1 November 2024

• Climate: Global emissions reached 57.1 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2023. The WMO warned that a breach of the 1.5°C threshold is now projected within years.
• Conservation: Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh drew attention as resort construction threatened a critical ecological corridor.
• Technology: INST Mohali developed luminescent nanomaterials using rare-earth ions for anti-counterfeiting applications.
• Diplomacy: Indian and Chinese armies exchanged sweets at Chushul-Moldo on Diwali, a traditional gesture on the Line of Actual Control.

GS area: Environment and Ecology, International Relations

The World Meteorological Organisation released its State of Global Climate report ahead of COP29 in Baku. The numbers frame why the conference matters:

• Emissions in 2023: 57.1 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent. That is a 1.3 per cent rise from 2022.
• CO2 concentration: 420 parts per million in 2023. That is more than 150 per cent above the pre-industrial level.
• Temperature in 2023: 1.45°C above the pre-industrial baseline, the highest annual reading on record.
• The 1.5°C target: Set in the Paris Agreement as the upper limit for "safe" warming. Current policies point to only a 2.6 per cent cut in emissions by 2030 against the 43 per cent the IPCC says is needed.
• Paris Agreement: Adopted in 2015. It commits signatories to nationally determined contributions and a long-term temperature goal.

The gap between what countries have promised and what the physics requires is the central problem at every COP. India's own commitment is net-zero emissions by 2070.

Static linkage: Climate change (environment), Paris Agreement (international relations).

GS area: International Relations, Environment

The 29th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC opened in Baku, Azerbaijan. The headline negotiation is the New Collective Quantified Goal on climate finance, which is the successor to the $100 billion annual pledge that developed countries made at Copenhagen in 2009 and rarely met.

• UNFCCC: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Adopted in 1992 at Rio de Janeiro. It is the parent treaty under which both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement were negotiated.
• COP: Conference of the Parties. Meets annually. Every party to the UNFCCC attends. The IPCC provides the science; the COP produces the decisions.
• The $100 billion pledge: Agreed at COP15 (Copenhagen, 2009) for developed nations to mobilise annually for developing nations. The figure was rarely met.
• India's ask: A new goal substantially above $100 billion. India pushed for the Baku outcome to cover adaptation finance separately.
• CDRI: Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. India-led initiative. Promoted at COP meetings as a vehicle for resilience finance.

Static linkage: International environmental agreements, climate finance.

GS area: Environment and Ecology

Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh came under scrutiny as construction of a resort and conference hall inside the tiger corridor drew opposition from conservationists.

• Location: Sidhi district, northeastern Madhya Pradesh.
• Composition: Combines Sanjay National Park and Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Ecological corridor: Links the Bandhavgarh, Sanjay, Guru Ghasidas and Palamau Tiger Reserve landscape. Corridors allow tigers to move between breeding populations.
• Key wildlife: Tigers, leopards, sloth bears, chital and nilgai.
• Forest type: Moist and dry deciduous forests dominated by sal.
• Project Tiger: Launched 1973. India now has over 50 tiger reserves.

The conflict between infrastructure development and wildlife corridors is a recurring exam theme. The legal framework is the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and its amendments.

Static linkage: Protected areas, Project Tiger, wildlife conservation.

GS area: Science and Technology

Researchers at the Institute of Nano Science and Technology in Mohali developed a security ink doped with rare-earth ions that displays multiple colours under different light wavelengths.

• INST: Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali. It is a national institute under the Department of Science and Technology.
• Technology: Security ink embedded with rare-earth ions.
• Colour response: Blue at 365 nm UV, pink at 395 nm, orange-red at 980 nm. The multi-colour response makes replication extremely difficult.
• Durability: Stable across varying light intensity, temperature and humidity.
• Applications: Currency notes, certificates, branded goods and pharmaceutical packaging where counterfeiting carries public health risks.

Static linkage: Science and technology innovations, nanotechnology.

GS area: Science and Technology, Art and Culture

Light Detection and Ranging technology uncovered a lost Mayan city called Valeriana buried under dense jungle in Mexico.

• LiDAR: Emits pulsed laser light from aircraft and measures the time for pulses to return. It creates three-dimensional point clouds that reveal ground features even through thick vegetation.
• Components: A laser emitter, a scanner and a GPS receiver. The aircraft records millions of data points per second.
• Archaeological application: The technology has also been used to map ancient Angkor Wat in Cambodia and sites across the Amazon basin.
• Mayan civilisation: Flourished in Mesoamerica from roughly 2000 BCE to 1500 CE. The Classic period (250 to 900 CE) produced elaborate cities, calendars and writing systems.

Static linkage: Remote sensing technology, ancient civilisations.

GS area: International Relations, Internal Security

Indian and Chinese armies exchanged sweets and greetings at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point on Diwali, continuing a tradition that survived the 2020 eastern Ladakh standoff.

• Chushul: Located in eastern Ladakh near the Pangong Tso Lake area.
• Moldo: The corresponding Chinese post on the opposite bank. Border Personnel Meetings take place at this point.
• Line of Actual Control: The de facto border between India and China. It has never been formally delimited.
• 2020 standoff: Indian and Chinese forces clashed at Galwan Valley in June 2020, killing 20 Indian soldiers. Disengagement was phased over subsequent years.
• Border Personnel Meetings: A mechanism under the 1993 Agreement on Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility. They serve as a confidence-building measure.

Static linkage: India-China relations, Line of Actual Control, eastern Ladakh.

• Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve: Located in Umaria district between the Vindhyan and Satpura ranges. National Park status from 1968, Tiger Reserve from 1993. It has the highest tiger density of any reserve in India. Elephant deaths linked to kodo millet poisoning revived a 1934 RC Morris report documenting similar incidents in Tamil Nadu.