Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki

Context:

• Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupts for the second time in a week

More info:

• The 1,584-meter volcano on the remote island of Flores shot billowing columns of ash.
• Volcanic materials, including smoldering stones, lava and hot, thumb-size fragments of gravel and ash were thrown up to 7 kilometers from the crater.
• Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province, known locally as the husband-and-wife mountains.
• “Laki laki” means man, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.
• The vulcanology center also said another volcano, Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province – one of the country’s most active volcanoes – erupted again.
• Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago.
• The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

About Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki:

• Lewotobi is a twin volcano located in the southeastern part of the island of Flores, Indonesia.
• It has two peaks; the Lewotobi Laki-laki (Male Lewotobi) and Lewotobi Perempuan (Female Lewotobi) stratovolcanoes.

Article 142 of the Constitution  

Context:

• Supreme Court invokes plenary powers, orders liquidation of Jet Airways

News:

• A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud invoked its plenary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution to order the liquidation of Jet Airways.

About Article 142:

• Article 142 titled ‘Enforcement of decrees and orders of the Supreme Court and orders as to discovery, etc.’ has two clauses.
• Article 142(1) reads: The Supreme Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction may pass such decree or make such order as is necessary for doing complete justice in any cause or matter pending before it, and any decree so passed or order so made shall be enforceable throughout the territory of India in such manner as may be prescribed by or under any law made by Parliament and, until provision in that behalf is so made, in such manner as the President may by order prescribe.
• Article 142(2) reads: “Subject to the provisions of any law made in this behalf by Parliament, the Supreme Court shall, as respects the whole of the territory of India, have all and every power to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance of any person, the discovery or production of any documents, or the investigation or punishment of any contempt of itself.”

Important instances when Article 142 was invoked:

• Bhopal Gas tragedy case: The Supreme Court awarded a compensation of $470 million to the victims and held that “prohibitions or limitations or provisions contained in ordinary laws cannot, ipso facto, act as prohibitions or limitations on the constitutional powers under Article 142.”
• Babri Masjid demolition case: The Supreme Court ordered framing of a scheme by the Centre for formation of trust to construct Ram Mandir at the Masjid demolition site in Ayodhya.
• Liquor sale ban case: The Supreme Court banned liquor shops within a distance of 500 metres from National as well as State highways in order to prevent drunken driving.

History of Article 142:

• When a draft Constitution was prepared by the drafting committee and placed before the Constituent Assembly, Article 142 was actually numbered as Article 118.
• It was placed before the Constituent Assembly on May 27, 1949 for debate but got adopted on the same day without any debate possibly because everyone agreed that in order to ensure judicial independence, the highest court of the country must be empowered with plenary power to do complete justice.

UPSC Mains PYQ (2020):

• Judicial Legislation is antithetical to the doctrine of separation of powers as envisaged in the Indian Constitution. In this context justify the filing of large number of public interest petitions praying for issuing guidelines to executive authorities.

Zeroing in on methane diplomacy, at COP29

Introduction:

• In November 2024, world leaders will gather in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• Dubbed the “Finance COP”, representatives from every country will, for the first time in 15 years, set a new global climate finance goal, known as the “new collective quantified goal” or NCQG.
• The host country, Azerbaijan, has put forward an action agenda, which includes pledges to increase battery storage capacity six-fold, dramatically expand electricity networks, and cut methane emissions from organic waste.
• Methane’s climate impacts are severe, accounting for around 30% of global warming since the pre-industrial era, and its atmospheric concentration is rising rapidly.
• Crucially, on a 100-year timescale, methane has 28 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide and is 84 times more potent on a 20-year timescale.
• This means that cutting methane is one of the most effective levers we have to slow near-term temperature rise and buy time for the longer-term CO2 reductions needed to stabilise climate change.

Common ground between U.S., China:

• Despite tensions in their relationship, the United States and China have found common ground in addressing non-CO2 greenhouse gases such as methane.
• The two countries joined hands with the United Arab Emirates at COP28 (in Dubai, in 2023) to sponsor a summit on methane and other non-CO2 emissions.
• In November 2023, China also released its first national plan for controlling methane emissions.
• While the plan eschewed specific mitigation targets in favour of capacity building, it signalled China’s acceptance of methane as an area for action and cooperation with the U.S.
• India, the world’s third-largest source of anthropogenic methane emissions behind China and the U.S., has an opportunity to leverage the U.S.-China methane partnership to gain sector-specific financing and capacity-building support.
• According to the India Third Biennial Update Report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the country emitted 409 million tons of CO2-equivalent methane in 2016 (excluding land use and forestry), with agriculture accounting for 74%, waste for 14%, energy for 11%, and industrial processes for 1%.
• Methane’s detrimental effects go beyond its impact on climate change.
• Fires at waste dumpsites, for example, can cause significant spikes in air pollution.
• In 2022, a two-week fire at one of the Delhi’s dumpsite led to particulate matter concentrations reaching 30% to 70% above baseline levels at nearby air quality monitoring stations.
• But the dominance of agriculture, particularly livestock and rice cultivation, is what makes India hesitant to announce economy-wide methane reduction targets or sign the Global Methane Pledge championed by the U.S. and the European Union at COP28, which seeks to cut emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.
• However, the U.S.-China focus on methane creates an opening for India to seek targeted assistance for reducing emissions from specific sectors such as waste management.

Waste management programmes:

• The Indian government has developed a strong regulatory framework for waste management, but weak local capacity hampers implementation.
• However, it is working to expand innovative solutions across the country.
• A notable example is the model pioneered in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, which pairs citywide organic waste sorting with a large biomethane plant that produces fuel for buses.
• The government is also promoting the Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBARdhan) scheme, which incentivises cattle waste utilisation and clean energy production in villages.
• These initiatives are part of the broader Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 programme to improve solid waste management.
• However, cities need more support to scale up organic waste management to its full potential.
• In the agriculture sector, the government is implementing climate-resilient practices through the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA).
• These include methane reduction techniques in rice cultivation, which can contribute to substantial emissions reductions.
• The National Livestock Mission also promotes practices such as green fodder production, silage making, chaff cutting, and total mixed ration to reduce methane emissions from livestock.

An opportunity in the U.S.’s plan:

• This is where COP29 and India’s methane diplomacy come in.
• The U.S.-China methane partnership, while limited compared to their past cooperation, still creates an opening for India to seek concrete assistance for its methane mitigation efforts.
• In particular, India can leverage the U.S. methane push to gain financing and capacity-building support for reducing emissions from its waste sector, which produces over 14% of its methane.
• India’s 2016 inventory estimates these sources as producing around 4% of India’s methane emissions.
• But underlying data quality (emissions factors as well as waste stream volumes) is poor.
• Satellite monitoring on Delhi and Mumbai, for instance, suggests that emissions levels are 50%-100% above commonly used estimates and that dumpsites alone account for more than a quarter of Mumbai’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Conclusion:

• Methane may be a side issue in the overall COP29 agenda, but it presents a significant opportunity for India to fast-track its efforts in reducing methane emissions.
• The Government of India has laid the groundwork with its existing policies and initiatives.
• However, to effectively scale up the implementation of proven technological solutions worldwide, India now requires targeted international support in financing, capacity building, and technical assistance.
• By leveraging the U.S.-China methane partnership and proactively seeking this support at COP29, India can tap into the resources needed to accelerate its progress in methane abatement.

U.S. electoral college system

How is an electoral college formed? What is its role in the U.S. presidential election? Who are ‘faithless’ electors? Which is the state with the largest number of electoral votes?

Introduction:

• S. citizens casted their ballots on November 5, to choose largely between Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump and Vice-President and Democrat Kamala Harris as their 47th President in the 60th quadrennial elections.
• The U.S. Constitution mandates that instead of securing the popular vote, the winner is the candidate who clinches the maximum number of Electoral College votes.
• Apart from three instances in the 1800s, results in the recent past such as George Bush Jr.’s victory over Al Gore in 2000 and Mr. Trump’s victory over Hilary Clinton (2016) came about in this manner.

Electoral College:

• The Electoral College is an intermediary body or process that chooses the U.S. President.
• In this system, voters of each State cast their ballots to choose members (or electors) of the Electoral College who then vote to select the President.
• The number of electors accorded to each State is in proportion to its population and mirrors its number of members in Congress – both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
• The system, whose origins can be traced back to the days of slavery, was put in place to ensure States got equal representation in the election process.

Process:

• In the months leading up to the election, different parties nominate their slate of would-be electors in each State.
• The slate of the party that wins the popular vote in a State goes on to become electors from that State in the Electoral College.
• Conventionally, these electors meet in December and go by the will of their citizens to vote for the candidate who won the popular vote in their State.
• If an elector votes against the citizens’ choice, they are called faithless electors, and some States have provisions to prosecute them.
• In the presidential elections of 2016, there were seven ‘faithless’ electors though their votes made no difference to the result.
• California, with 54 electoral votes, has the maximum number of seats in the Electoral College, followed by Texas with 40 and Florida with 30 while States such as North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, and Vermont have the minimum number of 3.
• Other than two States (Maine and Nebraska), the winner of the popular vote gets all electoral votes of that State (and the District of Columbia); in other words, “Winner takes all”.
• There are 538 electoral votes in the college and a candidate must secure at least 270 votes to become President.

If there is a tie?

• According to the U.S. government’s website, the situation has transpired only twice – in 1800 and 1824.
• On both occasions, the House of Representatives spawned a solution by electing Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams respectively as President.
• Given the current composition of States and their voters, such a situation is highly unlikely.
• However, if a situation were to arise, Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution and the 12th Amendment mandate that the election moves to the House of Representatives where the newly elected 435 members are sworn in and vote on who becomes President.
• Notwithstanding the number of representatives accorded to States in the House, each State gets one vote.
• The winning party in the State gets to poll that vote and the candidate that garners 26 votes is declared President.
• The Congress is scheduled to meet in early January to count the votes, and the new President is set to take charge on January 20, 2025, for a term of four years.
• If the House is unable to come up with a result by then, the Vice-President becomes Acting President, and the House continues to vote until it arrives at a result.
• Meanwhile, the election for the Vice-President happens in the Senate.
• In the 100-member strong Senate, each member gets one vote and the majority mark of 51 is desired for a candidate to claim victory.
• By virtue of being separate elections, this can lead to a situation where the President and Vice-President are from different political parties.