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The projected climate change scenarios for India, as stated in ‘India’s Initial National Communication to United Nations Framework Convention on climate Change’, indicate increase in and variable trend of both rainfall and temperature into 21st century. It is projected that quantity of surface run off due to climate change would reduce and vary across the river basins as well as sub basins.
The initial analysis has revealed that climate change may have adverse effects in terms of severity of droughts and intensity of floods in various parts of the country. Forest biomass in India seems to be highly vulnerable to the projected change in climate. Coastal areas are also vulnerable to climate variability in varying degrees.
In 1994, the aggregate greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in India amounted to 793 million tons of carbon dioxide, 18 million tones of methane and 0.178 million tons of nitrous oxide and constitutes about 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. The contributions of the USA, Japan, Germany and UK to the global emission in 1994 were 20 per cent, 5 per cent, 4 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. However, India’s per capita emissions were 4 per cent of USA, 8 per cent of Germany, 9 per cent of UK, 10 per cent of Japan and 23 per cent of global average.
India is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In accordance with the provisions of the Convention, parties are required to communicate to the Conference of Parties, the supreme body of the Convention, information on implementation of the Convention.
The Ministry of Environment and Forests has, towards fulfillment of obligations under the Convention, submitted on behalf of the Government of India, a report entitled “India’s Initial National Communication to United Nations Framework Convention on climate Change” to Climate Change Secretariat in June this year.
The Initial National Communication contains information on India’s emissions of greenhouse gases due to human activities at 1994 level, vulnerability assessment of key sectors such as agriculture, forestry, water resources, health, infrastructure, industry, natural ecosystems, coastal zones to projected climate change, programmes related to sustainable development, research and systematic observations and constraints and gaps and related financial, technical and capacity needs in the area of climate change.
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