Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Huge plastic waste 'bomb' ticking

A huge plastic bag waste is taking a toll on lakes, ponds and drainage of the city. Every day, Indore generates around 40 tonnes of plastic out of which about 10 tonnes goes to integrated disposal plant. The rest is either picked up by rag pickers or left to lie around in the city.

Environmentalists say that plastic bags choke lakes, ponds, urban sewerage and hundreds of animals die every year after consuming it. Besides, it causes air pollution if burnt in open as can be seen anywhere at any given day. Even the Supreme Court on Monday observed while hearing a PIL that threat of... Read more..

E-waste volume set to reach eight lakh metric tonnes: Government

E-waste generated in the country is expected to reach eight lakh metric tonnes, marking an increase of nearly five-and-half times of the same generated in 2005, the government told the Rajya Sabha today.

In a written reply to the House, Environment and Forest Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said, "Based on a survey by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), it is estimated that 1.47 lakh metric tons of e-waste was generated in the country in 2005, which is expected to increase to about 8 lakh MT by 2012."

On steps taken by government to tackle import of such waste, she said... Read more..

Experts want robust policy to tackle effects of climate change

"Maldives, the island nation in Indian Ocean and a paradise for tourists, will become history in the next 50 years because the sea levels there are rising to a dangerous point," said Ali Raza Rizvi, regional head, climate change and resilience programme, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Vientiane, Laos.

Maldives will fall prey to climate change, he said at a three-day Rockefeller Foundation funded workshop on climate change held at Bangkok from April 23. However, the experts were of the view that the phenomenon will not affect people living below India's... Read more..

U.N. Fails to Finalise Rio+20 Plan on Sustainable Future

After two weeks of closed door negotiations, a U.N. preparatory committee (PrepCom) has failed to reach consensus on a global plan of action, titled "The Future We Want," to be adopted by a summit meeting of world leaders mid-June in Brazil.The negotiators, comprising representatives of all 193 member states, proclaimed limited success, including reducing the size of the action plan - formally called the "outcome document" - from nearly 200 to less than 100 pages.

The document, called the "zero draft", originally ran to more than 6,000 pages of submissions by member states,... Read more..

Long Term Supplier Partnerships Key to Unilever Sustainable Growth Strategy

Unilever today signed its thirtieth strategic supplier partnership to support the company's sustainable growth ambitions. The partnerships now cover more than EUR3 billion of annual spend and support investment in growth, more sustainable practices and bigger and better innovations.

Last year, Unilever launched a specific programme, called 'Partner to Win', to work more closely with its key suppliers. 'Partner to Win' has enabled the company to create more long-term partnerships in co-creating new capabilities. The latest partnership signing took place against the backdrop of the... Read more..

Wind Farms Cause Global Warming

Wind farms can cause climate change, say researchers.

Usually at night the air closer to the ground becomes colder when the sun goes down and the earth cools. But on huge wind farms the motion of the turbines mixes the air higher in the atmosphere that is warmer, pushing up the overall temperature. Satellite data over a large area in Texas, that is now covered by four of the world's largest wind farms, found that over a decade the local temperature went up by almost 1 degrees Centigrade as more turbines are built.

This could have long term effects on wildlife living in the... Read more..

Climate change, the new threat to economic growth

The gap between our understanding of climate science and the practice of economic policy is one of the greatest mismatches of our time. The just-released report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change links more intense rainfall and more extreme temperatures with man-made climate change.

And yet, spurred by policy inaction, greenhouse gas emissions continue to climb at alarming rates and temperatures are breaking records around the globe. The dangers from climate changearguably pose the greatestconcern for sustaining economic growth in the coming decades.

To bridge... Read more..

US Corporations Sponsor Carbon Scam in Europe

Major publicly traded U.S. corporations, including Dow Chemical, ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Cabot Corporation, have secured multi-million-dollar dubious carbon credits to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions in Europe, as revealed in this investigative report.

The CDM was originally designed by the United Nations for industrialized countries to subsidize climate change mitigation in developing countries. But it ended up creating a perverse incentive to maximize profits for a few industrial gas manufacturers, mostly based in China and India, which obtained 19 of these... Read more..

Energy Performance Standards for Air Conditioners Comprehensively Upgraded in India

-- Standards now at 8% higher efficiency for star-rating on split 1.5 ton ACs and higher

-- Mobile-based application launched to help consumers calculate energy consumption

-- Technological improvements driving higher energy efficiency in the HVAC industry

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Power, has upgraded the requirements for star rating of split type room air-conditioners. This regulation, which came into effect in January this year and raised the energy efficiency standards by about 8% for split... Read more..

South Korean Parliament Approves Carbon Trading System

South Korea approved a cap-and-trade system to cut carbon emissions as President Lee Myung Bak seeks support from factories and power plants in the fastest-growing producer of greenhouse gases among industrialized democracies.

The National Assembly passed a bill to establish a cap-and- trade system in the country by 2015 with the backing of both ruling and opposition parties, according to the assembly’s webcast of the main session yesterday.

“The bill is needed to cope with global climate change and, domestically to reduce emissions of greenhouse gas efficiently,” Kim Jae... Read more..

Working Together for Global Clean Energy

This past week the Clean Energy Ministerial met in London and had its most successful meeting to date, greatly expanding a number of its climate-friendly technology cooperation commitments, while also intruducing new initiatives, including a partnership to utilize renewable energy and energy efficiency through smart grids.

The Clean Energy Ministerial, launched by the United States in 2010, is a collaborative effort to promote policies, programs, and technical solutions that accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy among 22 national governments and the European Union, the... Read more..

E-waste disposal needs facelift

The IT and electronics industry insists that the entire collection mechanism of e-waste will need to be strengthened in order to make the new e-waste management rules effective.

The e-waste (Management & Handling) Rules, 2011, which were notified in May 2011, have come into effect from May 1, 2012 and people will now be required to dispose of their discarded electronic at designated centres.

The aim is to reduce the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment by specifying the threshold for use of hazardous material, including lead, mercury... Read more..