World is not doing enough to contain rate of climate change: Bhupender Yadav

Sharm EL-Sheikh: The global pace of climate mitigation is not enough to contain the rate of climate change said, the Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav at the UN Secretary General High Level Round Table at the launch of the “Early Warnings for All Executive Action Plan”, at COP27 Sharm EL-Sheikh, Egypt.

“There is an urgent need to acknowledge the cascading natural hazards that cause substantial losses around the world, he said,

The Minister said India fully supports the UN secretary general’s agenda to achieve “Early Warnings for All” action plan unveiled by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“While climate finance is still a mirage, climate adaptation in the form of early warning dissemination is key to safeguarding lives and livelihoods from cascading natural hazards causing substantial losses around the world” he added.

The UN’s action plan for the ‘Early Warnings for All’ calls for initial new targeted investments of USD 3.1 billion between 2023 and 2027. It is slated to cover disaster risk knowledge, observations and forecasting, preparedness and response, and communication of early warnings.

Yadav said India has been working on strengthening end-to-end early warning systems for all hydro-meteorological hazards. Deaths due to cyclones in the country have reduced by up to 90 per cent in the last 15 years, he said, adding that early warning systems for cyclones cover almost the entire east and west coasts.

India is making swift progress in respect of early warning for other hazards such as heat waves, the minister said, adding that the country has made concerted efforts towards making early warnings impact-based, easily understandable and actionable by communities over the last few years.

“We would now like to maximize the full potential of Early Warning Systems for not just reducing the loss of lives but also livelihoods and national development gains” he said

“India has spearheaded the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) which is working towards developing applications of climate forecast and early warning for reducing infrastructure losses and disruption in basic services” the minister said.

 “The intensification of tropical cyclones in the Pacific and Caribbean means that some small tropical states have lost 200 per cent of their national income in a few hours. Instances such as these could have devastating consequences in countries that do not have sufficient means to cope with them” the Minister said.