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Summary

Environment Class 19

## BRIEF OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS CLASS (1:16 PM)

## UNCBD (1:24 PM)

- **Objective:**
- A. Conservation of biological diversity.
- B. Sustainable usage of biological diversity.
- C. Fair and equitable sharing of benefits.
- CBD is **implemented** by **UNEP**.
- It is a **legally** binding convention.
- ***Two important protocols were signed:***
- 1. **Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety:**
- It is a **protocol to CBD** agreed in 2000.
- It aims to ensure the safe handling, transportation, and use of **Living-Modified Organisms (LMO)** resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on biodiversity.
- It establishes **Advanced Informed Agreement (AIA)** procedures for countries to make informed decisions before handling such organisms.
- It also establishes a biosafety clearing house to facilitate the exchange of information on LMOs.
- 2. **Nagoya Protocol:**
- It aims at sharing **benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources** fairly and equitably including appropriate **access to genetic resources**.
- It was agreed in the year 2010 at Nagoya (Japan).
- **Aichi Target:**
- It is a ***strategic plan of 20 biodiversity targets agreed at COP 10 held at Nagoya***.
- COP 11 was held in the year Hyderabad, in 2012.
- **Kunming-Montreal Protocol Global Biodiversity Framework:**
- COP 15, 2020 which was supposed to be held at Kunming was postponed to 2021 and finally held in 2022 in Montreal.
- It aims to achieve the ***conservation of biodiversity, restore ecosystems, and protection of indigenous rights.***
- It has **four goals** to be achieved by **2050** and 23 targets to be achieved by **2030**.
- **Goals:**
- 1. Halting human-induced extinction of threatened species and reducing by 10-fold, the extinction rate of all species.
- 2. Sustainable use and management of biodiversity.
- 3. Fair sharing of benefits
- 4. Adequate means of implementing the Global Biodiversity framework (GBF) to be accessible to all countries including developing and LDCs.
- ***Important Target to be achieved by 2030:***
- **30 by 30:**To restore 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030.
- To **reduce food waste** by half by 2030.
- To **eliminate** or freeze out or reform **harmful subsidies**.
- **Establishment** of **GBF fund** under Global Environment Facility **(GEF)**.

## UNCCD (1:58 PM)

- It is an **outcome** of the 1992, **Earth Summit**.
- It entered into force in 1994.
- There are 197 members.
- It is the **sole** **legally binding** **convention** linking development and the environment to sustainable land management.
- It aims to **protect and restore land** and ensure a **safer just and more sustainable future**.
- It provided the concepts of **land degradation neutrality**.
- It aims to achieve it by 2030.
- **UNCCD COP14 (2019**)  was held in **New Delh**i, it resulted in a **Delhi declaration** on a range of issues related to desertification.
- India set a target of restoring *26 million hectares of degraded land by 2030*.
- **COP15**was held in **Abidjan (Cote- De-Ivoire)** in the year 2020.
- **The target of COP 15:**
- Agreed to *exhilarate the **restoration of 1 billion*** ***hectares of degraded land by 2030*.**
- The global pledge to *boost **drought resilience*** **and *invest in land restoration for future prosperity*.**
- **Ensure *women's involvement in Land management*** for effective land restorations which was incorporated as the ***Abidjan Declaration on Gender Equality and Land Restoration.***
- Hence, India became the ***only country that hosted*** ***all three COPs***i.e. UNFCC, UNCCD, and UNCBD.

## SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTS (2:13 PM)

- **Sustainable development** is a development that meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
- ***Component of sustainable development:***
- ![](https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/t_share/MTc1MTI4MTc3MDYzMDQ0MTkx/the-environmental-economic-and-social-components-of-sustainability.jpg)
- There are three components i.e. economics, social and environmental sustainability
- **Economics sustainability****-** decisions are made in the most equitable and fiscally sound way possible while considering the other aspects of sustainability
- **Social sustainability****-** providing enabling conditions for everyone to have the capacity to realize their needs.
- **Environmental sustainability****-** maintaining ecosystem integrity and carrying capacity of the natural environment
- **Why sustainable development?**
- There should be growth with equity.
- Intergenerational equity.
- Environmental conservation.
- Reduces the loss of biodiversity.
- Increases resource utilization and efficiency.
- Increases ecological and environmental productivity.
- Reduces ecological footprints and helps us to live within the carrying capacity of the earth.
- **Ecological Footprint:**
- The **ecological footprint** is the biologically productive land and sea area needed to provide the resources that a population consumes and observe the waste it generates
- It is measured using a unit of global hectares (GHA)
- In most of the industrial nations, the ecological footprint varies between 8 to 4.
- **For example**, in the USA it is 8 GHA, in Japan - 4.7 GHA, and in India, it is 0.9 GHA.
- **Earth overshoot day:**
- The **Global Footprint Networ****k** published an ecological footprint report which estimates the earth's overshoot day in 2022 which was July 28.
- Each year, **Earth Overshoot Day marks *the*** ***date when humanity has used all the biological resources that Earth can renew during the entire year**.*
- ![](https://www.footprintnetwork.org/content/uploads/2022/06/2022_Past_EOD_en_sm.jpg)
- **Carrying Capacity:**
- The**carrying capacity** of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources.
- It is the size of the population that can be supported by the ecosystem indefinitely by its supporting system.

## INITIATIVES (2:56 PM)

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Year | Initiatives |
| 1798 | - **Malthus's theory:** - Mathlus proposed that the human population of the earth increases in geometric progression while resources increase in arithmetic progression which may result in the collapse of the populations. |
| 1972 | - The l**imits to growth report** by the **Club of Rome**, concludes that, if no changes in historical growth trends are incorporated limits to growth on earth would become evident in rapid decline in population after 2050. - In 1992, the **Beyond the Limits report** suggested that the incorporation of sustainability, economics and ecology could be achieved. |
| 1972 | - The **UN Conference on Human Environment (Stockholm Conference)** agreed that both development and the environment can be managed in a mutually beneficial way. |
| 1987 | - **Our common future** report by the **Brundtland Commission**, the report defined sustainable development. |
| 1992 | - **UN Conference of Environment Development (Rio Earth Summit):** - The summit resulted in the following **6 outcomes** - UNFCC, UNCBD, UNCCD, Rio Declaration, Agenda 21, and forest principles. - **Agenda 21**: - It is an action agenda for the UN and other multilateral organizations and governments at all levels in the 21st century. - **Forest principles:** - It involves recommendations for the conservation and sustainable development of forestry - UNGA established the UN Commission on Sustainable Development to monitor the implementation of decisions taken at the Rio Summit. - **Rio Declaration:** - It consists of 27 principles intended to guide countries in future sustainable development. - It also defines the rights of people to be involved in the development - **For eg** - precautionary and polluters pay principles |
| 2000 | - The **Millennium Summit** was held in **New York** to discuss the role of the UN at the turn of the 21st century. - It adopted the UN Millennium Declaration committing the nations to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets to be achieved by 2015 which were called Millennium Development goals. |
| 2002 | - The **second Earth** summit was held at Johannesburg, - It is also called **RIO + 10** - It resulted in **Johannesburg's declaration** of sustainable development. |
| 2012 | - **Third** Earth summit - It is also known as the **Rio + 20 summit** - **The two essential themes of the conference:** - 1. To develop an institutional framework for sustainable development - 2. The green economy eradicates poverty and promotes sustainability - They decided to launch SDG in 2015. It is achieved between 2015-2030. - The summit agreed on a Declaration on sustainable development and a green economy called **Future We Want.** |
| 2015 | - **SDGs** were signed with 17 goals and 169 targets. |

## DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MDG & SDG (3:30 PM)

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| MDGs | SDGs |
| 8 goals | 17 goals |
| narrow consultation | wider consultation |
| only for developed | all countries |
| economic developments | much broader goals |
| no important role | important |

## ENERGY (3:49 PM)

- They can be **classified as primary and secondary types**
- **Primary** are found in nature and can be used directly.
- **For example:** coal, wood, and natural gas
- **Secondary** is not found in nature and is produced from primary source
- **For example:** syngas and electricity, etc
- They can also be classified as conventional and non-conventional.
- **Conventional:** a well-developed method of utilization is available. **For example-** coal, petroleum, hydropower
- **Non-conventional:** the method of utilization is not well-developed. **For example-** solar, wind etc
- They can also be classified as renewable and nonrenewable
- **Renewable:** An inexhaustible source of energy in the human timeline. **For example-** solar, wind, hydro and geothermal, etc
- **Non-renewable** - these deplete with time for eg fossil fuels
- **Note:**
- Kindly refer to the handouts provided by the faculty for a holistic understanding of the above topics.
- **Please note**, that the information provided in the handouts is based on data up to 2022. For the most recent figures on energy-related topics kindly refer to the power ministry and update it accordingly.

## SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE (4:08 PM)

- **Sustainable Agriculture:**
- It is a method of agriculture involving balanced management of resources available on the farm without compromising the ability of the future to do so.
- **Organic farming:**
- Agriculture production systems which avoid or exclude synthetically manufactured inputs such as chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides etc. It relies upon the organic method of cultivation only.
- **Natural farming:**
- It is an ecological farming approach involving no human input and adopts nature's production method.
- *It involves the **following principles**:*
- No-tillage
- No-sowing
- No-pesticides
- No-weeding
- ==The inputs used for sustainable and organic farming:==
- **For nutrient management:**
- Vermicompost, green manure and Bio-fertiliser.
- **Weed management:**
- Through mulching, tilling and drip irrigations.
- Using organic pesticides and fungicides. **For example** - Neem, Pongamia

## ISSUE WITH ORGANIC FARMING (4:28 PM)

- Low production in the initial use.
- Costly inputs if it is not available on the farm.
- Farmer requires proper training.
- Marketing of agricultural produce.
- **Labelling and certification:** It is either costly or too technical and not easily available.
- **Note:**
- Certification is given by National Programmes for Organic Production (NPOP) and Participatory Guarantee systems.

## ZERO BUDGET NATIONAL FARMING (4:37 PM)

- It was introduced by **Subhash Palekar**.
- **There are four components:**
- **Jivamrita:** It enhances the soil microbiomes and is made using cow dung, cow urine and other local ingredients
- **Bijamrita:** It involves seed treatment using microbial seed coating.
- **Acchadana:** It involves cover crops and mulching
- **Whapasa:** It involves soil aerations
- **Vertical farming:**
- It is cultivating and producing crops in vertically stacked layers and vertically inclined surfaces.
- It involves Aeroponics.
- **Aeroponics:**
- It involves growing crops without any growing medium and spraying of missed and nutrient solution directly to plant roots.
- **Hydroponics:**
- It involves growing crops in water without soil and continuously pumping the water rich in mineral nutrients.
- **Aquaponics:**
- It integrates aquaculture with hydroponics where nutrient-rich wastewater from fish tanks is used for hydroponics.

## THE TOPICS FOR NEXT CLASS: SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE (CONTINUATION)