Sustainability Outlook Headlines

'Govt should focus onrenewable energy'

  Rural areas in Bihar are not part of the centralized grid system and have been deprived of electricity for decades. But the 112-page report, 'Urja Kranti ki Jagmagati Tasveer', shows the way forward on how people can get reliable energy that is quick and cost-effective and does not put additional pressure on our environment.

Releasing the report here on Tuesday, Ramapati Kumar, campaign manager, Greenpeace India, said, "All political parties, including the ruling party, had promised to work towards renewable energy to ensure energy access in their election manifestos".

... Read more..

Suntech, Canadian Solar to Supply Tata Power’s India Plant

 Tata Power Co., one of India’s biggest non-state generators, will order equipment for a 3.65 billion-rupee ($68 million) solar project from panel suppliers including Suntech Power Holdings Co.

Suntech, the world’s biggest panel maker, Canadian Solar Inc. and Tata BP Solar Ltd. will supply the 25-megawatt plant in western Gujarat state with crystalline silicon-based modules, the Mumbai-based utility said in an e-mail today.

The project in Mithapur has received financing from local banks led by State Bank of India and Export-Import Bank of India. The banks will fund 70... Read more..

Blue Dart plans Rs 150 cr capital expenditure in 2012

 Blue Dart Express Ltd, South Asia's premier courier company, has earmarked around Rs 150 crore capital expenditure plan for 2012 to expand its air and ground services, a top executive said today. 

"We have decided to spend Rs 150 crore towards capital expenditure to expand air and ground services," Blue Dart Director (Finance) Yogesh Dhingra told reporters here. 

The company, part of DHL Group, had spent around Rs 300 crore over the past two years under its capex programme, Dhingra said. 

Meanwhile, Blue Dart and its parent company DHL today announced India's... Read more..

The American Reporter Vol. 16, No. 4,353 - December 14, 2011 - American Reporter

... to the battles over access to water on the India ... and we have to drastically cut carbon emissions in the next ... U.S. Government in creating a market for ...

Canada formally withdraws from Kyoto Protocol

Canada has became the first country to formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, saying the pact on cutting carbon emissions was preventing the world from effectively tackling climate change. "We are invoking Canada's legal right to formally withdraw from Kyoto," environment minister Peter Kent said yesterday following a marathon UN climate conference in South Africa, at which nations agreed to a new roadmap for worldwide action.

The landmark pact reached in 1997 is the only global treaty that sets down targeted curbs in global emissions.

But those curbs apply only to rich... Read more..

Now, India's real climate battle begins

 For India, Durban climate change talks were about retrieving ground it had lost voluntarily over the last two years and protecting against any future encroachment. In the end, it was enable to ensure that the battle over new encroachment got postponed, and will be played out in parts over the next three years.

In the last two years, India had given up on equity and discarded the principle of historical responsibilities, and even derided it. It had hollowed out the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed world was waiting for a pushover in Durban, but... Read more..

ICAR plans to seek more govt aid for wider research

 While research in climate change is being seen as the biggest research challenge for agricultural scientists, cotton and sugarcane are expected to be the two commercial crops to get more attention in research and development in the coming 12th five-year plan. However, the plans are to move from primary to secondary agriculture, crop diversification, change in cropping pattern and value addition with creation of a market chain for all crops. 

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is gearing up with its own agenda and plan to seek at least double to triple allocations... Read more..

Segregate plastic waste and get paid

Soon , there will be 50 centres in the city where plastic waste segregated by residents will be collected, a high-level meeting chaired by environment minister B V Ramanaa at the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) headquarters on Monday decided. The waste will then be sold to plastic manufacturers for recycling and the residents paid . 

Identification of locations for the project , to be launched across 10 cities in the state , has begun . The project is to be run according to the Union ministry of environment and forests' Plastic Waste Management Rule 2011. 

... Read more..

Carbon credit prices may go up after deal on Kyoto extension

 Carbon credit prices , which have crashed to euro 5 per unit currently, way below the psychological euro 10 per unit level, are expected to revive at least on one count: The continuation of Kyoto Protocol for another five years, thus securing the long-term fundamentals of the Indian greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction market. 

While the uncertainty on the extension of Kyoto was causing much concern among Indian project developers, a key factor which led to a fall in prices of carbon credits was the Eurozone crisis which continues to bog the business of environment . A... Read more..

Carbon markets still on life support after climate deal

Carbon markets are still on life support after a U.N. climate deal agreed in South Africa on Sunday put off some big decisions until next year and failed to deliver any hope for a needed boost in carbon permit demand.

A package of accords agreed after marathon U.N. talks in Durban extended the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the only global pact enforcing carbon cuts, allowing five more years to finalise a wider deal which has so far eluded negotiators.

Kyoto's first phase, which is due to expire at the end of next year but now will extend until 2017, imposed limits only on... Read more..

Municipal authorities overlook disposing of waste in state

Despite reminders from the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (RSPCB) municipal corporations and municipal councils in the state continue to overlook the serious problem of disposing of solid and bio-medical waste in the state. 

The RSPCB on August 9 had issued directives to department heads (HoDs) of all 189 municipal council and Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) over improper disposing system of solid and bio-medical waste. However, till date the board has not received any response from any of the councils or corporation. 

A senior RSPCB official said, "The... Read more..

New UN climate deal struck, critics say gains modest

 Climate negotiators agreed a pact on Sunday that would for the first time force all the biggest polluters to take action on greenhouse gas emissions, but critics said the action plan was not aggressive enough to slow the pace of global warming. The package of accords extended the Kyoto

Protocol, the only global pact that enforces carbon cuts, agreed the format of a fund to help poor countries tackle climate change and mapped out a path to a legally binding agreement on emissions reductions.

But many small island states and developing nations at risk of being swamped by... Read more..