Sustainability Outlook Headlines

India to work on 1,000MW fast-breeder reactors

The Indira Gandhi Centre of Atomic Research (IGCAR) will soon work on higher capacity reactors after two more 500MW fast breeder reactors were approved by the government at Kalpakkam, its director said Tuesday.

"Work on setting up the two new 500MW fast breeder reactors will start in 2014. This will be in addtion to the upcoming fast reactor of similar capacity. In future, we will be looking at 1,000MW reactors," IGCAR director Baldev Raj told at Kalpakkam, 80 km from here, on the sidelines of the valedictory function for the vocational training course on non-destructive testing.... Read more..

National green tribunal soon

The ministry of environment and forests has accepted the recommendation of a parliamentary panel to set up a new watchdog called the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to control carbon emissions and pollution.

Though the state and central pollution control boards are already engaged in monitoring and reducing pollution, the NGT will accept and probe complaints from citizens against alleged polluters.

The ministry expects Parliament to clear the revised draft of the bill in the budget session slated for end February.

Like the pollution control boards, the tribunal will have... Read more..

India Inc may soon be trading energy-saving certificates

The Government is readying the blueprint for a new market-based mechanism that will use energy saving certifications to spur efficiency improvements across large, energy-intensive industries.

Under the new Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) proposal, which could be implemented early next year, over 700 industrial units across the country, in sectors such as steel, cement and petrochemicals, will be given targets for reducing their energy consumption. Those managing to better their targets will be allowed to sell energy saving credits to those failing to achieve the required cuts.... Read more..

NGOs welcome BASIC stance on climate change

International NGOs Sunday welcomed the decision of Brazil, South Africa, India and China (BASIC countries) to support the Copenhagen Accord but to have the agreement as part of a legally binding global treaty to combat climate change that would be negotiated by all countries.

“Greenpeace welcomes the position taken by the ministers of the BASIC group that met today (Sunday) in New Delhi to continue negotiations on a fair and ambitious climate agreement within the UN Framework Convention onClimate Change,” said Siddharth Pathak, Greenpeace India’s climate and energy policy officer.... Read more..

China admits ‘open attitude’ over warming

China appeared to cast doubts on Sunday on the scientific consensus on the underlying causes of global warming, with a senior official saying that Beijing had an “open attitude” towards what he described as “disputes in the scientific community” on the issue.

“There is a view that climate change is caused by cyclical trends in nature itself,” Xie Zhenhua, vice-chairman of China’s National Development and Reforms Commission, told a press conference in New Delhi. “We have to keep an open attitude.”

Mr Xie said later that global warming was a “solid fact” that was already having... Read more..

Nasheed: India can fuel next industrial revolution

India has the intellectual capacity, strength and ability to fuel the next industrial revolution, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said here on Saturday. He also called for partnership among Asian countries to take on global challenges.

Mr. Nasheed was delivering the keynote address at the 16th edition of the Partnership Summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

He said India could provide the lead in use of renewable energy to combat climate change. “We did not advance out of the Stone Age because we ran out of stones,” he quipped. The world could... Read more..

India’s nod to Alstom of France for power equipment venture

ndia Thursday gave its approval to a proposal from Alstom of France to set up a joint venture with Bharat Forge to make power equipment involving foreign direct investment inflow of 70 million euros or Rs.490 crore.

The approval was given at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which was presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, based on the recommendations of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, according to an official statement.

The proposal is to establish two joint venture companies in India with Bharat Forge or its affiliate companies and to... Read more..

Nations stick to CO2 goals before Jan. 31 deadline

The world is showing only lukewarm enthusiasm for a "Copenhagen Accord" to curb climate change, with no sign so far of deeper-than-planned 2020 curbs on greenhouse gas emissions before a Jan. 31 deadline.

In Brussels, a draft European Union letter on Friday showed plans for the 27-nation bloc to reiterate a minimum offer of a 20 percent cut in emissions by 2020 below 1990 levels, pleasing industry, and a 30 percent cut if other nations act comparably.

Other countries are likely to do the same after last month's Copenhagen summit ended with a low-ambition accord. No nations... Read more..

Business must take the lead on carbon management

Léo Apotheker is CEO of SAP. The views expressed are his own.

Most people who followed the Copenhagen climate talks in December will have been disappointed.

While the agreement brokered by the group of countries that included the United States, Brazil, China, India and South Africa and ratified by most of the attending countries is being touted as a success of sorts, it fell far short of the... Read more..

ICT could aid in planet's big carbon-reduction drive – study

International information technology research firm has announced that information and communication technologies (ICT) can be used to curb almost 5,8-million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 2020.

Research results were released in a special report in Copenhagen on December 10 to coincide with the 2009 United Nations climate change conference.

The research was carried out by the IDC and sponsored by customer-focused information technology and communications solutions providers Fujitsu, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Schneider Electric. It researched... Read more..

Call for incentives to boost energy efficiency

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has suggested incentivising energy efficiency in industries as part of an action plan on its paper on India's energy security.

TERI, which had submitted the energy security paper to the Prime Minister in June last, has now come up with an action plan to implement the key elements.

Ms Leena Srivastava, Executive Director, TERI, said the incentives could be in the form of upfront capital, especially for the small and medium industries and performance-based subsidies.

TERI believes that energy efficiency could help India reduce... Read more..

Clean tech takes years to achieve widespread use

If the world is to have a hope of limiting greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades, policy makers will have to implement clean-energy technologies at a faster pace. According to research firm Chatham House, in the recent past, green energy technologies have taken some 24 years, on average, to go from the patent stage to widespread use.

Technological innovation and diffusion take too long under business-as-usual practices. The findings confirm the mismatch between the urgency of climate challenges as set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the time... Read more..