This is what India’s prepared to do to stop climate change

By

TIME

By

TIME

October 2, 2015, 5:42 AM ET

The rains came in the winter. And in the spring and summer. Almost certainly, they will come, hard, in the fall. This year Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin have been wetter than ever before; Australia, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have severely flooded; in New Zealand the rainfall is four times the usual. And all this before hurricane season, when a violent and rising sea will surely push well past several breakwaters.

What to do about the persistent floods? One answer is coming from investors, who are no longer viewing extreme weather as a possibility, but an inevitability. Both Citigroup and Deutsche Bank have published comprehensive reports, detailing how their clients might benefit from investing in climate change. Among the sectors they identify that stand to benefit most: transportation and infrastructure -- the transport of people, the movement of water, the means of keeping back the sea. The World Bank estimates up to 1 billion climate refugees in the next century (it also recommends that threatened farmers raise ducks, which float, rather than chickens, which do not). The displaced must move, but to where? India is currently building an eight-foot-high wall -- the longest in the world -- along its border with Bangladesh to keep its neighbor's climate refugees out. Greenland's Department of Ice and Water, meanwhile, is looking to export its icebergs. The Dutch have a long history of keeping back rising tides and are already exporting such knowledge through the firm Arcadis, which in 2009 presented a $6.5 billion plan to build a modular 6,000-foot wall across New York Harbor. The plan was prescient: Nearly three years later Hurricane Sandy happened. The company now has contracts in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco, and revenue was up 26% last year. For some, a changing climate will be a boon.

Photographer Gideon Mendel has been documenting floods around the world for some time now. The project in his words:

"Since 2007 I have been working on Drowning World, a long-term global project about flooding as my way of responding to climate change. I frequently follow my subjects returning through deep waters, making the photographs at the remains of their homes. I choose to shoot on film, using old Rolleiflex cameras. My images have been made in eight different countries around the world: The UK, India, Haiti, Pakistan, Australia, Thailand, Nigeria and Germany."

His photos follow.

The rains came in the winter. And in the spring and summer. Almost certainly, they will come, hard, in the fall. This year Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin have been wetter than ever before; Australia, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have severely flooded; in New Zealand the rainfall is four times the usual. And all this before hurricane season, when a violent and rising sea will surely push well past several breakwaters. What to do about the persistent floods? One answer is coming from investors, who are no longer viewing extreme weather as a possibility, but an inevitability. Both Citigroup and Deutsche Bank have published comprehensive reports, detailing how their clients might benefit from investing in climate change. Among the sectors they identify that stand to benefit most: transportation and infrastructure -- the transport of people, the movement of water, the means of keeping back the sea. The World Bank estimates up to 1 billion climate refugees in the next century (it also recommends that threatened farmers raise ducks, which float, rather than chickens, which do not). The displaced must move, but to where? India is currently building an eight-foot-high wall -- the longest in the world -- along its border with Bangladesh to keep its neighbor's climate refugees out. Greenland's Department of Ice and Water, meanwhile, is looking to export its icebergs. The Dutch have a long history of keeping back rising tides and are already exporting such knowledge through the firm Arcadis, which in 2009 presented a $6.5 billion plan to build a modular 6,000-foot wall across New York Harbor. The plan was prescient: Nearly three years later Hurricane Sandy happened. The company now has contracts in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco, and revenue was up 26% last year. For some, a changing climate will be a boon. Photographer Gideon Mendel has been documenting floods around the world for some time now. The project in his words: "Since 2007 I have been working on Drowning World, a long-term global project about flooding as my way of responding to climate change. I frequently follow my subjects returning through deep waters, making the photographs at the remains of their homes. I choose to shoot on film, using old Rolleiflex cameras. My images have been made in eight different countries around the world: The UK, India, Haiti, Pakistan, Australia, Thailand, Nigeria and Germany." His photos follow.Photo: Gideon Mendel

This article is published in partnership with Time.com. The original version can be found here .

By Editorial Team@joannaplucinska

India filed its climate action plan at the U.N. Climate Secretariat in Germany’s Bonn Thursday, becoming one of the last major global economies to release its goals for tackling climate change ahead of December’s landmark Paris Climate Conference.

In the document, known as the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), the Indian government said it would reduce carbon emissions relative to its GDP by 33% to 35% from 2005 levels by 2030, reports the Associated Press. India also pledged that 40% of the country’s electricity would come from non-fossil fuel-based sources, such as wind and solar power, by 2030.

All of the 190 countries participating in the COP21 talks in Paris are expected to publish INDCs, which list each country’s carbon emission reduction goals. The targets are intended to hold nations accountable to preventing global temperatures from rising by more than 2ºC. Scientists say that temperatures must stop rising soon to prevent catastrophic harm to the planet.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hopes that investments in solar power will bring reliable electricity to an additional 300 million Indians, the Economic Times reports.

Mahatma Gandhi’s famous pronouncement, “Earth has enough resources to meet people’s needs, but will never have enough to satisfy people’s greed,” inspired India’s climate commitments, according to the document.

India is the world’s third largest carbon emitter, behind the U.S. And China.

Eighty-six countries have drafted INDCs to date ahead of the conference, according to the Climate Group.

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