No truck with green
WE HAVE a perspectivebut nopolicieson environmentdeclares Sitarain Yechury, the suave Communist Party of India-Marxist (cpi-m) politburo member. Green causes, till now, have lain low on the
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Coal prices may set new record on Asian demand
Banpu Pcl, Thailand's biggest coal miner, expects prices of the raw material to set new records as demand growth in Asia, led by China and India, outpaces supply. India will raise purchases at a faster pace in the next two years, compared with 2007 and 2008, as the nation completes power plants, Philip Gasteen, head of marketing and logistics, said during the McCloskey Group coal conference in Singapore yesterday. Indonesia, the world's second-biggest thermal coal exporter, is promoting coal-fired power output to cut oil use. Benchmark prices at Newcastle, the world's biggest export harbor for thermal coal in Australia, dropped $4.71 to $134.45 a metric tonne in the week ended February 22 after four weeks of records, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. Prices had climbed after heavy rains in Australia, power shortages in South Africa and snowstorms in China cut output. "Things got tighter because of growth,'' Gasteen said in the interview. China's export ban after the nation's worst snowstorms in 50 years will pull 8 million tonnes out of the Pacific basin during the first quarter and "is a big loss,'' he said. China, the world's second-biggest energy consumer, banned coal exports so that local utilities "don't have grounds to raise prices'' amid government efforts to curb inflation, Gasteen said. Vietnam's exports Vietnam, China's largest coal supplier, plans to reduce exports 32 per cent this year and gradually eliminate the sales to meet rising domestic demand, Nguyen Khac Tho, vice director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's energy and petroleum department, said February 15. Exports may drop to a forecast 22 million tonnes from 32.2 million in 2007 and the government is recommending halting overseas shipments after 2015. Coal producers are keeping inventories at half of typical levels of 6 to 7 per cent of annual output because of rising demand, Gasteen said. Banpu is maintaining stockpiles at about 3 to 4 percent of annual production, he said. "Demand has been very high so producers have been shipping out higher proportions than production and not putting as much in stock ,'' he said. Gasteen declined to comment on prices being negotiated with Japanese customers for annual supplies starting in April. Australian miners are seeking between $125 and $136 a tonne under one-year contracts, compared with offers from Japanese utilities to pay $110 a ton, Peter Ball, vice president for marketing at PT Bumi Resources, Indonesia's largest thermal coal exporter, said earlier this week in an interview. In the year ending March 31, the price is about $55. Japan is Banpu's biggest export destination, representing 25 per cent to 30 per cent of its sales. Banpu also ships to buyers in Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Italy, Gasteen said.
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Tall Blunder
In 1996, industries in Delhi were hit by a series of court orders requiring them to take measures to reduce pollution 1,328 industries were closed down; 90,000 units were notified for relocation; and all factories in 28 industrial estates were asked to j
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The paradox of nature and balanced accounts
Western institutions and the United Nations are keen protagonists of natural resource accounting but it may still not be a useful policy tool for planners to promote sustainable development. Experience in the Philippines has shown that only an elaborate c
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A world of double standards
VIRTUALLY routed in the 1984 parliamentarry electionsthe BharatiyaJanata Party (Bip) made a remarkable comeback in the 1989 and1991polls. The party also came topower in four states in the
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Subterranean subterfuge
Thousands of industrial units in parts of Haryana are clandestinely discarding untreated effluents into aquifers, irreversibly damaging groundwater.
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India: Aim, Hope High
Starting before industrialised Germany and the UK, India has perhaps promoted renewables the longest though a dedicated establishment. The country's Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) is one of its kind in the world. India has the fifth largest installed wind capacity in the world at 2400 MW. In 2003 alone, India added 615 MW of wind energy. By March 2003, it had 484 MW of installed biomass power/zcogeneration, 53 MW from biomass gasifiers and 2.5 MW of solar PVs. Installed capacity for all renewables by March 2004 was more than 4,600 MW.
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Blow hot and cold
<b>Air conditioning and energy efficiency</b> <br>
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Rahul's Kalavati now backs Greenpeace
Nagpur: Less than a year ago, 50-year-old Kalavati Bandukar knew the value of energy but little about the difference between nuclear, thermal, or renewable energy sources. But this widow, whose husband, a farmer, committed suicide in 2005 after being unable to pay his debts, is now learning not only about the different kinds of power but also the politics of power.
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Of hot springs and gases
Hot springs may be contributing significantly to global carbon dioxide emissions
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Assembling power
The world's largest barge mounted power plant will be operational in Pakistan by 1999
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Will imposition of green taxes be viable?
Down To Earth"s round table on fiscal instruments to manage the environment brought together economists, environmentalists and representatives from industry. What emerged was that the concept of economic instruments, though still at a nascent stage, is b
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Wind power: up, up and down
Poorly implemented governmental policies are preventing the full exploitation of wind power which could supplement as much as 25 per cent of the country"s electric energy requirements
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Light of life
Solar photovoltaic cells can help provide health care facilities in remote villages
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Gasbagging
How good are the North's offers of joint implementation programmes with the South to cut the latter's carbon dioxide emissions?
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ACREX India 2014: A sustainable foundation for Future India
<p><u><strong>PRESS RELEASE</strong></u></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>-</em></strong> <em>Indian HVAC sector to grow at 30 per cent to over Rs 20,000 crore over the next two years</em></p> <p align="center"> </p>
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Solar power scorches ahead globally, but India still far behind
Chennai: Solar thermal heating system is fast replacing petrofuels globally and China is leading the fray, followed closely by Germany . India is considered to have a vast potential but only a nano-fraction has been achieved so far.
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Making it mandatory
To boost the stagnant demand for solar heating devices, the Union ministry of nonconventional energy sources (MNES), along with the ministry for urban development, has chalked out a scheme to make
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Scraping the barrel
No stock, nuclear energy programme in crisis
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The Enron short circuit
The Enron case is important as it was the first of the fast track projects and has been responsible for modifications to the government guidelines. Enron, General Electric (GE) and Bechtel jointly