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Climate Change (CC) is universal concern. One of the causes for CC is degradation of forest. World over every minute 22 hectares forest is degraded. Reckonings suggests that US$ 11880, funds must be invested every minute to restore the forest. In India Atmospheric pollution has severed in 90's because of increased automobiles and electronic goods. Green car congress reported level of NO2 concentration in Delhi ranged 70-102 microgram per cm, in 2005. It is argued that the consumers are capable of meeting part of cost of CC mitigation. Recent survey (Teki, 2008) in National Capital Region revealed that 40% of sample preferred to compensate through tax on petroleum products, 22 % in investing in forestry bonds, 57% favoured compulsory investment in bonds. Awareness rate about climate change was 92%, and 88% favoured both technology transitions and economic sanctions for mitigating CC. Evolving innovative financing instruments and mechanisms to finance forest restoration and mitigating CC is important. Timber was considered important contribution of forests, as 2% GDP comes to exchequer. NTFPs now considered equally important for forest restoration as 25-55% of forest living people survival comes from NTFPs. Forests have innovative financial instruments like Eco-tourism, to finance forest restoration. Self reliance apart from the government funding and the private funding. Mobilisation of savings, bank finance, creating/strengthening global carbon fund effectively and financing the substitute sectors are important for restoration of ecological integration and productivity and economic value of deforested or degraded land. Objectives of paper are: a) to assess level and impact of forest degradation and forest restoration in India, b) to translate carbon pollution level into mitigating CC, b) awareness level of CC in NCR c) measure willingness of consumers to compensate for CC, and d) evolve innovative financial instruments and mechanisms to finance sustainable forest restoration in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extreme temperature events are a concern in recent years due to climate variability particularly in India as there is an increase in the temperature intensity, frequency, and duration. This study represents stationary temperature-duration-frequency (TDF) analysis over two mega cities in India Delhi (north) and Bengaluru (south) using the daily maximum temperatures at meteorological stations for the period 1969–2016 observed by India Meteorological Department (IMD).The interannual variability of maximum temperature and the maximum daily recorded value indicates the increasing trend in both the cities. The study investigates the extreme analysis of the maximum temperature using two distributions, i.e., Gumbel's Extreme Value Type 1 (GEVT) and Log Pearson Type III (LPT), for return periods 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years at both the locations and the positive temporal trend is observed. The TDF curves were build using annual maximum temperature values for total 8 durations (different days) of 48 years analyzed and results show the increasing trend of maximum temperature at lower duration and high return period values. The TDF is also used for prediction of the maximum temperature for the 2 hottest years in India, i.e., 2012 and 2015, and it is comparable with the observed maximum temperature. Similarly, the predictions for 11 years, i.e. 2006 to 2016, over both the cities are simulated using both the GEVT-I and LPT-III and the models have better potential skill in predicting the extreme maximum temperature. These results can be useful for the sectors like health, energy, agriculture, urban management, and ecology management and can help the policy decision makers and disaster managers in the mitigation and adoption steps to face the extreme temperature disaster at city scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High consumption of fossil fuels, increased greenhouse gas emissions and deterioration of local air quality have resulted from rapid industrialization and urbanization in India in the last decade. India has taken many initiatives to address these problems such as new automobile fuel policies, energy efficiency measures, promotion of renewable energy use, relocation of highly polluting industries, enforcing use of low emission fuels like CNG for public transport in large cities, and introducing metro rail networks in megacities. This paper highlights results of adopted policies in Delhi showing relationships between air quality and climate change and having sustainable development as the driving force with focus on environmental and social dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient respirable particles (PM; aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm) collected in a tropical urban environment (Delhi, India) during December 2008-November 2009 were characterized with respect to 16 US EPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and 8 major and trace metals (Fe, Mn, Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn and Cr). Concentrations of ΣPAHs (annual mean: 74.7 ± 50.7 ng m, range 22.1-258.4 ng m) and most metallic species were at least an order of magnitude greater than values reported from similar locations worldwide. Seasonal variations in ΣPAHs were significant ( p < 0.001) with highest levels in winter while crustal and anthropogenic metals showed significant but mutually opposite seasonal dependence. Statistically significant associations were observed between chemical species and various meteorological parameters. The PAH profile was dominated by combustion-derived large-ring species (~85%) that were essentially local in origin. Principal component analysis-multiple linear regression (PCA-MLR) apportioned four sources: crustal dust (73%), vehicular emission (21%), coal combustion (4%) and industrial emission (2%) that was further validated by hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Temporal trend analysis showed that crustal sources were predominant in summer ( p < 0.05) while the remaining sources were most active in winter. Summertime intrusions of Saharan dust were identified with the help of aerosol maps and air parcel backward trajectories. Inhalation cancer risk assessment showed that up to 3,907 excess cancer cases (357 for PAHs, 122 for Cd, 2040 for Cr (VI) and 1387 for Ni) are likely in Delhi considering lifetime inhalation exposure to these chemicals at their current concentrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The temporal variation of ambient SO and the chemical composition of particulate matters (PM and PM) were studied at National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi (28°38′N, 77°10′E). Spatial variation of SO at seven air quality monitoring stations over Delhi was also studied simultaneously. Wide range of ambient SO was recorded during winter (2.55 to 17.43 ppb) compare to other seasons. SO mixing ratio was recorded significantly high at industrial sites during winter and summer; however, no significant spatial difference in SO mixing ratio was recorded during monsoon. SO/(SO+SO) ratio was recorded high (0.74) during winter and low (0.69) during summer. Monthly variation of PSCF was analyzed using HYSPLIT seven days backward trajectories and daily average SO data. PSCF analysis suggests that, during winter (December, January, February) ambient SO at the study site might have contributed from long distance sources, located towards west and southwest directions; during monsoon (July, August, September) marine contribution was noticed; whereas, during summer (April, May and June) it was from regional sources (located within few 100 km of study site). During winter there was significant contribution from the long distance sources located in western Asia, northwestern Pakistan, Rajasthan and Punjab provinces of India. Coal used in thermal power plants at Panipat (in the northwestern side) and Faridabad (in the southeastern side), local industries, soil erosion and biomass burning may be major contributing factors for SO during summer. The study establishes that the transport sector may not be the major source of ambient SO in Delhi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]