Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Nations meet on climate cash, UN sees long haul

About 45 nations met on Thursday to seek ways to raise billions of dollars in aid to help the poor combat climate change as the United Nations warned them of a long haul to slow global warming.

Environment ministers and senior officials in Geneva were reviewing whether rich nations, hit by austerity cuts, are keeping a promise of $30 billion in "new and additional" climate aid for 2010-12 made at the U.N.'s Copenhagen summit.

"The funds are critical" to build trust between rich and poor damaged in Copenhagen, Christiana Figueres, the U.N.'s climate chief, told Reuters in an... Read more..

Rising temperature may bring down rice production

Rice production in vast tracts of India may decline in the coming years because of a steady rise in average minimum temperature.

Carefully analysing the pattern of increase in the maximum and minimum temperature, an international team of scientists and economists found that even a modest increase in minimum daily temperature could decrease rice production in the decades to come. 

The researchers analysed data collected during 1994 to 1999 from 227 irrigated rice farms in six Asian countries – India, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines – together which account... Read more..

Babus oppose Ramesh over autonomy to green panel

Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh is facing opposition over the proposed National Environment Protection Authority (NEPA) from an unexpected quarter — bureaucrats of his own ministry.

The authority is envisaged to take over environment and forest clearance work from the ministry in addition to enforcing different environmental laws.

Ramesh wanted the authority to be given full autonomy in environment clearance processes whereas the bureaucrats are weary of the idea.

"NEPA would be a government body. Therefore, the government should have powers to direct the... Read more..

India among 40 countries to attend Swiss climate change meet

Switzerland will host an informal summit of 40 countries, including India, on global warming on Friday to discuss modalities for a new Climate Fund that is expected to unblock the stalled negotiations on the issue.

Since the Copenhagen Climate Change meeting in December last year, the ongoing negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) have made little progress on a range of issues, including the emission-reduction targets as well as financing for mitigation and adaptation.

The two-day meeting in Geneva which will be attended by 40 environmental... Read more..

Stiff pollution rules for organic chemical makers

The organic chemical manufacturing industry may have to undergo a complete makeover to comply with the new standards on effluent treatment and emission standards for hazardous wastes.

Comprehensive guidelines have been put out by the Union ministry of environment and forests. “Earlier, from time to time, the ministry used to amend the Environment Protection Act for individual chemicals. (Now) it has brought out comprehensive guidelines for major chemical industries – dye, dyestuff, organic chemicals for better compliance,” said officials. Dyes and dyestuffs were covered in earlier... Read more..

Ban on new projects in polluted sites to stay till Oct: Jairam

The Environment Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, said on Tuesday that the moratorium on new projects in highly polluted industrial clusters will be extended till October 31, as majority of these clusters have failed to submit remediation plan to clean up the sites.

The Environment Ministry had imposed a moratorium on January 1 on consideration of developmental projects including those in the pipeline for clearance in some 43 highly polluted industrial clusters till August 31.The State Pollution Control Boards were asked to submit remediation plans to the Central Pollution Control Board... Read more..

MoEF Introduce Pat System To Control Air Pollution Pilot Projects In Gujarat And Tamil Nadu

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has taken step towards Market Based Regulation to control air pollution. Releasing a paper for the Ministry of Environment and Forests, ‘Towards an Emissions Trading Scheme for Air Pollutants in India’ Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of State for Environment and Forests (I/c) said, “ the most successful example where Market instuments have been used to control air pollution is the case of acid rain in America. United States of America dealt with acid based problem with a market based instument.” Talking about threee innovations that India applied for... Read more..

Solar Mission project allotment from Sept

The initial stage of allotment of solar power generation projects under the the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission will start in September, with over 1,000 firms interested in the scheme that will allow the establishment of about 100 projects of 5Mw capacity each, Union minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah said.

The National Solar Mission, part of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, to be implemented in three stages, aims at establishing an installed capacity of 20,000 Mw of grid power, 2,000 Mw of off-grid solar applications and 20 million sq... Read more..

IPCC Preparing to Start Work on The Fifth Assessment Report

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the United Nations-backed panel tasked with preparing scientific reports on the impact of climate change today welcomed the findings of an independent review which called for major changes in management and procedures to enable the group to strengthen the quality of its assessments.

In March Mr. Ban and Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), requested the review amid intense public debate about the science of climate change, as well as questions over the accuracy of the panel's reports.... Read more..

India can tap 85,000 mw of renewable energy: Abdullah

Lack of modern and indigenous technology was hindering the desired growth to tap India's vast potential of generating 85,000 megawatt of unconventional and renewable energy to meet a large chunk of energy requirement.

This view was expressed here today by Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah while a seminar on ''Opportunities and Scope of Renewable Energy'', addressing organised under the aegis of Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI).

Referring to the huge scope of developing alternative energy sources, particularly those from solar... Read more..

Coke, Pepsi effect big cuts in water use

It has been a quiet revolution. The country's two leading beverage companies, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have dramatically slashed their usage of water to make a bottle of beverage, through innovative usage of technology.

Just four years before, Coke factories consumed over four litres of water for every litre of beverage sold. Now, it is 2.5 litres, a reduction of 34 per cent.

Coke's global and key competitor, PepsiCo, has followed a similar pattern, slashing unit water usage from 7.1 litres in 2001 to 2.4 litres currently.

Both multinational companies are scaling... Read more..

Jairam asks CPCB to issue notice to 165 units

Taking a serious note of the high-level of industrial pollution in River Ganga between Kannauj and Varanasi, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has instructed Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to issue showcause notice to 165 industries of the region found guilty of violating pollution control norms.

Following this, the pollution control board will start issuing showcause notices to the identified 165 units from Monday. The units will be given 15 days' time to upgrade their effluent treatment system as per the norms, failing which the units would be sealed by the... Read more..