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Health Emergency: A Pandora’s box?

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     Don’t you think there should be a holistic and interdisciplinary           approach that work with the human-animal-environment interface?      An approach to design and implement programmes, policies,   legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and   work together to achieve better public health outcomes. Countries   with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries –   will be the least able to cope to prepare and respond in case of health emergencies. Shouldn’t we work towards building climate-resilient health systems and tracking national progress in protecting health from climate change and other environmental manoeuvres? The substantial risks posed by climate change to health, the likely increased risks of vector-borne diseases due to climate change reinforces the need for a preventive approach and integrated collaboration. The interdependence of human, animal, plant and ecosystem health is recognized globally. Various initiatives and stak
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Is Paris Agreement Enough or we think beyond?

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  “Governments should declare a climate emergency in their countries as the world faces a "catastrophic temperature rise. Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency? The commitments to keep the global temperature rise this century to below 2 degrees Celsius did not go far enough and are not being met: "Five years after Paris, we are still not going in the right direction"." UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris accord. India worked hard on the climate agenda and has already reduced the emissions intensity by 21% from 2005 levels while augmenting solar capacity from 2.63 GW in 2014 to 36 GW in 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at Climate Action Summit marking five years of the landmark Paris agreement said “India is not only on track to achieve its Paris agreement but to exceed them beyond expectations. We must not only revise our ambitions but also review our achievements a
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Mantra of climate change: Reduce & Reverse emissions

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 By Dr. Arvind Kumar, President, India Water Foundation Global fossil CO2 emissions reached a new record high of 36.7 Gigatonnes in 2019, 62% higher than in 1990 with human activities emitted 42 billion tonnes of CO ₂ in 2019 alone. With CO2 emissions in the early 2020s fallen by an estimated 7% due to COVID-19, let us not take a step back to further our efforts towards curbing the emissions and especially when we have to ensure our commitments under Paris Agreement. Given this glaring statistics, how can we fill the gaps to close this climate variability? The above facts are presented in United in Science Report 2020 compiled by World Meteorological Organization under the direction of the United Nations Secretary-General to bring together the latest climate science related updates from a group of key global partner organizations such as Global Carbon Project (GCP), UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (UNESCO-IOC), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), UN Env
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Achieving Biodiversity Targets Aptly?

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“As nature degrades, new opportunities emerge for the spread to humans and animals of devastating diseases like this year’s corona virus’ remarks Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Director of the Convention on Biological Diversity. This is in light of the Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5), released by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The publication offers a rich overview of the state of nature and reflects a report card on progress of 20 global biodiversity Aichi targets agreed in 2010. With a 2020 deadline, what insights does it present? Highlighting that we still lack behind in targets relating to sustainable agriculture, pollution, conservation of species, corals, forests, etc and in the light of non-achieving these targets, we are likely to face pandemics like the current COVID-19, wild fires, water crisis and so on. The report calls for paradigm shift from “business as usual” across a range of human activities but showcases concern to safeguard eco-systems and pr
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OZONE on the road to Recovery

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  By Dr. Arvind Kumar, President, India Water Foundation Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said, ‘World Ozone Day is observed to create awareness related to climate change and ozone depletion and asked people to look for ozone-friendly, HCFC free, energy-efficient appliances to minimize the Ozone layer impact’. Indeed, without this delicate natural umbrella, our lives and livelihoods would rather be unproductive and unsustainable. Today we celebrate 35 years of global ozone layer protection marking “Ozone for life”, entire globe bows in solitary to the landmark Vienna Convention and Montreal Protocol. What is so special about it that assisted in transitioning our eco-friendly pathways towards healthy life-supporting OZONE Layer? Scientific confirmation of the depletion of the ozone layer by products such as CFCs, HCFCs, family of halons prompted the international community to establish a mechanisms and time-targeted actions towards protection of the ozone layer. According to “Scient
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Extending the gains beyond Lockdown amidst COVID-19

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By Dr. Arvind Kumar, President, India Water Foundation This difficult challenge amidst COVID-19 pandemic is perhaps the right time to implement initiatives and solutions that promote clean air for all and support cleaner air strategies. Residents of the national capital of Delhi inhaled the cleanest air in more than five years, with Air Quality Index (AQI) count settling at 41, the capital’s lowest reading, according to a report in the Times of India. This is an achievement indeed, but the gains earned during the pandemic lockdown should not fade away in despair when normalcy prevails. Effective governance is essential in terms of systematic collection of air quality data along with a scientific approach to air quality management. L ow-cost sensor technology can be installed at multiple places to monitor the data and this collection of multiple data can be helpful in synchronizing the related issues and in formulation of the policies accordingly. System of #AirQuality and Weather For
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Re-envision Investment: Water or Gold?

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South Africa has GOLD, but no WATER. Crisis has already hit Cape Town, South Africa, which neared its day zero in 2018 because they had no water. On the flip side, with Gold blooming during COVID-19 and trading at $1,820 per ounce amidst the pandemic, is it becoming a safety valve for investment? With World Bank estimating that delivery of UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 by 2030 requires over $100bn of additional capex globally every year, can we anticipate investing in ‘White Gold rather than Yellow’? The choice is yours! ‘WATER has emerged as the new OIL’ and threatened socio-economic gains and has raised a potent fuel for wars and conflict with changing geo-political situation beyond national borders. Water scarcity is one of the largest global risks over the next decade, according to the World Economic Forum. It is seen that Tanzania’s mining sector has contributed over 15% over 3 months and investors are increasingly looking at gold as an important investment whil
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