30 Aug 2023 : The Indian Express

Editorial 1: Climate Finance, Hard fact

Recent Context:

• Recently, Indian is going to host G20 summit and subject of climate change and its finance is going to be one of the areas of major discussion
• As, the present commitments made by the developed world specially for climate finance are absolutely insufficient to counter climate change. The figure of $100 billion for projects in developing nations, which was arrived at about 13-14 years ago had no basis and is devoid of current need.

Issues with current climate finance

• For the past 10 years, there has been too much debate over climate finance budget and the developing world has been criticising that meagre amount of $100 billion per year is not sufficient and also not forthcoming from the developed world
• However, the developed world (OECD) claimed that close to $80 billion was provided to the developing world for climate finance in 2020.
• On the other hand, sceptics say that the actual transfer of resources would be in the range of $19-22 billion only. While stating that they are providing close to $80 billion per year, the developed world is including the normal commercial debt for climate-related activities in its calculations.

The actual amount needed for climate finance

• The need for climate finance today is estimated to be around $4.35 trillion in order to meet the Paris Agreement targets. 
• There are two main components of climate finance — mitigation and adaptation.
• While mitigation would include projects where we set up renewable generation projects, an example of an adaptation project would be the building of sea walls to prevent flooding.
  • Most of the money that is flowing into climate finance is actually for mitigation (93 per cent).
  • Mitigation projects usually have a revenue stream and are thus considered to be bankable. So financial institutions have no problem in extending loans on pure market terms and conditions.
• On the other hand, adaptation projects have high upfront costs, have a long gestation period and no defined income stream. Therefore, they are considered risky by banks and other financial institutions.

Lack of commitment of developed national to provide climate fund

• Though the resolve to provide $100 billion per year is repeated in every meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP), there is little movement on the ground.
• In the last meeting of the CoP (CoP27 at Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt) it was agreed that a loss and damage fund would be set up. But, the quantum of this fund and other details would be finalised subsequently.
  • This fund is expected to look into what must be done immediately to take care of rising sea levels, desertification etc.
• If the past experience of concessional finance is any indication, nothing is likely to come from this proposed fund soon. Moreover, for countries like India, one is not sure whether we would be in the category of receiving assistance or offering

India needs strengthen its climate finance

• It is now time for countries, especially those like India, to look within and mobilise resources for climate finance.
• It would require different institutions to come together and complement each other. The financial institutions will have to fund technologies that are commercially mature, like wind and solar. They will also have to finance electric mobility.
• Invest in future technologies: The government will have to step in for technologies that are not yet ripe for commercial ventures like green hydrogen where direct financial support needs to be given for the installation of electrolysers.
  •  The cost of electrolysers today is prohibitive and only large-scale orders can bring down costs through economies of scale.
• Along with it, there is need for increasing the participation of private sector in adaptation measures with the government support.
• As, Worldwide, the major chunk of adaptation finance comes from multilateral development banks in the form of loans and private sector participation in adaptation projects is less than 2 per cent.
•  In case the government co-funds adaptation projects with the private sector, it will help in risk mitigation of such projects. But, no doubt, the government will need additional resources. These can possibly be raised through the imposition of carbon taxes, issue of green bonds and catastrophe (CAT) bonds etc.

Conclusion:

• Thus, as far as climate finance is concerned, countries will have to mostly look within. In any case, $100 billion a year is just a drop in the ocean. For countries like India, it is all the more pertinent since it is doubtful that we would be eligible for receiving concessional finance.
• Along with it, development nation should also recognise their responsibility regarding the climate finance and make sure the funds are available timely and as per targeted amount with changing scenario.

Editorial 2: Chandrayaan-3 mission: On Moon, very hot to very cold separated by just a few mm

Recent Context:

• India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has begun releasing important data from the scientific experiments being conducted by the instruments on board.
• Recently, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released first-of-its-kind data from the observations made by ChaSTE (Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment), one of the four instruments on the lander module.
• ChaSTE is meant to study the heat conductivity of the Moon’s surface and measure the differences in temperatures at different points on and below the surface, with the overall objective of creating a thermal profile of the Moon

About Chandrayaan-3 Mission:

• Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It consists of Lander and Rover configuration. It  was launched by LVM3 from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.
• Lander payloads: 
  • Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA)
  • Chandra’s Surface Thermo physical Experiment (ChaSTE)
  • Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA)
  • Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) Rover:
  • Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS)
  • Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) Propulsion Module:
  • Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE)
• The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are:
  • To demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface
  • To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and
  • To conduct in-situ scientific experiments

Observation of Temperature variation by Chandrayaan-3

• The first set of data released by ISRO showed a very sharp difference in temperatures just above and below the surface of the Moon.
• A graphical plot put out by ISRO showed that while temperatures on the surface were over 50 degrees Celsius, they dropped to nearly -10 degree Celsius just a few millimetres below the surface

• The measurements are consistent with what is known about the thermal profile of the Moon from previous expeditions and experiments.
• But this is the first direct measurement of temperatures of the topsoil and the subsoil near the South Pole of the Moon.
• Some places on the Moon are known to be colder than -200 degree Celsius at night time while others can get hotter than 100 degrees Celsius during the day.
• The kind of observations being made by ChaSTE not just help in validating these existing models, but also provide entirely new insights with exact quantitative measurements.

Knowing the moon for future space programme

• Human beings are still learning about the Moon. And the current round of experiments, by the Chandrayaan missions and others, is focussed on creating a full knowledge of what it means to be on the Moon
• Such sharp rise and fall of temperatures can result in appreciable thermal expansion or contraction in materials, and affect experimental set-up and other infrastructure. The kind of activities that can be carried out can be significantly affected by the temperature profile.
• Similarly, scientists are trying to have a good idea of the elemental composition of the Moon, the relative abundance of different materials and chemicals, the levels of radiation, and seismic activities.
• The interest in water stems from this same objective. Water is important not just in sustaining longer-term stays of human beings, but also from the point of view of its utility as a fuel.
• Water can be split into hydrogen and hydroxyl molecules that can serve as fuel to power rockets into deep space, and for other activities on the Moon.

Conclusion:

• Ultimately, the objectives of the experiments are  to have the Moon serve as a permanent station  like the International Space Station  that can have scientific experiments running continuously and can be visited regularly by astronauts.
• This would be possible only if scientists are able to utilise the resources available on the Moon to build the infrastructure, and harness energy from a locally available source, like hydrogen from water
• Therefore, Chandrayaan-3 mission’s experiment outcomes are going to play major role in future space programme.