Sustainability Outlook Headlines

COP21 Slouching Toward Climate Plan Wednesday AM

Laurent Fabius, COP21 president and France’s foreign minister, has just released version 1 of a draft text on COP21 agenda item 4 (b)—the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (decision 1/CP.17) at 3:00PM GMT. Read the text here.

Fabius characterized the current situation thus:

“We’ve made progress but still a lot of work remains to be done. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”

Further detail from Fabius, according to Reuters: the document is shorter by about a third (14 pages) than the last... Read more..

Textiles waste reduction in China backed by Shanghai Yuanyuan’s ‘Panda Bins’

China-based Shanghai Yuanyuan Industrial Co., as a part of their textile recycling programme, has started placing innovative ‘Panda Bins’, made from fibreglass extracted from used textiles, as a trick to catch people’s attention while prompting them to discard their old and reused clothes.

Li Junlong, Vice President, and Yang Yinghong, Chairman of Shanghai Yuanyuan Industrial Co. started with 28 Panda Bins... Read more..

Cantt board to increase investment in solar energy

The Pune Cantonment Board (PCB) plans to ramp up its investment in solar energy over the next few years, as it prepares to be included in the Smart Cantonment programme.

The programme has borrowed and incorporated most of the criteria that must be fulfilled by a city to be termed as a Smart City. There are, however, certain restrictions on floor space indices and on construction in and around vital military installations, as well as on property ownership for civilians living in the area.

"Now that the board has been nominated for the Smart Cantonment programme, it is... Read more..

Smart cities, energy and mobility our target areas: Siemens India CEO

Siemens India will focus on profit-led growth and will go for orders that does not dilute its bottomline, said the company’s managing director and chief executive Sunil Mathur. For this, Mathur said, he will focus on three areas: smart cities, energy and mobility.

Siemens India has already floated a consortium to bid for smart city projects. The German conglomerate has committed to invest €1 billion in India as part of its growth strategy.

Mathur sees greenshoots in the economy and believes that private spending will follow increased public spending. “Every economy will have... Read more..

Global Carbon Emissions Could Stall In 2015

Only a few weeks after it was revealed that carbon emissions nearly stalled in 2014, new figures suggest carbon emissions could stall in 2015.

New figures from researchers at the University of East Anglia and the Global Carbon Project suggest that global carbon emissions are projected to stall in 2015. Their figures were published in the journal Nature Climate Change, with detailed data made available simultaneously in the journal Earth System Science Data. Specifically, the researchers are predicting that not only might the growth of CO2 emissions slow or stall... Read more..

First Global Green Bank Network Will Speed Shift to Clean Energy

As countries work toward a new international climate agreement in Paris, a group of six green banks and two leading non-profit groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has announced that they are establishing a Green Bank Network to help meet the urgent need of increasing and accelerating investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency worldwide. This green bank network potentially could bring billions of dollars in new investment to speed the development of clean energy, creating jobs and helping reduce climate change. India is moving forward with innovative... Read more..

Fin institutions commit to Mainstream Climate Action

At COP21, a coalition of the world’s leading financial institutions officially signed on to five voluntary Principles to Mainstream Climate Action into their operations.

The landmark move was undertaken by 26 financial institutions, from both the public and private sectors, from developing and developed countries.  The institutions together are worth a total value of more than $11 trillion.

By signing onto the voluntary principles, the financial institutions are pledging to continue to integrate climate considerations into their investments and advisory functions, in an... Read more..

PMPML plans to operate electric buses

The Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) will implement Intelligent Transportation Management System (ITMS) and take steps to introduce electric buses as part of Smart City Mission.

The PMPML managing director Abhishek Krishna on Saturday signed a MoU with PMC to participate in the mission. PMC commissioner Kunal Kumar welcomed the move saying that PMPML's involvement will boost the city's efforts to become a Smart City. PMPML officials have assured that depots will be developed and that ITMS will also be introduced in buses plying inside the city.. PMPML has also... Read more..

India Plans To Increase Solar Power Consumption To 10% By 2022

India is planning to significantly increase the amount of electricity utilities will be mandated to acquire from solar power projects in order to achieve its ambitious target of having 100 GW operational solar power capacity by 2022.

Officials of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently revealed that the Indian Government is considering increasing the solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) target of 3% by 2022 to 10%. At present the... Read more..

India crosses 5 GW-mark for solar installations: Study

The cumulative installed capacity of solar power in India has crossed the 5 GW mark.

“While total commissioned utility solar capacity in India reaches 4.7 GW; rooftop capacity stands at 525 MW. In 2015 year to date, close to 2 GW solar capacity has been commissioned,” Consultancy firm Bridge To India (BTI) said.

BTI Managing Director Vinay Rustagi said in the statement, “Solar sector has got great momentum with capacity addition in 2015 more than doubling up over last year and total pipeline of over 15 GW of projects under bidding-cum-development.”

Encouraged by... Read more..

climate COP21 Buildings Day commitment from USGBC

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced today that it will commit to scaling green buildings to more than 5 billion square feet (478 million sq m) over the next five years through the LEED and EDGE green building rating systems.

USGBC’s commitment was made at Buildings Day, an official event at the United Nations climate negotiations conference COP21.

“As we gather around the imperatives to address climate change at COP21, we know that buildings must continue be a key focus area for countries to reach carbon emissions reduction goals,” said Roger Platt, president,... Read more..

Lima-Paris Action Agenda calls for cutting short-lived climate pollutants

At COP 21, governments and industry leaders in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition committed to further essential advances in reducing short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) that have a global warming potential many times that of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

At the Focus Event on SCLPS under the Lima to Paris Action Agenda at COP21, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), whose Secretariat is hosted by the United Nations Environment Program, committed to double their membership in two key initiatives to reduce these pollutants – in freight and landfills – as well as... Read more..