Climate emergencies

Why in news?

• New Zealand’s government will decide next week if a climate emergency should be declared in the country or not.

About Climate emergencies:

• A Climate emergency is “a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it”.
• A climate emergency declaration affirms government’s or nation’s commitment towards doing more for the climate and bringing climate change to the centre of policymaking.
• The decision stresses the need for the government and administration to devise measures that try and stop human-caused global warming.
• Some of the countries that have declared a climate emergency in recent years include the UK, Portugal, Canada, Maldives, France and, most recently, Japan.
• Many states in countries like Australia, Brazil and USA have also declared climate emergencies.
• However, in most cases an emergency declaration is only symbolic and does not have any legal weight because of which critics have said that such announcements don’t do enough and are, in fact, “hollow”.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Consider the following:
1.National mission for sustainable agriculture
2.National water mission
3.National Mission for Sustaining Himalayan Ecosystem.
Which of the programs given above are part of India’s National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC)?
(a)1 and 2 only
(b)1 and 3 only
(c)2 and 3 only
(d)1,2,3 only

Answer to prelims question