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On Monday, July 22, Finance Minister <keyword id="22504403" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nirmal-sitharaman" source="keywords">Nirmal Sitharaman</keyword> tabled the <keyword id="20613906" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="economic-survey" source="keywords">Economic Survey</keyword> 2023-24 in the parliament ahead of the much-awaited budget 2024 tomorrow. In addition to a socio-economic stock take, the comprehensive report also outlines the strides India has made on the environment and climate fronts last year. India is in a weird grey area when the climate blame-game is concerned. We continue to average some of the lowest per capita CO2 emissions in the world. But, being the most-populous country in the world, these small bits add up to make India the third-largest emitter of CO2 in the world, after China and the United States. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111923746" title="Economic Survey 2023-2024 highlights emerging job trends in AI, Cybersecurity, 3D Printing and Web Development" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>However, this is not to say that the country has been sitting the green transition out either. As highlighted in the Economic Survey, India has been making notable strides in tackling climate change and promoting <keyword id="19895783" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sustainability" source="keywords">sustainability</keyword> — efforts that will be crucial to protect billions in the coming years and decades. Let's take a look at these efforts and compare them with findings from other recent environmental reports to see the full picture. <h2><keyword id="21818512" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="emission-intensity" source="keywords">Emission intensity</keyword> reduction</h2>The economic survey proudly states that India has reduced the emission intensity of its GDP by 33% from 2005 levels by 2019. This means the country is producing less greenhouse gas for every unit of economic activity. This is a commendable achievement because India’s original climate change target — or Nationally Determined Contribution — was set to precisely 33% reduction of emission intensity by 2030, before being revised to 45% in 2022. While the jump from 33% to 45% is still a significant one with barely half a decade to go, this progress is a clear sign that India’s climate policies are having a real impact. <h2><keyword id="19895602" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="renewable-energy" source="keywords">Renewable energy</keyword> capacity</h2>According to the economic survey, 45.4% of India’s installed electricity generation capacity — which includes solar, wind, and hydropower — now comes from non-fossil sources, as of May 31, 2024. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111774972" title="Economic Survey shows India&amp;#39;s energy needs to grow 2.5x, healthy growth in formal employment" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>As per reports by the Ministry of New &amp; Renewable Energy, India added a record renewable energy capacity of 18.48 GW in 2023-2024, with solar installations amounting to 12.78 GW, followed by 2.27 GW of wind energy. However, industry experts have also noted that India Inc. cannot afford to run out of steam now, and must continue to add at least 50 GW for the next six years to meet the target of 500 GW of renewables by 2030. <h2>Indian energy needs</h2>India's energy needs are expected to grow 2 to 2.5 times by 2047, as per the latest economic survey. This necessitates a balanced approach to <keyword id="19951336" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="energy-transition" source="keywords">energy transition</keyword> that considers resource limitations and the need for resilience to climate change. India has suffered from an overdependence on coal and fossil fuels in the past, accounting for around 75% of total energy generation in 2021, as per the Energy Information Administration. However, this number has been quickly falling, even dropping below a historic 50% in Q1 2024. <h2>Sovereign <keyword id="20177085" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="green-bonds" source="keywords">green bonds</keyword></h2>To fund green projects, India issued Rs 16,000 Crore in sovereign green bonds — financial instruments that support green projects at lower capital costs — in early 2023 and another Rs 20,000 Crore later in the year, the economic survey reports. As per the government, these proceeds were utilised in many eco-friendly projects, such as New and Renewable Energy, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Housing and Urban Affairs, Railways. To widen the investor base, the <keyword id="19899810" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="reserve-bank-of-india" source="keywords">Reserve Bank of India</keyword> (RBI) also recently permitted eligible foreign investors to invest in such bonds. <h2>Mission LiFE and Green Credit Programme</h2>The survey also talks extensively about Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), which promotes sustainable living, and the Green Credit Programme (GCP), which incentivises eco-friendly actions by offering “green credits”. In the past few months, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and a few other states have reportedly approved thousands of hectares of degraded forest land for greening exercises as part of the GCP. <h2>International initiatives</h2>India has spearheaded several international initiatives such as the International Solar Alliance (ISA), One World, One Sun, One Grid (OSOWOG), the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States’ (IRIS) and the Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT). Hundreds of nations are signed up for these climate coalitions and our participation will help reflect India's commitment to advancing global <keyword id="20000756" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="climate-action" source="keywords">climate action</keyword> and fostering international cooperation in sustainable development. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111923191" title="Economic Survey 2024 – industries grow by 9.5%, fueling economic growth to 8.2%" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>The report even notes that India is currently the only G20 nation who is set not to cross the 2°C warming threshold. All in all, India’s economic survey and environmental reports together show a nation making impressive progress in combating climate change and advancing sustainability. These achievements will hopefully set a strong example for other countries to follow.

On the right track — Economic Survey 2023-24 outlines India’s commendable climate action

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Japanese authorities want the conveyor-belt road to run between Tokyo and Osaka.</li><li>As well as tackling a trucker shortage, the road could reduce carbon emissions.</li></ul><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japan-airlines-free-flights-initiative-could-backfire-experts-2024-10">Japan</a> is planning to build what it describes as a "conveyor-belt road" between the cities of Tokyo and Osaka to address a shortage of truck drivers.The idea is that giant containers on pallets will be placed on a blocked-off, secure conveyor belt in the middle of the highway. Automated forklifts will be used to load and unload goods. A<a target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement" href="https://youtu.be/W0v0zAxu5Wo?si=70e1TxIE_t6tx9yw"> video </a>made by the Japanese government shows how it might work.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://apnews.com/article/japan-transport-delivery-trucking-labor-1c5b3524bce93e7e460dd735cbeab6c4">AP News</a> reported that a trial for the project, also known as an "auto-flow road," will begin in 2027 or 2028. The aim is to have full operations underway by the mid-2030s.According to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/business/economy/20240623-193996/"> Japan News,</a> the system could do the same amount of work as 25,000 truck drivers each day. The publication said such a system linking Tokyo to Osaka, 320 miles (515km) away, would cost up to ¥3.7 trillion or nearly $24 billion. Yuri Endo, a senior deputy director overseeing the project at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, told AP that the project will allow for a "24-hour automated and unmanned transportation system.""We need to be innovative with the way we approach roads," Endo said.She added that, as well as helping combat a shortage of delivery drivers, the road could help reduce carbon emissions. According to a recent <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.nri.com/">Nomura Research Institute </a>study cited by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/06/2d4b612cffa6-japan-to-face-36-truck-driver-shortfall-in-fy-2030-think-tank.html">Kyodo News,</a> Japan will have 36% fewer truck drivers than needed to meet the country's logistical demands in 2030.The number of truck drivers is expected to fall from 660,000 in the fiscal year of 2020 to 480,000 in fiscal 2030, the think tank said."It will be necessary to improve the efficiency of logistics in order to avoid serious economic effects," Kazuyuki Kobayashi, the institute's logistics consulting group manager, said earlier this year.The shortage of truck drivers is partly due to an aging population. However, it is worsening due to laws introduced in April that limit the amount of overtime drivers can work.According to government estimates, if the truck driver shortage remains unaddressed, it could leave a third of all cargo undelivered and leave a $76 billion dent in Japan's economy by 2030.It follows similar systems being considered by Switzerland, which would involve self-driving pods on an underground pathway, and London, which is weighing up an automated transport system using low-cost linear motors, AP reported.

Japan's intense trucker shortage may inspire a drastic solution — a giant conveyer belt between cities

Despite an increase in energy efficiency investment and lower energy intensity, the building and construction sector's energy consumption and <keyword id="85568" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="co2-emissions" source="Orion">CO2 emissions</keyword> have rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic to an all-time high, a new report finds. Released at the latest round of the UN COP27 climate summit in Egypt, the 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction finds that the sector accounted for over 34 per cent of energy demand and around 37 per cent of energy and process-related <keyword id="49838" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="co2" source="Orion">CO2</keyword> emissions in 2021. The sector's operational energy-related CO2 emissions reached 10 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent -- 5 per cent over 2020 levels and 2 per cent over the pre-pandemic peak in 2019. In 2021, operational energy demand for heating, cooling, lighting and equipment in buildings increased by around four per cent from 2020 and three per cent from 2019. This, according to the report from the <keyword id="15468006" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="global-alliance-for-buildings-and-construction" source="Orion">Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction</keyword> (GlobalABC), means the gap between the climate performance of the sector and the 2050 decarbonization pathway is widening. "Years of warnings about the impacts of climate change have become a reality,a said <keyword id="2974898" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="inger-andersen" source="Orion">Inger Andersen</keyword>, Executive Director of the <keyword id="7285" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="un-environment-programme" source="Orion">UN Environment Programme</keyword> (<keyword id="6491230" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="unep" source="Orion">UNEP</keyword>). "If we do not rapidly cut emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, we will be in deeper trouble." "The buildings sector represents 40 per cent of <keyword id="28249" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="europe" source="Orion">Europe</keyword>'s energy demand, 80 per cent of it from fossil fuels. This makes the sector an area for immediate action, investment, and policies to promote short and long-term energy security." Decarbonizing the buildings sector by 2050 is critical to delivering these cuts. To reduce overall emissions, the sector must improve building energy performance, decrease building materials' carbon footprint, multiply policy commitments alongside action and increase investment in energy efficiency. The sector's emissions intensity in kilogrammes of CO2 per square metre dropped from 43 in 2015 to 40 in 2021. Energy intensity in kilowatts per hour per square metre slightly decreased, from 153 in 2015 to 152 in 2021. Investments in building energy efficiency have gone up by unprecedented levels, rising by 16 per cent in 2021 over 2020 levels to $237 billion. However, growth is outpacing efforts on energy efficiency and reducing energy intensity. The increase in global gross floor area between 2015 and 2021 is the equivalent to the total land area covered in buildings in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands; if it were built on one level, at around 24,000 sq.km. The report says that investments in energy efficiency must be sustained in the face of growing crises -- such as the war in Ukraine and the ensuing energy crisis, and the cost-of-living crisis -- to reduce energy demand, avoiding CO2 emissions and dampen energy cost volatility. The buildings sector represents 40 per cent of Europe's energy demand, 80 per cent of it from fossil fuels. This makes the sector an area for immediate action, investment and policies to promote short and long-term energy security. The report shows that the sector can still change. For example, rising fossil fuel costs due to the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis are providing incentives to invest in energy efficiency -- although the erosion of purchasing power and the impact of labour and materials may slow investment. "The solution may lie in governments directing relief towards low and zero-carbon building investment activities through financial and non-financial incentives," Andersen added. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/best-festive-auto-sales-in-the-last-4-years-but-sales-may-decline-says-fada-report/articleshow/95354054.cms">Best festive auto sales in the last 4 years, but sales may decline says FADA report</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/whatsapp-introduces-communities-with-up-to-5000-members/articleshow/95275053.cms">WhatsApp introduces Communities with support for up to 5,000 members – here’s how to use it</a>

CO2 emissions from building and construction hits a new high: Report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The US accounts for 25% of global aircraft emissions.</li><li>Sustainable aviation fuel can be up to 80% less carbon intensive than conventional jet fuel.</li></ul>Of all global aircraft emissions, the US accounts for 25%. There's a goal to reduce that to zero by 2050, but it won't be easy. Aviation is one of the most challenging industries to decarbonize. The batteries we're using to electrify cars are generally too heavy for planes, and hydrogen-powered aircraft are many years off, at least from a commercial point of view. "The aviation sector does not have many options in terms of what it can do," Puneet Dwivedi, a professor at the University of Georgia who has been studying sustainable aviation fuel production, told Insider. "There's a 2,000-pound — 20,000 pounds! — gorilla in the room, and it's fuel. You have to sort out fuel." Sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, is similar to conventional jet fuel, but it's much less carbon-intensive during its full lifecycle. From production to combustion, it releases up to 80% less carbon dioxide than conventional jet fuel, according to <a href="https://www.iata.org/en/programs/environment/sustainable-aviation-fuels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the International Air Transport Association. Thanks to its similar physics and chemistry to conventional jet fuel, SAF is a "drop-in" fuel that can be mixed with other fuel and, for the most part, be stored in the same tanks and run in the same engines. It's so easy to swap in, that some industry experts have called it a "<a href="https://qz.com/delta-thinks-airline-carbon-emissions-could-peak-by-202-1849784433" target="_blank" rel="noopener">miracle drug</a>." Problem is, there's not enough. Current US production of sustainable aviation fuel is around 4.5 million gallons per year, according to <a href="https://rhg.com/research/sustainable-aviation-fuels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent research</a> by the Rhodium Group. The White House wants to up production to 3 billion gallons by 2030, in order to fully decarbonize aviation by 2050, but that's still not enough to replace the 4 billion gallons of fuel that were consumed in the US in 2022. "There are many refineries that can produce jet fuel from fossil fuel," Chris Cooper, US president of Neste, one of the main producers of SAF globally, told Insider. "There are very few that have seen the vision" of converting to SAF production. SAF is mostly made from chemicals called hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids, usually in the form of vegetable oils and used cooking oil. But, as much as Americans like their french fries and donuts, there's still not enough used oil. Luckily, SAF can be made from a lot of other things: trash, wood, carbon dioxide, to name a few. Dwivedi, at the University of Georgia, for example, is working with a process that would turn a mildly poisonous grass called carinata that can be grown in the US into SAF. As more refineries get equipped to produce SAF, and more methods of production get approved, the goal of 3 billion gallons by 2030 is, according to experts, doable. Despite being potentially "miraculous," SAF won't be an overnight switch. It needs to be phased in incrementally. "There's a certain portion of the population that just wants to wait until they have a zero emissions aircraft," Carol Sim, assistant director for the Aviation Sustainability Center, told Insider. "That's not gonna be flying for many, many years to come. But we have this opportunity to have emission reductions before those vehicles are introduced. Because SAF is approved now, it's been used, it's accepted by airlines, it's accepted by the aircraft manufacturers, airports, the governments, globally, it is the immediate thing that we can do to reduce emissions."

Aviation's best bet for cutting emissions is a new kind of fuel &mdash; but there's nowhere near enough of it

<ul class="summary-list"><li>UK scientists found a way to clean up blast furnaces, the most carbon-intensive part of steelmaking.</li><li>Steel accounts for up to 9% of global emissions and is one of the most difficult climate challenges.</li></ul>Steel built much of our modern world, but it also racked up a massive carbon footprint along the way. Now, researchers at <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2023/novel-adaptation-for-existing-blast-furnaces-could-reduce-steelmaking-emissions-by-90" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">the University of Birmingham have developed a process</a> to clean up the most carbon-intensive part of the steelmaking process: blast furnaces. Currently, coking coal and iron ore are fed into furnaces and heated to sky-high temperatures to create liquid iron, which is then refined into steel. About <a href="https://worldsteel.org/about-steel/steel-facts/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">70% of steel</a> used around the world for buildings, cars, and household appliances is made this way.For every metric ton of steel produced, nearly two metric tons of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, <a href="https://worldsteel.org/publications/policy-papers/climate-change-and-the-production-of-iron-and-steel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">according to the World Steel Organization</a>. The industry accounts for up to 9% of global emissions, meaning that if it were a country, it'd be the third-largest emitter behind China and the US.Harriet Kildahl, a co-author of the research by University of Birmingham, told Insider that her team found a way to make steel with 90% less coking coal, which could reduce carbon emissions by a similar percentage. Kildahl described it as a "closed-loop" system that captures and recycles carbon dioxide to trigger the chemical reactions that convert iron ore into steel. A mineral known as perovskite is used to react with carbon dioxide at lower temperatures, she said. The system could be retrofitted onto furnaces. "Some coking coal is used to start up this thermochemical cycle, but from that point on, you would never need to add any more," Kildahl said.The system could be easier and cheaper to adopt than other strategies to decarbonize steel because it repurposes blast furnaces rather than replacing them, Yulong Ding, a co-author of the research, told Insider. His team is searching for industrial partners to build a plant and test the process on a pilot scale. Technologies that don't use fossil fuels for steel production are emerging, though they haven't been proven to work on a commercial scale. The Swedish steelmaker SSAB built a plant that uses green hydrogen from renewable energy and <a href="https://www.ssab.com/en/news/2022/05/ssab-to-deliver-fossilfree-steel-to-volvo-trucks" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">delivered a small amount of fossil-free steel to Volvo last year</a>. SSAB aims to reach commercial scale by 2026. Startups like Boston Metal and Electra, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-06/how-to-make-emissions-free-iron-at-temperatures-colder-than-coffee" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow sponsored">which are backed by Bill Gates' venture-capital firm and heavy industry</a>, are in the early stages of testing two ways to use electricity to convert iron ore to steel.Yet every strategy has its drawbacks, including the one out of the UK. "I found this very innovative and promising," said Jihye Kim, an assistant professor at the Colorado School of Mines who researches critical mineral extraction from the wasted byproducts from steel production. "But there are a few disadvantages."Kim said the researchers' approach doesn't replace 100% of coke, so other materials like biomass, charcoal, or recycled plastic must be added. Using mostly gas instead of solid coke in the blast furnace also raises questions about its stability at an industrial-sized plant. Extra heat and power might be required, although ideally that could be met with renewables. In the end, different strategies are needed to decarbonize steel, Kim said. "We can use multiple techniques at the same time."

UK scientists found a way to slash nearly 90% of carbon emissions from the country's steel industry

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Global carbon emissions rose in 2022 from an increase in air travel and coal power, a report found.</li><li>A spike in clean power like solar and wind kept the growth in emissions from being worse.</li></ul>Global carbon-dioxide emissions hit another record in 2022, but the increase wasn't as bad as it could have been because of the strong growth of solar and wind power, as well as other renewable-energy sources. The <a href="https://www.iea.org/news/global-co2-emissions-rose-less-than-initially-feared-in-2022-as-clean-energy-growth-offset-much-of-the-impact-of-greater-coal-and-oil-use" target="_blank" rel="noopener">findings by the International Energy Agency</a> underscore that even as the world continues to burn fossil fuels at an unsustainable level, the energy crisis sparked by Russia's war in Ukraine is likely to speed the shift to clean energy.European countries that had relied on oil and gas from Russia are looking elsewhere for energy, and many are trying to step up the adoption of renewables.But the head of the IEA said more needed to be done, especially by energy companies raking in windfall profits."International and national fossil fuel companies are making record revenues and need to take their share of responsibility, in line with their public pledges to meet climate goals," the IEA's executive director, Fatih Birol, <a href="https://www.iea.org/news/global-co2-emissions-rose-less-than-initially-feared-in-2022-as-clean-energy-growth-offset-much-of-the-impact-of-greater-coal-and-oil-use" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said Thursday in a statement</a>. "It's critical that they review their strategies to make sure they're aligned with meaningful emissions reductions."Carbon emissions grew to 36.8 billion metric tons in 2022, nearly a 1% increase over 2021, mainly driven by more people hopping on planes and a wave of gas-to-coal switching in Asia because the energy crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent gas prices soaring. Still, the growth of solar, wind, electric vehicles, and heat pumps helped prevent a massive spike in emissions. Without the increase in clean technologies, the year-over-year increase in energy-related emissions would have been almost triple, the report found. Renewables accounted for 90% of the global growth in the supply of electricity, and one in every seven cars sold globally last year was electric, the IEA said.Extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and intense because of the climate crisis, are also influencing emissions, particularly droughts and heat waves. In the US, summer heat waves led to major spikes in electricity demand met by natural gas, the IEA found. In Europe, there was the opposite effect because of a mild winter, and the bloc's emissions fell. Meanwhile, China's emissions stayed flat in 2022 compared with previous years because industrial production slowed amid strict COVID-19 policies.

Carbon emissions hit a record last year, but rapid growth in renewable energy kept the increase from being far bigger

<ul class="summary-list"><li>More than 1 billion children are at extreme risk for weather disasters, a <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/105376/file/UNICEF-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis.pdf">UNICEF report</a> found.</li><li>The majority of these kids live in countries that contribute the least to <keyword id="11949068" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="carbon-emissions" source="Orion">carbon emissions</keyword>. </li></ul>Tahsin Uddin, a 23-year-old climate activist who lives in the southern city of Barisal in Bangladesh, has already lost one family home to coastal flooding and rising sea levels. Within the next few years, he expects his current home to be submerged under water as well.Uddin is just one of the millions of Bangladeshis and others across the globe facing the brutal consequences of the <keyword id="11896310" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-crisis" source="Orion">climate crisis</keyword>.By 2050, more than 20 million Bangladeshis will be displaced and nearly 20% of the country's land will be underwater because of rising sea levels, a direct impact of the changing climate, according to the<a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/bangladesh-country-underwater-culture-move"> Natural Resources Defense Council,</a> a nonprofit climate advocacy group.Uddin told Insider the impact of those rising sea levels can be seen throughout the country: "I go to different coastal areas. I saw how much people are suffering. They are trying to survive by drinking salty water. Saline water is very dangerous for their health."While the consequences of <keyword id="11896311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword> are pummeling Bangladesh, it contributes very little to carbon emissions.<div type="image" title="Villagers wade through waist-deep waters to reach their homes in Pratap Nagar that lies in the Shyamnagar region, in Satkhira, Bangladesh on Oct. 5, 2021" height="1333" width="1777" msid="87688716" hostid="261"></div>In 2020, more than <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/264699/worldwide-co2-emissions/">34 billion metric tons of carbon (CO2) were emitted</a> worldwide, but the countries that contributed the least to that total are already facing some of the most significant impacts of the climate crisis.A <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/105376/file/UNICEF-climate-crisis-child-rights-crisis.pdf">UNICEF report</a> published in August found more than 1 billion children, nearly half the world's kids, lived in places with a high risk of <keyword id="12019615" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="extreme-weather" source="Orion">extreme weather</keyword> events. The 33 countries where the climate crisis poses the most risk to children contributed only 9% of global CO2 emissions, while 70% of emissions were attributed to just 10 countries.A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep20281">2016 study</a> found 20 of the 36 highest-emitting countries were among the least vulnerable to the effects of a warming climate, while 11 of the 17 countries with low or moderate emissions were significantly vulnerable.Some of the countries with low emissions per capita that are at a high risk include Bangladesh, India, Philippines, and multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, and South America.They are facing heat waves, water scarcity, coastal flooding, and water-borne disease, among other hazards, which in turn can lead to poor sanitation, lack of food, scarce income, and deteriorating living conditions. Meanwhile, many of the places currently experiencing these effects lack the infrastructure or resources to mitigate them.Experts and climate activists have said that while countries contributing the most need to reduce emissions, poorer countries are in need of immediate funding to address current challenges.<h2>Heat waves have killed thousands in India in recent years</h2>In the summer of 2019, large swaths of India were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/world/asia/india-heat-wave-deaths.html">scorched by temperatures</a> greater than 113 degrees Fahrenheit for nearly three weeks. In some regions, officials closed local schools. Medical authorities <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/heat-wave-conditions-in-rajasthan-leaves-of-churu-doctors-cancelled-2049388">canceled time off for doctors</a> to ensure hospitals could handle the influx of patients.Four passengers <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kerala-express-passengers-dead-heatwave-uttar-pradesh-jhansi-1546733-2019-06-11">fell ill on board an express train</a> that lacked air conditioning, and died by the time the train reached a station in Jhansi, south of New Delhi."Shortly after we left Agra, the heat became unbearable and some people started complaining of breathing problems and uneasiness. Before we could get some help, they collapsed," a passenger told <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kerala-express-passengers-dead-heatwave-uttar-pradesh-jhansi-1546733-2019-06-11">India Today</a>.By the end of that summer heat wave, <a href="https://www.indiaspend.com/65-indians-exposed-to-heatwaves-in-may-june-2019-july-2019-was-indias-hottest-ever/">more than 200 people had died</a>. The heat wave of 2015 was far worse, with extreme heat causing the deaths of more than 2,000 people. In the past decade, more than 6,000 people in India have died as a result of excessive heat, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/world/asia/india-heat-wave-deaths.html">according to government data</a>.<div type="image" title="In this Thursday, May 30, 2019, file photo, children returning from school walk through a dried pond on a hot summer day on the outskirts of Jammu, India. Many parts of India are experiencing extreme heat conditions." height="3723" width="4964" msid="87688718" hostid="261"></div>"Climate change is leading to more frequent, more intense, and longer heat waves around the world," said Olga Wilhelmi, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, adding that the link has been well-documented.An estimated 820 million children, more than a third of kids worldwide, are highly exposed to heat waves, according to the UNICEF report."Extreme heat is probably one of the least appreciated weather hazards, but it's actually one of the more deadly weather hazards in the US and worldwide," Wilhelmi said. "Studies show that in the US, somewhere on average between 600 and 1,800 people die from extreme heat every year, but we don't usually read about that in the news."Health complications of extreme heat can vary from dehydration to heatstroke. Heat waves can also exacerbate cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Groups at a higher risk include older people, children, people with pre-existing conditions, and those who are lower-income and do not have access to air conditioning.Heat waves can also shut down electric grids when they don't have the capacity to handle the increased demand for air conditioning.<h2>Lack of water leads to poverty and hunger </h2>Water scarcity, the lack of adequate access to clean water, is another way people are feeling the climate crisis.While scarcity can be due to institutional failures to deliver water, in many instances it's due to dwindling water sources or growing populations that need more water. More than a third of kids worldwide, 920 million are currently highly exposed to water scarcity. This issue affects kids in various parts of the world including parts of India, South America, Australia, and the Middle East. For example, while parts of India are at extreme risk of scarcity, the country only contributed to 3.14% of overall emissions in 2019. <div type="image" title="Tonchuiwon Tinphei, 34, right, and her sister-in-law Chirmi carry water in baskets and walk home on the eve of World Water Day in Shangshak village, in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, Saturday, March 21, 2020." height="1333" width="1778" msid="87688720" hostid="261"></div>Greg Pierce, the co-director of the Water Resources Group: Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, told Insider the biggest effect could be felt in rural areas. Pierce said rural areas tend to be poorer and have one water source. Residents are usually already walking long distances to get to that water which may not always be clean. Water isn't just needed for drinking, but for producing and selling agriculture. Water is very much tied to livelihoods. "The scarcity issue makes it harder to do agriculture, which is what most rural populations rely on for livelihoods. So, there's a hunger, inability to grow food and inability to earn any money," Pierce told Insider. "That lack of water leads directly to people starving and that is going to become a lot more common, unfortunately again, in many parts of the world."When those resources dry up, residents would be forced to travel even further or move, further straining resources. While many parts of India are dealing with water scarcity, other regions are also experiencing flooding, Pierce said. However, the flooding comes with other complications and doesn't counter the consequences of water scarcity. <h2>Coastal flooding, which destroys property and resources, is already taking a heavy toll in Bangladesh</h2>In Uddin's home of Bangladesh, rising seas and extreme precipitation have inundated communities with flooding in recent years.The village of Bonnotola, once home to more than 2,000 people, has less than 500 residents left, as the flooding and salt water-tainted soil destroyed many people's homes and livelihoods, the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/climate-science-europe-environment-and-nature-bangladesh-0f2a0a0f463523a162901f1beda23c7e">Associated Press</a> reported.One woman from the village of Gabura told AP everyone used to grow food in their backyards, but that salt water flooding has disrupted the once-fertile lands and freshwater that many relied on."We have water everywhere, but we don't have a drop anymore to drink from ponds or wells," she said.Almost every ocean on Earth is experiencing a sea-level rise, according to William Sweet, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.One in 10 children, or 240 million, are currently exposed to coastal flooding, according to the UNICEF report. Sea-level rise is exacerbated by extreme rainfall events, which are also a consequence of warming."The same heating that's causing oceans to rise, ice caps and ice sheets to melt, and oceans to expand, is also enabling more moisture to be held within the atmosphere," Sweet said, adding that the result is frequent heavy rains. "The combined effect of course is flooding with nowhere for that water to go."While the threat of entire cities being underwater is the most commonly talked about result of rising sea levels, there are many significant issues that arise well before a city or property is actually underwater."It's not when you're underwater, it's when the system fails," Sweet said, adding that flooding can overwhelm infrastructure and destroy roadways, stormwater and wastewater systems, and people's personal property.He said by the time areas are actually underwater, people are already gone by then, driven out by the flooding.<div type="image" title="Bangladeshi flood victim man carrying their houses by boat during flood in Kurigram, Bangladesh on July 27, 2019." height="1333" width="1777" msid="87688722" hostid="261"></div>Coastal flooding creates more problems where water infrastructure is lacking, Pierce told Insider."Flooding doesn't typically increase water supply. It can have a direct impact on water-borne illness, especially because there's poor sanitation in a lot of places and when there's flooding, it gets into wherever the waste is being contained or into the open sewers and spreads," he said. <h2>Diseases are becoming more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and South America because of the climate crisis</h2>As temperatures rise, cities flood and water becomes scarce, there's also a rise of waterborne illnesses with an estimated 600 million children currently exposed to diseases like malaria and dengue fever, according to the UNICEF report. The impact can be most immediately felt in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South America. Martin Muchangi, AMREF water and sanitation specialist based in Kenya, told Insider he studies waterborne illnesses across much of sub-Saharan Africa, and that a vast majority of people are dealing with water scarcity which in turn is driving up waterborne diseases.Muchangi said the issue is twofold: changing temperatures pushing things like mosquitoes into more places and increasing pathogens that cause diarrhea illnesses like cholera and typhoid and the lack of water leading to poor hygiene and diseases like scabies or glaucoma. He told Insider the problem is leading to harming both people and the economy. "So now at the end of the day, if you combine the sum total, you realize that there's major economic loss, there's serious effects to the health, there's serious effects to the thriving of children," he said. <h2>Many countries facing the worst of the climate crisis also have the least resources to address it </h2>While nowhere on earth will escape the effects of the climate crisis, some countries have infrastructure and resources that make them more prepared to respond.Pierce told Insider many of the impacts can be mitigated with robust public health initiatives and proper infrastructure. Water filtration systems, for example, can mitigate the risks of water-borne disease.Muchangi and Uddin told Insider the countries they live and work in, however, don't have the funds they need to address the issues they're facing. In Bangladesh, Uddin said funding is needed to direct towards researching ways to remove salt from saltwater and towards building infrastructure that can withstand flooding, including fortifying schools, hospitals, homes, and other essential buildings. Muchangi said that while finding ways to mitigate the immediate impacts of the changing climate is necessary, limiting CO2 emissions would greatly reduce the burden."If we are able to alleviate climate change itself, then the effects of climate change are going to become lesser and we are going to be able to thrive in a better way," he said.

Countries contributing the least to the climate crisis are feeling the worst of its effects

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The internet contributes 1.6 billion annual tons in greenhouse gas emissions.</li><li>Now, Google and Microsoft want to add AI to their search engines</li></ul>Ever since the partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI paved the way for a future where AI powers search engine results, an all-out <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ceo-new-bing-making-google-show-can-dance-bard-2023-2">race has ensued</a> between Bing and Google to implement the technology.Google and Microsoft are looking to improve search engine results with large language models they say will <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-chatbots-chatgpt-google-bard-microsoft-bing-break-internet-search-2023-2">distill "complex" information</a> while responding in a human-like fashion to queries. Microsoft will implement ChatGPT in its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-bing-chatgpt-largest-download-day-ever-google-search-2023-2">existing search engine Bing</a>, while Google <a href="https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced the launch of</a> an "experimental conversational AI service" named Bard.Behind the scenes, however, is an already resource-intense operation of maintaining computer systems to help with search engines that could get more resource-heavy. The power used to train a single artificial intelligence can emit hundreds of thousands of <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/239031/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emit-as-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in-their-lifetimes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pounds in carbon emissions</a> while internet use makes up <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/06/06/239031/training-a-single-ai-model-can-emit-as-much-carbon-as-five-cars-in-their-lifetimes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions.</a>The computing power necessary to merge AI with the load of search engine queries could increase the amount of computing power necessary from companies like Google and Microsoft by up to 5 times, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-generative-ai-search-race-has-a-dirty-secret/amp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">experts told Wired.</a> And with the increase in computers, greenhouse gas emissions will rise."It requires processing power as well as storage and efficient search," Alan Woodward, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Surrey, told Wired. "Every time we see a step change in online processing, we see significant increases in the power and cooling resources required by large processing centers. I think this could be such a step."The new search engines will also require more data centers to store data. Martin Bouchard, founder of data center company QScale, told Wired that AI would result in "at least four or five times more computing per search."In a statement to Insider, Jane Park, a spokesperson for Google, said the company would initially be launching a "lighter" version of Bard that would require less computing power."We have also published <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.10350" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> detailing the energy costs of state-of-the-art language models, including an earlier and larger, version of LaMDA," Park said in a statement. "Our findings show that combining efficient models, processors, and data centers with clean energy sources can reduce the carbon footprint of a ML system by as much as 1000X."Environmental issues aren't the only criticisms ChatGPT and Google's AI have received in the past. Google's rollout for Bard garnered criticism from employees who say <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employees-criticize-company-ceo-after-bard-ai-announcement-report-2023-2">the product is "rushed and botched"</a> according to a report <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/10/google-employees-slam-ceo-sundar-pichai-for-rushed-bard-announcement.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">from CNBC</a>.Insider senior tech correspondent Adam Rogers <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-chatbots-chatgpt-google-bard-microsoft-bing-break-internet-search-2023-2" rel="">wrote about</a> how AI-produced search engine responses could produce answers with misinformation or faulty logic that can be harder to detect by searchers."They'll elide the sources they're drawing on, and the biases built into their databases, behind the trappings of acceptable, almost-but-not-quite-human-sounding prose," Rogers wrote. "However wrong they are, they'll sound right."Open AI and Microsoft did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

You Searched For "emission intensity" and got 8 results

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The internet contributes 1.6 billion annual tons in greenhouse gas emissions. Google and Microsoft's AI search war will make it worse.

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