This paper by Rajasthan Pollution Control Board on climate change impacts in the context of Rajasthan seeks to address the issue of need of the society for robust knowledge to pursue strategies for mitigation as well as adaptation in order to address the challenges associated with global warming and climate change.

Accordingly, here a brief review of the available literature and an annotated bibliography of published research on climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation in order to facilitate the identification of policy options in Rajasthan is provided.

Also included is the literature on how human societies contribute to environmental change and how, in turn, become vulnerable to these changes. It also explores the available knowledge on how likely ecosystem goods and services are impacted to climatic oscillations (environmental sensitivity) and the ability of rural communities to cope (social resilience) with those changes.

Studies have shown that Rajasthan falls within the areas of greatest climate sensitivity, maximum vulnerability and lowest adaptive capacity. As history informs us, Rajasthan also has the maximum probability of occurrence of drought in India. If various segments of our society fail to act timely and coherently, climate change is likely to affect every sphere, and may make livelihoods of poor people more vulnerable and less resilient.

The science-based insights shall remain crucial to generate and implement policy options to address the challenges of climate change. The report provides only a selection of examples, in above sections, on using science to generate policy responses for Rajasthan. It also provides abstracts of the research articles and publications that policymakers can use to design evidence-based policy responses in various domains of governance.

Download the report here: