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Sustainability Outlook Headlines
The Copenhagen Accord and India - Brookings InstitutionJudging by his public pronouncements, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had set two distinct goals for himself when deciding his strategy for Copenhagen negotiations. First, he wanted to leave no room for the western media and politicians to paint India as obstructionist as had repeatedly happened during the as Doha negotiations. Second, being firmly of the view that in the long run India will suffer disproportionately more from catastrophes resulting form global warming, he wanted to cut a deal that would lead to major reductions in carbon emissions worldwide. To... Read more.. Date : Dec 22
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India to be held to its climate goals, says USA statement by senior White House advisor David Axelrod, that the US will be able to “challenge” India if it fails to meet the climate change goals it has agreed to under the Copenhagen Accord, will provide further ammunition to opposition parties, which are claiming India succumbed to US pressure at the meet. “Now the Chinese, Indians, the other major economies are coming along and this is the result of [Obama’s] strong leadership,” said Axelrod on CNN on Monday. Indian negotiators would dispute Axelrod’s claim. First, the Copenhagen Accord is not legally binding. Second,... Read more.. Date : Dec 22 Source: Hindustan Times
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India's Tata Steel to reduce carbon emissionsIndia's Tata Steel is trying to bring down carbon dioxide emissions to 1.8 tonnes per tonne of steel produced by 2012 from 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide now, a top official said on Monday. "Our target is to bring it down to 1.8 tonnes by 2012 and to 1.5 tonnes by 2020," Managing Director H.M. Nerurkar told reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference in Kolkata. He said Tata Steel's carbon dioxide emissions were already below global industry averages of about 2.2 tonnes per tonne of steel. He said that while it was relatively easy to bring down carbon emissions to 1.7... Read more.. Date : Dec 22 Source: Reuters
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India To Develop 60 Solar Cities To Reduce Dependence On Conventional EnergyIndia has approved, in-principle, 34 cities in the country to be developed as Solar Cities. The states from which these cities will be chosen come from around the country. They include Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Goa, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamilnadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala. Proposals from the other states have not yet been received. The proposals had been invited from all the states based on certain guidelines. The approval was given after... Read more.. Date : Dec 22 Source: Gant Daily
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Carbon Offset Futures Tank After Copenhagen Fiascot's a pretty tiny market still, but there is actually trading in carbon permits. In some countries, where they have emissions limits, they actually have value. And if there ever is a cap & trade scheme put into place in more places, what's worthless now may actulaly end up being valuable. Well, here's how you know the Copenhagen summit was a total joke. The cost of emitting carbon just plunged 8.7%. Bloomberg: European Union carbon permits fell the most since February on the European Climate Exchange. The U.S., China, India and other nations attending the two-week... Read more.. Date : Dec 21 Source: The Business Insider
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Despite Failed Climate Talks, More Green AwarenessThe world supped on an alphabet soup of acronyms over the nearly two weeks of climate change talks that just ended – UNFCCC, COP-15, IPCC, CDM, LDCF, MEF, CCS. But did any of these filter down to reach the average citizen? Does it bother people if their countries’ "carbon sequestration" efforts are laudatory, or if the "anthropogenic climate impacts" in their cities are being mitigated? Would they come to grief if their carbon footprint outpaced that of others in the United States? And if it did, well, would they activate "carbon offsets" to minimise the damage to the planet? ... Read more..Date : Dec 21 Source: Inter Press Service
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New York challenge for City carbon market crownLondon’s position as the dominant world financial centre for the £75 billion carbon market could be lost to New York after the adoption of the US-brokered Copenhagen Accord at UN climate talks last week. Despite criticism that an agreement struck by the US, China, India, South Africa and Brazil was too weak to tackle climate change, it is still expected to pave the way for the introduction of proposed US cap-and-trade legislation next year, which will accelerate huge growth in the global carbon market. The value of trading in the market is worth more than £75 billion at... Read more.. Date : Dec 21 Source: Times Online
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What Copenhagen agreement really means to IndiaThough media reports point to an acrimonious and anarchic Copenhagen Summit, in hindsight it appears that there has been a method in the madness. Just run through the ensuing version of Copenhagen Climate Play. Act 1: Copenhagen witnesses the expected. G77, India and China bargained hard on issues close to their heart -- common and differentiated responsibilities and demands for fair, non-commercial flows of finances and low carbon technologies. The North, barring a few countries from Europe, was clear that it would not unduly pain itself by accepting tough mitigation targets. The... Read more.. Date : Dec 21 Source: Economic Times
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Railways cutting carbon footprintThe Indian Railways is doing its bit for the environment. Betting big on clean technology, the Railways has come out with a project design document for registration under the clean development mechanism (CDM) monitored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The document has been developed in association with the World Bank. The project is expected to result in annual reduction of approximately 1 lakh tonnes of carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Through a number of initiatives, the Railways is looking at a good stream of revenue through carbon credits. Going forward,... Read more.. Date : Dec 21 Source: Daily News and Analysis
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GAIL’s prospects brighten as India moves toward clean energyThe prospects of public sector natural gas marketer GAIL look brighter as the country’s energy consumption pattern shifts towards this comparatively benign fuel. The increased availability of natural gas will help the company to improve utilisation of its pipeline capacity. GAIL is also increasing its presence in downstream petrochemicals and gas retailing sector even as it moves upstream to secure supplies for its pipeline network. There are significant upsides for all these businesses. The company plans to increase its pipeline network from... Read more.. |
Will you pay through your nose to reduce carbon emissions?Want to do your bit to reduce carbon emissions? It may be easy, but not cheap. Solar power-based home equipment is far more costly than conventional ones. But there is hope. The ministry of new and renewable energy is pushing the finance ministry to provide income tax rebates to those who use renewable power. However, no decision has been taken yet. "We are meeting finance ministry officials to discuss this but there has been no decision yet. We feel the concept of solar energy would become popular if rebate is given to people on income tax," said a ministry official. With a... Read more.. Date : Dec 21 Source: Daily News and Analysis
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Draft text of new "Copenhagen Accord"Here is the latest draft text of the "Copenhagen Accord" put forward on December 18 by the U.S., China, India and South Africa, among other countries, at the climate summit in the Danish capital. The Heads of State, Heads of Government, Ministers, and other heads of delegation present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen, In pursuit of the ultimate objective of the Convention as stated in its Article 2, Being guided by the... Read more.. Date : Dec 19 Source: Scientific American
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U.S., China, India reach climate change dealU.S. President Barack Obama forged a climate pact with major developing nations including China on Friday but European nations only reluctantly signed up for a deal they criticised as unambitious. All sides conceded the agreement -- the first pact for fighting global warming since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol -- was imperfect and fell far short of United Nations targets for the Dec. 7-18 talks. Mr. Obama said the deal, which sets a goal of limiting temperature rises to below 2C and holds out the prospect of an annual US$100-billion in aid for developing nations by 2020, was a... Read more.. Date : Dec 19 Source: canada.com
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Obama reaches climate deal with emerging powersPresident Barack Obama reached agreement with major developing powers on a climate deal on Friday, a U.S. official said, but he said the accord was only a first step and was insufficient to fight climate change. The official said Obama, China's Premier Wen Jiabao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South Africa's President Jacob Zuma had reached a "meaningful agreement," after a day of deep divisions between leaders of rich and developing nations. Brazil also approved the deal that appeared to bypass other participants at UN-led climate talks in Copenhagen. The accord... Read more.. Date : Dec 19 Source: Reuters
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India, China’s CDM success becomes the world’s envyAs global negotiators failed to thrash out a climate change deal, the world’s least developed nations made it known that any new version of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) should include them. They have a point. CDM, a system that funds clean technology in developing countries, has been a spectacular success for India and China. Close to 80 per cent of the CDM projects registered with the United Nations are from one of these two countries. Carbon mitigation is now India’s fastest growing market. But it’s a very different picture for the world’s 49 least... Read more.. Date : Dec 19 Source: Hindustan Times
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Bhutan to go carbon neutral without foreign funding: MinisterThe Bhutan government has decided to go carbon neutral notwithstanding whatever happens at climate meet in Copenhagen, Foreign Minister of Bhutan Ugyen Tshering said today. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session on ''Bi-lateral relationship between Bhutan and India,'' organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) here, he said, ''We will go carbon neutral without foreign funding.'' ''Bhutan understands that climate issue is a very important problem. We have had natural calamities in the last few months because of the climate problem. We were the first... Read more.. Date : Dec 19 Source: NetIndia123.com
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Lightspeed’s 2010 Cleantech PredictionsLightspeed has invested across several cleantech areas, including solar, biofuels, clean coal, LED lighting and energy storage. Here are some of its predictions for 2010: Lightspeed has invested across several cleantech areas, including solar (Stion), biofuels (LS9, Solazyme), clean coal (Coaltek), LED lighting (Exclara), and energy storage (Leyden Energy, f/k/a Mobius Power). Here are some of our cleantech predictions for 2010: 1. There will be increased availability of equity, debt, and project finance capital, along with an increased flight to quality. Despite... Read more.. Date : Dec 18 Source: Greentech Media
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Shell rules out more capital investment in IndiaEnergy firm Shell ruled out huge capital investments in India and said it would rather improve upon on its competitiveness in the market. "We have already made over a billion dollar investment in India. We do not have to make more investments. We have to run the business more efficiently to be more competitive in the market," Chairman of Shell Group of companies in India Vikram Mehta said on sidelines of a CII event. He said, "We do not need to build more factories or plants because those are already in place. Now we need to expand operations as foundation is already there... Read more.. Date : Dec 18 Source: Indian Express
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Campaign to save Western Ghats becomes a mass movementBy Maitreyee Boruah, Bangalore, Dec 18 : Long before words like 'climate change' came to hit common lexicon, a group of environmentally conscious people in India took up the cause of the Western Ghats, one of the world's richest biodiversity hotspots. Those behind the Save Western Ghats Campaign, which began in 1987, feel it has become a mass movement with large-scale participation by common people. The 1,600-km-long mountainous corridor of the Western Ghats covers five states - Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. "Around 85 non-government and research... Read more.. Date : Dec 18 Source: New Kerala
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Little hope for last day of UN climate summitHopes for the last day of UN climate talks Friday were raised by a US pledge to a climate finance fund, but leaders still warned of failure amid debate on sharing the burden of carbon-emissions cuts. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton brightened a grim summit mood by saying the United States would contribute to a long-term fund worth 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to help poor countries fund cleaner technology and shore up defences against worsening floods, drought, storms and rising seas. The pledge was contingent on an ambitious overall deal being completed at the... Read more.. Date : Dec 18 Source: Space Daily
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India stands with developing world at climate summitIndia on Wednesday placed itself firmly on the side of the developing world as Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the country's approach to the December 7-18 climate summit "is anchored in the sanctity of the troika - the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan". Speaking at the "high level segment" of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference, Ramesh said: "The well-known and widely accepted principles of (I) common but differentiated responsibility; and (II) historical responsibilities are sacrosanct as far as we are concerned." His... Read more.. Date : Dec 18 Source: Hindustan Times
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Cabinet may consider carbon capture projectThe Union Power ministry has sought the cabinet’s approval to participate in research on a controversial technology to capture carbon and store it. India is all set to ink a Memorandum of Understanding with Australia to become a member of the global carbon capture storage (CCS) initiative. CCS technology involves capturing carbon emissions from power plants from being released into the atmosphere. The global initiative, set up by Australia in April 2009, aims at accelerating adoption of safe, commercially and environmentally sustainable CCS technologies, besides... Read more.. Date : Dec 18 Source: Hindustan Times
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India offers new subsidies for grid-connected wind powerThe Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is planning to invest Rs 3.8 billion in the incentive program announced today. The government of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said today it is offering new incentives for grid-connected renewable wind power generation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wind electricity producers are expected to receive Rs 0.50 ($0.01) per unit of electricity fed into the grid under the new program. The average wind power price in India is about Rs 3 per unit. The government is expected to invest Rs 3.8 billion ($81.6 million) in... Read more.. Date : Dec 17 Source: Cleantech Group
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India`s Mawana Sugars to sell 300,000 carbon credits to ADBIndia's Mawana Sugars (BSE:523371) has entered into an agreement with multilateral lending agency Asian Development Bank to sell 300,000 carbon credits (CERs) worth US$6.24 million by 2012, a top company official said on Tuesday. ertified Emission Reductions (CERs) are permits to emit a tonne of carbon dioxide, awarded to enterprises that have shifted to cleaner technologies and have reduced their green house gases below their emission quota. Uttar Pradesh-based Mawana Sugars has earned carbon credits by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by generating power from bagasse... Read more.. Date : Dec 17 Source: Antara Interactive
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Electric bike companies eye carbon creditsIndia's transport sector is eyeing a share of carbon offsets business under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Close on the heels of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) earning credits for using regenerative braking system, it's now the turn of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) to take the route. "The Union government has identified Emergent Ventures India to identify markets, develop benchmarks and sell credits. BMRCL will pay 9% to the firm only if carbon credits are secured," said BMRCL managing director N Sivasailam. Besides Bangalore Metro, electric... Read more.. Date : Dec 17 Source: Daily News and Analysis
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