date: Sun, May 24, 2015 at 10:31 PM
subject: draft seminar report
Pl add your points on different sections - we must add some points on open session and follow up look forward to your comments please
thanks,
Tarun
Mrinal: Pl share this with Rituparna for her comments
1st Page – front page of the file cover may be used
2nd page – content
Content
1. Introduction
2. Summary of the Seminar
3. Reports of the Proceedings
4. Annexure
a) Annex-1: purpose of the workshop
b) Annex-2: Invitation for “Charter of Action on Climate Change”
c) Annex -3: List of Participants
d) Annex-4: List of Sessions held
e) Annex-5: Related links (may be our blog / facebook page, etc.)
Page 3 onwards
1. Introduction
Climate change is a global problem and a common concern to mankind. GHG emissions contribute to climate change irrespective of their origin and hence all countries will be affected if no action is taken.
On 5th June, 2014 Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra - Kolkata Campus, and Self help Group Promotional Forum (SHGPF, a state level network of CSOs and CBOs; www.shgpromotionalforum.org), jointly observed World Environment Day “WED”, in tune with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at Kolkata Campus of Birla Institute of Technology Mesra. From that seminar future programme of action that had been declared are as follows: (1) formal declaration of “friends of environment from academia and society” @ feas (2) opening one interactive blog on climate change issues with special emphasis on most vulnerable regions of eastern and north-eastern India (3) sensitization programmes on climate change adaptation in regional basis (4) capacity building programmes on climate change adaptation in regional basis (5) micro-level scientific study and research programmes on climate change adaptation in regional basis (6) endorsing knowledge development, social mobilisation and network building, ground-truthing on livelihood issues, enabling policy and governance on climate change adaptation in regional basis.
In continuation, this seminar was organised to inform and be informed on the issues of GHG emission, climate change adaptation programmes within the broaders exploration in policy, research and operational issues for short and long term perspectives, especially the areas where livelihood of poor people are affected.
• Venue: Amitava Dey Memorial Seminar Hall, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jadavpur University
• Organisers: Self Help Group Promotional Forum along with Centre for Distributed Computing, Department of Computer Science and Engineering Jadavpur University and Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Kolkata Chapter,
• Co-organisers: IISW&BM, All India Harijan Sevak Sangh (founded by Gandhiji in 1932), Howrah Chamber of Commerce, CARITAS, Lok Kalyan Parishad, SPADE, SEED - Kolkata, BRWAS - Magrahat, BCC - Bagnan, CVGBK - Namkhana, BTS - Kultali, CDHI - Jalpaiguri, RDA - Midnapur, Samikshan - Haldia, PUPA - Sagar, EcoYes Technologies – STEP, IIT, Kharagpur, etc.
• Expected Participants: Government officials, Students and teachers of schools, colleges & Universities, NGO representatives, media persons, community members and individuals
2. Summary
To be filled up after completing the other sections
3. Main Report
The seminar was coordinated by Prof. Radha Tamal Goswami, Director of BIT- Mesra, Kolkata Campus and assisted by Ms. Suangana Basu. Prof. Goswami citing the origin of the process that BIT-M and SHGPF had stated on 5th June 2014 at his Campus felt that this seminar would be a successful mile stone for the process we all are engaged in to address climate change and also to suggest our roles and responsibilities in this regard.
3.1 Welcome Address
Professor Chandan Mazumder of Jadavpur University formally welcomed all the dignitaries and participants from different fields. He said Climate Change is not a problem of any particular country. He said being a Computer Science Professional, I am not directly related to the Climate Change Adaptation related activities but I know about various technological support and software required to calculate the various effects of climate change. He added that all of us are directly or indirectly being affected by the changes in global climate so he was hoping that an action plan should come out at the end of the seminar. He added that different government representatives present here will definitely extend their support in this fight against climate change.
3.2 Purpose of the Workshop
In order to refreshing the objective of the seminar, Tarun Kumar Debnath, Advisor, SHGPF said that there are about 300 crores population are living with less than $2 per day and 100 crores with less than $1 per day. Though mainstream economists assured us “poverty reduction is best achieved through making the cake bigger, not by trying to cut it up in a different way” i.e. “economic growth is essential ingredient for sustained poverty reduction”. But at the same time, for every $100 of global economic growth occurred between 1990 and 2001, only 60 cents went to people below the $1 per day line. In other words, to get the poorest people of the world an extra $1 required a $166 (=100/0.6) increase in global production and consumption!”
According to latest data, our ecological footprint is already 50% larger than global ecosystem can accommodate – a clear case of ecological overshoot i.e. living in debt. He then asked “Can we take this to farther with already overshooting ecological disaster”? He said India cannot support itself on domestic bio-capacity alone.
He said the “present day paradigm of growth” looked incongruent and sought for solution by working together and need to think of new form of development with new technology, new production system, new rural-urban relationship, new form of democratic governance, etc. That’s why people want to hear from different sections of the society and find ways of actions for different stakeholders.
He also informed that this seminar was the result of not one organisation, but the efforts of many organisations and individuals. He invited all to continue and broaden this process to build understanding on climate change and chart out actions forward (full text in annex 01).
The inaugural session was addressed by Prof. Kalyan Rudra, Chairman, WBPCB (West Bengal Pollution Control Board), Smt. Choten D Lama, IAS, CEO & SMD, WBSRLM (West Bengal State Rural Livelihood Mission) and Mr. Chintamoni Mahapatra, Concern World Wide.
3.3 Address by Prof. Kalyan Rudra, Chairman, West Bengal Pollution Control Board
Prof, Kalyan Rudra started his address saying that from his long teaching experience he will share few lines about the changing climate and its affects. He said that as per IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), risk of death due to flooding is highly concentrated in Asia. At the same time as the sea levels are rising most Asian deltas are sinking as a result of groundwater extraction, floodplain engineering and trapping of sediments by dams. So the deltas are considered as the high risk zone for sea level rise due to climate change. He referred the data of rainfall and temperature of West Bengal of last 100 years from 1901 to 2002 from Indian Statistical Institute. He raised some basic questions and wanted everyone to discuss on the same throughout the seminar during the day. These are-
1. Whether our weather has really gone extreme?
2. Has West Bengal become warmer?
3. Has yearly temperature gone up?
4. Has annual range of temperature changed?
5. Has annual rainfall pattern changed?
6. How the farmers to cope with the changing temperature?
He further added that as per the statistical data, in all the 20 districts of West Bengal, the annual maximum temperature has remained almost same in last 100 years but the minimum temperature has increased. The total rainfall amount has not changed much although monsoon is delayed and precipitation has become skewed. It is seen that 3 to 4 days unusual rainfall during the monsoon affects various parts of the state. The rainfall pattern in the first half of the monsoon has decreased whereas the same has increased at the end of it thus affecting the Kharif crops. The farmers are getting confused when to start the plantation as it is dependent on monsoon rain. As a result, they are becoming more dependent on ground water which again decreasing the ground water level. An alternative crop calendar for the farmers has to set to face this changing pattern of rainfall.
3.4 Address by Smt. Choten D Lama, IAS, CEO & SMD, WBSRLM
She started her address with a wonderful line, “We haven’t inherited this planet from our parents; we borrowed it from our children. So as adults, we should introspect as responsible citizen what we have done to protect this planet from the dreaded effects of climate change.”
Smt. Lama said that WBSRLM recognizes the strength of women who are among the worst affected by Climate Changes. She assured the Community based organizations that the WBSRLM would support them if they come up with any successfully tested pilot projects for the alternative climate adaptive livelihood for the vulnerable women. She said that Government will consider the scalability and replicability of the initiative taken by any organization. They will check if the model has scope for adaption for a larger section of the community. She invited the NGOs to share their good practices and successful interventions proven over time which can be replicated in other districts.
She further added these women also deserve a life of dignity and that can be offered only through providing good alternative livelihood as most of them are being deprived of basic human rights at some places. She said that WBSRLM doesn’t believe giving support to any woman as an individual as it might or might not work so they prefer to support women groups as an institution as it helps larger number of people and chances of being successful becomes higher and the message also gets spread quickly. She stressed on involving women in the task of poverty eradication. She further added that whenever a flood situation arises, the poor coastal people do not want to leave their houses even though they are aware of the danger. They are in the fear that when the flood water will recede, other people may take over it and they will be considered refugee and they will lose their property. They risk their lives in such situation.
Smt. Lama requested the research institutes and the researchers to come out with their ideas so that the works in lab can be brought to the land.
Finally she hoped we must not destroy climate in such a manner when people would need fan in Darjeeling!
3.5 Address by Mr. Chintamani Mahapatra, Concern World Wide (CWW)
He started with the priority focus area of CWW. Then he moved on to the Climate change adaptation from the community perspective. He stressed on the linkage of the affected communities with various existing government programmes related to livelihood. He suggested the NGOs to support the farmers in getting subsidies from various departments.
Mr. Nasir Atique, representative from UNICEF at the seminar raised some points of practical concern like how the behaviour and norms of people can be changed and the projects on Climate change adaptation should come with clear vision otherwise they end up abruptly much before coming closer to the goal. He also pointed out the missing links between the government and civil societies.
Mr. Manoj Kumar Mukherjee of Chandan Piri, Ramkrishna Ashram raised a question for all present in the seminar. He asked whether the forum has any ideas for improvement of the present situation due to climate change. On this, Prof. Kalyan Rudra replied that we all have to work together to develop an action plan following the seminar. So, this should be considered as an initiative which will be followed up in near future for further actions.
3.6 Mr. Amit Choudhury, Special Secretary, Department of Planning, Govt. of West Bengal
He raised the point that how human activities are contributing to the climate change. He suggested that Climate change should be considered as holistic part of disaster risk reduction. He added that any adaptation concept should be institutionalized for Climate Change Management. Citing the example of Bhopal Gas tragedy, Mr. Choudhury said that only 1 died within the company whereas the rest of the sufferers were outsiders. He added that only one wet cloth on face could have saved so many lives and the genetic problems caused later on. He said that legislation is required for such disaster risk reduction.
3.7 Professor Lalu Das, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya
He presented his works on “Present and Past Climate Change scenarios and its implication in agriculture over Eastern India”. His presentation based on his and his team’s huge research works on
a) Quantification of long-term rainfall and temperature trends in the station and gridded data sets.
b) Construction of future climate change scenarios from GCMs without downscaling
c) Construction of high-resolution future climate change scenarios using Empirical Statistical Downscaling (ESD)
d) Assessing the impact of climate change on Agriculture through Crop Simulation modelling
He focused on the changing rainfall pattern and temperature over the years and its effects on agriculture. He stated that all are discussing about Global climate change but we should now mainly concentrate on the local level as West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa are rich food suppliers and we should focus that their agriculture should not get affected by climate change. He said that working and simulating climate of any locality is very difficult and for this reason, the farmers get just an approximate idea of the rainfall.
His study says that Composite scenario indicates a warming (0.3-1.0oC) and rainfall variation of –5% to 9% except in the winter(20%). It is interesting to note that monsoon season rainfall scenario estimates a much lower (1-2%)variation all over the study area.
While dealing with Effect of climate change ( Temperature and CO2 concentration) on rice production, the final yield changes ( % ) predicted for the two baro seasons under fixed scenarios of increased CO2 level and different increment and decreases of temperature (oC). The changes are calculated with respect to current CO2 level (340 ppmv) and observed weather for that respective year. It is notice that production of yield gets reduced with the increase of temperature and vice-versa in the current as well as doubling CO2 conditions. Increased CO2 in the atmosphere indicates higher yield. Combined effect of CO2 and temperature indicates less change of rice yield over the study area.
3.8 Smt. Swati Bhattacharjee, Journalist of ABP
Renowned journalist Smt. Swati Bhattacharjee shared her long experience of working in the field with the vulnerable coastal women. She said that it is quite tough to draw a line between the cruelty of human and nature when it comes to Climate Change. Sharing her experience of visiting Sundarbans, post AILA (the dreaded cyclone of 2009 in West Bengal), Smt. Bhattacharjee said that they could find the aged people and women were only left with the children as the earning male members of the families migrated to the nearby cities for livelihood. Their agricultural lands were flooded with salt water making them sterile for any farming for next few years. So, the women of the family had the responsibility of fighting the real challenge to look after the other members. She was surprised to see that they were very happy when they could afford to eat bread and potato during the festive season.
Citing example of the recent blast at a fire factory at Pingla in West Midnapore, she said that seven of the victims were child labours. When she along with her colleagues visited the nearby two Blocks, they discovered that around hundred families here are the victims of breaching of embankment and they consider it quite natural that their kids would work in the cracker factories to earn bread and butter for the family. An eight year old boy here is regarded as expert in cracker making. She added that even though a lot of government plans and projects exist for these flood victims yet it could not reach to them and vice versa.
The seasoned journalist further added that it would be wrong to say that government is doing nothing for climate change. She said that various research institutes are working to develop climate resilient farming techniques, salt tolerant variety of crops and how to fight with the delayed monsoon. In this context, she gave the example of the sweet grapes being grown at the arid land of Bankura with scientific technology and a beautiful tea garden in IIT Kharagpur Campus. However, the technology has not reached the individual marginal farmers and mainly the women farmers. The women farmers do not have the claim over the land they cultivate so they cannot claim for Agricultural loan and cannot afford to avail any training on modern scientific technology. So, she suggested that where the women have not formed any groups and doing farming in their individual small farms, some women friendly technology should be developed for their improvement. She added that marginal farmer technology, poor friendly technology and training for such marginal farmers and women farmers should be arranged so that they can have a better livelihood through farming.
3.9 Mr. Nilanjan Sengupta, Secretariat Member of FOSET (Forum of Scientists, Engineers & Technologists)
Mr. Sengupta presented his paper on “Housing Demand in India- Need for adoption of cost effective construction technology to reduce greenhouse gas emission”. He discussed about various housing techniques that will help in reducing the greenhouse gas emission. These houses will not only become cost effective but also environment friendly. Even in the hot summer, such houses will not require air conditioner through natural insulation and less bricks will be used which will reduce the use of fuel. He informed that 14 to 16 tonnes of coal is burnt for production of one lakh of bricks which emits 38 tonnes of CO2. Any percentage reduction in use of building materials will be beneficial to the problems of global warming and climate change. He explained about few Cost Effective Technologies of construction like Rat-trap bond wall, filler slab, Compressed mud block, bamboo panels and hollow concrete blocks. (His full presentation link is available here ?????? – anybody is having his ppt)
3.10 Mr. Shantanu Gayan Head Master of Dhablat Lakshan Pranabesh High School, Sagar, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal
He shared the Climate Friendly model of his school in one of the most ecologically vulnerable areas i.e. at Sagar islands. He elaborated how his school has developed Eco park, organic manure processing unit, rainwater harvesting tanks, solar plates and weather forecasting units which are handled by the students. All these earned the school Éducational Sustainable development award from Rastrasangha ???? – Mrinal / Rituparna pl chk this. They also have various vegetable gardens nurtured by the students who are well aware about greenhouse effects. He invited all to come and visit his school. His multifaceted works and its success among his students and the communities enthused all present in the seminar. The entire audience congratulated him on his tremendous enthusiasm and hoped other schools would also emulate the same to protect environment. (His full presentation link is available here ??????)
3.11 Professor Maitri Bhattacharya, Director, Jagadish Bose National Science Talent Search (JBNSTS), Kolkata
Prof. Bhattacharya shared her research work on “Changing Climate and the Micro World”. She elaborated the importance and role of various microorganisms in the adaptation with changing climate, which often misses the attention of environmentalist and activities. She explained the anthropogenic effects, more precisely different types of pollutions that alter the nature of the climate and other natural niche elements. She informs that Bacteria and Archaea the population that predominantly governs the “micro” world, but these are the most affected population by any environmental effect or as well as change and possibly the answer to many unanswered questions and criticalities of human race. There are several factors that affect these populations – rainfall, plantation, nutrient level, salinity, Acidity (pH), temperature, humidity and Inundation & water flow in case of estuarine ecosystem.
She warned that these environmental factors mentioned earlier are changing their course very rapidly. Anthropogenic effects, more precisely different types of pollutions are altering the nature of the climate and other natural niche elements. The microorganisms are highly dependent on the natural resources as well as effectors. Despite being highly adaptive by nature the bacterial population is shifting towards biasness. Many species are getting extinct in this rat race for survival.
There are many bacteria which helps us to survive. Actinomycetes are the group of micro organisms from whom we get almost all the available antibiotics. The Nitrogen fixing & Phosphate solubilizing bacteria are at service of plants as they supply them with essential growth promoting factors. Different bacteria are now a days being used for detoxifying heavy metal wastes. Very recently some bacteria has been identified which can synthesize clinically and industrially important nano-particles. She finally asked “Shouldn’t we be concerned about losing these microscopic friends of mankind due to climate change”? (Her full presentation link is available here ??????)
3.12 Concluding address by Professor Ajay Ray, Director, IIEST, Shibpur
In his address, Prof. Roy suggested that sustainability should be consciously introduced and taught through every subject of teaching. He also wanted balanced energy consumption by each and every one. He said we all can contribute a lot by using less energy as the use of more energy means emission of more CO2 (Carbon Di Oxide).
?????
3.13 Open Session and Follow up actions
An open session was conducted in the second half for sharing the experiences of various organizations and individuals. The session was anchored by Mr. Dilip Ghosh, IAS (retd), member of West Bengal Finance Commission and Prof. Kalyan Rudra, Chairman, WBPCB.
???? Few points atleast
Vote of thanks
The seminar ended with a vote of thanks by Mr. Saradindu Bannerjee, Secretary, Self Help Group Promotional Forum. He thanked everyone for their valuable contribution and asked everyone to come forward with a follow up session at the earliest so that action research can be started.
4. Annex
Annex 01:Purpose of the workshop
Why This Seminar on “Climate Change and Sustainable Livelihood”
Honourable Guests and Distinguished Participants,
More than 700 crores population in earth and out of which about 300 crores are living with less than $2 per day and 100 crores with less than $1 per day. All of us are concerned! However one of the leading Economists assured us “poverty reduction is best achieved through making the cake bigger, not by trying to cut it up in a different way.” i.e. “economic growth is essential ingredient for sustained poverty reduction”.
But, for every $100 of global economic growth occurred between 1990 and 2001, only 60 cents went to people below the $1 per day line. In other words, to get the poorest people of the world an extra $1 required a $166 (=100/0.6) increase in global production and consumption!”
But according to latest data, our ecological footprint is already 50% larger than global ecosystem can accommodate – a clear case of ecological overshoot i.e. living in debt. Can we take this to farther with already overshooting ecological disaster? The United Nations projects that India’s population will reach 1.7 billion by 2050; if this is the case, India will require increased imports from other countries as it cannot support a population that size on domestic bio-capacity alone.
We, who talk about a development paradigm based on Equity, Sustainability and Self Help, find the “present day paradigm of growth” incongruent and look for solution by working together. Do we not think of shifting from “right over nature” to “right of nature?” Do we need to think of new form of development with new technology, new production system, new rural-urban relationship, new form of democratic governance, etc. ?? We wanted to hear from different sections of the society and find ways of actions for different stakeholders.
Finally, please note this seminar is the result of not one organisation, but the efforts of many organisations and individuals, may not be sharing same thought fully. Thus I must share our pride in saying that we have started the process of discussion and interaction and we would like to continue and broaden this process to build our understanding on issues related with climate change and chart out our actions forward.
Since “Climate Change” is inescapable, We want to act “now and forever!” and therefore look forward to your active participation today,
Thank you
Annex 02: Invitation for CHARTER OF ACTION on Climate Change Mitigation
Friends of Academia and Society (FEAS)
CHARTER OF ACTION on Climate Change Mitigation
Introduction: This is an inescapable fact that the Climate Change is a global problem and a common concern to mankind. GHG emissions contribute to climate change irrespective of their origin and hence all countries will be affected if no action is taken.
Climate change is likely to impact all natural ecosystems as well as socio-economic systems in India. According to “India’s Ecological Footprint – a business perspectives” published by Ecological Footprint Network and CII, despite low average consumption per person, because others consumed far more and also of its large population, India has the third largest total Footprint, exceeded only by the United States and China. The United Nations projects that India’s population will reach 1.7 billion by 2050; if this is the case, India will require increased imports from other countries as it cannot support a population that size on domestic bio-capacity alone.
Government of India released India’s first National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) outlining existing and future policies and programs addressing climate mitigation and adaptation on June 30, 2008. The plan running through 2017 emphasizes the overriding priority of maintaining high economic growth rates to raise living standards. The plan “identifies measures that promote our development objectives while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively.”
We at FEAS think that unless all stakeholders including common people make efforts at their respective level, the effect on climate would continue to accelerate and to reduce this trend, the climate change issue must be made a public agenda and a charter of actions is framed spelling out the tasks for each stakeholder singly and jointly, and accepted by all to follow.
We request all to contribute to develop this charter and therefore suggest actions for the stakeholders. In the following, FEAS has identified the stakeholders only. You may please add other stakeholders as well and give suggestions for the stakeholders. FEAS plans to collate all these and share with all for advocating with all stakeholders to follow.
For Community Members (the following 2 are just example)
• To understand Climate change issues affecting the life and livelihood of individuals
• To undertake social and technical actions to mitigate effect by climate change for improving quality of life
For Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and NGOs
For Panchayats / Municipalities
For Financial Institutions / Bankers / Promotional Bankers i.e. NABARD, SIDBI, etc.
For State Government
For Universities and Research Institution
For Schools / Colleges
For Media
For Specific Occupational Groups
For Political Parties / Trade Unions
For Religious Organisations
Others (pl specify)
