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CLIMATE ACTIONS - 'NOW OR NEVER'

MONOJ GOGOI 
Several parts of India have been undergoing severe heatwaves since April and this year April becomes hottest April after eight decades. News reports, national and international, claim that more than 25 people have died so far due to high atmospheric temperatures.
 On the one hand mercury level is going up and simultaneously power cuts become a major issue particularly in northern and western states of the country. The cause of the disruption in supply of electricity is identified as limited coal storage in coal-based thermal power plants. In the last two years power consumption was relatively lower in the country due to the lockdowns imposed understanding the gravity of Covid-19 situations. But for this year the government did not pay much attention this issue and some issues arose in grids too. But the point is to be speculated here is that the combustion of fossil fuels, coal and gas, emit immense amount of Green House Gases to atmosphere which contributes in increasing global warming. This has been going to be a vicious circle, ‘more hot more burning of coal, more burning of coal more warming’.
 The scientists from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a report last month that ‘now or never’. This means we have a very little chance to avoid climate catastrophes in recent future. We are heading towards the tipping point, but still we are ignoring. According to climate scientists the temperature of the earth is going to rise 1.5C in next five years from the period of pre-industrial era. In Conference of the Parties – 15 (CoP – 15), Paris Agreement it was a resolution that only 1.5C would be allowed to increase in 2100, if this benchmark wouldn’t be possible than it wouldn’t be more than 2.0C. But the temperature is rising alarmingly. 
The COP – 26, which was held last November in Glasgow, India just committed from ‘phase out coal’ to ‘phase down coal’ towards the last minutes of the conference. All the climate events – floods, droughts, desertification, cyclones, storms, landslides, avalanches, tornadoes in various intensities and frequencies, are reminding us every time that we need to take up steps to keep the earth as liveable planet for the upcoming generations.
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