Debate Over Climate Change and Global Warming

Contents: Foreword. Acknowledgements. I. Climate Change and Global Warming: 1. Global warming: biggest fraud of the millennium/Madhoo Pavaskar and Ritu Gupta. 2. The uncertain science and complex politics of global warming/Jayanta Bandyopadhyay. 3. Sitting on hot earth?/Ritu Gupta. 4. Populations, development, and climate change: apocalypse now?/Nilanjan Ghosh and Harish Kumar S. Purohit. 5. Does climate make history?/Biswajeet Rath. 6. What’s cooking?/Madhoo Pavaskar and Ritu Gupta. 7. Water, water everywhere/Madhoo Pavaskar and Ritu Gupta. 8. When future shocks, power shifts, and nature rolls: will environmental change aggravate conflicts over natural resources?/Nilanjan Ghosh. 9. Understanding climate change from glaciers/Rajesh Kumar and Ramesh P. Singh. 10. Gender and climate change/Rajasree Ray. 11. Withering away?/Ritu Gupta. 12. Financial Downswing: melting down on sustainable development/Anandajit Goswami and Namrata Kala. 13. Impact of climate change on survival and growth of forest species/Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi, Ranjith Gopalakrishnan and N.H. Ravindranath. 14. Climate change and agriculture: an overview/Swapna Nair. II. Regulation vs. Development: 15. Hot weather in the air/Ritu Gupta. 16. The Copenhagen accord and the way ahead/Swapna Nair. 17. Blowing hot/Ritu Gupta. 18. The climate finally changed!/Ritu Gupta. 19. Carbon tax: a viable option to reduce emission?/Sachin Joshi. 20. Taxing Black to produce Green/Bhuvan Sethi. 21. In search of shelter: climate change and resettlement/Biswajeet Rath. 22. A Good vice: development, a key Mantra to combat environmental problem/Madhoo Pavaskar and Ritu Gupta. 23. From economic growth to sustainable development: the story so far/Nilanjan Ghosh. 24. Climate change vs. economic development : the twain shall meet/Madhoo Pavaskar and Sarika Rachuri. 25. Climate change: a different perspective/Madhoo Pavaskar, Bhuvan Sethi and Vaishnavi Naik. III. Markets for Climate Change: 26. Trading in the ecosystem services: a market for nature/Nilanjan Ghosh. 27. Towards developing a domestic carbon credit market/Archana Kshirsagar. 28. CDM market: an uncertain future/Kasper Walet. 29. Intricacies of carbon trading/Ritu Gupta. 30. Indian carbon market: perspective and ratings/Nithyanandam Yuvaraj Dinesh Babu. 31. What’s your carbon idea, Sirji?/Kishore Butani. 32. Conceptual frameworks of South Asian water futures exchange/Nilanjan Ghosh. 33. The carbon market: voluntarily wealthy, certifiably rich/Kishore Butani. 34. Markets for bad to produce good? A cynic’s perspective on value and price of environmental resources/Nilanjan Ghosh. 35. Do you have buyer-friendly carbon credits?/Kishore Butani. 36. How to price biodiversity? Implications for market development/Abhishek Sikdar. 37. Carbon credits: a test of time, a hope for future/Sairam Bhat. 38. Trade in services and sustainable development: looking through a new lens/Anandajit Goswami and Saswata Chaudhury. 39. Is it really a question of carbon leakage?/Kishore Butani. IV. Combating Climate Change: 40. Green housing: make hay while sun shines/Madhoo Pavaskar and Archana Kshirsagar. 41. Go nuclear for clean energy/Madhoo Pavaskar and Archana Kshirsagar. 42. Winds of change/Sarika Rachuri. 43. Biofuel Carbon projects: Talk, don’t touch/Kishore Butani. 44. Bt to beat climate change/Madhoo Pavaskar and Archana Kshirsagar. 45. Renewable energy: in need of substantial support/Ritu Gupta. 46. Climate change: leveraging a changing world/Rita Soni.

Since the adoption of the Kyto Protocol, and through the subsequent annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Tamashas, the climate change debate among both environmentalists and skeptics had left a long trail. The Himalayan blunder churned out by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) on the alleged melting of Himalayan glaciers warmed up the debate since last year much more than even the dreaded global warming. Against this background, Takshashila Academia of Economic Research (TAER) decided to enter the fray, and settled on bringing out a Special Report on Climate Change in its bi-monthly journal Commodity Vision.

This book -- debate over Climate Change and Global Warming -- is a compilation of various articles published form time to time in commodity vision, and presents unbiasedly the views of both environmentalists and skeptics. But whether the earth is warming, wing to anthropogenic reasons causing climate change, or not, one can scarcely deny the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the possible adverse consequences from the suspected climate change and the ensuing supposed global warming.

The book does not seek to end the debate, however. It only aims at generating wider awareness on the issues arising out of the reported climate change and provoking further fruitful discussion on the expected global warming that many believe, with either ingenious insight or blindly, will bring in soon the day of the Last Judgement.

Whether that day dawns or not, there is no denying that anthropogenic reasons are causing increasing that anthropogenic reasons are causing increasing pollution in cities and towns n developing economies like India. Since, it is indeed naive to rely on rigorous regulations that hampers development and brings down labour and capital efficiency, and slash living standards, markets for climate change offer the best solution. Of course, markets too need some regulations to prescribe emission and pollution norms. But as Madhoo Pavaskar emphasizes in his foreword to this book, such regulations will only support markets and assist them in bringing about the much-needed sustainable development of the Indian economy, and avoid that day of the Last Judgement.