Page 15 - Environment

BJP's ideology favours rising air pollution: Delhi minister Gopal Rai

The ideology of the BJP favours rising air pollution levels as the party voiced support to bursting of firecrackers but did not help the Punjab government provide a cash incentive to farmers for not burning crop residue, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai alleged on Tuesday. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena would not have stopped the implementation of the "Red Light on Gaadi off" campaign to reduce vehicular emissions without instructions from the saffron party, Rai told reporters after inspecting a construction site here. "The mindset and the ideology of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) favour an increase in the air pollution levels. Punjab would have seen a large-scale reduction in stubble burning had the Centre supported the state government's initiative to provide a cash incentive to farmers for not burning crop residue," he said. "We also saw that those in the BJP were busy supporting the bursting of firecrackers in Delhi (on Diwali). They too live in Delhi. All o

Why it might be better to mine the world's rainforests than farm them

Some 6,732 sq km of Indonesian forest has been granted to nickel mining concessions, a coalition of environmental groups wrote in a July letter to Tesla Inc.

Climate responsibility

India should assert the principles of liability and fairness as the basis for climate action

Human-altered environments more likely to harbour Hybrid songbirds: Study

According to recent research, areas where humans have changed the landscape in some manner are more likely to harbour hybrids of the mountain chickadee and black-capped chickadee in North America

Along with environment, job protection is a concern, says Kiren Rijiju

Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said that protection of jobs in India is a concern while safeguarding the environment during economic progress. The per capita GDP in India is still very less compared to other mid-level and developed nations, Rijiju said after inaugurating a seminar here. "When we talk about growth of the economy, we only talk about protection of the environment. But we are also concerned about protection of jobs," he said. Addressing the seminar on 'Environment and Sustainable Development - Role of Judiciary' and 'Digitisation of Indian Judiciary - its Impact in Dispensation of Justice', Rijiju said all stakeholders must come together to deliberate on the issues. "Today, the per capita GDP of India is 2,100 dollars and it is very less, but India as a whole, when we calculate, it's close to a 3.23 trillion dollar economy. It is the fifth largest economy (in the world)," he said. The international standard of development for "middle-level ...

Delhi air quality worsens, nears 'severe' zone as stubble burning rises

A layer of pungent haze lingered over Delhi on Saturday morning as the city's air quality neared the "severe" zone amid adverse meteorological conditions -- low temperatures and calm winds -- and an increase in incidents of stubble burning in Punjab. The overall Air Quality Index (AQI) of Delhi stood at 396 at 10 am, worsening from 357 at 4 pm on Friday. It was 354 on Thursday, 271 on Wednesday, 302 on Tuesday and 312 on Monday (Diwali). Anand Vihar (AQI 454) was the most polluted place in the capital. Wazirpur (439), Narela (423), Ashok Vihar (428), Vivek Vihar (427) and Jahangirpuri (438) were among the monitoring stations that recorded "severe" air quality. The air quality in the neighbouring cities of Ghaziabad (381), Noida (392), Greater Noida (398), Gurugram (360) and Faridabad (391) also inched closer to the "severe" category. An AQI between zero and 50 is considered "good", 51 and 100 "satisfactory", 101 and 200 "moderate", 201 and 300 "poor", 301 and 400 "very poor", and 4

Russia may again block Antarctic marine protections during Australia meet

Call it a cold war. Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are among those meeting in Australia this week to decide the future of Antarctica's pristine waters. Conservationists say new marine protected areas and rules to prevent overfishing are desperately needed, but that Russia could use its veto-like powers to once again block progress. Achieving the required consensus for action among this diverse group of 27, which also includes China, the United States and the European Union, has always been an immense challenge. And when two of the members are at war and relations between China and many Western nations have deteriorated consensus looms as an even bigger obstacle. Just this month, Russian bombing in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, partially destroyed Ukraine's Antarctic research center. Yet despite the enormous political hurdles, some remain hopeful that scientific arguments will win through. The U.S. is paying more attention to the region under President Joe Biden, and this year ha

Centre lays down 75-point climate-friendly agenda under Mission LiFE

Initiatives cover actions under seven categories--energy, water saving, single-use plastic, sustainable food systems, waste reduction (Swachhata actions), healthy lifestyle, and e-waste

Delhi environment minister to chair meeting on anti-dust campaign

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai will on Wednesday chair a high-level meeting to review the progress of the anti-dust campaign in the capital. Rai is expected to share data on the number of sites complying with the guidelines to manage dust pollution and infractions of government directions, an official said. User agencies of construction and demolition projects larger than 500 square metres are required to register them on the construction and demolition (C&D) portal launched in October last year in a bid to control dust pollution in the capital. The project proponents have to self-audit their compliance with dust control norms and upload a self-declaration on the portal on a fortnightly basis. In September, the Delhi government had also made it mandatory to install anti-smog guns at all construction and demolition sites larger than 500 square metres. Action is taken against project proponents found violating this direction. Earlier, construction and demolition sites larger

Reverse auction must be done away with in solar: Vikram Solar vice chairman

In a Q&A, Gyanesh Chaudhary dwells on the gaps in the PLI scheme for solar projects and his company's current and future plans in this space

Reliance Retail net profit grows 36% in Q2; revenue up 44.5% YoY

Reliance Retail saw its (gross) revenue at Rs 64,920 crore, up 42.9 per cent year-on-year

Nationwide drive seizes 46 tonne of single-use plastic, aims to stem supply

Fines worth Rs 41 lakh issued in a week; more than 4,000 violations detected

Extended producer responsibility: Are rules enough to end plastic pollution

Being the fifth highest generator of plastic waste in the world, India needs to be tougher on big brands if we are to reduce our plastic footprint, experts say.

Several Indian corporate houses set to become carbon neutral by 2050

Companies including Mahindra & Mahindra, Aditya Birla Group, JSW Group, Adani Transmission, Vedanta, and Dalmia Cement have set decarbonisation goals to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050

Smog tower in Anand Vihar brought pollution down by only 17%: Report

The 82-feet tall tower reduced PM2.5 pollutants by 13% in December 2021, 7% in March, and 17% in April

Graded Response Action Plan: Battling high air pollution in Delhi-NCR

As winter approaches, Delhi-NCR has been placed under the stage 1 measures of GRAP. Read more to find out what exactly is GRAP

The high stakes of climate-risk accounting

Economists are lagging behind in quantifying the economic damages associated with rising seas and the many other interlinked risks accompanying climate change

Thermal plants not co-firing enough biomass likely to face penalty

The power ministry would also consider reducing coal supply to TPPs not complying with its policy on biomass co-firing, according to a Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change statement

Nestle to invest $1 billion towards sustainable coffee farming plan

The new plan builds on a previous coffee-sustainability effort that started 12 years ago involving around 100,000 farmers; the goal is to double that in the coming years

Google launches circular economy accelerator for Asia-Pacific start-ups

Applications for the program are open from October 4 to November 14 this year and the program will commence in February 2023