CDKN reports will help developing countries plan for climate extremes

New CDKN reports will help developing countries plan for climate extremes

London, 17 April 2012: The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) today launches a three-part series of reports, “Managing Climate Extremes and Disasters: Lessons from the IPCC SREX Report” covering each of the Asia, Africa and Latin American and Caribbean regions.

The reports highlight the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (known as ‘SREX’) for each region, and discuss the implications for society.

The SREX report itself was compiled over two and a half years, involving 220 expert authors, 19 review editors and a four-day approval process by government representatives from around the world. The final 594 page report and its 20 page summary present a rich but sobering account of how different forms of extreme weather events – ranging from high temperatures to heavy rainfall – are likely to become more common by the end of the 21^st century, and are more likely to be caused by climate change.

The CDKN “Lessons from the IPCC SREX Report” series pulls out the state-of-the-art knowledge about current and future impacts of climate extremes, and options for dealing with them.

Sam Bickersteth, CDKN’s Chief Executive, said: “The SREX report is a monumental achievement, but CDKN wanted to help policy-makers, media, businesses and civil society stakeholders to navigate this huge resource. That’s why we produced these regional guides which are easy to use, but preserve the careful scientific language of the original.”

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23640

SEBI issues disaster recovery guidelines for exchanges

SEBI has issued guidelines on business continuity and disaster recovery for exchanges and depositories.

This is to ensure their preparedness in the event of a natural calamity.

SEBI said that disruptions affect market integrity and investor confidence.

The regulator's technical advisory committee has said that exchanges and depositories should have a Business continuity plan (BCP) and a disaster recovery site (DRS) to maintain data and transaction integrity.

Apart from DRS, exchanges should also have a near site (NS) in a different seismic zone, from their primary data centre (PDC) to ensure zero data loss.

Exchanges / Depositories should have recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) not more than 30 minutes and four hours, respectively.

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23594

Climate change will hit Indian cereals, benefit legumes

Climate change will hit Indian cereals, benefit legumes

Athar Parvaiz Bhat

28 November 2011 | EN

India could produce fewer cereals but more legumes due to climate change.

David Dickson

[NEW DELHI] Indian farmers could be producing less rice and wheat and more legumes as a result of global warming, a senior crop scientist has said.

Climate change would have a negative impact on cereal crops such as wheat and rice, Bandi Venkateswarulu, director of Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Hyderabad, told a South Asia media workshop on climate change in Delhi this month (17 November).

On the other hand, Venkateswarulu told the workshop organised by the Delhi-based non-government organisation, Centre for Science and Environment, legumes such as soybean and groundnut will benefit from the change in temperature.

The productivity of most cereals in India would decrease due to rise in temperature and decline in water availability. "A projected loss of 10–40 per cent will occur in crop production by 2100," he said.

A rise of one degree Celsius could reduce yields of major food crops by three to seven per cent in India, with higher losses during the winter (rabi) crop season, he added.

The growing period for crops in rain-fed areas, which account for two-thirds of India's cropland, could reduce.

Rainfall variations would impact summer (kharif) crops; while changes in minimum temperatures would influence the winter crops. Both temperature and rainfall changes would affect rice production in the Indo-Gangetic plain.

Wheat production in irrigated lands is projected to decline by six per cent by 2030. “The higher temperature will also make the wheat crop susceptible to wheat rust because wheat is found to be more susceptible to rusts at higher temperatures,” he observed.

Soyabean yields are projected to rise by 8–13 per cent and groundnut by up to seven per cent by 2030, he said.

"Apart from this, it has been found that there has been a shift of the apple belt to higher elevations in Himachal Pradesh state because of inadequate chilling in the plains — crucial for good apple yields," Venkateswarulu said. ]

Read the detailed article at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=22926

Alpine cities feel heat from climate change

Community risk assessment workshop in Lienz, Austria. (Credit: Andreas Kohler)

By Dizery Salim

GENEVA, 29 November 2011 - In Tyrol, Austria, a poster showing a green valley with snow-capped mountains in the distance greeted delegates to a conference on climate change – a beautiful summer scene which hides a potential nightmare scenario for winter tourism in the alps.

Climate change is raising the heat in mountain regions more drastically than in other areas of the world, with temperatures rising in Austria’s Tyrolean Alps by 2 to 2.2 degrees compared to the global average of 0.8 degrees.

Eric Veulliet, Managing Director of the Centre for Climate Change Adaptation Technologies (Alp-s) in Austria, told journalists at the Managing Alpine Future II conference, which ran from 21 to 23 November, that climate change will pose a “massive threat” to winter tourism, an important pillar of the Tyrolean economy.

“Snow is not known to tolerate much heat. Low-lying ski resorts had always feared for the future of the winter wonderland,” he said.

According to news reports, some ski resorts in the Austrian Alps have cancelled their season opening weekends because of a lack of snow, after the driest November since the 1920s.

Scenario-building conducted by neighbouring Switzerland warned of similar risks to Swiss tourism by 2030, because of “loss of attractiveness” due to reduced snow cover and a disappearing winter atmosphere in the Swiss Plateau.

The Swiss national tourism office, which published the report in 2008, said in addition to a decline in the next 20 years in the number of visitors interested in winter sports, the country would need greater investments to adapt to changing conditions, because of higher costs to protect against increasing natural hazards.

In the Austrian alps, the Centre run by Mr. Veulliet has held 200 workshops for local mayors and disaster management teams in the mountain province of Tyrol, producing detailed risk maps which are then distributed to emergency and risk managers. The maps show over 7,100 risk areas – spots exposed to dangers that range from rockfall and debris flow to avalanches and floods.

However, although community risk assessments have been compulsory in Austria since the 1970s, more needs to be done to translate policy into actual preparedness, local authorities say.

Andreas Kohler, Chief Risk Analyst at Alp-s, who is working to improve preparedness among local emergency management teams, said one challenge was that people were quick to forget the dangers, even after a big disaster.

Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in