Page - 4 - in options, Volume summer 2018

research newsiiasa research www.iiasa.ac.at4 options ◼ summer 2018 Annually, there is an average of 239,000 excess deaths of girls under the age of five in India–2.4 million in a decade–and excess female child mortality is found in 90% of districts in the country, according to a new study. The research, led by IIASA postdoctoral research scholar Nandita Saikia, shows that 22% of the overall mortality burden of females under five in India is due to gender bias. 29 out of 35 states in the country had overall excess mortality in girls under five. In parts of western Rajasthan and northern Bihar, gender bias accounts for 30- 50% of deaths in females under five. The worst affected areas are all rural with lower levels of education, high population densities, low socioeconomic development, and high levels of fertility. The results do not coincide with areas with known skewed sex ratios at birth. Coauthor Christophe Guilmoto from the Université Paris Descartes, France, says that gender-based discrimination doesn’t simply prevent girls from being born, it may also precipitate the death of those who are born. “Discrimination towards the girl child is not justified. There is a need to change mentality. Rather than discriminating against them it is necessary to raise their value through education and self-dependence,” says Saikia. HT Further info Guilmoto CZ, Saikia N, Tamrakar V, & Bora JK (2018). Excess under-5 female mortality across India: a spatial analysis using 2011 census data. Lancet Global Health 6: 650-658. [pure.iiasa.ac.at/15246] Nandita Saikia saikia@iiasa.ac.at Fossil fuel subsidies amount to hundreds of billions of dollars worldwide, but removing them would have only a small effect on CO2 emissions, new IIASA-led research has shown. Removing fossil fuel subsidies would lower growth in CO2 emissions by just 1-5% by 2030, compared to maintaining subsidies. This equates to 0.5-2 Gt/year, significantly less than the 4-8 Gt/year pledges made under the Paris Agreement, which are themselves not enough to limit warming to 2°C. Although the global effect on emissions is low, the impact varies by region. The largest effects of removing subsidies were found in regions that export oil and gas. Developing economies that do not export oil and gas would generally experience much smaller effects. These regional differences connect to important policy considerations in subsidy reform. Many fossil fuel subsidies were put in place to help those living in poverty. Fortunately, the highest numbers of poor people are concentrated in the regions where removal of subsidies will have the weakest effect on CO2 emissions. Removing subsidies in richer oil and gas exporting regions would therefore provide significantly greater emissions reductions and have a less detrimental impact on those in poverty. This is facilitated by today’s lower oil prices “These governments are already under pressure to reduce spending on subsidies due to lower revenues,” says Jessica Jewell lead author of a paper on this issue published in Nature. “This provides a unique political opportunity to remove subsidies in countries where it will have the largest effect on emissions and the smallest impact on the poor.” HT Further info Jewell J, McCollum D, Emmerling J, Bertram C, Gernaat DEHJ, Krey V, Paroussos L, Berger L, et al, (2018). Limited emission reductions from fuel subsidy removal except in energy exporting regions. Nature [pure.iiasa.ac.at/15086] Jessica Jewell jewell@iiasa.ac.at Gender discrimination results in the deaths of an extra 239,000 girls per year in India Removing fossil fuel subsidies will not reduce CO2 emissions as much as hoped