Global Warming & Acid Rain

Part 2 · India's emissions

Where India's Greenhouse Gases Come From

Energy dominates India's emissions; India is the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, but its emissions per person are well below the world average.

India's emissions at a glance

In India, 68.7 percent of GHG emissions come from the energy sector, followed by agriculture, industrial processes, land-use change and forestry, and waste which contribute 19.6 percent, 6.0 percent, 3.8 and 1.9 percent respectively to GHG emissions.
India is now the planet's third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, although it is still well behind China, the world's largest emitter, and the United States.
India's per capita emissions were about 40% of the global average and contributed 7% to the global carbon dioxide burden.

India's GHG emissions by sector (%)

Energy68.7%
Agriculture19.6%
Industrial processes6%
Land-use change and forestry3.8%
Waste1.9%

Part 3 · How India is minimising the effects: adaptation

India's Adaptation to a Warming Climate

India follows both adaptation and mitigation; its adaptation covers farms, forests, water, health and disaster management.

Two approaches

To minimise the effects of Global warming, India has adopted both adaptation (measures taken to minimise the adverse impacts of climate change) and mitigation (measures to reduce the emissions of GHGs) approach.

Crop Insurance scheme and credit support mechanism.
Crop Improvement: Development of arid-land crops and pest management.
Drought proofing to minimise the adverse effects of drought on production of crops and livestock.

Part 4 · How India is minimising the effects: mitigation

Cutting Emissions: EVs, Renewables, the INDC and NAPCC

Electric vehicles, a large renewable energy target, energy-efficiency laws, India's Paris pledges and the eight missions of the climate action plan.

Mitigation initiatives

National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 with an aim to achieve national fuel security by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles in the country.
FAME-India (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (hybrid &) Electric vehicles in India) scheme: To support the hybrid/electric vehicles market development and its manufacturing eco-system to achieve self-sustenance by subsidizing electric vehicle purchases on an annual basis.
- FAME-Phase 2 has been introduced to achieve the target of more than 30% electric vehicles by 2030, a more realistic goal in comparison to the earlier target of 100% EVs by 2030.
India has set an ambitious target of deploying 175 Gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2022 which is now further raised to 227 GW considering that the country is well on its way to achieve target of 175 GW.
Energy Conservation Act, 2001 and Energy Conservation Building Code 2017.

In its INDC (under the Paris Agreement), India pledged

40% non-fossil power

To increase the share of non-fossil fuels-based electricity to 40 per cent by 2030.

33–35% lower intensity

To improve the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 below 2005 levels.

2.5–3 billion tonne sink

Create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030 through additional forest and tree cover, mobilize domestic and additional funds from developed countries to implement mitigation actions.

The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), 2008: 8 national missions

1. National Solar Mission

To make India a global leader in solar energy.
By the remote village electrification programme, using solar power as an off-grid solution to provide power to the power deprived poor.
Creating conditions for research and application in the field of solar technology and support & facilitate the already on-going R&D projects.

2. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency

It creates a market based mechanism to enhance cost effectiveness of improvements on energy efficiency. Switching to cleaner fuels, commercially viable technology transfers, capacity building needs etc are the way forward for this mission.

3. National Mission on Sustainable Habitat

To create and adopt a more holistic approach for solid and liquid waste management, ensuring their full potential for energy generation (conversion of solid waste into energy), recycling, reusing and composting.
To provide for adoption and creation of alternative technologies mitigating climate change and to encourage community involvement for it.
Plans to make urban areas more climate friendly and less susceptible to climate change by a multi-pronged approach to mitigate and adapt to it.

4. National Water Mission

Ensures better integrated water resource management leading to water conservation, less wastage, equitable distribution forming better policies.

5. National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem

Created to protect the Himalayan ecosystem. The mandate is to evolve measures to sustain and safeguard the Himalayan glaciers, mountain ecosystems, biodiversity and wildlife conservation & protection.

6. National Mission for A Green India

Works towards reducing fragmentation of forests, enhancing private public partnerships for plantations, improving schemes based on joint forestry management etc.

7. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture

It works towards devising strategies to make Indian agriculture less susceptible to climate change.
It would identify and develop new crop varieties, use traditional and modern agricultural techniques.

8. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change

It identifies challenges and requisite responses to climate change. This will be done through open international collaboration and would ensure sufficient funding for this research.

Part 5 · “The world would submerge in water in coming future by the mistakes committed by human being”

Will the World Submerge? Rising Seas

Melting ice and warming oceans are raising the sea faster than at any time in two thousand years, threatening island nations and India's coasts.

Why and how fast the sea is rising

Sea Level Rise is caused primarily by two factors related to global warming:
- the added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers;
- the expansion of seawater as it warms.
Global sea level rise began around the start of the 20th century. Between 1900 and 2016, the sea level rose by 16–21 cm (6.3–8.3 in) on average.
More precise data gathered from satellite radar measurements reveal an accelerating rise of 7.5 cm (3.0 in) from 1993 to 2017, which is a trend of roughly 30 cm (12 in) per century.
This acceleration is due mostly to human-caused global warming, which is driving thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of land-based ice sheets and glaciers.
- Thermal expansion of water, addition of glaciers like Antarctic and other ice-sheets, Land water etc are some contributors in sea level rise.
According to IPCC Fifth Report, world's oceans have absorbed 90% of the temperature rise caused by man-made carbon emissions, while only 1% in the atmosphere.
The IPCC Special report 2018 said that there is no safe level of global warming and sea levels would continue to rise for centuries even if we cap warming at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, prescribed in the lower limit of the Paris Agreement.

IPCC's Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC)

The current rate of Sea Level Rise (SLR) is now larger than the mean rate of the previous two millennia. Human-caused climate change is “very likely” to have been the “dominant cause” of SLR seen since 1970.
Surface warming combined with a surge in freshwater runoff entering the top layer of the oceans is making the oceans more stratified, meaning the top is less dense than the deeper parts, and there is less mixing between the different levels.
The report concluded that global mean sea levels will most likely rise between 0.95 feet (0.29m) and 3.61 feet (1.1m) by the end of this century, even if efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to limit global warming are successful; coastal cities across the world could see so-called “storms of the century” at least once a year.

Island nations

At global level, impact on island nations will be more severe: Maldives, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands and other low-lying countries are among the areas that are at highest level of risk.
At current rates, Maldives could become uninhabitable by 2100.
Five of the Solomon Islands have disappeared due to combined effect of Sea Level Rise and stronger trade winds.

India

In India, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change, the sea-level is rising at an average rate of 1.6-1.7 mm per year along the Indian coast, but it is not uniform.
- It varies from 5mm in Sunderbans to less than 1 mm per year in some of the areas in the west coast. Sunderbans are most vulnerable, not only because it's low-lying, but also because the land is also sinking.
- 171 million people live in coastal districts who are at risk due to sea level rise, which is about 14.2% of India's population.
“Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment” reveals that more than one-third of the glaciers in the region could retreat by 2100, even if the global temperature rise is capped at 1.5ºC. In case of 2ºC global average warming, half of glaciers will be lost. It will further lead to sea level rise.

What rising seas would mean

Such rise in sea level will lead to large-scale displacement of the large population in the world that lives along coastal areas, and to international conflicts, as sea level rise will change the exclusive economic zones of nations, potentially creating conflicts between neighboring nations, apart from other environmental and social consequences.

Way forward to this problem

Arresting Climate Change: Prime Source of Sea Level Rise is Global Warming caused by excess carbon dioxide in atmosphere. 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5° C should be implemented by Nations.
Acknowledging ‘Climate Refugees’: A Global Convention on Climate Refugee should be seriously contemplated by the UN.
Limiting Coastal Settlements keeping the future sea level rise in mind.
Strengthening scientific research: to measure and monitor ocean warming and its effects. This will provide more precise data on the scale, nature and impacts of ocean warming, making it possible to design and implement adequate and appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Protecting marine and coastal ecosystems: to conserve and protect ecologically and biologically significant marine areas.

Part 6 · Short note: acid rain

Acid Rain: What It Is and What Causes It

Rain made unusually acidic by sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, reaching the ground wet or dry, from volcanoes and lightning but mostly from coal power, factories and vehicles.

Acid rain

Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure.

Acid deposition

Wet deposition

Wet deposition of acids occurs when any form of precipitation (rain, snow, and so on) removes acids from the atmosphere and delivers it to the Earth's surface.

Dry deposition

Acid deposition also occurs via dry deposition in the absence of precipitation. This occurs when particles and gases stick to the ground, plants or other surfaces.

Cause

Acid rain is caused by emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which react with the water molecules in the atmosphere to produce acids.
Natural phenomena:
- The principal natural phenomena that contribute acid-producing gases to the atmosphere are emissions from volcanoes.
- Acid-producing gases are also created by biological processes that occur on the land, in wetlands, and in the oceans. The major biological source of sulfur compounds is dimethyl sulfide.
- Nitric acid in rainwater is an important source of fixed nitrogen for plant life, and is also produced by electrical activity in the atmosphere such as lightning.
Human activity:
- The principal cause of acid rain is sulfur and nitrogen compounds from human sources, such as electricity generation, animal agriculture, factories, and motor vehicles.
- Electrical power generation using coal is among the greatest contributors to gaseous pollution responsible for acidic rain.

Sulfur dioxide dissolves in water and then, like carbon dioxide, hydrolyses in a series of equilibrium reactions

Step 1
SO₂ (g) + H₂O ⇌ SO₂·H₂O
Passes on: dissolved SO₂
dissolved SO₂
Step 2
SO₂·H₂O ⇌ H⁺ + HSO₃⁻
Passes on: bisulfite
bisulfite
Step 3
HSO₃⁻ ⇌ H⁺ + SO₃²⁻

Each step releases a hydrogen ion (H⁺), which is what lowers the pH of the rain.

Part 7 · Impacts and prevention of acid rain

What Acid Rain Damages, and How to Stop It

Lakes, soils, oceans, health and monuments like the Taj Mahal all suffer; scrubbers, vehicle controls, treaties and emissions trading can cut it.

Impact

Acid rain has been shown to have adverse impacts on forests, freshwaters, and soils, killing insect and aquatic life-forms, causing paint to peel, corrosion of steel structures such as bridges, and weathering of stone buildings and statues as well as having impacts on human health.

Surface waters and aquatic animals:

Both the lower pH and higher aluminium concentrations in surface water that occur as a result of acid rain can cause damage to fish and other aquatic animals.
At pH lower than 5 most fish eggs will not hatch and lower pH can kill adult fish.
As lakes and rivers become more acidic biodiversity is reduced. Acid rain has eliminated insect life and some fish species.

Prevention

Many coal-firing power stations use flue-gas desulfurization (e.g. wet scrubber) to remove sulfur-containing gases from their stack gases. For a typical coal-fired power station, FGD will remove 95% or more of the SO2 in the flue gases.
Vehicle emissions control reduces emissions of nitrogen oxides from motor vehicles.
International treaties on the long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants have been agreed, for example, the 1985 Helsinki Protocol on the Reduction of Sulphur Emissions under the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (total 25 parties, India is not a party to this).
Emissions trading: Every current polluting facility is given or may purchase on an open market an emissions allowance for each unit of a designated pollutant it emits.

Conclusion

To conclude, we can say that to tackle this issue, both regulatory and market based approaches are needed for controlling air pollution.

Exam preparation

BPSC Mains Previous Year Questions

Every question this page prepares you for, with the parts that answer it.

Q163rd BPSC · 2018

What do you mean by Global Warming? How is India contributing in minimising its effects? Comment on saying, “The world would submerge in water in coming future by the mistakes committed by human being of this planet”.

Study:Global Warming India's Emissions Adaptation Mitigation & NAPCC Will the World Submerge?

Q239th BPSC · 1993

Write short notes on: “Acid Rain”.

Study:Acid Rain Acid Rain Impacts

Quick revisionINDC and the eight NAPCC missions Quick revisionRising seas: way forward Quick revisionAcid rain chemistry

Global Warming & Acid RainA Warming Planet and Rising Seas

Global Warming and Its Effects

Effects of global warming