Worried over the increasing threat of climate change on health, the state government has decided to integrate climate concerns into policy responses and interventions in the health sector.

 

India can be a great power, ushering in a game changing third industrial revolution by utilising its renewable energy resources and collaborating with power producers and suppliers, says American economist and author Jeremy Rifkin. 

The melting down of the Himalayan glaciers due to climate change may be solving the current water crisis, but can also have a devastating effect on animal and human lives in the long run, environmentalist and polar explorer Robert Swan has said.

Imagine sudden floods at Sabarmati River arising out of climate change and a loss of Rs1,200 crore for Gujarat’s Sabarmati Riverfront project! A prior understanding of the effects of climate change and including features to adapt to these effects of climate change in the project could avoid such loses.

The satellite data of tropospheric pollution over Asia shows that there has been a rise in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) level over India and China. It is due to usage of more fossil fuel. At the same time, there is a decline in the level of nitrogen dioxide in Europe and US, said Andreas Richter, senior scientist, University of Bremen, Germany.

 

When do you see the Green Climate Fund finally seeing the light of day?

 

A. Climate funding is a very complex subject because the global financial architecture for this remains very complex. There are at present over 15 international public funds, over 50 carbon markets and over 1,000 equity funds which invest only in energy. Apart from several other financing mechanisms which invest in this (climate) area. There are lots of different funds but a great deal of frustration on the project proposal side which has to meet strict eligibility criterion. It is very difficult to know which fund exists and which is the most appropriate. To develop the documentation on how to access them is also very difficult.

 

 

India would face serious challenges in energy security if business continued in the inefficient manner as it is being conducted at present, Nobel peace prize winner R K Pachauri said. “The country is facing a serious challenge in energy security because of increasing demand for it at rates dangerously high,” Pachauri, DG of the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), said here today.

 

India has threatened to review the benefits it provides to European airlines as it mounted its opposition to the European Union move to impose a carbon tax on carriers operating through Europe, a source said. Under a Horizontal Aviation Agreement between India and the EU, New Delhi allows European airlines to operate flights between India and any EU member-state.

 

 

The government has decided to set up a strategic advice group of experts on ‘equity’ in climate change negotiations. The group will advice the government on how to fashion its position in the post-Durban climate talks this year.

 

Eleven years ago, Muturkham forests, lying southeast of capital Ranchi, used to be the timber mafia’s busy workplace. No different from the rest of the state, which has lost 50% of forest cover to illegal logging in the last 10 years. Until 1999, when Muturkham’s jungle mafia met ‘Lady Tarzan’.