Xavier Institute - Xidas, Jabalpur, India

Call for Papers

Introduction

Climate change is a global challenge that requires immediate individual and collective action. Ever since the industrial revolution began about 150 years ago, human activities have added significant quantities of Green House Gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere. Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have increased between pre-industrial period and 2005.The growing evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), that climate will change as greenhouse gases accumulate (IPCC 2007), has added urgency to the need to understand the consequences of warming.Globally, average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year over 1961 to 2003. The rate was higher over 1993 to 2003, about 3.1 mm per year. The projected sea level rise by the end of this century is likely to be 0.18 to 0.59 meters.In its 2007 Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts global temperatures will rise by 2-4.50C by the end of this century and for the next two decades a warming of about 0.200C per decade is projected.Even if the concentrations of all greenhouse gases had been kept constant at year 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.10C per decade would be expected.This unprecedented increase is expected to have severe impact on global hydrological systems, ecosystems, sea level, crop production and related processes. The impact would be particularly severe in the tropical areas, which mainly consist of developing countries, including India.

These adverse impacts of current climate threatens the livelihoods of many people, especially the poorest, who are directly depended on climate sensitive sectors such as agriculture, forests, and fisheries. Further, the adaptive capacity of dry land farmers, forest dwellers, fisher folk and nomadic shepherds is very low. So adaptations will be necessary to address these impacts. Though a wide array of adaptation options is available, more extensive adaptation is required to reduce vulnerability to future climate change. There are barriers, limits and costs on adaptations, but these are not fully understood. Current government expenditure on adaptation to climate variability already exceeds two per cent of the GDP, with agriculture, water resources, health and sanitation, forests, coastal zone infrastructure and extreme weather events, being specific areas of concern. Effective adaptation and adaptive capacity will continue to be limited by several ecological, socio-economic, technical and political constraints, spatial and temporal uncertainties associated with forecasts of regional climate, low levels of awareness amongst decision-makers, limited national capacities in climate monitoring and forecasting and the lack of coordination in the formulation of responses. So there is a need to strengthen the adaptations on climate change.

Apart from adaptations, there is a need to focus on climate mitigation. In order to mitigate climate change, India released its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) on 30th June, 2008 to outline its strategy to meet the challenge of climate change. The National Action Plan advocates a strategy that promotes, firstly, the adaptation to climate change and secondly, further enhancement of the ecological sustainability of India's development path. Eight National Missions (National Solar Mission,National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, National Mission for Sustainable Habitat, National Water Mission, National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem National Mission for a Green India National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change), which form the core of the National Action Plan, represent multi-pronged, long term and integrated strategies for achieving key goals in the context of climate change. The focus is on promoting understanding of climate change, adaptation and mitigation. While several of these programmes are already a part of the current actions, there is a need to enhance them in scope and effectiveness and implement them in an accelerated manner through time bound plans. The Action Plan emphasize not only on sustainable production processes, but also sustainable life styles across the globe. In this effort, every citizen of the planet should have an equal share of the planetary atmospheric space.

Unfortunately, climate information or planning alone is unable to motivate action. Public opinion surveys all around the world consistently indicate that the majority of people are concerned about climate change, but they also find that people feel unsure about what it means to them personally and what should be done about it. Despite concern, often only a limited number of respondents are actually taking concerted action to prevent climate change, less still are taking actions that are actually consistent and effective. So while there is widespread acknowledgement of the threat, there is little substantive engagement with the problem. This inertia between problem and action underlines the importance of enabling leadership at all levels of society to better motivate effective engagement on this critical issues.

The most important message is that the world needs a significant reduction in global emissions from current levels. If we don’t change our behavior, global GHG emissions will rise by about 70% between now and 2050. World temperatures could rise by 4°C, and possibly 6°C, by 2100. In the light of these reflections, this National Seminar proposes to make an in-depth study of the different issues and aspects related to climate change. The following are some (but not exclusive) sub-themes of this National Seminar on which scholars are invited to present research papers:

• The climate change politics and negotiations
• Post Copenhagen
• National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)
• The Clean Development Mechanism and its future
• Adaptations to climate change: Crop improvement and research, drought proofing and flood control, health improvement and prevention of diseases, risk financing, disaster management, poverty alleviation, livelihood preservation etc;
• Mitigation measures: clean coal technologies, renewable energy development, energy efficient products, emission control in transport sector and industries, carbon sequestration, sustainable agriculture, sustainable habitat development, natural resource management;

Research Papers

A few well-known specialists in this field will serve as resource persons and key-note speakers. In addition, scholars, researchers, policy-makers, educational administrators, opinion leaders, company chairpersons, heads of civic organizations, government officials, academicians and trainers, environmental specialists, students of management studies, budding entrepreneurs, etc., are invited to submit empirical and/or theoretical papers, case studies, concept papers on different aspects of climate change.

Guidelines for Abstract Submission

The selection of papers for presentation will be based on Abstracts of 300 to 500 words. The Abstracts must include a clear indication of the purpose of the proposed research. The author(s) should also clearly mention under what area of the seminar the abstract is to be included. While preparing the abstract, they should adhere to the following:

A soft copy of the Abstract should be submitted for approval. The last date to submit the Abstract is January 10, 2010. The authors will be notified about the acceptance of the Abstract as soon as possible, latest by January 11, 2010. The final paper (of about 3000 to 3500 words) should be submitted by February 15, 2010. Only the papers that are complete in all aspects and submitted within the stipulated date will be accepted for presentation. The author of the research paper is expected to participate fully in the entire Seminar and make his/her contributions. Moreover, in absentia papers are strongly discouraged and if any paper is approved for in absentia presentation it will be only for exceptional reasons.

Important Dates

Guidelines forSubmission of Papers

One soft copy of the selected paper will have to be submitted to the Seminar coordination committee on or before February 15, 2010. The Paper must include a clear indication of the purpose of the research, the methodology, the major results and their implications, case studies (where possible), a critical analysis of the data and key references. They should adhere to the following:

It is absolutely necessary to provide references and footnotes, so that the readers are informed about the sources of the data, information, views or opinions. Further, the author is solely responsible for the accuracy of all the figures, quotations and references.

Copyright and Ownership

All papers accepted for presentation at this National Seminar will be the property of Xavier Institute (XIDAS) and it will have full copyright over these papers. Out of these, some selected papers will be published in the form of a book or in Vikas Vani Journal or as proceedings.

Venue and Participation in the Seminar

The National Seminar will be held in the premises of Xavier Institute – XIDAS, Jabalpur (MP). All the participants are expected to participate fully in the entire Seminar – from the inaugural function to the valedictory function. The scholars or researchers who present papers are also expected to be present for the entire Seminar, except the special resource persons and special invitees.

Registration

Interested persons may register themselves to participate in this National Seminar. The authors and the participants have to pay the following registration fees in order to attend the seminar. The registration fee includes board and lodge (for those who need), seminar materials, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, coffee/tea, sight-seeing trip. The registration fees are as follows:

All Payments are to be made by DD in favour of “XIDAS” payable at Jabalpur.

For details, contact the Convener of the Seminar:

E-mail: or

Institute’s Contact Numbers:

Tel: +91-761-260-2483/1091; Fax: +91-761-260-6341

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