A spate of extreme events played out alongside the pandemic, making India’s need for both immediate and long-term climate solutions more pressing. In 2020, TERI developed and launched tools to increase the resilience of cities to extreme climatic events, drafted frameworks for India’s mid-century strategies for mitigation and adaptation, and trained regional journalists from the Himalayan region in climate change reporting.
Floods, landslides, and torrential rains were evident across India and grew in frequency and intensity in 2020. As climate change worsens heavy downpours and water logging in ill-planned urban areas, there is a need to address climate-related issues at the city level and devise strategies for improved adaptation and resilience.
In August, TERI launched a Flood Early Warning System for Guwahati and Jorhat in Assam. The model works on the weather forecast and rainfall prediction data of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and identifies the flood hotspots of the city.
Assam faced three waves of floods this year which impacted 30 districts. ICT enabled tools are essential for the mitigation of risks and to expand the regional disaster risk reduction efforts of various cities in Assam.
Shri Jishnu BaruahTERI also launched a Climate Atlas in the form of a web portal called 'TERI Climate Tool' or TCT to assist policy planning at the regional level and help decision-makers to be climate ready.
While 'greening' a recovery will focus on immediate economic relief, developing a holistic long-term strategy (LTS) is also necessary to build resilience. By 2050, the world will have to be on a path to zero emissions and India must play a part in realizing this vision. India requires an LTS for better coherence in guiding its economic growth and climate action. To drive enhanced action, TERI developed two guiding documents on India’s Long-Term Strategy to address mitigation and adaptation challenges and to put India on a climate-resilient development pathway.
The UNEP-IEA Cooling Emissions and Policy Synthesis Report pointed out that up to 0. 4°C of warming could be avoided by 2100, by
transitioning to energy-efficient and climate-friendly cooling solutions. India's cooling demand is projected to grow exponentially in the
years to come.
India paved the way for coordinated action on all cooling-related
activities through its ambitious India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP).
A consortium called SHEETAL (Sustainable Housing, Energy Efficiency and Thermal Comfort for All), comprising TERI, AEEE and CEEW is working to facilitate the implementation of ICAP recommendations.
Under this initiative, TERI conducted a perception study – of consumers, policymakers and technicians – to identify the levers for policy interventions in sustainable cooling. The study shows that over 90 per cent of the consumers for cooling products look at the star-rating of the appliance, but the cost is always of paramount importance
At the COP 26 webinar series organised by TERI and the British High Commission, New Delhi, industry and policy experts from India and the UK deliberated on strategies to accelerate climate action in key Indian sectors. In line with themes of COP26 to be held in November 2021, the four-day discussions focused on electric mobility, nature-based solutions, green finance, and adaptation and resilience.
At the inaugural of World Sustainable Development Summit 2020, Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs from the Center for Sustainable
Development, Columbia University, said that the definitive need
of the hour - reducing CO2 emissions to net zero by 2050 - is likely
to fail if the world continues on a business-as-usual trajectory.
No place in the world is as vulnerable to climate as India is.
Prof Sachs was felicitated with the Sustainable Development
Leadership Award at WSDS 2020 for championing the cause of
sustainable development at the global, national, and local levels.
Climate change communication is vital to bridge the gap between research and practice, between policy and people. In June 2020, Earth Journalism Network, TERI, and Nomad Communications started a Media Fellowship programme to train a group of journalists, from the Himalayan region in India and Nepal in climate change reporting.
This group of indigenous journalists produced a range of video and audio stories, documenting both the challenges borne by their communities and solutions that are needed to protect the Himalayan ecosystem and the lives and livelihood of its people.
