Anyone seriously interested in saving India from imminent environmental disaster should be able to see that we are already in the middle of an environmental emergency. Clean water, clean air, clean living conditions are all in short supply. But, it is India’s misfortune that it is not just the Ministry of Environment that thrives on babble and buzzwords but our environmental NGOs as well.

More than 130 world leaders, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Jiabao, will be attending the Rio+ Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro later this month. Both the Indian and Chinese leaders know only too well this will be a crucial meeting to put the south — south point of view across to fight climate change.

PM, Wen for upholding Rio Principles 

India’s concern over European Union (EU) law to tax air carriers for carbon emissions may find an echo at the Rio Conference on sustainable development, with environment ministry calling it an important issue for discussion. The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared the mandate for negotiations at Rio, but the meeting saw Union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh flag the concern about EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). 

The Indian government’s report to the UN framework convention on climate change has revealed  an uncomfortable, even a scary, scenario of the impact of global warming on the country. The report was prepared on the basis of studies over a long period conducted by experts of about 120 institutions which are engaged in research into various aspects of climate change. 

Emphasising the need for a new corporate culture to make businesses more sustainable, Union minister for corporate affairs Veerappa Moily has urged India Inc to balance equity and growth. “Sustainability is a major concern for the corporate sector and business community, especially in developing countries like ours. We have to look at our present without compromising the future. Global warming is the true challenge when it comes to environmental damage,” the minister said while presenting the FE-EVI Green Business Leadership Awards 2011-12 at a glittering ceremony in the Capital on Tuesday.

India has warned negotiators to be ready for Brazil breaking away from the developing world to accept target-oriented sustainable development goals (SDGs) at the Rio conference that starts on June 20. The concern is that pressure to show success as the host country could prompt Brazil to break the deadlock by bringing a surprise text accepting “thematic sustainable development goals”. India is opposed to thematic SDGs, while the European Union is pushing for their acceptance in the “outcome document”. 

India and China, whose economies are witnessing high growth, would account for more than half of transport-related emissions worldwide by 2030, a UN report has

warned. Emissions in both countries is set to rise as the Asia-Pacific region faces mounting challenges in tackling climate  change, water scarcity, species extinction

and hazardous waste as their economies forge ahead, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said in the report.

Population growth, urbanisation and consumption are set to inflict irreversible damage on the planet, the United Nations said on Wednesday, and called for urgent agreement on new environmental targets at an Earth summit this month. The U.N. Environment Programme sounded the alarm in its fifth Global Environment Outlook (GEO-5) report, published two weeks before the Rio+20 summit in Brazil, one of the biggest environmental meetings in years.

If electricity consumption in your household continues as it does now and vehicles continue to be used without control in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, expect a three-fold increase in carbon dioxide emissions after four decades. 

Kimu Naidoo from Greenpeace writes to Times of India about the struggles, campaigns and fight that various activists have put up in the name of justice and environmental protection in India. Organisations such as Greenpeace aim to tell the truth about our actions and the changers in this field who are making a difference to the world.