Skip to main content

Heat wave: All round 'failure' to fight land loss due to sea intrusion, groundwater salinity

By A Representative 
Calling the recent Synthesis report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC AR6) a “warning call”, and insisting on the need for “grounded action” to ensure social and ecological justice, well-known civil society organisation ActionAid Association has insisted, governments must work for “quickly closing opportunity of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees centigrade.”
In a note released to the media, the NGO says, “Unless fossil fuels are rapidly retired, the impacts of climate change already faced by vulnerable communities will become difficult to handle.” Asserting that the IPCC report also highlights that we have the renewable energy technology, policy tools, and financial capital required for a just transition, it underlines, “Both adaptation and mitigation financing would need to increase many-fold”.
“The loss and damage caused by heat waves, crop failures, and rising sea levels suffered by majorities of India’s working peoples are already significant and uncompensated. News reports tell us that due to heat, India already loses around 101 billion hours yearly. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a letter to all states and union territories warning of the potential health impacts”, the note note says.
“This year was the second successive spring that saw early heatwave conditions threatening the wheat crop. ‘Lost to Sea’, ActionAid Association’s recently concluded study in coastal districts of Odisha, captures people’s narratives testifying to loss of land due to sea intrusion, increased migration outflow, loss in mobility and increased salinity of groundwater”, it adds.
The NGO underlines, there is “need to create a National Framework for Climate Change Induced Loss and Damage, which would incorporate a fund to provide compensation for loss and damage and a framework for assessing and computing the damage”, adding, “At the global level, of course, this needs to be supported by the Loss and Damage Fund agreed to set up at the Twenty-seventh Conference of Parties, to which the most industrialized nations should contribute.
Claiming that it is “fully conscious that the elusive promises of technofixes or carbon offsets have allowed the biggest polluters to continue with business-as-usual, supported by what has tragically been reduced to greenwashing exercises”, the ActionAid Association note says, it would like to “recognize, celebrate and further enable communities and sections of society that have taken up the custodianship of ecological resources and, through their living traditions, protected these precious resources for centuries.”
“Furthermore”, it adds, “We call on the need to secure the dignity of labour and livelihood for all those who provide ecological services – these include rag pickers and waste recyclers, and small farmers and agricultural labour practising agroecology.”
The note continues, “We must cut greenhouse gas emissions to half and stop carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. We must make the use of fossil fuels history much sooner than planned, and such transitions must be just. Prioritizing phasing out coal will only shift the burden away from the Global North, which has had the majority role in causing climate catastrophes.”
We must recognize that so far civil society, business and governments, have failed to bring a feminist transition to climate justice
The NGO believes, “To have a reasonable chance of preventing warming beyond critical levels, we need to make a rapid and drastic shift away from all fossil fuels – oil, gas and coal now, a point argued by India and supported by the G77 in CoP’27. There can be no new oil and gas development, and disinvestments from existing developments should be scaled up rapidly.”
“Meanwhile”, it says, “planned investments for new oil and gas should fully finance the necessary scale-up of wind and solar. Financial and technology transfers from the Global North to the Global South must rapidly scale up to phase out coal and halt further investments.”
“Rapid green transitions mean energy transitions to solar and wind and investing several folds in such transitions above the current levels in towns and the countryside. However, keeping the principle of social justice as our primary guide, we must ensure that all such efforts are people-centric and community-led projects. We need to remain wary of vested interests that seek to make the issue of climate change another way to earn profit without caring for the ultimate impact on our increasingly fragile world”, says the note.
It quotes Sandeep Chachra, executive director, ActionAid Association, as saying, “The synthesis report of the IPCC AR6 re-affirms that the world is facing the impact of climate change at a scale that was not anticipated to happen so soon. It also confirms that those least responsible for the crisis bear the greatest burden.”
Chachra adds, “However, we must recognize that so far, all of us, civil society, business and governments, have failed to bring a feminist transition to climate justice. We need to bring vulnerable communities and sections of society into the climate change discourse to ensure that grounded action can bring both the social and ecological justice the world needs.”

Comments

TRENDING

Wave of disappearances sparks human rights fears for activists in Delhi

By Harsh Thakor*  A philosophy student from Zakir Hussain College, Delhi University, and an activist associated with Nazariya magazine, Rudra, has been reported missing since the morning of July 19, 2025. This disappearance adds to a growing concern among human rights advocates regarding the escalating number of detentions and disappearances of activists in Delhi.

How community leaders overcome obstacles to protect forests and pastures in remote villages

By Bharat Dogra  Dheera Ram Kapaya grew up in such poverty that, unable to attend school himself, he would carry another boy’s heavy school bag for five kilometers just to get a scoop of daliya (porridge). When he was finally able to attend school, he had to leave after class five to join other adolescent workers. However, as soon as opportunities arose, he involved himself in community efforts—promoting forest protection, adult literacy, and other constructive initiatives. His hidden talent for writing emerged during this time, and he became known for the songs and street play scripts he created to promote forest conservation, discourage child marriages, and support other social reforms.

‘Act of war on agriculture’: Aruna Rodrigues slams GM crop expansion and regulatory apathy

By Rosamma Thomas*  Expressing appreciation to the Union Agriculture Minister for inviting suggestions from farmers and concerned citizens on the sharp decline in cotton crop productivity, Aruna Rodrigues—lead petitioner in the Supreme Court case ongoing since 2005 that seeks a moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops—wrote to Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on July 14, 2025, stating that conflicts of interest have infiltrated India’s regulatory system like a spreading cancer, including within the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).

The GMO illusion: Three decades of hype, harm, and false hope

By Sridhar Radhakrishnan  Three decades of hype, billions of dollars spent, and still no miracle crop. It's time to abandon the GMO biotech fairy tale and return to the soil, the seed, and the farmer. “Trust us,” they said. “GMOs will feed the world.” Picture a world where there is plenty of food, no hunger, fields grow without chemical pesticides, children are saved from malnutrition, and people live healthily.

Overriding India's constitutional sovereignty? Citizens urge PM to reject WHO IHR amendments

By A Representative   A group of concerned Indian citizens, including medical professionals and activists, has sent an urgent appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to reject proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) before the ratification deadline of July 19, 2025. 

Sandra Gonzalez Sanabria: An inspiring life from Colombia’s Amazonian valley

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*  In the village of Héctor Ramírez, known as Agua Bonita, in La Montañita, Caquetá, Colombia, a vision of peace and renewal is unfolding. In the pre-2016 period, this would have been nearly impossible for outsiders to visit, as it was the epicenter of violent resistance against state oppression. However, after the Peace Accord was signed between the Colombian government and former revolutionaries—marking the end of a 70-year insurgency that claimed over 400,000 lives until 2025, including civilians, rebel fighters, and security personnel—things began to change. Visiting Agua Bonita during the Global Land Forum in Bogotá revealed a village of hope and resilience. Former FARC revolutionaries have settled here and transformed the village into a center of peace and aspiration.

Indigenous Karen activist calls for global solidarity amid continued struggles in Burma

By A Representative   At the International Festival for People’s Rights and Struggles (IFPRS), Naw Paw Pree, an Indigenous Karen activist from the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), shared her experiences of oppression, resilience, and hope. Organized with the support of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL), the event brought together Indigenous and marginalized communities from across the globe, offering a rare safe space for shared learning, solidarity, and expression.

Activists allege abduction and torture by Delhi Police Special Cell in missing person probe

By A Representative   A press statement released today by the Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) alleges that several student and social activists have been abducted, illegally detained, and subjected to torture by the Delhi Police Special Cell. The CASR claims these actions are linked to an investigation into the disappearance of Vallika Varshri, an editorial team member of 'Nazariya' magazine.

India’s zero-emission, eco-friendly energy strategies have a long way to go, despite impressive progress

By N.S. Venkataraman*   The recent report released by OPEC’s World Oil Outlook 2025 has predicted that by the year 2050, crude oil would replace coal as India’s key energy source. Clearly, OPEC expects that India’s dependence on fossil fuels for energy will continue to remain high in one form or another.