Climate change may lead to spread of malaria, crop loss: Govt

A study to assess the impacts of climate change has projected the spread of malaria to newer areas, government today said.
The study also projects a variable rate of change in agricultural production including losses in some crops and change in the composition of forest and net primary productivity, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
The study titled 'Climate change and India: a 4x4 assessment - a sectoral and regional analysis for 2030s' was published in 2010 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
"The study projects a variable rate of change in agricultural production including losses in some crops and changes in the composition of the forest and net primary productivity. Extreme precipitation events are likely to increase in all regions.

"Water yield is project to increase in the Himalayan region whereas it is likely to be variable across other three regions. Malaria is project to spread to new areas and threats of its transmission is likely to increase in duration," the study said.
It also assessed impacts of climate change on four key sectors of Indian economy - agriculture, water, forest and human health in four climate sensitive regions of India - Himalayan region, Western Ghats, the coastal region and the Northeast region.

Replying to another question, Javadekar said during the recently concluded G-20 Summit in Turkey, India said that it intends to meet its vast and growing energy needs in a sustainable manner.

India has targeted additional 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022, cut back subsidies on fossil fuel and imposed carbon cess on coal. It also aims that around 40 per cent of its energy shall come from non-fossil fuel based energy sources by 2030.
"India has further advocated measures like increase research and development in clean and renewable energy and reduce cost of it to make it affordable and accessible for all," Javadekar said.
Replying to another question, Javadekar said technology
transfer and financial assistance are the key issues which India has been raising in the Conference of Parties (CoP) to United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) and other multilateral fora.

He added that "India has accessed financial assistance of USD 289 million from Global Environment Facility (GEF) and USD 4.90 million from Adaptation Fund Board (AFB) of UNFCCC apart from bilateral projects."
The Minister said that to combat impacts of climate change, the government is promoting technologies and practices such as sustainable land management, climate resilient agriculture, water efficiency, clean coal technologies, super critical technologies for coal-based power plants, replacement of all incandescent lamps with light emitting diode (LED) bulbs, amongst others.
Javadekar said that India is party to UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol but does not have any binding mitigation obligations under both.

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Replying to another question, Javadekar said that the UNFCCC, the international agreement with the objective of stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, is not a legally binding convention while India is a party to it.
Notably, around 196 nations adopted a landmark global agreement recently at the Conference of Parties (Cop21) in Paris to curb greenhouse gases.
Javadekar had earlier said that the Paris Agreement is a legally binding agreement that covers all countries, developed and developing, with the aim to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change.