Skip to main content

Towards biodiversity protection, raising climate ambition, sustainable development

An Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) note on IIM-A representing India in the FABLE consortium, which mobilises top knowledge institutions from 20 countries to support ways to achieve sustainable food and land use systems for achieving climate change goals:

Operating as part of the Food and Land Use Coalition, the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) Consortium mobilizes top knowledge institutions from 20 countries to support the development of decision-support tools and long-term pathways towards sustainable food and land-use systems. The FABLE Secretariat, led by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), with support from EAT and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), coordinates the FABLE Consortium.
A team of researchers led by Prof. Ranjan Kumar Ghosh at IIMA outlines FABLE Pathways for India which identify ways in which food and land-use systems can contribute to raising climate ambition, aligning climate mitigation and biodiversity protection policies, and achieving other sustainable development priorities in India. It presents two pathways for food and land-use systems for the period 2020-2050: Current Trends which represents the Business as Usual scenario and a Sustainable, more ambitious pathway. These pathways examine the trade-offs between achieving the FABLE targets under limited land availability and constraints to balance supply and demand at national and global levels within a global partial equilibrium model— the Model of Agricultural Production and its Impact on the Environment—MAgPIE developed by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).
The Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) Consortium launched its 2020 report (https://www.unsdsn.org/fable), “Pathways to Sustainable Land-Use and Food Systems”. This second global report of the FABLE Consortium presents these pathways for 20 countries. Its findings suggest that integrated strategies across food production, biodiversity, climate, and diets can meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“The FABLE pathways can be a method for problem solving, working backwards from mid-century targets and shedding light on the major transformations that are needed to achieve them. They provide a framework for engaging stakeholders, can help identify mid-term technology benchmarks, and provide a long-term perspective to help countries avoid locking themselves into unsustainable food and land-use systems. They also provide a tool for countries to integrate biodiversity conservation and restoration as well as food systems into their climate strategies, particularly in the run-up to the climate and biodiversity COPs in 2021”, says Prof. Ranjan Ghosh.
The Current Trends Pathways (BAU) for India corresponds to the medium boundary of feasible action under the assumption that a global mean warming increase is likely between 2°C and 3°C above pre-industrial temperatures, by 2100. The ambitious Sustainable Pathway represents a high boundary of feasible action, corresponds to a future based on India’s pledges under international commitments such as the Paris Agreement, Bonn Challenge, and Aichi Targets, as well as other aspirational targets to reach higher production of renewables and biofuels, more efficient technologies and a transition towards healthy diets (i.e. according to recommendations of the EAT-Lancet Commission).
Our analysis projects an emission reduction of 1064 Mt CO2 equivalent per year under the Sustainable Pathway compared to BAU by 2050. This reduction gets achieved primarily due to a transition towards healthy diets (EAT Lancet recommendation), an improvement in livestock production systems, meeting an afforestation target of 26 Mha by 2030, and inclusion of the national biofuel mandate.
“In the ambitious pathway, we assume India’s transition towards healthy diets as recommended by the EAT-LANCET commission. We find that India could meet the Minimum Dietary Energy Requirement by 2050, minus a few calories. Overall, this transition can be met through the reduction of sugars and oils and an increase in consumption of fruits and vegetables”, says Vartika Singh from IFPRI and a member of the FABLE research team.
Chandan Jha, a FABLE researcher from IIMA states that the differences between these two pathways are meant to help stakeholders and policy makers to better understand the differences between current trajectories and potential future trends of sustainable indicators to support the setting of national targets and monitor their progress. He says, “we hope our results can be useful in developing a framework of policy actions that aims to achieve several international commitments for climate mitigation and forest conservation, such as the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the Bonn Challenge”.
In a short period of time, the global FABLE Consortium country teams have developed major analytical capacities on land-use and food systems, pioneered new tools, and strengthened the analytical capacity in 20 countries. It plans to focus upcoming work on the following priorities:
1. As part of the global food and land use coalition (FOLU), work with interested governments to support integrated strategies, including climate and biodiversity strategies under the climate and biodiversity conventions, that address short-term pressures on land-use and food systems and are consistent with meeting long-term goals.
2. Advance a deeper understanding of how countries can design, implement, and monitor better policies to transform their land-use and food systems through the new Food, Environment, Land, and Development (FELD) Action Tracker
3. Improve modeling tools to develop pathways and model policy options for land-use and food systems.
4. Train the next generation of analysts and policymakers in developing long-term pathways towards sustainable land-use and food systems, so that FABLE tools can be applied by any research group or government that would like to do so.
5. Strengthen and expand the FABLE Consortium, including by welcoming new country teams.
---
The full report can be accessed here. For more details on FABLE work, visit https://www.unsdsn.org/fable

Comments

TRENDING

Prof. Vidyut Joshi: Gujarat’s knowledge institutions have lost their soul, urgent reorientation needed

By A Representative   In a thought-provoking column published in Sandesh , eminent sociologist and former Vice-Chancellor Prof. Vidyut Joshi has raised urgent concerns over the erosion of intellectual autonomy and social relevance in Gujarat’s leading research and academic institutions. Building on insights from the recent paper Secret of Creating High Performing Knowledge Institutions  by development economist Prof. Tushaar Shah, Joshi paints a stark picture of institutions that have strayed far from their foundational vision.

Top civil rights leader announces plan to lead delegation to Pakistan amidst post-war tensions

By A Representative   In a significant move, well-known academic and civil rights leader Sandeep Pandey has announced the plan to send a 22-member delegation to Pakistan to engage in dialogue with its government and civil society. The delegation proposed to go to Pakistan under the banner of Socialist Party (India) as a fact-finding mission to help seek solution to continuing tensions between the two countries over the fallout of the Pahalgam terror attack.

Global recognition at UNHRC: A breakthrough for communities discriminated on work and descent

By Amit Kumar, Naveen Gautam*  In a historic moment for global human rights, the 59th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council opened with a powerful acknowledgment of Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent (CDWD)—groups affected by caste-like systems of exclusion, marginalization, and inherited inequality. This recognition was delivered by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk during his global human rights update, signaling a major shift in international discourse.

Former civil servants raise alarm over conflict of interest in Supreme Court's forest advisory panel

By A Representative   In a strongly worded open letter to the Chief Justice of India, 60 retired senior civil servants from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), and other central services have raised serious concerns over what they term a “conflict of interest” in the current composition of the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC), tasked with advising the Court in forest and environmental matters. The signatories, all part of the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG), expressed grave apprehension that the CEC—now comprising entirely of recently retired officials from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC)—may lack impartiality in ongoing litigation, particularly those challenging the Forest Conservation Amendment Act (FCAA), 2023.

J&K's Mallabuchan villagers symbolically cut Off pipeline in protest against ‘water injustice’

By A Representative   In a striking act of peaceful protest, residents of Mallabuchan village in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam district symbolically disconnected the Ahmadpora-Tangmarg water pipeline on Thursday, denouncing decades of official neglect and violation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) norms.

Few Bollywood actors possessed Sanjeev Kumar's subtle detachment and sensitivity

By Harsh Thakor  On 9th July, we celebrated the 85th birthday of legendary Hindi film actor, Sanjeev Kumar., known as Haribhai Jariwala. Sanjeev Kumar penetrated zones of versatility or acting craft, almost unparalleled in Hindi cinema. He was one one the very few who touched horizons of true genius, transcending regions in acting virtually unexplored. Rarely did any artist get stuck as thickly into the skin of the character. The diversity of expressions in his moves reminded one of the different water colours of a painting. Sanjeev manifested the ventures of an artist to tap the regions unexplored. He simply defied all conventions of Bollywood, making path breaking experiments. His acting had a subtle degree detachment and sensitivity, which few Bollywood actors ever possessed. He may not have possessed the drop dead looks of a Dev Anand, Dharmendra or Sashi Kapoor or the professionalism or star charisma of an Amitabh Bachan, Rajesh Khanna or Shah Rukh Khan. However in pure acting...

Climate action in rural India can go hand in hand with sustainable livelihoods: NGO shows the way

By Bharat Dogra  Mobilizing an adequate response to climate change is often seen as an expensive task and then there is a lot of talk about who’ll bear the burden. However in rural areas both climate mitigation and adaptation can be integrated well with the promotion of sustainable rural livelihoods and in such conditions people become very supportive towards it. In such conditions climate response can progress much more smoothly without becoming burdensome.

A healthier model for goat-based livelihoods in remote Madhya Pradesh villages

By Bharat Dogra  While buffaloes and cows often receive greater attention in animal husbandry-related government development schemes, goats remain vital for poorer households. Therefore, enhancing goat-based livelihoods is especially important for marginalized communities—particularly when such efforts reduce villagers' costs and lower goat mortality rates. One promising strategy involves training local villagers, especially women, to provide essential veterinary services. A welcome byproduct of this is that several women gain a respected source of income within their own villages.

Nation marks 10 years of Digital India, yet RTI filing with Parliament remains offline

By A Representative   As India commemorates a decade of the ambitious Digital India mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 1, 2015, a critical digital gap remains unaddressed: citizens still cannot file Right to Information (RTI) applications online with the Indian Parliament.