South India became warmer than North during last 100 years

New Delhi, Mar 5 (UNI) The surface air temperature over the sub-continent has increased by about 0.4 degrees Celsius during the last 100 years, but this warming trend is not uniform, according to the Environment Ministry.

Some seasons have not exhibited as much increase in temperature as the others, and some regions of the country show lesser warming or even cooling trends.

However, most parts of the southern peninsula have shown significant warming trends, whereas many parts of the North West have registered cooler temperatures, the Ministry told the Rajya Sabha in written reply.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) in its third assessment report in 2001 had projected that, globally average surfaces temperature would rise by 1.4 degree to 5.8 degrees Celsius and the global mean sea level may rise by 0.09 to 0.88 m during 1990 to 2100 in the most tropical and sub-tropical regions.

The Ministry said though India was a party to the Kyoto Protocol under which developing countries have no quantified commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emmissions, it was nevertheless taking all possible measures to arrest the adverse impact of development on climate change.

The steps addressing climate change include increasing energy efficiency, energy conservation, power sector reforms active renewable energy programme switching over to cleaner fuel and afforestation, it said.

The Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) are two multilateral environmental agreements addressing issues related to climate change.

UNI NAZ PV PC0927