Grace Gill, Program Assistant, CMI/India/Climate Center, New York

The word Punjab is derived from Persian, meaning five (panj) rivers (ab).  It is named so for the five rivers coursing through the arable land, like veins through a body, providing the essential nourishment to cultivate the land.  As a child, I grew up amidst tall fields of lush, swaying crops of wheat that stretched for miles and perfumed the air. Our livelihood was dependent on the harvest and environmental balance. 

            

Today, that way of life is under threat, from an increasingly warmer atmosphere and its impacts on the ground.  The electricity outage in India, the largest in world history, coupled with the severe drought, has shed light on the region’s vulnerability and lack of preparedness but has also opened many doors for discourse and implementation of clean energy policies and solutions that can help mitigate the effects of climate change.

Punjab is known as the “Bread Basket” or “Granary” of India; while encompassing only 1.5% of geographical territory, it produces 20% of the nation’s wheat supply.  The emphasis on agriculture is in turn heavily dependent on the annual monsoons and rainfall. This year, rainfall ...

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