After weeks of speculation, India finally ratified the Paris Agreement on October 2, 2016 which is also the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, more popularly known as the “Father of the Nation”. This symbolic gesture by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team makes India the 62nd country (out of the 180 countries that signed the Paris Agreement in 2015) to deposit its legal instrument of ratification with the United Nations (UN) Secretary General.
On 18th September 2016, four militants stormed a military base at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir. Security analysts began pointing fingers atLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), given its track record of targeting security personnel and infrastructure in Kashmir.
On 9 August 2016, India’s Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Anil Madhav Dave, informed the LokSabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament) that approximately 1,36,000 climate change-related deaths are projected in India, primarilyowing to decreased food production, according to an Oxford University study.
With the failure of July 14-15 talks held between India and Pakistan to settle concerns raised by the latter over the former’s dam projects (Kishenganga and Ratle) over the Western rivers (Jhelum’s tributary and Chenab respectively) of the Indus Basin (allocated to the latter under the Indus Waters Treaty), the latter has now decided to take the matter to the International Court of Arbitration (ICA), based in the Hague.
India is all set to embark on exploration and other developmental activities pertaining to polymetallic sulphides in the Indian Ocean after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi approved the signing of a contract between the Minister of Earth Sciences and the International Seabed Authority (ISA), that formalises India’s exclusive rights for exploration in the Central Indian Ridge, and South Wes
The ongoing drought conditions in India have affected 256 districts in 10 different states and more than 300 million people. Another figure quoted by the Minister of Rural Development and Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation stand at 313 districts in 13 states. Acute water scarcity/stress in many parts of the country has resulted in severe distress in many ways, including loss of crop, farmer suicides and rural-to-urban migration.
India, being one of the most environmentally vulnerable countries, is incontrovertibly at the centre of various discourses related to impact of environmental changes on human security, conflicts driven or exacerbated by exploitation of natural resources, as well as the potential for promoting stability and peace through sustainable development and environmental cooperation. Integral to adelphi’s project – “Environment, Conflict and Cooperation” (ECC) – these issues have been dealt with at length on various occasions at various platforms.
At a time when migration has become one of the biggest challenges that the European Union confronts, the debate surrounding the role of environmental factors in fuelling conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, causing migration, is gaining momentum. Ever since the Arab Spring erupted in 2010-2011, several studies have sprung up that link it to climate factors – affecting wheat production in countries such as Russia and China, leading to a spike in global wheat prices and in turn exacerbating the socio-political crisis in countries like Egypt.
Now that the much-awaited Paris (COP-21) Summit has come to an end with a broad consensus on the post-2020 – termed a historic breakthrough – the next steps towards planning and implementation would be taken in an incremental fashion. Amidst fears of derailment of talks due to differences between the developed and developing countries, the least developed and island nations played a crucial role in pressing hard their demands and making sure that an agreement is reached.
The Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh experienced the worst deluge during the months of November and December in 2015, due to freak weather conditions that developed in the Indian Ocean. On December 1, 2015 Chennai (Tamil Nadu’s capital city) received record 490 mm of rain over 24 hours.
