Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Bangalorean wins prestigious environmental award

Indian Rajesh Shah of Bangalore has been honoured with a prestigious international environment award for his efforts to solve global safe drinking water and sanitation crises.

Peer Water Exchange (PWX), invented in 2003 by Shah, received the prestigious 2010 Intel Environment Award from The Tech Museum in association with Santa Clara University.

PWX, a project of Blue Planet Network, is a combination of process, technology platform, and people designed to unlock the global capacity and creativity of individuals, organizations, and businesses to solve global safe drinking... Read more..

Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference 2010

Concludes Successfully With A Pledge To Upscale And Mainstream The Use Of Renewable Energy
29th October 2010, New Delhi: Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference (DIREC) 2010 saw a grand closing with an eclectic participation of ministers, energy experts and government representatives of 71 countries, with an aim of up-scaling and mainstreaming renewable for energy security, climate change and economic development . The conference outlined the need for global leadership to ensure that the potential of renewable technologies are realized, dependence on fossil fuels is reduced... Read more..

Ministry asked to help small projects qualify for carbon credits

In a bid to help the promoters of small renewable projects enjoy the UN clean development mechanism (CDM) status and earn carbon credits, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has urged the Environment Ministry to work out a concept for such purpose.

High transaction costs and a cumbersome process for eligibility areproving to be a deterrent for the smaller renewable projects to qualify for the CDM, which aims to reduce emission through deployment of cleaner technologies.

As a result of this, only larger renewable projects could go in for CDM while renewable energy... Read more..

Climate tech-sharing deal possible: officials

Next month's crucial U.N. climate summit can yield agreement on a system for transferring funds and technology to developing nations — but only if intellectual property issues are left for later, officials said Wednesday.

Mexico's Environment Minister Juan Elvira Quesada said there was a "very important advance" toward a technology deal during a two-day conference in New Delhi.

But the sticky issue of how to share patented technologies cannot be resolved before the two-week Cancun summit begins Nov. 29, delegates said.

Giving poor countries the funds and means for... Read more..

Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change Expects Positive Result on Technology Mechanism Incop16 at Cancun

The Ministerial Meeting on Climate Change look forward to the discussions on technology development and transfer at the COP-16 in Cancun, Mexico and reiterated the importance of a positive result in form of an agreed decision on the Technology Mechanism, as part of a balanced package of outcomes.

Briefing the media at the end of the two day conference here Shri Jairam ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests said that we will play our positive role of a‘Deal maker, not deal breaker’ as said by our Prime Minister. Shri Jairam Ramesh said, “ Technology and finance are two... Read more..

Landfill poses risk to Aero India 2011

India may be expecting its biggest air show ever put up through the eighth edition of Aero India 2011 at Air Force Station Yelahanka (AFSY) from February 9 to 13, 2011 with several countries participating with their hi-tech fighter aircraft. But a massive landfill withmountains of garbage dangerously close by threatens to spoil the fun.

DNA’s visits to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP’s) Mavallipura landfill reveal that it is located barely five km from AFSY, and daily attracts hundreds of scavenger birds flying about. These pose a real and grave danger to aircraft... Read more..

T Chatterjee to be new Union Environment Secy

Senior IAS officer T Chatterjee will be the new Union Environment Secretary in place of incumbent Vijai Sharma, who retires on December 31.

The government has appointed Chatterjee, an Andhra Pradesh cadre officer of 1975 batch, as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Environment Ministry.

He will be taking over as Environment Secretary on January 1, official sources said.

Incidentally, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, a native of Karnataka, also represent Andhra Pradesh in Parliament as a Rajya Sabha member.

World should eradicate fossil fuel subsidies-IEA

Abolishing fossil fuel subsidies would boost the world's economy, environment and energy security, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday, referring to a pledge made by G20 countries.

World leaders committed in Pittsburgh in 2009 to phase out, over the medium-term, fossil fuel subsidies which encouraged wasteful consumption. A G20 meeting in Seoul this week may update progress on the goal.

"Eradicating subsidies to fossil fuels would enhance energy security, reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution, and bring economic benefits," said the IEA, the energy... Read more..

Training scheme aims to 'green' UN peacekeeping operations

As part of a concerted effort to 'green' UN peacekeeping operations, an intensive training programme for UN peacekeeping missions on environmental matters is taking place at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi.

According to the 2009 UN Greenhouse Gas inventory, UN Field Missions globally account for 56% of UN total greenhouse gas emissions.

The training in Nairobi will equip UN Field Mission staff with the tools to address environmental issues related to the work and mandate of UN peacekeeping missions.

Participating in the four-day course are 25 environmental focal... Read more..

Microsoft, Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy Study Shows Significant Energy and Carbon Emissions Reduction Potential From Cloud Computing

Businesses that choose to run business applications in the cloud can help reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions by a net 30 percent or more versus running those same applications on their own infrastructure. These findings, from a study commissioned by Microsoft Corp. and conducted by Accenture and WSP Environment & Energy, demonstrate cloud computing's potential to operate business applications more efficiently.

Large datacenters, like those run by Microsoft, benefit from economies of scale and operational efficiencies beyond what corporate IT departments can achieve.... Read more..

Technology and finance are two pillars in climate change issue

Jairam Ramesh Minister of State for Environment and Forests (I/C) said that technology and finance are two pillars in climate change issue. In his opening remark at the ‘Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change: Technology Mechanism’ here today’ Shri Ramesh defined that technology does not get transferred but it gets developed, shared and gets bought as a commodity or at times get stolen.

He said when we talk of adaptation in agriculture it will be ‘technology shared’. Stating the purpose of this conference he said this is much focused. “We are working towards an output tomorrow which... Read more..

50 countries to meet on climate change

Ahead of the UN climate change meet in Cancun, representatives including ministers from over 50 nations will gather here for a two-day conference beginning tomorrow to deliberate on mechanisms to ensure clean technologies to mitigate impacts of global warming.

The "informal ministerial dialogue on Climate Change: Technology Mechanism" will be held in collaboration with Mexico which is host to the global UN climate summit and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA).

The meet would discuss and seek a consensus on the design of a global technology mechanism for... Read more..