Current Affairs Nov 2016 - Environment

News 1 - Paris Climate Agreement Comes into Force from 4^th November 2016

The “Paris Climate Agreement”, came into force on 4^th November 2016. India and other countries displayed a ‘Smiley’ with lights, with the slogan "We Did It" on important buildings. India ratified the Paris Agreement on 2^nd October 2016 and the Agreement has the support of majority of the countries.

The Paris Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

News 2 - Government forms team for conservation of Loktak lake in Manipur

Environment Ministry has constituted a four member team for conservation and management of Loktak lake in Manipur. It will review the implementation of works carried out with financial assistance provided by the Central and State governments so far for the conservation of the lake.

It will also identify the steps taken to increase the tourism potential of the lake. The Ministry has asked the team to submit a report by 15^th of November.

News 3 - Government holds meeting to discuss measures to control air pollution in Delhi

Government held a meeting to discuss measures to control air pollution in Delhi NCR. It was agreed to further intensify action against visibly polluting vehicles, overloading vehicles and vehicles parked against non-designated areas. Lane discipline will be enforced and the Pollution under Control regimes will be further strengthened.

The State governments agreed to immediately undertake sprinkling of water on dusty roads, introduce wet/mechanized vacuum sweeping of roads, and maintain pothole free roads among other steps. State governments agreed to examine closing of brick kilns operating on obsolete technologies during the winter season.

News 4 - Climate change makes past 5-year period the warmest on record: WMO

New data released by the World Meteorological Organisation shows that the five years from 2011 to 2015 were the warmest on record. The report, published at global climate talks in Morocco strongly links human activities to rising temperatures.

It says that some studies found that the burning of fossil fuels had increased the probability of extreme heat by 10 times or more. The authors say that 2016 will likely break the record for warmest year.

News 5 - Delhi Govt launched Swachh Delhi App

Delhi government launched the Swachh Delhi App aimed at seeking people's help in dealing with rising air pollution level in the national capital. According to the government, citizens can register complaints against garbage, plastic, dry leaves burning in the open, polluting vehicles and industries and construction sites causing dust pollution through the app.

The complaint will be received at central monitoring system in Urban Development Department and the complaint will be forwarded to concerned agencies for immediate redressal. An auto generated message will also be provided to the complainant through software.

News 6 - SC orders government to devise Common Minimum Programme to deal with pollution

Three judge bench of Supreme Court led by Chief Justice TS Thakur, asked the Union Government to devise a Common minimum programme within 48 hours and come up with a policy to deal with alarmist levels of rising air pollution.

Supreme Court took this decision in respond to plea filed by the Environment Pollution Control Authority, who has been monitoring of worsening pollution levels in these areas and requested the court to consider taking stringent action under public emergency since air pollution limits have gone beyond permissible levels in Delhi.

News 7 - Swachh Bharat Women’s Conclave honored women Sanitation Champions

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation organized a National Conclave of Women Champions for Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin to recognize and honor the efforts of women champions in rural sanitation.

The conclave was organized with the support of UNICEF, with the aim of sharing best practices across States and honoring such efforts in parts of the country where women are playing a leadership role in SBM(G).

At these sessions, sarpanches and grassroots workers from across the country shared their experiences about the problems faced and how they overcame challenges in making their villages Open Defecation Free.

News 8 - Sessions at COP 22 focused on Afforestation, Ecosystem and Climate Change

On the third day of Conference of Parties (COP22) being held at Marrakech in Morocco, the India Pavilion witnessed three side-events that focused on the initiatives in afforestation and REDD+ in India, ecosystem and climate change and sustainable transportation.

During the first session on “Afforestation and REDD+”, experts highlighted the role of forests in mitigating climate change.

In the second session on ecosystem and climate change, discussions were held on the role of forest in climate change mitigation and adaptation. India has focused its low carbon initiatives on the development of railways and other forms of public transport.

News 9 - IMD Proposes to Bring Out a Cold Weather Outlook for the Period December 2016 to February 2017

Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has already started issuing of the Hot Weather Season Outlooks from the summer season of 2016, i.e. starting from April 2016. It is also proposed to bring out a Cold Weather Outlook for the period from December 2016 to February 2017.

Temperature Outlook is issued for hot and cold weather season temperatures over the country based on predictions using the ocean-atmosphere coupled climate model developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune, Ministry of Earth Sciences.