BRACING FOR THE STORM
THE YEAR 2019 may be the one when climate change became a here-and-now problem that no responsible country can ignore. This is not, unfortunately, the same as saying that 2020 is the year when every country will finally address this challenge. It is in this gap between growing global realisation and continued national foot-dragging that India must locate its response to climate change.
In 2019, a drumbeat of scientific reports told an ever grimmer story of climate impacts. A report for the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit finds 2015-2019 on track to be the warmest of any five-year period on record, at about 1.1°C above historical levels. This seemingly modest increase is enough to start destabilising natural systems. For example, sea levels are rising, both due to thermal expansion,
