Download Adaptation to Climate Change

How will disenfranchised peoples adapt to
Climate Change?
K.Chaitanya Kumar – Indian Youth Climate
Network(IYCN) – Hyderabad.
Headlines Today
• India goes to poll.
• North Korea and its secret satellite.
• Chinese company working on electric cars on a
large scale.
• Climate activists roughed up – plan to stop a
power plant sabotaged.
• IYCN is represented in a conference on Climate
Justice in Toronto,Canada. 
Adaptation to Climate Change
The problem has to be mitigated, but the real solution is a mix of mitigation and adaptation.
The Current Situation:
India cannot and will not adopt any emission reductions or mitigation methods when the
figures suggest that our per capita emissions will never go beyond those of the developed
nations.
So what is the way forward for a country like India?
a)Sustainable development henceforth.
b)Adapting to the dangers of climate change at the earliest.
Why adapt?
• 2/3rds of Indian living below 2$ a day.
• Per capita emissions are over 15 times less than the highest (US).
• Though contributing 4% of world carbon emissions, we are
incapable of reducing emissions without jeopardizing further
growth.
• We are the most vulnerable to climate change.
------------------what does this suggest??----------------------• Adaptation is the key to saving lives and creating sustainable
models for the future.
What does the World say?
• India needs to be a part of a separate group
besides the dated non annex I countries.
• India needs to reduce its dependence on dirty
coal and other fossil fuels.
Andhra Pradesh
Vol 1: The disenfranchised or the
victims
• The rural India, 70% of the population is the most
vulnerable and no surprises in Andhra’s case.
• The coastal regions bordering the side of the bay of
Bengal are vulnerable.
• Though parts of the state form the Deccan plateau, a
catchment area of major rivers, climate change will
have its impact.
• Poor urban planning of cities like Hyderabad will aid
in aggravating the affects of climate change and
hence the urban poor casualties.
Elections in Andhra Pradesh – A magnitude unheard of before with
over 5 million people.
A taste of what’s to come?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Political parties are fighting it out in various constituencies to woo
the voter with promises of cell phones, tv’s, 25kg’s of rice at $2 etc.
Agrarian growth with farmer benefits are guaranteed without any
fear of climate change.
Urban development will be a success with sky scrapers and
expressways sans knowledge of emissions.
A possible split of the state owing to peasant struggles but with a
lack of wealth distribution model.
Climate change has wider impacts on the state of Andhra that will affect
the livelihood of all.
The problems they face?
• Water security: A recent
report suggests that the
ground water table of
Hyderabad is critical and
the city could go bone dry in
the next 10 years.
• Food security: 4,500
committed suicide since the
last 7 years due to bad
seeds, costly pesticide and
drought. In the name of free
trade, thousands of lives
were lost.
More 
• Overall changing weather
patterns: unpredictability, lack
of awareness and no
adaptation.
• Looming disaster of hybrid
varieties of crops, BT brinjal
etc.
• Land occupation for bio fuel
cultivation.
• Decreasing land in urban areas
and excess dependence on
imports.
• Local water body pollution
being aggravated by climate
change.
and a lot more 
• Andhra’s geographical
position, sociological
hindrances and its
sheer size are but a few
of the problems.
• The problem of black
soot which is generally
ignored.
• The case of gender
inequality.
Andhra’s Adaptation
• The cultural diversity which comes through in
the religions, castes, languages and regions
calls for diversified adaptation methods.
• Local action before national or state policies
trickle down.
• Unification of various actors at the grassroots
levels to work together.
• A prioritization of needs of the vulnerable and
acting accordingly.
Fact File – Andhra Pradesh
• A.P. is divided into 3 met regions i.e.., a ) Coastal A.P. b)
Rayalaseema c) Telangana.The state as a whole is benefited by
both the monsoons but Telangana gets less than 25 percent of the
total from N.E. Monsoon.
• A deep study of the behavior of monsoons over a period of years
show that the general characteristics of the rainfall in this region is
erratic with a continued dry spell of three weeks and more
creating drought conditions. Heavy spells are generally noticed in
July and September resulting in two fillings of tanks and reservoirs.
• Andhra has 23 districts.
• A coastal length of 974 KM’s
• Major rivers are Krishna, Godavari and Tungabhadra.
• Annual rainfall of 940mm.
• Manufacturing sector is the biggest contributor to GSDP and
pharma industry is the biggest in the country.
Hyderabad, A.P. – Climate Change
by 2050s
Per capita availability of water
Hyderabad – Mega city’s mega woes
Water Supply from Krishna
Chaitanya’s drinking water source
Supply per capita
Existing Pressures
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•
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Dynamics of Demographics
Land & Energy use
Economic Activities
Territorial Occupancy
Trans-boundary Issues
Sustainable Development
Vol2 : The Villains
• The usual suspects – Government and its
policy, private sectors.
• The unusual suspect – Cultural diversity and
conflicts, energy inequity, deadpan middle
class.
A case of Agriculture in Rural
Andhra
• The region of Telangana has seen class-based mobilisation of the landless
and poor peasantry since the early 70’s.
• The high class brahmins were typically the landlords or doras while the
lower castes formed the tenants.
• The Vetti system is followed which is a principle of exchange.
• The Goudas (toddy-tappers) had to reserve certain high yielding palmyra
trees for the dora, tap them and supply the produce freely. The village
Kummari (potter) supplied pots; Chakalis (washermen) and Mangalis
(barbers), in addition to their caste occupation-related services, had to
perform other household chores at the gadi (residence of dora).
• Tenant cultivation is of 3 types – fixed amount, half the yield with
investment from the share-cropper, 2/3rd to landlord and rest to sharecropper
•
•
•
•
•
•
The result?
Increasing unrest amongst the peasants lead
to the formation of CPI(ML) in the late 70’s. It
was lead by young people across the state.
Sircilla and Jagityal struggle.
The Peddapally struggle
The naxalite movement
The tendu struggle – beedi leaves.
Dalit movement in coastal Andhra
Of darker green and misunderstood technology
• The famous Green Revolution which began in
1965 spread to areas of Andhra very soon.
• Use of pesticides, fertilizers and
technologically modified crops began.
• The use of technology began to make inroads
in rural Andhra and the consequences are not
what was expected!
An Example
• The leather workers of the Madiga community were
dependent on the agricultural community for carcasses to
produce leather chappals, which they then supplied to the
community in return.
• On the one hand, they were affected by the entry into rural
markets of chappals made in urban leather centres, and on
the other, by the overall transformation of agrarian practices.
• Further, cheap rubber slippers largely replaced the chappals
made by the local Madiga leather workers.
• The same case can be extended to the handloom
communities in Andhra Pradesh.
• Freedom from labor obligations with the decline of the precapitalist production relations.
• Freedom from the old mode of production and craft basis
sufficiently opened up autonomy.
• However, this notional freedom is obstructed and restricted
by the lack of sufficient alternative sources of employment.
• The result is the migration of aspirations of rural youth to get
a better job in cities like Hyderabad, Vizag etc. And this isn’t a
positive change?
The middle class menace!
700 million young people(below 35) in the country and this could be the
biggest bane or the biggest boon to this country.
Bane?
a) Rising aspirations to adopt a western lifestyle.
b) Apathy in the middle class.
c) Oft denied and ignored aspect of urban traditions based on religion, caste,
gender.
Boon?
a) Immense man power to drive green jobs and sustainable development
models.
b) Scope for future leadership.
Steps to Adaptation
a)
Weather indexed crop insurance – a foolproof method to make sure the
truly vulnerable get the support from Govt.
b) Avoiding yield wastage through proper storage techniques – example of
wheat where yield was beyond demand and govt. storage facilities were
shoddy. Governance of food distribution has to revisited to address the
most needy first.
c) Agro forestry – where trees and crops and grown together to avoid crop
failure due to floods and restore soil fertility and also provide shade to
the crops. Fact -600 million metric tons of carbon a year by 2040,
compared with about 120 million metric tons for cropland.
d) Drastic policies on family planning in rural India – This is a tough step as it
is bound by age old traditions.
More steps…
•
•
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Financial mechanism which works with local cooperatives, self help
groups and banks at a wide scale level.
Better knowledge systems that provide not just the price of the crop but
also weather patterns – ITC for example began this.
Education systems that work as platforms for villages to gather and
discuss the issues of farming and share best practices to adopt.
A simultaneous shift to resistant/ tolerant crops and organic farming –
ICRISAT in Hyderabad is working on climate tolerant crops suitable in the
plateau conditions.
Prevention of migration to urban areas in search of jobs,
decentralization/ de-modernization of industry in rural Andhra
• Calling for traditional practices and improving
small and medium scale industries.
• If we pursue emissions trading in a big way,
agrarian communities need to be a part of it.
• Introduction of renewable energy to rural
areas.
• NREGA, Mid day meal, rural electrification,
rural water conservation scheme.
A model NGO
• MV Foundation in Andhra has worked with over 108 villages
in and around Hyderabad since the last 15 years. They took up
• Natural resource management methods –
I. watershed mgmt,
II. horticulture,
III. vermi composting,
IV. careful biofuel cultivation,
V. Bio gas units
VI. Solar energy appliances.
IYCN
Create communicate celebrate
 Our Endeavour is to network various actors from the
grassroots, politicians, media, youth and create a
single platform to promote solutions
 We believe everybody is a potential climate activist
and can bring about the needed change.
Our activities
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•
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First Indian Youth Delegation to Poznan.
Climate Solutions Road Tour
Rural Energy Project
Presence in National and International
conferences.
• Organized over 10 conferences to bring young
people together.
• A model powershift in India in July.
Our presence
• www.iycn.in
• www.indiaclimatesolutions.com
• www.whatswiththeclimate.org