New Delhi,30 Apr (Lok Sabha):The Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC) refers to the high loading of pollutants in the atmosphere consisting of mixture of anthropogenic sulphate, nitrate, organics, black carbon, dust and fly ash particles and natural aerosols such as sea salt and mineral dust. The study on exact impacts of pollutant loading over monsoon rain and agriculture under the International programme on Atmospheric Brown Cloud has been initiated by the world community to understand such impacts.
India has been following a path of sustainable development through a range of policies and programmes to mitigate climate change and reduce carbon emissions. Some of the steps taken by the Government include inter alia – setting up of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency and encouraging energy conservation and introduction of energy efficiency labeling, promoting use of renewable energy, power sector reforms, use of cleaner and lesser carbon-intensive fuel for transport, fuel switching to cleaner energy, afforestation and conservation of forests, promotion of clean coal technologies, reduction of gas flaring, encouraging Mass Rapid Transport systems and environmental quality management for all sectors. Besides, India spends every year over 2 percent of the GDP in development measures with strong adaptation content.
Further, the Government has also set up an “Expert Committee on Impacts of Climate Change” in May 2007 to study the impacts of anthropogenic climate change on India and to identify the measures that may be needed to address vulnerability to anthropogenic climate change impacts.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment & Forests, Shrinamo Narain Meena in a written reply to a question by Shri Rewati Raman Singh, in the Lok Sabha today.