Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Tamil Nadu's plans for solar plants in doubt as brokers corner land

The Tamil Nadu government claimed in their April 21 statement announcing deferring of the Global Investors Meet that foreign forms had agreed to investments worth Rs 23,000 crore in the state. But, ground reality shows that the plans may just be hypothetical. 
 
With powerful real estate brokers, who enjoy political patronage, cornering land which has the potential to house solar power plants in the state, companies which have promised or plan to invest in TN are having a rethink, according to a Tamil Nadu Electricity Board official. 
 
The government said in its... Read more..

Green Bond Market Heats Up After Slow Start To 2015

The first three months of 2015 (Q1) have seen 44 green bond deals totalling $7.2bn of issuance. After relatively low issuance in January the amount of green bonds issued has been climbing each month, with March three times bigger than January. This year will be the biggest year ever for green bonds: there’s a healthy pipeline of bonds in the works and we expect Q3 and Q4 in particular to be strong in the lead up to the UN COP.

From a slow Q1 2015 start green bond issuance is climbing

... Read more..

Need to reduce timeline, increase accountability: Prakash Javadekar

The Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, has emphasized the need to reduce timelines for various projects and right conditions to be prescribed that are reasonable, practical, real and need-based.
 
Javadekar inaugurated a One-day Workshop on `Environmental Impact Assessment: Challenges in India and Way Forward` at Vigyan Bhawan on Saturday.
 
Javadekar said that processes for granting approvals must be simplified and cases must be decided solely on the basis of merit and urged all the stakeholders to give suggestions on... Read more..

Sembcorp expects 1400 MW renewable capacity by 2022

Sembcorp Industries, Singapore's leading utilities and marine group, is looking to invest over a billion dollars over the next 5 to 7 years to double its clean energy generation portfolio in the country while gradually moving away from large, greenfield thermal coal projects that are still reeling under land acquisition and fuel linkage logjams. The recent confusion over capping fixed tariffs has also also made them wary of the recent coal auctions.
 
Earlier this February Sembcorp Utilities, a wholly owned subsidiary, acquired a controlling 60% stake in Green Infra - a leading... Read more..

7 Cleantech Ideas & Developments That Are Bringing Us A Low-Carbon Economy

Generally speaking, solar power, wind power, and electric vehicles have so many benefits and are so much better than currently dominant technologies that I think it’s inevitable they will take over their respective markets. But that’s not to say that they haven’t faced big barriers and don’t continue to face big barriers. With thanks to the Climate Reality Project for the idea, I’m running down 7 of the “ideas and developments” that 1) have already helped these cleantech solutions break through big barriers, and/or 2) will help them get to the next stage.

Feed-in... Read more..

Solar panels to give green cover to government buildings

The state government has decided to install rooftop solar panels in as many government buildings as possible across the state so that at least one fourth of the total power demand of these buildings can be met through the alternative route. 
 
To begin with, 50KW solar panels have already been set up in two government buildings - Nagarayan Bhavan and Nirman Bhavan in Salt Lake. While Nagarayan Bhavan houses the state urban development, Nirman Bhavan, which was earlier known as Sech Bhavan, is the office of the state irrigation department. 
 
"It is a 50KW capacity... Read more..

Vedanta, Jharsuguda hosts BEE's 1st Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP) for Aluminium Sector

The 1st Aluminium Sector workshop under Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP) initiative was hosted by Vedanta, Jharsuguda unit, here at the Auditorium, Vedanta Meadows for exchange of best practices in Aluminium industries covered under the Perform Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme.  PAT is a flagship initiative of Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) Govt. of India, which is a mechanism for promoting energy efficiency in large industries.
 
Ten Aluminium Industrial units covered under the PAT Scheme are expected to achieve energy savings of 0.456 million tonnes of oil equivalent, which... Read more..

L'Oreal Reduces CO2 Emissions of its Production by 50%

One year after the launch of L'Oréal's Sharing Beauty with All programme for sustainable development, with ambitious and quantified objectives, the Group is today unveiling the first measured results of its efforts:
 

• a reduction of CO2 emissions of the Group’s production by 50% in absolute terms, from a 2005 baseline;
• 67% of new products screened have an improved environmental or social profile;
• 54,000 jobs created for people from underprivileged communities in social or financial difficulty.

 
For further details, the Sharing Beauty... Read more..

Karnataka plans creating 10-nation consortium on solar energy

Karnataka government is working towards creating a consortium of about 10 countries endowed with abundant solar energy to benefit in terms of research and technological advancements in the field.
 
"This will aim to pool research and technological advancements in the field of solar energy to improve its accessibility to the poorest of the poor and in the remotest of locations in the state of Karnataka," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said. Speaking today at the inauguration of Green Summit-2015, organised by Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, he said... Read more..

Forget smart cities, India must first make existing ones livable

All of last month, newspapers have been full of news about pollution levels in Delhi and how we are losing years of our lives due to the air we breathe. The expats in India have been warned, sales of air purifiers are on the rise and I'm sure hardship allowances of diplomats in India will go up.
 
Even the early morning walks at LodiGarden - as one of our columnists has informed us - are no longer as fresh as they felt before.  If the Cabinet looked beyond its noses and Lutyens' Delhi, it would quickly see what a menace the traffic in the city has become - this despite the... Read more..

In need of a green revolution

The Asian economic miracle has lifted millions out of poverty, but at terrible cost. Deforestation and foul water are just two of the insults to nature resulting from breathless expansion. Air pollution in Beijing has been described by the American embassy as “crazy bad”. Asia is one of the biggest contributors to global warming.  
 
Many blame economic growth, and the market forces and corporations that drive it, for this. So it is refreshing to see a clear-headed argument set out by Mark Clifford, a former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post, that markets and... Read more..