Climate Change and Sustainable Development in India

Global climate change, being caused primarily by the building up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, is a serious environmental concern for the world community. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, concluded in its 2007 Fourth Assessment Report that global warming is unequivocal and there is enough evidence to indicate that this is due to anthropogenic reasons. India has always been subject to a large degree of climate variability. This is likely to be accentuated by climate change. As a part of voluntary actions to address climate change related concerns, India launched the National Action Plan on Climate Change in June 2008. It stresses the need to maintain a high growth rate for improving living standards of the vast majority of people of India and, at the same time, to reduce their vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change. This book looks at the impending perils of climate change and underscores the need for timely remedial measures to deal with the emerging crisis.