My blog interview with Aarti Khosla as published by Illuminem
July 18, 2023
Garima Poonia is founder of THE KACHREWAALE PROJECT (TKP) – Andaman Islands’ first solid waste management (SWM) project aimed at reducing methane emissions and marine pollution. The project undertook one of Andaman’s first underwater clean-up drives to mitigate climate change via conservation of coral habitats.
Garima is also a Program Director of THE KACHREWAALE FOUNDATION – India’s first such program on Ocean Plastics recovery and advocacy. It is conducting a study on marine litter to understand origin and types of plastic that come to Andaman beaches. Also creating long term frameworks for marine litter recovery and funding, applicable for coastal areas in India. It generates awareness regarding marine litter crisis in Andamans for local communities and people from South-East Asia.
PG: What beckoned you to the ocean?
GP: I hail from the north-western India, my father from Rajasthan and mother from Haryana. Most of my school vacations were spent in a village in Rajasthan, where till date, there is no public transport connectivity.
In 2017, I had just wrapped up a project in Jamshedpur, focused on revamping the city waste management system by inclusion of waste pickers. My parents and I were planning a vacation after this, and I had wanted to learn scuba diving for a long time. That was the first time I came to the Andamans, Feb 2017. As far as life changing moments or trips go, this was one of those, and more. It was the start of a journey, as much as within as outside.
I have several beautiful memories from diving. However, one that stands out is when I was swimming in the ocean, between two dives. No scuba gear, just a mask and fins. It was the first time in my life I had swum in open ocean, by myself. The ocean was very kind, crystal clear, a bright sunny day, and waves that were like playful and gentle nudges. I looked at the bottom of the ocean, and there were no fish, but just the way the sunlight entered the ocean and turned into columns of golden lights, sharp and fading at the same time, it was an endless moment. The taste of salt in my mouth, the warm embrace of the ocean, the blues, the sound of the ocean, these experiences can never be translated into words or language.
I was content, but then came a huge school of Moorish idols. Hundreds. A few meters below me. Just as I thought the ocean had gifted me enough, came a giant school of hundreds of Barracudas. Thin, long fish that were about a meter long, with thin, straight lines, parallel to each other, on their bodies.
What I felt in those moments was an unending awe for the ocean, for this world. But there was one last spectacle. Thousands and thousands of diamonds or mirrors that started coming towards me and were slowly all around. Only when they came closer, I saw that they were small silver fish, reflecting sunlight like the shiniest jewels. I was swimming right in the middle, surrounded. It is in moments like these that one gets a glimpse of God. Without realising it, I did.
Someone who hails from the desert, had found love in the ocean.
“It is in moments like these that one gets a glimpse of God. Without realising it, I did”.
PG: And what got you back?
GP: Perhaps my first conscious memory of the sea is from Kanyakumari and then Mumbai. I was perhaps 3 years old when I visited the former, an ocean raging in waves. In Mumbai, I remember sitting on the beach, and feeling delighted with how the waves kept coming at me. My parents had to work really hard to keep me from walking off into the water. My father learnt swimming in a waterfall, after nearly drowning twice. When I was five, my sister and I were thrown into deep end of the pool. We learnt the same way he did.
Swimming and spending time in the water quickly turned into the best play time for me. As I grew up, watching shows about the ocean on Nat Geo or Discovery, reading about the ocean, and simply thinking about it, created a longing to be near it. The desert in me longing for the ocean that covered it once, millions of years. Call it fantastical thinking. But it was there, and scuba diving was simply an excuse to spend time in the ocean. The trip to Andamans just put a seal on it. It ensured that I was so entranced that I would come again. And with an aim of doing something for it.
PG: What is ‘Kachrewaale’ Project about?
GP: I never thought I would have a foundation of my own. I started ‘The Kachrewaale Project’, as an initiative aimed at finding and implementing solutions to the vast problem of waste in the Andaman Islands. It was very shocking to me that such a gorgeous and fragile place had no systems in place to manage waste. Burning and dumping were rampant. I had seen dumping grounds before, but somehow even a small dump in this beautiful place had a much larger impact on me than what I had seen in urban, mainland India.
In a few months of its inception the Project was able to successfully implement a pilot, wherein waste from rural Andamans was shipped off to the mainland. It was the first time in the history of rural Andamans that something like this had happened. The system was also incorporated and scaled by the local government.
The Andaman Islands have gently but firmly guided our decision to continue working on preserving this unique ecosystem by trying to reduce the impact of ill managed waste.
Today the Project has grown into the Kachrewaale Foundation. The Andaman Islands have gently but firmly guided our decision to continue working on preserving this unique ecosystem by trying to reduce the impact of ill managed waste. Our latest program is about understanding the scope of marine litter, especially plastics, that travel thousands of kilometres from nearly twenty countries, to land up on the shores of Andamans.
Our conservative estimate after this project is that the islands receive hundreds of kilos of marine litter every week, perhaps even daily. Beach clean ups and underwater waste recovery is one of the ways we try to get as much as waste out as possible. Such clean ups by themselves are not the solution, we need to stop dumping waste in the ocean and produce much less as a species. However, even if production stopped today, there would still be an unimaginable amount of waste in the ocean threatening both marine life and humans. And thus, we are trying to raise awareness among the locals, especially children, so they understand what they stand to lose.
Going forward, the Foundation hopes to continue such work in different parts of the Andamans. We are also planning to expand our activities and interactions with locals and tourists alike. It is often the most fragile places, located in the remotest areas that feel the burden of ill managed waste. It is imperative that such places get the attention they deserve so they do not end up turning into mountains of waste.
PG: And how did the rights and duties related to waste management come about?
GP: For me plastic is not the main problem. It is a symptom of a problem that plagues our world today. Short sightedness and greed. Hardly any of us realise the life cycle of plastics; how oil is extracted, how plastics are made, the twenty thousand chemicals used to manufacture such plastics, their impact on environment and human health, the energy footprint of mass-producing plastic packaged goods and transporting them for consumption to different parts of the world.
The first time I found out that not all plastics are recyclable, I made some drastic changes to my lifestyle. In nature, nothing goes to waste, everything is truly circular. Waste is a complete anti-thesis to a circular system. It has also been, one of the most neglected areas of intervention when it comes to climate change. It was all these thoughts that drove me to understand this problem and try to find solutions. Both at a personal level and at scale. I have moved to making my own bath powders, shampoos, cleaning agents, mosquito repellents etc, in an attempt to live a more mindful life, and to advocate the same.
PG: The corals faced two massive bleaching events in 2010 and 2016. This being an El Nino year – does it scare you?
GP: After COVID, in certain areas, we have seen some corals recover. And even fish life seems to have recovered a little from before, at certain reefs. The monsoons have come now, and not much diving will happen till about October. I am not scared. I am terrified. What will we see in October? Or next year? Documentation about reefs in the Andamans is sparse. Will this turn into another anecdote that no one will care about?
This summer, there were several nights I had to sleep in wet clothes, or the floor, just so I would feel less heat. I have never felt like this in the Andamans. I wondered, what the corals and the fish were feeling.
This summer, there were several nights I had to sleep in wet clothes, or the floor, just so I would feel less heat. I have never felt like this in the Andamans. I wondered, what the corals and the fish were feeling. When we get a fever, a spike of one or two degrees can make functioning very hard. And if that sustains over days, we humans we are left utterly spent and exhausted, and if the fever doesn’t go down, we can die. Imagine what must the marine life be going through?
Weeks and months of high temperatures, days when we entered water and we felt it was too hot. As per visual observations of some divers, some of the corals had the kind of colours they show just before bleaching or dying. A last cry for help, visualised in the documentary Chasing Corals. So, they are shouting, screaming as well as they can, telling us they are dying. As one person, as one foundation there is only so much that can be done.
We are not just who we are as singular people. We are all made up of all the relationships we have. Not just with humans, but with other creatures we share this planet with. I am scared of coming back and finding a part of myself missing. Of finding less corals, less fish, less life in the ocean.
PG: Does the prospect of rising seas worry you? How about the locals?
GP: Yes, ever since I first visited the islands, I have wondered how much time they have. As per an IPCC report, the islands may not be habitable by as early as 2050. Neil, the island where most of Kachrewaale’s work is based out of, does not have much high ground. Several islands in the Nicobar group of islands are also very flat. Sadly, however, when it comes to the locals, there is hardly any awareness about this. And it’s not just the prospect of rising seas.
As the temperature rises, the ocean chemistry changes many ways. We are losing more and more marine life. The locals as well as the tourist industry are heavily dependent on the ocean for food and tourism. Who will come to Andamans if the corals are all dead and there is hardly any aquatic life? How will people adapt – when more than 90% of the population depends on fish as a main source of food?
PG: What next?
GP: When Kachrewaale started as a project, I had not started of registering a foundation. It was only through the work that I realised that the islands need more systematic intervention with respect to waste management.
Our latest program is focused on understanding marine litter, as a country we know so little about the waste that comes to our beaches from other countries. Further, recovery efforts are few and far between and often do not focus on what happens to the waste once it is recovered. There have several instances across India where money and resources have been spent to clean beaches or sometimes to recover ghost nets, but once recovered, all the waste is left at the beach or best case, diverted to a landfill.
For the immediate future, a core focus area for the Foundation is to design and set up systematic interventions for marine litter. This also means that we will be showcasing the unique data we have collected with regards to marine litter, to different agencies and government departments so it can be used for policy interventions. This goes hand in hand with the work we are doing with local community.
Children have been an important part of our activities and this year we have piloted some activities with them wherein some of them got to dive and see corals for the first time.
Children have been an important part of our activities and this year we have piloted some activities with them wherein some of them got to dive and see corals for the first time. We have taken them for beach clean ups, and informative sessions about the ocean. We want to scale these initiatives, so they have a chance to look at the ocean as more than a commercial resource that provides food and makes marine tourism possible. It is our hope that they will come to care for their islands a little more.
In the long term, Kachrewaale may also take up similar work in other remote parts of India where waste management remains a dream. We like to work in areas that are tough, challenging, and where often nobody else is working. These are also the places that require the most attention due to their ecological fragility.
PG: Best wishes for all that you aspire to do, Garima.
Aarti Khosla is a seasoned communications professional with a demonstrated history of working on the subjects of climate, energy and environment. She is passionate about communicating climate change better.
Today she is the founder and director of Climate Trends, leading a team of over 20 communication professionals focussed on building public and policy understanding on issues of climate change, clean energy and clean air. Climate Trends is instrumental in supporting media and outreach efforts of many large organisations, think-tanks, academics, and researchers working on environment and sustainability issues.
Aarti also started CarbonCopy, an editorial venture with an aim to expand coverage of climate change issues in India. Within a few years of inception, CarbonCopy has emerged as a significant online platform tracking climate science, politics and analysis from India and across the world.
Praveen Gupta: Which way is the Climate discourse headed?
Aarti Khosla: Climate discourse is such a geopolitical agenda these days that nations are using it more to manipulate other nations than to be in any race to the top. It has come to a point where the world is already on a path of runaway climate change. Wildfires in Canada, and heat waves in India are a clear signal that the global climate is at a point of no return. While there is ample and urgent domestic imperative to act, and climate change is influencing all aspects of the lives of people across the world. Yet the politics of climate remains divisive and a downward spiral.
It’s important to acknowledge here that the argument of low per capita carbon emissions was developed to hammer home just how little the Global South was responsible for the climate crisis. And nobody’s denying it. But the planet’s climate system is sensitive to how much CO2 it has to deal with, not how many people are behind it. Also scratching the surface reveals some of the reasons why climate financing has been hard to come by.
For one, allocating blame is tricky at the best of times, and it’s unpleasant at a time when burying the differences and working together is critical. Secondly, the Global South is termed so because of its track record with corruption as well. Not every country in the bloc is equally guilty of course, but there is the prospect of the funds being misappropriated.
The way China has tackled its infamous air quality by embedding air quality management into the heart of its industrial policies makes for a blueprint that other countries would be wise to follow.
PG: Whither are the two largest emitters?
AK: The notion that US enthusiasm to act first is the answer to global problems like climate needs to change. The cloud of false notions that the US is taking an unfair share of the global burden is also not true. And that is evident – China generates almost twice as much wind electricity as the US. China has outpaced the automakers of the US and Japan on EV tech.
The way China has tackled its infamous air quality by embedding air quality management into the heart of its industrial policies makes for a blueprint that other countries would be wise to follow.
PG: Where do you see India?
AK: Notwithstanding politics, even on matters of domestic policy implementation, India is a tough one. Having said that, India is fast becoming the de-facto voice of the Global South. It’s the only developing country to be a member of the US-led Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) despite the intense scrutiny of its climate policies and even the occasional bit of scathing criticism. For e.g., Climate Action Tracker ranks India’s overall efforts as “Highly Insufficient” and its 2070 target of net-zero as “Poor”.
Is there much merit to the evaluation? Unlike the criticism itself, the answer is complex. India’s primary energy consumption is set to double between now and 2050 and its population rightly demands access to a higher standard of living. The way the world has developed we know that this comes with a sharp rise in energy consumption and emissions. Of course, now we’re faced with the crisis of climate change, and pressures on natural resources, so we’re tasked with developing the fifth-largest economy without the luxury of ballooning emissions.
We’re faced with the crisis of climate change, and pressures on natural resources, so we’re tasked with developing the fifth-largest economy without the luxury of ballooning emissions.
India has shown climate action as ramping up share of renewables; and India’s emissions intensity has dropped by 24% over 2005 levels and it posted a 9.10 pc growth rate in 2022. These are remarkable by any measure and the country is not just focussed on itself. The International Solar Alliance (ISA) expressly wants to propagate solar power throughout the Global South and is currently raising USD $700 million. This is to pave the ground for private investors – most of them from the West – to feel confident about financing solar projects in some of the poorest countries and the challenges they come with.
India’s electric vehicles market meanwhile is projected to grow at a staggering CAGR of 66.52% through to 2029 and the country aims to produce 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030. A large percentage of it will go towards feeding its industries, and this is timely as the West is looking for a trustworthy and politically cooperative alternative to China.
PG: Is there a clear flightpath?
AK: India for its part, though, could be a lot more proactive. Bringing up historical responsibilities for climate change has unfortunately become a staple of climate meets and try as it might, the Global South has been unable to unlock much climate financing. The most recent dismissal came at Bonn on June 16 and more may follow.
More distrust will lead to bigger chasms in the global climate conversations. Either we can wait for miracles to happen in the climate geopolitics, or we can look at how the markets and investors are already beginning to act.
Bringing up historical responsibilities for climate change has unfortunately become a staple of climate meets and try as it might, the Global South has been unable to unlock much climate financing.
India is uniquely placed to work with the Global South and develop the bloc’s gigantic trove of resources. It has the trust of the less developed nations and together they can manifest the solutions they need for themselves. This includes mining for critical minerals and rare earth metals, manufacturing zero emission vehicles and tapping into the bloc’s vastly underdeveloped potential for solar, wind, hydro and tidal power.
India needs to take the first steps and capitalise on the goodwill it enjoys. It’s the US’s, NATO’s and Australia’s preferred geopolitical ally in South Asia and could also become a magnet for investments. Deployed correctly, this vehicle is potentially a more palatable alternative to the sanctioning and debt servicing of billions in development loans.
Perhaps equally important is the fact that India protects intellectual property rights by law. So what’s needed is for it to lower the barriers for foreign entrants – like slashing the import duties for Tesla – and use the funds to massively expand its capacity to manufacture EVs, batteries and clean energy components.
The edge it holds over every other developing nation is its abundance of a low-cost, young, and bright workforce and its port infrastructure and location make it an ideal centre for exports to the Global South. So instead of locking itself into debates, it’d be a smart move for India to revamp itself as a profitable destination for Western investments.
PG: Many thanks for this interesting perspective, Aarti. Look forward to following your excellent work.
Illuminem.com
July 6, 2023
My column for illuminem: Soon after the recent #Parima2023 annual event – where I spoke on Geopolitics – I made an attempt to write on the theme. However, with all the messaging flowing in my direction, #Polycrisis besieged me. Here are some of them. Needless to mention, the siloed and linear ways of insurers not only holds them back from addressing the ever-evolving Polycrisis, but also influences the ‘contiguous’ #riskmanangement terrain.
“It may sound frightening, but the scientific evidence is that if we have not taken dramatic action within the next decade, we could face irreversible damage to the natural world and the collapse of our societies,” warns Sir David Attenborough.
“Compound drought and heatwaves (#CDHWs) severely threaten socioecological systems, leading to greater impacts, e.g., wildfires, crop failure, and heat-related mortalities, than individual extremes”: Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences (#PNAS).
“The trillions being invested globally are vital to drive the profound changes the world urgently needs – cutting emissions, ending toxic activities that harm nature, and improving health and living standards. But responsible investment’s potential to power these changes is being held back by low ambition and a dangerously narrow focus on profit maximization”. Laments ShareAction.
The IFOA in partnership with the University of Exeter demonstrates “how a deeper understanding of climate change, including tipping points can improve financial services climate – scenario modelling… Existing models seriously understate the level of risk”.
Howard Dryden: Fails to understand “when there are solutions, and one of the main ones is to stop polluting the environment and killing nature with toxic chemicals, plastic, and partially combusted carbon. Fix these three issues: and stop the destructive exploiting of ecosystems; and we stop climate change, and regenerate nature on the planet”.
Simon Tisdall of the Guardian: “What manner of new global order will ultimately emerge? It’s plain the old great-power games are unsustainable when the planet’s on fire, the ice is melting – and existing rules are ignored. To survive, let alone prosper, in the 21st century, the world needs to replace nationalistic, zero-sum rivalries and power blocs with a more equitable, genuinely multipolar dispensation”.
Are insurers listening? They need to adapt and align to these expectations with due urgency.
June 16, 2023
It was a real pleasure participating in a panel discussion – ‘Navigating Turbulent Times: Geopolitical Risks In An Uncertain World’ – at the first ever flagship event hosted by Pan-Asia Risk and Insurance Management Association (#PARIMA), in Mumbai, last Friday. Geopolitics poses poly and permarisks aggravated by serious trust and leadership deficit – thereby leading to a serious state of flux.
Emerging from a cold war – we are conditioned by the ‘luxury’ of an extended unipolar world. However, today’s #multipolar world has an overlapping interplay between the #BRICS and the six ‘swing states’. The rules-based order of the west is dysfunctional, its monopoly over information and history seriously challenged by social media and the internet. With multilateral agencies tottering, alternate vision for a new financial order emerge from visionaries like Premier Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados. We struggle to reconcile with emergence of #China. As it speeds towards the top slot – will we continue ignoring ascendancy of the #yuan?
#Riskmanagement can no longer operate from #silos, #linearity is dead as is #retrospective#riskmodeling. If the first chip to fall was the #pandemic, it will surely not be the last nor will a new avatar take another 100 years to reappear. Arctic melt could be the next and who knows what lies in store under the permafrost? Could it be anthrax? Rising seas; the US-China-Taiwan saga; Iran-China-Russia triumvirate; weaponizing supply chains; action in cyber space; artificial intelligence; outer space or the sub-sea? The list does not end here.
Preparedness surely calls for nimbleness, imagination and anticipation. Whether #climate scenarios till date were used appropriately and #stresstesting robust? These are questions to be addressed in good time. By hindsight it may all appear too obvious, but in 2020 having an infectious disease extension in place proved Wimbledon to be farsighted. Likewise, University of Illinois (Urbana Champaign) deemed it fit to protect its balance sheet from a potential loss of significant revenue in case students from Mainland China did not turn up for some reason. Today we all know why!
Let’s not mistake a #grayrhino for a #blackswan. We need to know one from the other.
June 9, 2023
My Op-Ed for the illuminem, today: https://illuminem.com/illuminemvoices/global-warming-fails-to-insure-risk-carriers-stay-glued-to-nzia.
The timing to literally dismantle the Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (#NZIA) couldn’t have been worse. Supposedly meant to evade anti-trust law suits, the biggest loser is #trust .
Just when, as ClientEarth reminds: “The world is rapidly running out of “carbon budget”, the amount of #carbondioxide that can be poured into the atmosphere if we are to stay within the vital threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, according to a study published in the journal Earth System Science Data”.
This coincides with the world’s biggest oil companies handing executives nearly £15m in bonuses for hitting climate targets last year despite continuing to pump fossil fuels, says openDemocracy.
Research also continues to unearth more about the fossil fuel industry’s knowledge of climate change, writes the Guardian. A January study revealed that Exxon had made “breathtakingly” accurate climate predictions in the 1970s.
ClientEarth points out: New York City’s air quality emergency – thanks to the wildfires in Canada – is not the last time New Yorkers will experience smoke-filled air. Climate change makes wildfires worse and increases extreme fire activity in areas that have previously been unaffected.
Air #pollution has a huge impact on our health, reducing quality of live and cutting lives short. In fact, it’s the world’s largest single environmental health risk. One in three deaths from strokes, lung cancer and chronic respiratory disease globally are caused by air pollution.
State Farm and Allstate have recently stopped insuring homeowners in California. Could health conditions resulting from poor air quality be next on health insurers’ list?
#Climatelitigation in the US could be entering a “game changing” new phase, experts believe, with a spate of lawsuits around the country set to advance after a recent supreme court decision, and with legal teams preparing for a trailblazing trial in a youth-led court case beginning next week, says the Guardian.
The number of cases focused on the climate crisis around the world has doubled since 2015 – it says – bringing the total number to over 2,000, according to a report last year led by European researchers.
The insurance industry ought to decide which side of history does it wish to be, before it is too late.
The Journal, Chartered Insurance Institute
May 3, 2023
https://thejournal.cii.co.uk/2023/05/03/esg-climate-inequality
This piece for the Journal of Chartered Insurance Institute is about #women in #SouthAsia – on front line of the unfolding #ClimateCrisis.
Floods, droughts, heat, deforestation, sea level rise, soil degradation, deforestation, pollution – the list does not end here – incessantly test the resilience of women in the sub-continent. Changes in average weather are projected to have overall negative impacts on living standards in #Bangladesh, #India, #Pakistan and #SriLanka.
The Crisis endangers women’s health as well as their livelihoods. Social injustices only add to this perilous situation. As crises compound, female workforces suffer and the risk of global gender parity backsliding further intensifies. The situation in much of South Asia remains challenged. As environmentalist and noted author Naomi Klein warns: “Every disaster will intensify pre-existing inequalities. It is inequality that kills.”
“Women form the gender-climate nexus as solution providers. They hold the key to climate adaptation and mitigation, yet more often than not, they are left out of the conversation”. Bemoans Durreen Shahnaz, founder of Impact Investment Exchange. She adds: “Conferences in the Global North talk often of the important role of women but asks how many truly recognise the power of women within Global South economies and see them as being part of the solution rather than victims of climate change?”
“Women in the Global South are determined to get into decision-making spaces, but the lack of resources, expertise and opportunities is preventing this”, believes SHE Changes Climate. It is ‘enabling women in all their diversity to lead just Climate action globally’.
Much of the discussion here – on #diversity (non)#inclusion and (un)#equity – centres around women on boards and tends to fritter away post the #IWD.
The Diversity Blog 