Climate change is real and solutions to it exist but there is a small window of time: Ana da costa
Climate change is real and solutions to it exist but there is a small window of time. It is a complex problem – no golden bullet that alone can meet all the needs of society and bring down emissions. There are multiple solutions to bring about climate change and that is already happening India, says Ana da Costa Co-Director of the Indian Climate Solutions Road Tour, member of the twenty-member team which under took the record breaking Electric Car Climate Solutions caravan in India covering 3500 kilometers for 30 days travelling through 15 major Indian cities.
The aim of the trip was, to spread the message - a message of opportunity - that climate change is real, but that the solutions to climate change exist, and the greatest solution is our human capacity to act. We travelled through 15 major cities, and numerous smaller towns and villages, documenting climate solutions (www.indiaclimatesolutions.com), conducting climate leadership trainings at schools and universities, and holding concerts with our solar powered band -- to celebrate the fact that solutions exist, and encourage people to engage positively and creatively in this global effort for change.
Every one of the twenty team members contributed a huge amount to the journey, as well as the multitude of regional IYCN coordinators in each city that we passed through.
The caravan of vehicles included three solar-integrated Reva cars, a biofuel powered truck (using CleanStar technology), a van that ran on spent vegetable oil, and a car with solar panels on the roof to charge the equipment. http://www.indiaclimatesolutions.com/climate-solutions-caravan
The vegetable oil powered van (eco-auto), driven by Stanislav Miler, runs on spent vegetable oil. A large amount of this for the trip was Pongamia oil from Auroville and Waste oil from the ITC hotel in Chennai.
The value of having such a beautiful creative and cohesive force, music, on the tour with us, with a message that crossed all language barriers, raising awareness about clean energy and the need to reduce our environmental impact, was priceless. Music, dance and art are all mediums that we need to use more as we seek to address this global sustainability crisis, as they speak to a different part of us all, and in the same way, we understand the messages in a different way.
I saw for myself the impacts of climate change that are already occurring, especially for farmers. Seeing how climate change will impact the poor has been a big lesson. It is completely different moving from the theoretical to the practical. Seeing these issues in front of your eyes - farmers struggling with failed crops, little water and little money.
I also learnt that there are a MULTITUDE of solutions to climate change existent in India, across sectors, green buildings, sustainable agriculture, sustainable transport, clean power generation, sustainable waste management, energy efficiency technologies, environmental education initiatives.... these are all happening, already, now, in India, and there just needs to be a lot more awareness and support for these solutions, in terms of education, and incentivisation of them, by the government, by businesses, by NGOs, universities, investors and individuals.
Across India, unplanned development of urban areas, as well as diminishing water supplies, poor waste management and a buildup of plastic are big issues.
Currently waste is a significant contributor to climate change. I think our principal responsibility is to minimise our waste as much as possible, reducing the amount of materials we use. However, for the waste we do generate, poor disposal is crucial to avoid, as poorly managed landfill sites - aside from being a source of major groundwater pollution and scars to our local environments - are also sources of methane, a very potent greenhouse gas. We need to start recycling and reusing our waste (something that is already happening in many parts of India).
As far as plastic is concerned, we need to minimise our use of it hugely and innovate towards truly recyclable and degradable forms of it.
There are particular solutions suited to particular situations. But there are multiple solutions, of which biofuels, when farmed sustainably, can be one. Biofuels can serve a particularly useful purpose when used as a decentralised source of stationary energy, particularly in rural areas where a reliance on diesel is costly and unreliable as a source of energy. In these situations, locally sourced biofuel can for example be used as a replacement for diesel gen set power. When farmed sustainably, biofuels can also be a means to generate livelihoods, and to reforest very arid un-farmable areas. This is something that CleanStar, and their Trust, has already demonstrated in Maharastra's Beed District.
There is a need to bring about a transformative change in the way we use energy.
The road tour has been really inspiring and I hope significant in its impact, and is aimed to make a major contribution to this solutions based effort to address climate change. However, what is really exciting is that this is just the beginning, the road tour is the launch of something that will continue on, the Climate Solutions Project. We want to see a climate movement based on solutions and action in India, and across the world, a movement that highlights and catalyses best practice on climate change across sectors, and one that encourages the uptake of solutions at every scale, from the individual, to the household, village, town, city, nation, and globe. Each of these scales of action is crucial, and we need a lot more granularity around how to make these changes. The aim of the Climate Solutions Project is to do just this, to collect and communicate examples of some of the most transformative, catalytic climate change solutions in India, and eventually outside India too I hope, to raise awareness that they exist, to accellerate their uptake, to encourage people to take action, and, in the case of India, to show the international community that India is already acting on climate change. Acting on climate change is not only essential for the future of our existance in any recognisable shape or form, it also makes sense in terms of economics, our local environmental wellbeing and our energy security moving forward.
I've been working on climate change, with particular respect to India, where my father is from, since I graduated almost three years ago. When I left university, I had such a strong feeling that unless we addressed climate change, all of our development and conservation efforts in their broadest sense, would be undermined, and I still feel this very strongly. I also really felt, and still feel, that climate change poses a new challenge to humanity, one for which we all need to search the deepest part of our soul for an answer, a challenge to question the purpose of our existence and the way in which we live as a society. Climate change is in no mean terms an evolutionary challenge for man, one that asks us to act not on behalf of now, but on behalf of a distant future, a future that is coming closer by the day. It is an issue that engages you at every level, and as such is not only incredibly challenging, but incredibly inspiring.
The work I was had been doing in India on political and corporate climate leadership with a game-changing organisation called The Climate Group was very much highlighting for me both the opportunity for India of moving towards a low carbon economy, as well as the need for a forum to share best practice, and this was something I was increasingly keen to focus on in a communicative way. When I heard about the road tour through Alexis, whom I have known for a long time, it was a perfect synergy of ideas and intentions, and was something I absolutely wanted to be involved with and moreso, wanted to work to channel into a long-term project. This is what I have been largely focussing on for the last few months, as well as working on the tour logistics with every member of the team.
On the road itself, every single team member did a bit of everything, be it logistics, event management, forward planning, presenting, writing and dancing! I tried to blog as much as possible, and encourage blogs from all team members in the glimmers of time between one event and the next. It has been in a sense hard work, but work inspired by optimism and incredible people, so not really hard work - incredibly enjoyable work.
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