Forcibly displaced crossed 100 million in 2022

(GS-III: Disaster Management, Governance: Poverty and developmental issues)

In News:

According to the UNDP report “Turning the tide on internal displacement: A development approach to solutions”, for the first time ever, more than 100 million people were forcibly displaced in 2022, most of them within their own countries.

What is forced displacement?

Forced displacement (also forced migration) is an involuntary or coerced movement of a person or people away from their home or home region.

Impact of forced displacement:

These internally displaced persons struggle to cover their basic needs, find decent work or have a stable source of income

48 per cent of the internally displaced households surveyed earned less money than before displacement.

Female and youth-headed households were more impacted

Other Economic impacts: The direct impact of internal displacement globally was estimated at over $21.5 billion in 2021 in the form of the financial cost of providing every internally displaced person with housing, education, health and security, and accounts

Lack of Proper and Commonly Accepted Statistics about displacement has led to a lack of policies for displaced people.

The term “climate refugee”  does not exist in international law, and therefore international efforts/policies towards it have been lacking.

What does the report say?

Russia- Ukraine war: 6.5 million people are estimated to have been internally displaced

By 2050, climate change could force more than an estimated 216 million people to move within their own countries.

Disaster-related internal displacement is even more widespread, with new displacements recorded in over 130 countries and territories in 2021

Most affected regions: sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa and parts of the Americas

Key pathways suggested:

• Strengthening governance institutions
• Boosting socioeconomic integration through access to jobs and services
• Restoring security
• Enhancing participation e.g., equal access to rights and basic services
• Building social cohesion
• Humanitarian aid

Conclusion:

UNDP called for countries to take political, social and economic measures to ensure that IDPs can exercise their full rights as citizens, including in political processes. This renewed social contract should ensure the safety of IDPs as well as their access to healthcare, education, decent jobs and social protection.

New Energy Outlook report 2022

(GS-III: Environment and Conservation)

In News:

According to the 2022 New Energy Outlook report (by BloombergNEF), it is still possible to keep the temperature increase to 1.77 degrees Celsius with determined action.

Background:

Limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius will not be easy to achieve. Hence, the report analysed Net Zero scenarios or routes that, with a 67% certainty, restrict global warming to 1.77 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050.

Findings of the report:

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from developing economies, particularly India, will continue to rise and will only begin to decline by the early 2030s.

Emissions in Europe, US, Australia and Japan have already peaked this year and will decline rapidly after that.

However, China’s reduction is more gradual. Emissions will peak this year and then stabilise before realigning with developed-country trajectories.

Suggestions to limit increase to 1.77 degrees Celsius:

Emissions need to fall by 30% by 2030 and by 6% a year to 2040.

For this, investments in the clean energy sector must triple that of fossil fuel to reach Net Zero by 2050.

About 25% of total emissions can be reduced using low-carbon electricity in the transport sector and industrial processes.

The rest of the emissions can be abated by hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

CCS is the process of using technology to capture carbon emissions from industrial processes or power generation, from where it is transported and stored underground for posterity.

Challenges: Net Zero scenario requires a global investment of $194 trillion by 2050 to make this large-scale clean energy transition.

Way ahead:

A revolution will be needed in the energy sector to increase momentum and accelerate emissions reductions. This would account for nearly half of the reductions in carbon emissions.

Switching the sources of power generation from fossil fuels to renewable energy is the need of the hour.

Conclusion:

The governments and the public sector around the world could still work together to ensure the transition to low-carbon energy technologies.

Commodity Markets

Sebi has taken action against 5 commodity brokers

• A commodity broker is a firm or an individual who executes orders to buy or sell commodity contracts on behalf of clients.
• A commodity market is a marketplace for buying, selling, and trading raw materials or primary products.
• Commodity contracts include futures, options, and similar financial derivatives.
• After the merger of the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) with SEBI, SEBI has been regulating the commodity market.
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was established as a statutory body in 1992, to protect the interests of investors and to promote and regulate the securities market.

Powerless Heating System

In News:

New low-cost ‘Powerless Heating System’ activated with water can heat food in remote areas.

Details:

The active heating element consists of a mixture of eco­ friendly minerals and salts, which generates exothermic energy resulting in heat in contact with water.

It can be activated by plain water anytime anywhere and does not require any fuel or electricity.

This provides enough energy to raise the temperature of any food or beverage by 60 to 70 degrees Celsius.

The by-product of the heating process is a natural mineral that easily integrates into the soil without any toxic effects.

With this technology, users can heat ready-to-eat food, make instant noodles, and any beverage like tea, coffee, etc.

Red sand dunes of Vizag

In News:

Protect glacial-period coastal red sand dunes of Vizag

Details:

It spread across an area of about 20 sq km and is popularly known as ‘Erra Matti Dibbalu’.

Declared as a geo-heritage site by the Geological Survey of India in 2014.

It is about 18,500 years old and is a lively scientific evolution site, which depicts the real-time effects of climate change. It represents the late quaternary geologic age.

Red sand dunes have been reported only from three places in the tropical regions in south Asia such as Teri Sands in Tamil Nadu, Visakhapatnam and one more site in Sri Lanka.