Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #32
The UN Chief calls for a ban on advertising fossil fuels, Mumbai has a climate budget, Uttarakhand rages with forest fires, floods in Delhi and Hajj pilgrim deaths attributed to extreme heat
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Now on to today’s edition of the news digest where as always, I bring to you 5 climate stories
2 sunny ones that give us hope
3 stormy ones that are a cause for alarm
🌞 Sunny news 🌞
1. UN chief calls for a ban on fossil fuel advertising (similar to ones on tobacco or alcohol)
What happened?
During his speech on World Environment Day, the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres took aim at fossil fuel companies.
He called the fossil fuel companies “The godfathers of climate chaos”
Drawing a comparison with many governments’ restrictions on advertising for harmful substances like tobacco, he said, “I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies, and I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising.”
Why does this matter?
While the scientific community has known and said for a long time that fossil fuels are the biggest contributor to climate change induced warming, efforts to stop or reduce the use of fossil fuels have been grossly inadequate.
Stopping or significantly reducing the use of fossil fuels is a critical step in addressing the climate crisis.
While this speech by Guterres by itself may not be able to put an end to fossil fuels advertising, it is a step in the right direction.
Just as a reminder: It may seem ridiculous to use today, but not very long back, there were advertisements for cigarettes on TV and newspapers.
So while many are saying that the ban Guterres is calling for is ridiculous and will never happen, here is a reminder that everything that changes the world seems impossible at the start.
2. Mumbai published its first climate budget!
Mumbai’s first ever Climate Budget is here!
Highlights from Mumbai’s first climate budget
BMC has allocated INR 10,224 cr for climate-relevant activities. This accounts for 32% of the total BMC budget.
The biggest chunk - INR 9,700 cr (i.e. 97% of the total climate budget) is going towards urban flooding and water resource management. Other major areas include INR 260 cr for waste management and INR 177 cr for urban greening and biodiversity.
Mumbai is the first city in India and only the 4th city in the world to publish a climate budget following Oslo, London and New York.
What is good?
This is a great start. Getting a city to adopt a climate budgeting process is no mean task.
It has established a baseline and tells us where we stand.
It has mainstreamed 'climate priorities' with 20+ departments now tracking the climate impact of their initiatives.
And finally, given this is part of a budget it will get audited and reviewed building accountability and transparency.
What is not so good?
A whopping 97% has gone towards just 1 action area from Mumbai's climate action plan - urban flooding and water management.
And even in this, most of it seems to be allocated to maintaining stormwater drains, building pipes etc. with a measly 0.07% going towards localised water conservation and efficiency!
What about the other risk areas - urban heat, cyclones, air quality, emission reduction etc.? They seem to be lagging severely in budgetary allocations
Why do we still call it ‘Sunny’ news?
All in all, it's a great start and kudos to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and World Resources Institute for the incredible effort of publishing Mumbai's first climate budget. We will need to do better, be more honest, take a more comprehensive approach and really put our money where our mouth is if we do really want to keep 'Aamchi Mumbai' a thriving city that survives on the other side of the climate crisis.
But here’s to applauding the first step!
If you are interested in this, you can read a deep dive I wrote:
⛈️ Stormy news ⛈️
3. Forest fires burn Uttarakhand this summer
Uttarakhand has seen 1000+ forest fires this summer. The incidence of forest fires has increased with the forest becoming dry due to global warming and climate change, and a lack of rain and snow in the winter.
What is happening?
Uttarakhand has witnessed more than 1,000 incidents of forest fire this year
Most of them are in Nainital, Almora, Pithoragarh, Pauri and Uttarkashi districts.
5 people have lost their lives and more than 1,400 hectares of forest has burnt down
Why does this matter?
The increase in incidence of the forest fires is linked to the forests becoming more dry
This is happening because of higher temperatures in the summer and less rain/ snow in the winter, both of which can be attributed to long term climate change
Some of the forest are man-made, in that they are triggered by human activities (either by mistake like leaving a bidi or on purpose to clear land for agriculture), however the increase we are seeing can be attributed to climate change according to environmental experts.
Sources for further reading
Uttarakhand: Over 1,000 forest fires in 4 months, crisis looms amid poor preparedness (News laundry)
4. Devastating rains in Delhi: Airport roof collapses, more than 5 dead, flooding in Lutyens.
Friday 28th June became Delhi’s rainiest June day in 88 years. It saw 228 mm of rainfall in 24 hours - which is the highest amount in a day in June since 1936 and also ~30% of the total rainfall Delhi received in the year!
What happened?
Delhi had its first day of heavy rainfall this monsoon on Friday. It got a whopping 228 mm of rainfall in 24 hours.
The heavy rain was accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning and caused waterlogging in several areas, including in Lutyens, Delhi!
The flooding in Lutyen, which houses top ministers and parliamentarians saw Shashi Tharoor tweeting about it!
The roof of Terminal 1 of the Delhi airport collapsed due to heavy rain and winds resulting in the death of 1 can driver and injuring few others.
2 children died by drowning, a man got electrocuted and 3 labourers were trapped as an under construction wall collapsed in incidents reported so far.
In several areas, vehicles were submerged as rainwater flooded streets, severe power cuts were experienced and several trees were uprooted.
Can we blame this on climate change?
Yes and No
Yes: The incidence of extreme rainfall events such as this one, where 1/3rd of the entire seasons rainfall occurred over a period of 24 hours have become more common due to climate change.
No: The waterlogging, traffic jams and people being stranded are also the courtesy of poor urban planning and inadequate preparedness on the part of the city authorities.
Sources for further reading
5. More than 1300 Hajj pilgrims die in Mecca as Saudi Arabia suffered from an intense heatwave
What is happening?
At least 1,301 Muslim pilgrims have died during the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia as the country experiences an extreme heat wave.
These are the first official figures released by the Saudi government. They said “The health system addressed numerous cases of heat stress this year, with some individuals still under care. Regrettably, the number of deaths reached 1,301.”
The health minister also said that 83% of those who died were not authorized to perform the Hajj and had "walked long distances under direct sunlight without adequate shelter or comfort."
Why does this matter?
A study in March this year has shown that temperatures in the area had increased on average by 0.4°C every decade over the past 40 years.
And another 2021 study found that over the past four decades, "Saudi Arabia has warmed up at a rate that is 50% higher" than the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.
The heat wave in Saudi Arabia has been made "at least five times more likely" because of human-caused climate change, per Climate Central's Climate Shift Index, which compares observed or forecast temperatures with simulations of the same weather conditions minus excess atmospheric greenhouse gases.
Sources for further reading:
You can read previous editions of the newsletter -
Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #31
Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #30
Sunny climate, stormy climate | News Digest #29
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Is there any way citizens can support UN's call for ban on advertising?
Super informative newsletter, as usual Sailee!
If you could, at the end add a section on what we can do as concerned citizens to stop/raise awareness/reduce the impact of climate change. It could be something very basic but often looked over. Thanks!