Biodiversity loss, 37,000 ‘alien species’ introduced by human activities (GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- Recently, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a report titled the “Assessment Report on Invasive Alien Species and their Control’’.
- It has found that there are 37,000 alien species, including plants and animals, that have been introduced by many human activities to regions and biomes around the world, including more than 3,500 invasive alien species.
About IPBES:
- The IPBES released its report following a week- long plenary from August 28th, with representatives of the 143 member States which have approved the report.
- IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services, working in a similar way to the IPCC, which is the UN’s climate science body.
- The study, which has taken place over a period of four years, has been by 86 leading experts from 49 countries, drawing on more than 13,000 references.
Impact of alien species:
- The number of alien species (species introduced to new regions through human activities) has been rising continuously for centuries in all regions, but are now increasing at unprecedented rates, with increased human travel, trade and the expansion of the global economy.
- Not all alien species establish and spread with negative impacts on biodiversity, local ecosystems and species, but a significant proportion do – then becoming known as invasive alien species.
- About 6% of alien plants; 22% of alien invertebrates; 14% of alien vertebrates; and 11% of alien microbes are known to be invasive, posing major risks to nature and to people.
- Many invasive alien species have been intentionally introduced for their perceived benefits, “without consideration or knowledge of their negative impacts’’ in forestry, agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, or as pets.
Facts:
- The water hyacinth is the world’s most widespread invasive alien species on land. Lantana, a flowering shrub, and the black rat are the second and third most widespread globally. The brown rat and the house mouse are also widespread invasive alien species.
- The annual costs of invasive alien species have at least quadrupled every decade since 1970, as global trade and human travel increased. In 2019, the global economic cost of invasive alien species exceeded $423 billion annually.
Factors responsible
Reduction of food supply:
- The reduction of food supply, has been cited by the report as the most common impact of alien invasive species.
- For example the European shore crab impacting commercial shellfish beds in New England or the Caribbean false mussel damaging locally important fishery resources in Kerala, by wiping out native clams and oysters.
- The Caribbean false mussel was originally from the Atlantic and Pacific coast of South and Central America, but are believed to have travelled to India via ships, later spreading to estuaries through smaller fishing vessels.
- Invasive alien species like Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegyptii spread diseases such as malaria, Zika and West Nile Fever, while others also have an impact on livelihood such as the water hyacinth in Lake Victoria in East Africa led to the depletion of tilapia, impacting local fisheries.
Climate change:
- The IPBES report has further warned that warming temperatures and climate change could favour the “expansion of invasive species’’.
- Climate change is also predicted to increase the competitive ability of some invasive alien species, extending the area suitable for them and offering new opportunities for introductions and establishment. Invasive alien species can also amplify the impacts of climate change.
Global scenario:
- The report found that 34% of the impacts of biological invasions were reported from the Americas, 31% from Europe and Central Asia, 25% from Asia and the Pacific and about 7% from Africa.
- Most negative impacts are reported on land (about 75%) with considerably fewer reported in freshwater (14%) and marine (10%) habitats.
- Invasive alien species are most damaging on islands, with numbers of alien plants now exceeding the number of native plants on more than 25% of all islands.
- Most countries (80%) have included targets related to managing invasive alien species in their national biodiversity plans.
- Only 17% specifically address the issue in national legislation, although more (69%) include it as a part of legislation in other areas. Nearly half of all countries (45%) do not invest in management of biological invasions.
Global Biodiversity Framework:
- In December 2022, governments agreed to reduce the rate of introduction and establishment of invasive alien species by at least 50% by 2030 under target 6 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
UPI QR Code-Central Bank Digital Currency interoperability
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- With banks enabling the interoperability of Unified Payments Interface’s (UPI) Quick Response (QR) code with their central bank digital currency (CBDC) or e₹ application, users of retail digital rupee will be able to make transactions by scanning any UPI QR at a merchant outlet.
- Merchants can also accept digital rupee payments through their existing UPI QR codes.
- This integration of UPI and CBDC is part of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) ongoing pilot project on pushing the retail digital rupee (e₹-R).
What is interoperability?
- Interoperability is the technical compatibility that enables a payment system to be used in conjunction with other payment systems, according to the RBI.
- It allows system providers and participants in different systems to undertake, clear and settle payment transactions across systems without participating in multiple systems.
- Interoperability between payment systems contributes to achieving adoption, co-existence, innovation, and efficiency for end users.
What is UPI QR code-CBDC interoperability?
- Interoperability of UPI with the digital rupee means all UPI QR codes are compatible with CBDC apps. Initially, when the pilot for the retail digital rupee was launched, the e₹-R users had to scan a specific QR code to undertake transactions.
- However, with the interoperability of the two, payments can be made using a single QR code.
- The digital rupee issued by the RBI, or the CBDC, is a tokenised digital version of the rupee. The e₹ is held in a digital wallet, which is linked to a customer’s existing savings bank account. UPI is directly linked to a customer’s account.
How will it benefit customers and merchants?
- The interoperability of UPI and CBDC will ensure seamless transactions between a customer and merchant without having the need to switch between multiple digital platforms.
- It will allow a digital rupee user to make payments for their daily needs, such as groceries and medicines, by scanning any UPI QR codes at any merchant outlet.
- Even merchants are not required to keep a separate QR code to accept the digital rupee payments. They can accept CBDC payments on their existing QR code.
What is a QR code?
- A Quick Response (QR) code consists of black squares arranged in a square grid on a white background, which can be read by an imaging device such as a camera.
- It contains information about the item to which it is attached, according to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). QR code is an alternate contactless channel of payments.
- It allows merchants or businesses to accept payments from their customers directly into their bank accounts.
Aditya L1, its functioning and purpose
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- The L1 is currently home to the European Space Agency (ESA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observing the Sun and its dynamics.
- Aditya L1 will join this observatory to unravel the mysteries of the dynamics of the Sun.
Aditya L1:
- Launched on September 2, the craft will undergo five orbit-raising manoeuvres before being slingshot to the L1 point. The ship will coast for about four months before it reaches L1.
- At that stage, the thrusters will be fired to make the craft circle around the L1, placing it in what is known as a halo orbit around L1. From this vantage point, Aditya L1 can observe the Sun 24X7 using its four remote sensing payloads, and measure in-situ the various parameters of space weather.
Background:
- Discovered by mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange, L1 is one of the five points located approximately 1.5 million kilometres away, where the gravitational forces of the Sun and the Earth are in equilibrium.
- Hence, a spacecraft placed at L1 orbits the Sun at the same rate as Earth and affords an uninterrupted view of the Sun, making it an ideal observation post for space-based solar observatories.
Climate variability:
- The solar activity is measured in terms of the number of sunspots. Sunspots are cooler regions on the Sun’s surface which increase and decrease in a cycle of 11 years.
- When the Sun is active, the number of sunspots is in the hundreds, and at solar minimum, the numbers are nearly zero.
- The Earth’s upper atmosphere absorbs most of the solar UV rays. The absorbed energy affects the atmosphere’s composition, temperature and other parameters. It is imperative to know how far variation in the UV rays emitted by the Sun contributes to climate variability on Earth.
Onboard instruments:
- The Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT) developed by the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics, in close collaboration with the ISRO, the Center of Excellence in Space Sciences India, Mohanpur, the Manipal Academy of Higher Education etc, will observe the UV radiation from different zones of the solar atmosphere.
- The onboard intelligence system will detect any sudden appearance of bright spots, such as solar flares (a sudden burst of high energy visible light, UV rays, X rays and Gamma rays) on the disc.
- Combining the data from the Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS) and the High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS) developed by the ISRO’s Bengaluru based U. R. Rao Satellite Centre with SUIT, “can gain insights into the emergence, progression and energetics of transient events on the surface of the Sun in the UV region.
Coronal Mass ejection (CME):
- Coronal Mass ejection (CME) is cloud consisting of billion tonnes of energetic plasma mixed with a solar magnetic field is hurled at 250 kilometres per second to 3,000 km/s.
- Usually, the corona is not visible in the glare of the radiant Sun, except during the brief moment of a total solar eclipse.
- However, solar physicists can create artificial eclipses in the solar telescope, called coronograph, to observe the corona. Hitherto, no space telescope could peer at the inner corona, closer to the Sun.
- The Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) can peek as close as 1.05 solar radii, a region never imaged by any solar telescope. From 1.05, it can scan upto three solar radii.
Solar storms:
- Along with sunlight and electromagnetic radiation, such as ultraviolet rays, the Sun emits a constant stream of charged particles and a mixture of solar magnetic fields that travel throughout interplanetary space.
- Called a solar wind, the average speed of the flow near the Earth is about 300 kilometres per second. The solar wind constantly rams the Earth’s magnetosphere, which functions like a shield and deflects most of it.
- Nevertheless, the energetic particles from the solar wind sneak through the weak magnetic regions of the Earth, the north and south poles and interact with the molecules in the atmosphere, creating the dazzling display of aurora.
- Violent eruptions like solar flares and CMEs trigger a strong wind or solar storm. A geomagnetic storm occurs when the solar storm bashes the Earth’s magnetosphere.
- While brilliant, beautiful auroras appear as more energetic particles flow through the north and south poles, GPS and short-wave communication are disrupted, and the electronics in the satellite are in danger.
- Intense geomagnetic storms can induce magnetic-induced currents in the power grid and pipelines, resulting in power outages and fire. The energy from the charged particles heats the upper atmosphere, increasing the density and causing extra drag on satellites in low-earth orbit.
Space weather:
- The changes in the solar wind’s density, speed and direction is called space weather. Solar storms result in inclement space weather.
- Aditya L1 will function as a space weather station. The Aditya Solar Wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX), the Plasma Analyser Package For Aditya (PAPA) and the advanced Tri-axial High-Resolution Digital Magnetometers keep a constant watch over the parameters of space weather near Aditya L1.
- Using the data from these instruments, scientists can predict probable geomagnetic storms and better understand space weather dynamics.
Way Forward:
- Understanding space weather is an international issue, and the data from Adtiya L1 will aid in making models and predicting storms in advance.
Zero draft of global treaty to end plastic pollution released
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Why in news?
- The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution released a zero draft recently, ahead of its third session in Nairobi from November 13-19.
Details:
- The text of the draft, prepared by the INC Chair, is guided by the views expressed at the INC’s first and second sessions.
- It also reflects the objective and mandate of United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) resolution 5/14.
The text is divided into four parts:
- Part I covers the objectives of the instrument and leaves placeholders.
- Elements in Part II are broadly structured around the life cycle of plastics and plastic products with the aim of addressing plastic pollution.
- The options in Part II aim to collectively promote the sustainable production and consumption of plastics through product design and environmentally sound waste management, including through resource efficiency and circular economy approaches.
- This is consistent with paragraph 3(b) of the UNEA resolution 5/14.
- The third and fourth parts outline different options of measures aimed at collectively addressing the implementation of the instrument. This is consistent with paragraphs 3(c) through (p) of UNEA resolution 5/14.
About INC:
- The INC was established in February 2022, at the 5th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2).
- A historic resolution (5/14) was adopted to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment with the ambition to complete the negotiations by the end of 2024.
- INC-2 had ended on June 2 in Paris after several delays and an agreement to develop a zero draft text.
- INC-1 was held last year in Uruguay’s Punta Del Este. It ended on December 2, 2022.
- The first session implicitly endorsed the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)’s position that plastic pollution is rooted in the material’s lifecycle.
Way Forward:
- Member States will be invited to start INC-3 negotiations in Nairobi on the basis of the zero draft text.
- The INC Secretariat will also prepare a synthesis report of the submissions received on elements not discussed at INC-2, such as principles and scope of the instrument, to be released in October.
