Sustainability Outlook Headlines

After water supply, BRTS work under RTI's gaze

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is experiencing the power of the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005 yet again.

The civic body has not been able to give substantial answers to several RTI queries posed on the city's pilot Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) by activists.

Nagrik Chetana Manch (NCM) founder Major General (retd) S C N Jatar and Surajya Sangharsh Samiti (SSS) founder Vijay Kumbhar had sought information on the execution of the BRTS under Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Unsatisfied with the PMC's reply, they had approached state information commissioner... Read more..

Power woes not yet over for state

Officials of the power department have alerted the state government that the state has just about enough power to last another two months and that it needs to buy power immediately or face power cuts from October onwards. Learning from the experience of the peak summer months, when there was no grid left for the state to buy, officials said they have proactively informed the government to avoid a similar situation.

The deficit the state is facing is that of 460 megawatts, caused due to two of its largest thermal power stations being non-operational. The Kothagudem thermal power... Read more..

'India's problem is carbon unawareness'

"But the good thing is this can be fixed by spreading the awareness and not repeating the mistakes we have made in Europe and America," said Pag, who came to the MCKV Institute of Engineering (MCKVIE) in Liluah to 'talk to the students'.

Pag is not the stereotype activist who goes around 'spreading awareness'; in his own words, he is just "attempting to drive around the world emitting less than 2 tonnes of CO2, and discovering how other people are cutting their footprint."

Two tonnes is the amount of CO2 emissions G20 nations have pledged to go down to per person by 2050, in... Read more..

Corporate bid for solar power plant at Parliament

India’s solar energy sector is seen thriving with great opportunities as some of the largest industrial groups have expressed interest to set up a solar power project at the Parliament House in the Capital.

India’s largest private sector energy major, Reliance Industries Ltd (BOM:500325) (Solar Group) and leading construction solutions provider, Punj Lloyds Ltd (BOM:532693) is reported to be among the five companies, which have bid for the solar power project to be set up in the Parliament House.

The news agencies today quoted Chief Executive... Read more..

U.N.: New Taxes Needed for Climate Fund

Carbon taxes, add-ons to international air fares and a levy on cross-border money movements are among ways being considered by a panel of the world's leading economists to raise a staggering $100 billion a year to fight climate change.

British economist Nicholas Stern told international climate negotiators Thursday that government regulation and public money also will be needed to create incentives for private investment in industries that emit fewer greenhouse gases.

In short, a new industrial revolution is needed to move the world away from fossil fuels to low carbon growth... Read more..

Dam for dam in Arunachal

India will fast track hydro power projects in Arunachal Pradesh to counter the Chinese buildup in the area. China is developing a hydel project on the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet. Beijing may have assured that the project would not impact the flow of the river into India, but New Delhi is not sitting back. It is focusing on setting up projects on the Siang River, which what the Yarlung Tsangpo is known as after it enters India in Arunachal Pradesh.

This is what gives the Siang basin its strategic significance from an international point of view. Developing the Siang basin will... Read more..

High-capacity solar power generation plants planned

Six major industries in the southern districts plan to establish high-capacity solar power generation plants under a scheme of the Central Government, according to S.E.S.Syed Ahamed, Deputy General Manager, Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA), Madurai region.

The applications have been forwarded to NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), the power trading arm of the State-owned National Thermal Power Corporation and the National Solar Mission, the designated nodal agency for Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). Currently, the applications are with TEDA for providing... Read more..

State to prepare action plan on climate change

An action plan on climate change for the state will be taken up in collaboration with the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), minister for science, technology and environment, Aleixo Sequeira informed the Goa assembly on Wednesday.

Replying to the demand for grants to his department, Sequeira said, “We will take NIO’s assistance to prepare a state specific action plan on climate change.” He appealed to all MLAs to participate in the plan and said it was in tune with the national action plan.
He further said the government is toying with the idea of distributing CFL bulbs... Read more..

India competing with US for clean energy jobs: Obama

Raising the rhetoric of outsourcing again, US President Barack Obama on Wednesday said countries like India, China, Germany and others from Europe are competing with America for clean energy jobs.

The US President stressed that his administration would not allow America to be relegated to second position in respect to these countries in the clean energy sector jobs.

"Together we're jump-starting a new American clean-energy industry, an industry with the potential to generate perhaps millions of jobs, building wind turbines and solar panels and manufacturing the batteries for... Read more..

PCMC mayor seeks governor's help over traffic on BRTS route.

Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor Yogesh Behl has sought help from governor K Sankaranarayan to urge the defence minister to allow traffic on the bus rapid transit system (BRTS) corridors in Pimpri Chinchwad.

For more than a year now, the PCMC has been unable to open the BRTS road on the stretch from Mega Mart in Phugewadi to the College of Military Engineering (CME) in Dapodi because of objections by the defence authorities.

Speaking to reporters here, Behl said that a letter was given to the governor in this regard during his visit to various areas of the municipal limits on Tuesday... Read more..

Cancun talks will not see big climate deal - EU

A U.N. summit in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year will not result in a new climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the co-head of the European Union's climate delegation said in an interview on Tuesday.

"It will not be the big deal. Hopefully it will be a big step forward to the deal," Artur Runge-Metzger told Reuters.

The Kyoto Protocol was agreed in 1997 to reduce greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries to at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

Talks in Copenhagen last year failed to nail down a legally binding agreement to succeed the... Read more..

High-quality plastics from waste electrical equipment

All over Europe, electrical and electronic scrap is the waste stream showing the highest growth rates. Since electronic equipment contains the most varied kinds of materials, the recycling of such waste involves high demands with respect to separation and sorting processes. The German plant manufacturer MeWa builds state-of-the-art recycling plants for large international waste management companies.

In the United Kingdom MeWa realized a plant where old refrigerators, computers, vacuum cleaners, Hi-Fi systems, and other kinds of electrical waste are processed on two separate lines.... Read more..