UPSC Environment Ecology Agriculture Notes

2023-07-18 17:32:50 #Environment

■ What are the provisions of the High Seas Treaty?

Recently, the UN adopted the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) or the High Seas Treaty.

It became the third agreement to be approved under UNCLOS

● The Background:

The idea of protecting the marine environment emerged in 2002.

By 2008, the need for implementing an agreement was recognised

This led to the UNGA resolution in 2015 to form a Preparatory Committee to create the treaty.

The Committee recommended the holding of intergovernmental conferences (IGC) and after negotiations, the treaty was adopted in 2023.

The treaty’s objective is to implement international regulations to protect life in oceans beyond national jurisdiction through international cooperation.

● The High Seas Treaty:

The treaty aims to address critical issues such as the increasing sea surface temperatures, overexploitation of marine biodiversity, overfishing, coastal pollution, and unsustainable practices beyond national jurisdiction.

It aims to establish marine protected areas to protect oceans from human activities through a “three-quarterly majority vote,”

It mandates sharing of scientific information and monetary benefits through installing a “clear house mechanism.”

Through the mechanism, information on marine protected areas, marine genetic resources, and “area-based management tools” will be open to access for all parties.

This is done to bring transparency and boost cooperation.

The last pillar of the treaty is capacity building and marine technology.

The Scientific and Technical Body will play a significant role in environmental impact assessment.

It will be creating standards and guidelines for assessment procedures, and helping countries with less capacity in carrying out assessments.

This will facilitate the parties to trace future impacts, identify data gaps, and bring out research priorities.

● Reasons for the delay:

The marine genetic resources issue was the treaty’s most contended element due to the absence of a provision to monitor information sharing.

The use of the phrases “promote” or “ensure” in different parts of the treaty, especially with respect to the sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources, was heavily debated over.

There was prolonged negotiation over the adjacency issue too.

● Who opposed the treaty?

Many developed countries opposed the treaty as they stand by private entities which are at the forefront of advanced research and development in marine technology

Patents relating to marine genetic resources are held by a small group of private companies

Russia and China also are not in favour of the treaty.

Russia argues that the treaty does not balance conservation and sustainability.

SOURCE - THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-17 17:30:39 #Environment

■ What are the provisions of the High Seas Treaty?

Recently, the UN adopted the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) or the High Seas Treaty.

It became the third agreement to be approved under UNCLOS

● The Background:

The idea of protecting the marine environment emerged in 2002.

By 2008, the need for implementing an agreement was recognised

This led to the UNGA resolution in 2015 to form a Preparatory Committee to create the treaty.

The Committee recommended the holding of intergovernmental conferences (IGC) and after negotiations, the treaty was adopted in 2023.

The treaty’s objective is to implement international regulations to protect life in oceans beyond national jurisdiction through international cooperation.

● The High Seas Treaty:

The treaty aims to address critical issues such as the increasing sea surface temperatures, overexploitation of marine biodiversity, overfishing, coastal pollution, and unsustainable practices beyond national jurisdiction.

It aims to establish marine protected areas to protect oceans from human activities through a “three-quarterly majority vote,”

It mandates sharing of scientific information and monetary benefits through installing a “clear house mechanism.”

Through the mechanism, information on marine protected areas, marine genetic resources, and “area-based management tools” will be open to access for all parties.

This is done to bring transparency and boost cooperation.

The last pillar of the treaty is capacity building and marine technology.

The Scientific and Technical Body will play a significant role in environmental impact assessment.

It will be creating standards and guidelines for assessment procedures, and helping countries with less capacity in carrying out assessments.

This will facilitate the parties to trace future impacts, identify data gaps, and bring out research priorities.

● Reasons for the delay:

The marine genetic resources issue was the treaty’s most contended element due to the absence of a provision to monitor information sharing.

The use of the phrases “promote” or “ensure” in different parts of the treaty, especially with respect to the sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources, was heavily debated over.

There was prolonged negotiation over the adjacency issue too.

● Who opposed the treaty?

Many developed countries opposed the treaty as they stand by private entities which are at the forefront of advanced research and development in marine technology

Patents relating to marine genetic resources are held by a small group of private companies

Russia and China also are not in favour of the treaty.

Russia argues that the treaty does not balance conservation and sustainability.

SOURCE -THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-16 17:30:09 #Environment

■ Global tropical primary forest cover continued to decline unabated in 2022-

According to a research by the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch, the tropical areas lost 4.1 million hectares of forest cover per minute in 2022

This forest loss produced 2.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, which is almost the same as India’s annual emissions due to the combustion of fossil fuels.

● World Resources Institute:

WRI is a global research organisation that focuses on six critical issues at the intersection of environment and development viz.

Climate

Energy

Food

Forests

Water

Cities and transport.

It was established in 1982.

Headquarters: Washington, US.

WRI measures progress on two goals

Ending deforestation by 2030

Restoring 350 million hectares (mha) of lost and degraded forests by 2030

● Global Forest Watch:

The Global Forest Watch (GFW) released by World Resources Institute (WRI) is an open source web application to monitor global forests in near real time.

It uses a dataset collated by the University of Maryland, Google, US Geological Survey, and the NASA, besides satellite images, to map tree cover globally

The data used by Global Forest Watch for this analysis is very coarse for India as it doesn’t cover open forest and scrub forest which is a big composition of forests in India.

● Primary Forests:

Primary forests are mature, natural forests that have remained undisturbed in recent history.

They often store more carbon than other forests and are rich sources of biodiversity.

Primary forest loss is almost irreversible in nature

Even if the green cover regrows, a secondary forest is unlikely to match the extent of biodiversity and carbon sequestering capabilities of a primary forest.

According to the University of Maryland, primary forest cover loss in tropical areas in 2022 was 10% more than in 2021.

● Key Findings:

The world is not on track to meet most of its forest-related commitments.

We need to reduce global deforestation by at least 10% every year to meet the 2030 target.

To meet the target of restoring 350 mha of forests globally by 2030, the world needs to increase tree cover by 22 mha per year, between 2021 and 2030.

Despite registering some gains, the overall change in tree cover in the past 20 years was a net loss of 100 mha.

Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the two countries with the most tropical forest cover, and both registered losses of this resource in 2022.

A $500 million agreement was signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2021, in Glasgow, to protect the Democratic Republic of Congo’s forests

But it is yet to have an impact on the deforestation rate in the country.

Indonesia and Malaysia managed to keep their primary forest cover loss to record-low levels in 2022.

● Key Findings on India’s forests:

India lost 43.9 thousand hectares of humid primary forest between 2021 and 2022

This accounts for 17% of the country’s total tree cover loss in the period.

The total tree cover loss in India between 2021 and 2022 was 255, 000 hectares.

The total global tree cover loss in 2022 declined by 10%.

This includes primary, secondary, and planted forests.

This decrease is a direct result of a decrease in fire-related forest losses which decreased 28% from 2021.

SOURCE - THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-15 17:30:46 #Environment

■ What are the provisions of the High Seas Treaty?

Recently, the UN adopted the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) or the High Seas Treaty.

It became the third agreement to be approved under UNCLOS

● The Background:

The idea of protecting the marine environment emerged in 2002.

By 2008, the need for implementing an agreement was recognised

This led to the UNGA resolution in 2015 to form a Preparatory Committee to create the treaty.

The Committee recommended the holding of intergovernmental conferences (IGC) and after negotiations, the treaty was adopted in 2023.

The treaty’s objective is to implement international regulations to protect life in oceans beyond national jurisdiction through international cooperation.

● The High Seas Treaty:

The treaty aims to address critical issues such as the increasing sea surface temperatures, overexploitation of marine biodiversity, overfishing, coastal pollution, and unsustainable practices beyond national jurisdiction.

It aims to establish marine protected areas to protect oceans from human activities through a “three-quarterly majority vote,”

It mandates sharing of scientific information and monetary benefits through installing a “clear house mechanism.”

Through the mechanism, information on marine protected areas, marine genetic resources, and “area-based management tools” will be open to access for all parties.

This is done to bring transparency and boost cooperation.

The last pillar of the treaty is capacity building and marine technology.

The Scientific and Technical Body will play a significant role in environmental impact assessment.

It will be creating standards and guidelines for assessment procedures, and helping countries with less capacity in carrying out assessments.

This will facilitate the parties to trace future impacts, identify data gaps, and bring out research priorities.

● Reasons for the delay:

The marine genetic resources issue was the treaty’s most contended element due to the absence of a provision to monitor information sharing.

The use of the phrases “promote” or “ensure” in different parts of the treaty, especially with respect to the sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources, was heavily debated over.

There was prolonged negotiation over the adjacency issue too.

● Who opposed the treaty?

Many developed countries opposed the treaty as they stand by private entities which are at the forefront of advanced research and development in marine technology

Patents relating to marine genetic resources are held by a small group of private companies

Russia and China also are not in favour of the treaty.

Russia argues that the treaty does not balance conservation and sustainability.

SOURCE - THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-14 17:30:46 #Environment

■ What are the provisions of the High Seas Treaty?

Recently, the UN adopted the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) or the High Seas Treaty.

It became the third agreement to be approved under UNCLOS

● The Background:

The idea of protecting the marine environment emerged in 2002.

By 2008, the need for implementing an agreement was recognised

This led to the UNGA resolution in 2015 to form a Preparatory Committee to create the treaty.

The Committee recommended the holding of intergovernmental conferences (IGC) and after negotiations, the treaty was adopted in 2023.

The treaty’s objective is to implement international regulations to protect life in oceans beyond national jurisdiction through international cooperation.

● The High Seas Treaty:

The treaty aims to address critical issues such as the increasing sea surface temperatures, overexploitation of marine biodiversity, overfishing, coastal pollution, and unsustainable practices beyond national jurisdiction.

It aims to establish marine protected areas to protect oceans from human activities through a “three-quarterly majority vote,”

It mandates sharing of scientific information and monetary benefits through installing a “clear house mechanism.”

Through the mechanism, information on marine protected areas, marine genetic resources, and “area-based management tools” will be open to access for all parties.

This is done to bring transparency and boost cooperation.

The last pillar of the treaty is capacity building and marine technology.

The Scientific and Technical Body will play a significant role in environmental impact assessment.

It will be creating standards and guidelines for assessment procedures, and helping countries with less capacity in carrying out assessments.

This will facilitate the parties to trace future impacts, identify data gaps, and bring out research priorities.

● Reasons for the delay:

The marine genetic resources issue was the treaty’s most contended element due to the absence of a provision to monitor information sharing.

The use of the phrases “promote” or “ensure” in different parts of the treaty, especially with respect to the sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources, was heavily debated over.

There was prolonged negotiation over the adjacency issue too.

● Who opposed the treaty?

Many developed countries opposed the treaty as they stand by private entities which are at the forefront of advanced research and development in marine technology

Patents relating to marine genetic resources are held by a small group of private companies

Russia and China also are not in favour of the treaty.

Russia argues that the treaty does not balance conservation and sustainability.

SOURCE -THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-13 17:30:37 #Agriculture

■ What is the legal row between farmers and PepsiCo?

Recently, the Delhi High Court held that there was “no merit” in the appeal filed by PepsiCo over the patent rights for its ‘unique potato’ variety.

The PPVFRA revoked PepsiCo’s registration with respect to its potato plant variety, ‘FL 2027’

This was done under Section 34 of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act, 2001 (PPV&FR).

● FL 2027:

FL 2027 is a ‘chipping potato’ variety with

low external defects

high dry matter

stable sugars

These characteristics make it highly suitable for the manufacturing of chips.

A certificate of registration for FL 2027 was granted to PepsiCo India in 2016

It conferred it an exclusionary right to market, sell, import, export or distribute FL 2027 for a period of six years.

● PPV&FR Act:

The Act provides an effective framework to conserve and encourage the development of various plant varieties.

It established an effective system to safeguard and recognise the rights of breeders, researchers and farmers to promote agricultural development in the country.

It also facilitates the mushrooming of the Indian seed industry to ensure the availability of high-quality seeds and planting materials to farmers.

● Grounds for revocation under Section 34 of the PPV&FR Act:

The grant of the registration certificate is against public interest.

The registration certificate was granted to an ineligible person

The grant of a registration certificate is based on incorrect information furnished by the applicant

When the breeder does not provide the registrar with the required documents

Failure to provide an alternative denomination for variety registration in case the earlier variety provided is not permissible for registration

Failure of the breeder to provide the required seeds for compulsory licence

Failure to comply with the acts, rules, regulations and directions issued by the Authority

● Why did the court reject the appeal?

In relation to Section 34(a) (incorrect information furnished), it was discovered that PepsiCo had sought the registration of FL 2027 variety as a “new variant” instead of an “extant variant” in its application

To be registered as a “new variant” an additional requirement of ‘novelty’ in addition to ‘distinctiveness’, ‘uniformity’ and ‘stability’ must be satisfied one year before the date of filing of the application for registration.

The court held that FL 2027 could not fulfil the criteria of novelty and was only eligible for registration under “extant variety”.

● Conclusion:

Multinational food processing companies and investors must prioritise the well-being of farmers and their rights

This can be done by developing a comprehensive understanding of India’s local laws, particularly the PPV&FR Act 2001, and recognise the safeguards and protections it provides to farmers.

SOURCE - THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-12 19:01:46 #Environment

■ Don’t Waste the Wastewater-

A recently published study in The Lancet Global Health reiterated the promise of using wastewater for public health surveillance.

This strategy used to monitor the spread of poliovirus within communities, played a role in confirming India’s victory over poliovirus.

It gained fresh relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was identified as an approach for tracking the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

● Wastewater Surveillance:

Wastewater surveillance for known or new health threats offers many benefits for enhancing public health efforts.

It is a cost-effective approach that does not rely on invasive samples from individuals with clinical symptoms.

While our public health surveillance system has improved in recent years, it still faces many implementation challenges.

For instance, according to a recent report by Niti Aayog, the system grapples with issues like uneven coverage and siloed disease-specific efforts.

Incorporating wastewater surveillance could help reduce the reliance on any one source of data.

It could involve systematic sampling and analysis of samples from varied sources such as wastewater ponds in rural areas and centralised sewage systems in urban localities.

These samples would undergo testing to identify markers of disease-causing agents

These data could be compiled together with other sources of health data to provide real-time insights into community-level disease patterns

The integration of wastewater surveillance with existing surveillance mechanisms could help amplify India’s epidemiological capabilities.

This could strengthen the capacity to detect diseases at an early stage, including areas where access to healthcare facilities and diagnostic testing might be limited.

Additionally, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission offers an opportunity for the integration of wastewater surveillance.

Successful integration will rely on public health professionals trained in traditional epidemiological methods and in the management and interpretation of data derived from wastewater surveillance.

● Data Sharing and Wastewater Surveillance:

The promise of wastewater surveillance hinges on data sharing.

This is not just a domestic issue, but also an international consideration.

It is crucial to cultivate an environment of accessibility and cooperative strategies among appropriate agencies, within and beyond borders.

Internally, providing access to wastewater surveillance data to health departments at all levels of government can amplify our capabilities for disease monitoring and response.

Sharing wastewater surveillance data with global health agencies could foster collaborative efforts in disease tracking and mitigation.

This can be a key element in building a robust global health infrastructure capable of rapidly responding to public health threats.

● Political backing and funding:

It is encouraging that India has already championed public health surveillance and mobilised resources accordingly.

The integration of wastewater surveillance is fully aligned with Niti Aayog’s current vision.

Other innovative forms of disease surveillance include social media surveillance and occupational health surveillance.

● Conclusion:

India’s leadership at international platforms like the G20 could serve as an opportunity to elevate the significance of innovative approaches to disease surveillance.

With the world's attention focused on global health security, these forums provide an opportunity to advocate for enhanced public health surveillance that integrates wastewater sampling as an essential component of health infrastructure.

Through strategic collaborations and proactive leadership, India can lead the way in integrated public health surveillance, offering a model that is alert, predictive, responsive, and robust.

SOURCE - THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-11 17:30:36 #Environment

■ Global tropical primary forest cover continued to decline unabated in 2022-

According to a research by the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch, the tropical areas lost 4.1 million hectares of forest cover per minute in 2022

This forest loss produced 2.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, which is almost the same as India’s annual emissions due to the combustion of fossil fuels.

● World Resources Institute:

WRI is a global research organisation that focuses on six critical issues at the intersection of environment and development viz.

Climate

Energy

Food

Forests

Water

Cities and transport.

It was established in 1982.

Headquarters: Washington, US.

WRI measures progress on two goals

Ending deforestation by 2030

Restoring 350 million hectares (mha) of lost and degraded forests by 2030

● Global Forest Watch:

The Global Forest Watch (GFW) released by World Resources Institute (WRI) is an open source web application to monitor global forests in near real time.

It uses a dataset collated by the University of Maryland, Google, US Geological Survey, and the NASA, besides satellite images, to map tree cover globally

The data used by Global Forest Watch for this analysis is very coarse for India as it doesn’t cover open forest and scrub forest which is a big composition of forests in India.

● Primary Forests:

Primary forests are mature, natural forests that have remained undisturbed in recent history.

They often store more carbon than other forests and are rich sources of biodiversity.

Primary forest loss is almost irreversible in nature

Even if the green cover regrows, a secondary forest is unlikely to match the extent of biodiversity and carbon sequestering capabilities of a primary forest.

According to the University of Maryland, primary forest cover loss in tropical areas in 2022 was 10% more than in 2021.

● Key Findings:

The world is not on track to meet most of its forest-related commitments.

We need to reduce global deforestation by at least 10% every year to meet the 2030 target.

To meet the target of restoring 350 mha of forests globally by 2030, the world needs to increase tree cover by 22 mha per year, between 2021 and 2030.

Despite registering some gains, the overall change in tree cover in the past 20 years was a net loss of 100 mha.

Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the two countries with the most tropical forest cover, and both registered losses of this resource in 2022.

A $500 million agreement was signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2021, in Glasgow, to protect the Democratic Republic of Congo’s forests

But it is yet to have an impact on the deforestation rate in the country.

Indonesia and Malaysia managed to keep their primary forest cover loss to record-low levels in 2022.

● Key Findings on India’s forests:

India lost 43.9 thousand hectares of humid primary forest between 2021 and 2022

This accounts for 17% of the country’s total tree cover loss in the period.

The total tree cover loss in India between 2021 and 2022 was 255, 000 hectares.

The total global tree cover loss in 2022 declined by 10%.

This includes primary, secondary, and planted forests.

This decrease is a direct result of a decrease in fire-related forest losses which decreased 28% from 2021.

SOURCE - THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-10 17:31:02 #Environment

■ How can we transition to a low-carbon city?

In 2020, cities dumped a whopping 29 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Therefore, given the significant impact that cities have on the environment, low-carbon cities are crucial to mitigate the effects of climate change.

● Low carbon city:

A low-carbon city or decarbonised city is an city based on energy sources that produce low levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

GHG emissions due to human activity are the dominant cause of observed climate change since the mid-20th century.

Transitioning to low-carbon or even net-zero cities requires us to integrate mitigation and adaptation options in multiple sectors. This is called the ‘sector-coupling approach’, and it is necessary to decarbonise urban systems.

● Energy-system transitions:

An energy-system transition could reduce urban carbon dioxide emissions by around 74%.

With rapid advancements in clean energy and related technologies and nosediving prices, we have also crossed the economic and technological barriers to implementing low-carbon solutions.

The transition must be implemented both on the demand and the supply sides.

Mitigation options on the supply side include phasing out fossil fuels and increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix, and using carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.

On the demand side, using the ‘avoid, shift, improve’ framework would entail reducing the demand for materials and energy, and substituting the demand for fossil fuels with renewables.

Second, to address residual emissions in the energy sector, we must implement carbon-dioxide removal (CDR) technologies.

Indeed, we have the appropriate technologies and knowledge base to build net-zero urban systems through energy transitions.

● Just energy transition:

Energy systems are directly and indirectly linked to livelihoods, local economic development, and the socio-economic well-being of people engaged in diverse sectors.

So a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to ensure a socially and environmentally just transition.

Broadly, the energy supply needs to be balanced against fast-growing energy demand (due to urbanisation, e.g.), the needs of energy security, and exports.

Additional justice concerns include -land dispossession related to large-scale renewable energy projects, spatial concentration of poverty, the marginalisation of some communities, gendered impacts, and the reliance on coal for livelihoods.

● Conclusion:

Transitioning to low-carbon cities is essentially a commitment to social equity and justice.

This is why we must account for the complex, multifaceted issues in different regions and contexts, and adopt a wholesome approach that is attentive to multiple voices and experiences.

SOURCE - THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana

2023-07-09 17:30:46 #Environment

■ What are the provisions of the High Seas Treaty?

Recently, the UN adopted the Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) or the High Seas Treaty.

It became the third agreement to be approved under UNCLOS

● The Background:

The idea of protecting the marine environment emerged in 2002.

By 2008, the need for implementing an agreement was recognised

This led to the UNGA resolution in 2015 to form a Preparatory Committee to create the treaty.

The Committee recommended the holding of intergovernmental conferences (IGC) and after negotiations, the treaty was adopted in 2023.

The treaty’s objective is to implement international regulations to protect life in oceans beyond national jurisdiction through international cooperation.

● The High Seas Treaty:

The treaty aims to address critical issues such as the increasing sea surface temperatures, overexploitation of marine biodiversity, overfishing, coastal pollution, and unsustainable practices beyond national jurisdiction.

It aims to establish marine protected areas to protect oceans from human activities through a “three-quarterly majority vote,”

It mandates sharing of scientific information and monetary benefits through installing a “clear house mechanism.”

Through the mechanism, information on marine protected areas, marine genetic resources, and “area-based management tools” will be open to access for all parties.

This is done to bring transparency and boost cooperation.

The last pillar of the treaty is capacity building and marine technology.

The Scientific and Technical Body will play a significant role in environmental impact assessment.

It will be creating standards and guidelines for assessment procedures, and helping countries with less capacity in carrying out assessments.

This will facilitate the parties to trace future impacts, identify data gaps, and bring out research priorities.

● Reasons for the delay:

The marine genetic resources issue was the treaty’s most contended element due to the absence of a provision to monitor information sharing.

The use of the phrases “promote” or “ensure” in different parts of the treaty, especially with respect to the sharing of benefits from marine genetic resources, was heavily debated over.

There was prolonged negotiation over the adjacency issue too.

● Who opposed the treaty?

Many developed countries opposed the treaty as they stand by private entities which are at the forefront of advanced research and development in marine technology

Patents relating to marine genetic resources are held by a small group of private companies

Russia and China also are not in favour of the treaty.

Russia argues that the treaty does not balance conservation and sustainability.

SOURCE - THE HINDU Buka / Bagaimana