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The climate crisis will hit the poorest and the most marginalised the hardest, including those in India and other developing nations, said a top representative of a global campaign advocating for a new international treaty to manage the phasing out of fossil fuels. In terms of the formal agreements reached at COP30, "we are still drastically off track" in confronting the climate crisis, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty director Alex Rafalowicz said, while focussing attention on people who have contributed the least to the problem and have the least resilience to rising temperatures. "To stop the acceleration of these disasters, we need a genuine plan to phase out fossil fuels and to end deforestation. COP30 did neither. So at the highest level, we must be honest, we are off track," Rafalowicz said. The United Nations climate talks in Brazil reached a subdued agreement recently that pledged more funding for countries to adapt to the wrath of extreme weather. But the catch-all ..
The eight huge cooling towers of the Dukovany power plant overlook a construction site for two more reactors as the Czech Republic pushes ahead with plans to expand its reliance on nuclear energy. Mobile drilling rigs have been extracting samples 140 metres below ground for a geological survey to make sure the site is suitable for a USD 19 billion project as part of the expansion that should eventually at least double the country's nuclear output and cement its place among Europe's most nuclear-dependent nations. South Korea's KHNP beat France's EDF in a tender to construct a new plant whose two reactors will have an output of over 1,000 megawatts each. After becoming operational in the second half of the 2030s, they will complement Dukovany's four 512-MW reactors that date from the 1980s. The KHNP deal gives the Czechs an option to have two more units built at the other nuclear plant in Temeln, which currently has two 1,000-megawatt reactors. Then, they are set to follow up with .
With over 40 gigawatt of renewable energy projects being in advanced stages of signing power purchase pacts, India's non-fossil fuel based power generation capacity is soon to reach 300 GW, an official statement said on Wednesday. As on September 30, India's non-fossil fuel based capacity stood at 256 GW including 50 GW of large hydro and 8.78 GW nuclear power. According to the statement, more than 40 gigawatt of renewable energy projects are in advanced stages of signing power purchase agreements, power sale agreement and securing transmission connectivity. The additional projects will take the country's total non-fossil fuel based electricity generation capacity to around 300 GW, adding to the goal of having 500 gigawatt (GW) of renewable capacity by 2030, it said. An official source had earlier said that the execution of around 40 GW of already awarded renewable energy projects has been stalled in the absence of power purchase agreements (PSAs). "India's renewable growth remain
The world experienced its third-warmest July on record this year, the European Union agency that tracks global warming said Thursday, with temperatures easing slightly for the month as compared with the record high two years ago. Despite the slightly lower global average temperature, scientists said extreme heat and deadly flooding persisted in July. Two years after the hottest July on record, the recent streak of global temperature records is over for now. But this doesn't mean climate change has stopped, said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. We continued to witness the effects of a warming world. The EU monitoring agency said new temperature records and more climate extremes are to be expected unless greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are brought down. On July 25, Turkey recorded its highest-ever temperature of 50.5 degrees Celsius as it battled wildfires. While not as hot as July 2023 or July 2024, the hottest and second-hottest o
Honolulu is not alone in its effort to sue fossil fuel companies to hold them accountable for climate change harms, but the city's lawsuit is further along than similar litigation across the country. A hearing on Tuesday will indicate how these fights play out in court. In 2020, Hawaii's capital city sued major oil companies, including ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron, arguing they knew for nearly half a century that fossil fuel products create greenhouse gas pollution that warms the planet and changes the climate. The companies have also profited from the consumption of oil, coal and natural gas while deceiving the public about the role of their products in causing a global climate crisis, the lawsuit says. Honolulu's lawsuit blames the companies for the sea level rise around the island of Oahu's world-famous coastline. It also warns that hurricanes, heatwaves and other extreme weather will be more frequent, along with ocean warming that will reduce fish stocks and kill coral reefs tha
India has achieved 50 per cent non-fossil fuel-based power generation capacity of 242.8 GW out of the total 484.8 GW installed capacity, five years ahead of its 2030 target, Union New & Renewable Energy Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Monday. This assumes significance in view of India's commitment at international fora to increased non-fossil fuel-based power generation in the country. India has set an ambitious target of having 500 GW of renewable energy-based electricity generation by 2030. "Under the visionary leadership of Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri @narendrmodi ji, a major climate commitment has been fulfilled. India's total installed power capacity now stands at 484.8 GW, with 242.8 GW coming from non-fossil fuel sources -- a powerful testament to our green progress. This is not just a milestone -- it's a giant stride towards a greener, cleaner Bharat by 2047," Joshi said on X. "Historic Green Leap for India! India achieves 50 per cent on non-fossil fuel capacity -- 5 years .
Vietnam will ban fossil-fuel motorcycles and mopeds in the heart of the capital, Hanoi, starting July 2026, as part of a nationwide effort to curb air pollution, state media reported. The directive issued by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh applies to the area inside and along the main ring road that encircles the centre of Hanoi. The local government has been tasked with phasing out the two-wheelers by the deadline. Like the rest of Vietnam, motorcycles are the main mode of transport for most of Hanoi's 8 million residents. The city has nearly 7 million motorcycles and just over a million cars. But as incomes rise and more people switch to private vehicles, air pollution from traffic has become a growing concern. Hanoi is often enveloped in thick smog, ranking among the most polluted cities worldwide. Vietnam also wants to switch from fossil-fuel to electric vehicles to cut pollution and tackle climate change. Local EV maker VinFast is leading the shift by holding nearly a
Human-caused climate change is responsible for killing about 1,500 people in last week's European heat wave, a first-of-its-kind rapid study found. Those 1,500 people have only died because of climate change, so they would not have died if it had not been for our burning of oil, coal and gas in the last century, said study co-author Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College in London. Scientists at Imperial and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine used peer-reviewed techniques to calculate that about 2,300 people in 12 cities likely died from the heat in last week's bout of high temperatures, with nearly two-thirds of them dying because of the extra degrees that climate change added to the natural summer warmth. Past rapid attribution studies have not gone beyond evaluating climate change's role in meteorological effects such as extra heat, flooding or drought. This study goes a step further in directly connecting coal, oil and natural gas use to people
Bioenergy can cover 50 per cent of India's fossil fuel consumption in five years, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday while urging the automobile industry to undertake research and development on alternative fuels. Air pollution has become a big problem because of fossil fuel, the Minister for Road, Transport and Highways said at the 'Bhoomipujan programme' of the Indian School for Design of Automobiles. The transport sector is responsible for 40 per cent of air pollution in the country because of fossil fuel, the minister pointed out. A lot of research and innovation is going on in fuel and automobile engineering. "We need to protect our ecology and environment, and fulfil the dream of the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) to make India a carbon-neutral country," Gadkari said. Bioenergy can cover 50 per cent of India's fossil fuel consumption in five years which is very important because Rs 22 lakh crore is being spent on import of the fossil fuel, Gadkari said. The country