Sustainability Outlook Headlines

India has many experiences to share: UNDP chief

New Delhi, Mar 11 : Helen Clark, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), on Thursday said India has many experiences to share with other developing countries.Clark met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday, the last day of her five-day official visit to India.

Clark, who was the Prime Minister of New Zealand for nine years before taking over as the chief of UNDP last year, discussed how UNDP could enhance its partnership with India to foster human development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) globally through... Read more..

30 Countries Meet in India to Advance Clean Energy

WASHINGTON –The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Government of India, and India’s Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry are hosting the 2nd Methane to Markets Partnership Expo in New Delhi from March 2- 5, 2010. The event has attracted attendees from 30 countries and showcases more than 150 opportunities for capturing and using methane, a greenhouse gas more than 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide, as a valuable clean energy resource.

“We’re coming together as a global community to tackle a global challenge and move into the clean energy future,” said EPA... Read more..

World's Top Scientists to Scrutinize Intergovernmental Panel on climate change

 New York: A multinational organization of the world's science academies will conduct an independent review of processes and procedures used by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to arrive at its reports on the science of climate change, UN and IPCC officials announced today.

The InterAcademy Council will select an expert panel to examine every aspect of how the IPCC's reports are prepared, including the use of non-peer reviewed literature and the reflection of diverse viewpoints.

The review will also examine institutional aspects, including management... Read more..

Conserving power, one bulb at a time

India’s first thrust with energy efficiency through Earth Hour in 2009, when Delhi saved 600 MW — 14 per cent of its daily electricity requirement — in an hour, is set to get bigger.

The country’s first two pilot projects on saving household energy — the biggest cause of climate change — by replacing incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in Haryana’s Yamunanagar and Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in the last six months have been a success so far.

Records indicate monthly household energy bill in the two towns reduced by 10-15 per cent.

“The pilots... Read more..

EU climate chief wants Europe to 'lead by example'

BRUSSELS, March 9 (Reuters) - Europe's new climate chief sought to reinvigorate international climate talks on Tuesday, laying out a strategy for the EU to lead the world by example.

With talks blocked by inaction in the United States, the global economic crisis and mounting scepticism over climate science, Connie Hedegaard said the EU would demonstrate how to meet its green goals while creating jobs and boosting economies.

"The EU must continue to take leadership," she told the European Parliament. "The most convincing way Europe can do so is by taking tangible and... Read more..

Delhi gets India's first remote controlled street lights

In a major move towards energy conservation, the capital's main civic agency Tuesday launched the country's first remote-controlled street lights that can be switched on and off using an internet-enabled main server located in the heart of the city.

The first phase of this street light upgradation project, under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), will become operational Tuesday and will cover a distance of 101 km on 52 roads.

These include main roads like Lodhi Road, Bhishma Pitah Marg and Jawaharlal Nehru Marg. In the first phase, 2,235 light poles have been... Read more..

India needs to find right model for managing climate change

As the world works to a global climate deal in Cancun later this year, advanced developing countries like India will come under increasing pressure 
to commit to higher targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than these countries have put on the table.

While the industrialised countries are understood to be responsible for the stock of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions created during the first 200 years of industrialisation, the developing countries with fast-growing economies are expected to increasingly contribute to the flow or current emissions.

The pressure on... Read more..

EU to issue climate warning, target CO2 loopholes

BRUSSELS - Loopholes in the United Nations climate treaties could actually amount to an increase in global climate-warming emissions and the chance to rein in temperatures may be slipping away, a draft European Union report showed.

“Optimistic assessments...indicate that a pathway towards limiting the global temperature increase to no more than 2 degrees Celsius is still feasible, but more pessimistic assessments indicate this chance is disappearing fast,” it added. European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard will announce her strategy on Tuesday for advancing international... Read more..

Race for De Boer successor intensifies

Oslo - South Africa, India and Indonesia are vying to win the UN's top climate change job, a key post to build trust between poor and rich in 2010 after the UN's Copenhagen summit which set few binding targets.

Many analysts expect a developing nation candidate will succeed Yvo de Boer, a Dutch citizen who said last month he would step down as head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat on July 1 after a gruelling four years.

"It is good news for the whole process that it is attracting strong candidates from developing countries," said Mark Kenber, International Policy Director... Read more..

Carbon intake should decide climate policy

The latest findings on carbon dioxide emissions by a group of scientists have the potential to change the mitigation math.

A quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted by developing countries is the result of producing goods that are later consumed in the developed world, the study has found. A fair global climate policy must account for this gap, say the authors.

“The point of our analysis is to reallocate global emissions based on consumption patterns, rather than production,” said Steven Davis, one of the authors and a global ecology researcher at the US-based Carnegie... Read more..

Dedicated satellite to monitor greenhouse emission by 2012

Gadanki (chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh), Mar 7 : To monitor the greenhouse emissions in the country and as well as globe, a dedicated satellite would be launched with the support of ISRO by 2012, Union Minister for Environment and Forests Mr.Jairam Ramesh said here today. 

Addressing a press conference at the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory here, Mr Ramesh said to protect forest, another satellite called' satellite forestry would be ready by 2013 and the National Institute for studying Climate and Environment (NISCE) would be established in the temple town of Tirupati... Read more..

Will India formally associate with Copenhagen accord again?

NEW DELHI: India’s presence in the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s high level advisory panel on climate change finance appears to indicate New Delhi’s move towards formally associating with the Copenhagen Accord.

Government sources close to the developments said it is a “matter of time” before India conveys its willingness to be listed in the preamble to the Accord.

Besides five experts and representatives of financial institutions, the panel includes government members of 14 countries, of these two countries — India and China — have not associated with the... Read more..