For the first time since the December climate change meet in Durban, environment ministers from the BASIC countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China – will come together in New Delhi this week. The meeting will be focused on working out a common and concerted strategy on the proposed new global climate change regime. 

The debate over development versus environment appears interminable even as the developing world is being asked to shoulder greater and equal responsibilities with the developed ones despite the latter’s past profligate practices.

 

 

Warning that an average rise of 1.5-2.5 degrees celsius in temperature would bring 20-30% of living species in the world on the brink of extinction, director-general of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Dr R K Pachauri on Thursday said it would also impact the cultivation of wheat crop in north India.

Could a fresh row over airline emissions lead to a global trade war? That is the scariest prospect raised by China’s objections this week to the European Union’s new plan for controlling greenhouse-gas emissions from aeroplanes. The scheme, which came into effect on January 1st, forces airlines flying into the EU to buy tradable carbon credits as part of its broader emissions-trading system.

 

Rio de Janeiro in Brazil will have a different kind of carnival this year. From June 20 to 22, the city will host the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which is expected to bring together heads of states, ministers, senior officials, representatives from international organisations, civil society leaders and environmentalists. 

 

Ministers of South Africa, Brazil, China and India – the BASIC group – will meet here on February 13-14 to chalk out a joint strategy for the post-2020 global climate regime. The meeting of the group, which was the most prominent block of countries at Durban talks along with the EU, comes weeks ahead of the deadline to make submissions to the UN on the framework for negotiations for the new regime, Durban Platform.

Garhwal Himalayas – South Asian countries have apparently flunked the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) examination for 2012, with India faring the worst for the quality of air that its 1.2 billion people breathe.

Maldives’ ex-president Mohamed Nasheed, who today said he was forced to resign, is “at risk,” according to climate change activists who have launched a global petition on his behalf.

The world most’s profitable companies are valued by their carbon reserves – never mind the resulting ruin to the planet.

 

If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet – as we shall see – it’s unfortunately largely invisible to us.

 

– by Bill McKibben 

 

 Read the full story here Why the energy industry is so invested in climate change denial

A group of 20 students from International Climate Champions Program were in Jodhpur to study and experience climatic changes in the Thar Desert spread across western Rajasthan. Organised jointly by the British Council and Jal Bhagirathi Foundation (JBF), this one-week programme saw participation by the students from the UK, China, Bangladesh and India.