the scheme completely.
• The amendment, however, required such members to contribute an additional 1.16% of their salary exceeding ₹ 15,000 a month towards the pension fund.

What is the SC’s Judgement?

• Under Article 142, the Supreme Court ruling gives EPFO members, who have availed of the EPS, another opportunity over the next four months to opt and contribute up to 8.33% of their actual salaries as against 8.33% of the pensionable salary capped at Rs 15,000 a month towards pension.
  • Under the pre-amendment scheme, the pensionable salary was computed as the average of the salary drawn during the 12 months prior to exit from membership of the Pension Fund. The amendments raised this to an average of 60 months prior to exit from the membership of the Pension Fund.
• The court held the amendment requiring members to contribute an additional 1.16 % of their salary exceeding Rs 15,000 a month as ultra vires the provisions of the Employees’ Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

What are the Implications?

• People who have subscribed to EPF will be able to get pension on their full salary instead of Rs. 15000 cap.
• Employees and Employers, who have contributed to the EPF without any approval from Assistant Provident Commissioner, may not get the benefit of judgment.
• Amendment done in 2014 may remain applicable to the companies which manage their EPF corpus through trusts.

Greenwashing

Context: Recently, the United Nations Secretary General has warned private corporations to desist the practice of Greenwashing and mend their ways within a year.

• The general has also directed to set up an expert group solely to look into the practice.

What is Greenwashing?

About:

• The term greenwashing was first used in 1986 by Jay Westerveld, an American environmentalist and researcher.
• Greenwashing is the practice in which firms and governments mark all kinds of activities as climate-friendly, as something that would lead to emissions reduction, or avoidance of emissions.
  • Many of these claims are unverifiable, misleading, or dubious.
  • While it helps in boosting the image of the entity, they do nothing in the fight against climate change.
  • Several multinational corporations, including oil giants like Shell and BP, and Coca Cola have faced accusations of greenwashing.
• Greenwashing is prevalent across a whole range of environmental activities.
  • Developed countries are often accused of greenwashing their normal business investments in developing countries by highlighting climate co-benefits of the financial flows, sometimes with very little justification.

Impact of Greenwashing:

• Greenwashing presents a false picture of the progress being made on the climate change front, pushing the world towards disaster, while at the same time, rewarding entities for irresponsible behaviour.

Challenges in Regulating:

• The processes and products that can potentially cut emissions are so many that it is practically impossible to monitor and verify all.
• The processes, methodologies and institutions to measure, report, create standards, verify claims and grant certifications are still being set up.
• Large number of organisations have sprung up claiming expertise in these areas and offering their services for a fee. Many of these organisations lack integrity and robustness, but their services are still availed by corporations because it makes them look good.

How does Greenwashing Affect Carbon Credits?

About Carbon Credit:

• A carbon credit (also known as carbon offset) is a credit for greenhouse emissions reduced or removed from the atmosphere by an emission reduction project, which can be used by governments, industry, or private individuals to compensate for the emissions they generate elsewhere.
• Those that cannot easily reduce emissions can still operate, at a higher financial cost.
• Carbon credits are based on the "cap-and-trade" model that was used to reduce sulfur pollution in the 1990s.
• One carbon credit is equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide, or in some markets, carbon dioxide equivalent gases (CO2-eq).

Effect of Greenwashing on Carbon Credit:

• Informal Markets: There are now credits available for all kinds of activities such as for growing trees, for planting a certain kind of crop, for installing energy-efficient equipment in office buildings. The credits for such activities are often certified by unofficial third-party companies and sold to others. Such transactions have been flagged for lack of integrity and double counting.
• Credibility: Countries like India or Brazil had accumulated huge carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol and wanted these to be transitioned to the new market being set up under the Paris Agreement. But many developed countries resisted this, questioning the integrity of the credits and claiming they did not accurately represent reductions in emissions. Carbon offsets from forests are one of the most controversial.

Way Forward

• Corporations pursuing net zero targets must not be allowed to make fresh investments in fossil fuels.
  • They must also be asked to present short-term emission reduction goals on the path to achieving net zero.
• Corporations should also use offset mechanisms at the start of their journey to net-zero status.
• Priority should be focused towards the creation of regulatory structures and standards to monitor greenwashing.

Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment, 2022

Context: Recently, the Union Minister of Jal Shakti released the Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment Report for the entire country for the year 2022.

What are the Highlights of the Assessment?

Findings:

• The total annual ground water recharge is 437.60 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) and the annual ground water extraction is 239.16 BCM.
  • Assessment indicates an increase in ground water recharge.
  • By comparison, an assessment in 2020 found that the annual groundwater recharge was 436 bcm and extraction 245 bcm.
  • Groundwater Recharge is a (hydrologic) process where the water from the surface of the earth seeps downwards and gets collected in aquifers. So, the process is also known as deep drainage or deep percolation.
• The 2022 assessment suggests that groundwater extraction is the lowest since 2004, when it was 231 bcm.
• Further, out of the total 7089 assessment units in the country, 1006 units have been categorized as ‘Over-exploited’.
• About 87% of total annual groundwater extraction i.e., 208.49 bcm is for irrigation use. Only 30.69 bcm is for Domestic & Industrial use, which is about 13 % of the total extraction.

State wise Groundwater Extraction:

• The overall stage of groundwater extraction in the country is 60.08%.
• The stage of ground water extraction is very high in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu where it is more than 100%.
• In the states of Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and UTs of Chandigarh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry, the stage of ground water extraction is between 60-100%.
• In the rest of the states, the stage of ground water extraction is below 60 %.

What is the Status of Groundwater in India?

About:

• India is the largest user of groundwater with a fourth of the total global withdrawal. Indian cities cater to about 48% of its water supply from groundwater.
• There are over 4,400 statutory towns and cities in India, with around 400 million residents, which will increase by up to 300 million by 2050.

Issues with Groundwater Depletion:

• The unmanaged groundwater and increasing population may result in seasonal water shortages by 2050 for an estimated 3.1 billion people and perpetual water shortage for almost a billion.
• Further, water and food security will also be compromised and lead to poverty in the cities despite having good infrastructure development.

What are the Challenges with Management of Groundwater in India?

Unregulated extraction

• Groundwater, regarded as a “common pool resource”, has historically witnessed little control over its extraction.
• Driven by a rising population, urbanisation and expansion of irrigation activities, groundwater extraction has been on the rise for several decades.

Excessive Irrigation:

• Groundwater irrigation popularised in the 1970s has led to socio-economic well-being, increased productivity and better livelihoods.
• Poor Knowledge of Groundwater Management Systems:
• The mismatch in demand and supply at the local level represents a large part of the problem in India.
• A growing population or rampant urban development are two examples of the reasons behind this phenomenon, but they may be less direct.
• For example, better economic status of a population may assert more demand for water supply and distribution.

Groundwater Pollution:

• Water quality data obtained by the Central Ground Water Board(CGWB) shows that groundwater in as many as 154 districts across 21 states has arsenic contamination.
• The quality is largely compromised on accounts of anthropogenic activities and geogenic sources.
• This further raises the level of contamination as heavy metal concentration in the earth’s crust is higher than on the surface.
• Additionally, surface water pollution also affects groundwater quality as pollutants at the water surface percolate through the layers of the land, contaminating groundwater, and may even alter the soil structure in case of oil leakages or spillage.

Climate Change:

• The cumulative effect of all the challenges mentioned above is intensified by the climate shocks experienced by the country.
• The problems groundwater faces in India feeds into worsening the climate crisis, which further deepens the distress associated with groundwater availability.
• Disturbances in the hydrological cycle causing long spells of floods and droughts adversely affect the quality and quantity of groundwater.
• For example, flood events risk increased runoff of chemicals and biotic contaminants into groundwater.

What are the Initiatives Taken by the Government?

• Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal): It is a Rs. 6000 crore Central Sector Scheme with World Bank assistance, for sustainable management of ground water resources with community participation.
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA): It was launched in 2019 in 256 water stressed districts in the country to improve water availability including ground water conditions in these areas.
  • It has special emphasis on creation of recharge structures, rejuvenation of traditional water bodies, intensive afforestation etc.
• Aquifer Mapping and Management Programme: The CGWB has taken up Aquifer Mapping and Management Programme.
  • The program is aimed to delineate aquifer disposition and their characterization for preparation of aquifer/ area specific groundwater management plans with community participation.
• Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT): The Mission focuses on development of basic urban infrastructure in the AMRUT cities, such as water supply, sewerage & septage management, storm water drainage, green spaces & parks, and non-motorized urban transport.

Way Forward

Integrated Water Resource Management framework:

• There is a need to focus on the Integrated Water Resource Management framework. It promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources.

Adopting Water Sensitive Urban Design:

• To begin with, adopting water-sensitive urban design and planning can help maintain the water cycle by managing groundwater, surface water and rainwater for water demand and supply.

Provision for Water Recycle and Reuse:

• Provision for wastewater recycle and its reuse to promote the circular economy of one water cycle will also help in source sustainability and groundwater pollution mitigation.

Other Interventions:

• Interventions like rainwater harvesting, stormwater harvesting, rain-garden and bio-retention ponds that intercept rainfall with vegetated land are low-maintenance alternatives to conventional systems. These help in groundwater recharge and urban flood mitigation.