Carbon Neutral University Campus .
Time to Start Decarbonisation
We are heading for the sixth extinction of life on the earth. 5th extinction was 65 million years back when dinosaurs and life on the earth vanished when a meteorite struck our planet . The reason? If the temperature rise is to be limited to 2 deg C then unprecedented and far reaching efforts are needed to get rid of global dependence on fossil fuel.
The recent report by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) revealed that pledges (also called as NDCs-Nationally Determined Contributions) given by all the countries, under United Nations Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 are inadequate to keep the rise in global warming temperature by 2 deg Centigrade as compared to pre-industrial level. Even if those pledges are met the rise in temperature would be more than 4 deg C.
Why Carbon-Neutral Campus ?
More recently, IPCC ( Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released a report by end of 2018 that gives a dire warning. It stated that if the temperature rise is to be limited to 2 deg C then unprecedented and far reaching efforts are needed to get rid of global dependence on fossil fuel. If not, we are heading for the sixth extinction of life on the earth. ( 5th extinction was 65 million years back when dinosaurs and life on the earth vanished when a meteorite struck our planet) .
We have now no option but to cut the carbon emission by 20 % by 2030 –and come down to zero by 2075 . That many think is impossible but not TERRE Policy Centre.
Under Smart Campus Cloud Network -SCCN , TERRE has initiated the action under the programme supported by UNESCO -Paris, HRD Ministry and AICTE of making University campuses net-zero Carbon emission ( Carbon Neutral Campus). It was launched in MIT ADT , Pune . SCCN of TERRE has developed the carbon emission calculator and students of MIT ADT are developing App for the same.
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