ABSTRACT

Climate Change is any significant, long-term change in the “average’’ weather that a region experiences. The UN Human Development Report (2007) calls the Climate Change, “the defining human development issue of our generation’’. TheWorldHealth Organization estimated that the health impacts of climate change caused 150,000 additional deaths in 2003, and that the proportion of the world population affected by weather disasters doubled between 1975 and 2001. This is just an inkling of the disasters that are in store for humanity if we go on increasing the emission of greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) account for 88% of the world’s commercial

primary energy. Burning of the fossil fuels leads to the production of climate-relevant emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). The extent of emissions from various sources is as follows: (i) Energy industries – about 50%, out of which CO2 accounts for 40%, (ii) Chemical products, particularly, CFCs – about 20%, (iii) Destruction of tropical rain forests and related causes – about 15%, (iv) Agriculture and others (e.g. waste deposit sites) – about 15%. The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere which was about 280 ppm at the time of

the Industrial Revolution in 1850s went up steadily with the increasing consumption of fossil fuels. It is now more than 387 ppm today (highest in the last 650,000 years, and higher than about 40% since the industrial revolution). The annual mean rate of growth is 2.14 ppm in 2007 (as against the rise at the rate of 1.5 ppm during the period, 1970-2000). The Developed countries which have 15% of the world’s population are responsible for 50% of the CO2 emissions.