Black carbon harms health, and traps heat, melts snow and disturbs rain patterns for as long as it is airborne. While long-lived carbon dioxide (CO2 ) needs fast-tracked action to stabilize global temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius, black carbon needs elimination to contain short-term warming spikes and to …
Coal-based power is one of the most resource intensive and polluting industries. On 07 December 2015, the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change introduced stricter environmental standards for coal-based thermal power plants under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. Five years after these norms were announced, most plants have neither …
Despite the growth in renewable power, India continues to be heavily reliant on coal to meet its energy needs. This is unlikely to change in the near future. India’s coal power sector contributes nearly 50 per cent of India’s fuel-related CO2 emissions. Beset with all kinds of problems, from poor …
Crop stubble burning is a major source of pollution in Northwest India. It will require significant and continuous investment to end the practice. On the other hand, despite the growth in ‘renewables’, India’s reliance on coal to meet its base power load demand will continue in the foreseeable future. At …
The summer of 2020 has been quite different. The ongoing public health crisis, besides having caused unprecedented disruption to business-asusual, has also given us a new prism through which we can view the air pollution crisis. The economic slowdown and implementation of lockdown measures have bent the pollution curve dramatically …
India implemented Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) emissions standards nationwide on 1 April 2020 amidst the raging novel coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) and economic slowdown. It leapfrogged directly from BS-IV emissions standards that were introduced nationwide in 2017 and selectively in a few cities in 2010. This leapfrog promises to reduce emissions …
India adopted nationwide Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) emissions standards on 1 April 2020. This direct leapfrog from BS-IV to BS-VI emissions standards has led to a paradigm shift in emission-control systems, especially in diesel vehicles. As a result, compared to BS-IV emissions standards, particulate emissions limits for BS-VI diesel cars …
More than 75 per cent of Uganda’s population lives in rural areas and depends heavily on groundwater resources. While groundwater reserves are currently adequate to cater to the needs of the rural population—except in a few dry patches in the northeast and southwest—temporal and annual variations of rainfall, unplanned urbanization …
To deal with the sharp economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of India has announced a slew of packages estimated to be about ten per cent of India’s GDP. While there is a lot of debate on the adequacy and effectiveness of the economic packages, there is …
The world is facing an existential threat. But it is also clear that without equity, ambition is not possible. The ongoing CoP25 must not duck this question any further says Centre for Science and Environment in its new position paper "COP 25: What the world must do" Centre for Science …
Solar-powered irrigation is being aggressively promoted by the government as an affordable and sustainable solution for agriculture as well as the rising burden of electricity subsidy. But will solar pumps become a win-win situation for all stakeholders? Can they alleviate farmer distress when inclusion of small and marginal farmers is …
India will leapfrog to BS VI emissions standards in 2020 to cut emissions by 80-90 per cent from new vehicles. But real emissions and health benefits are possible only if these advanced technologies are properly operated and maintained and requirements for real world emissions tests are made tighter with strong …
Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Compliance of Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 (State of Tripura) dated 07/05/2019 regarding status of compliance of orders of this Tribunal on the subject of solid waste management and allied issues. A status report has been filed on behalf …
NEW DELHI: Out of the 95,000 registered autorickshaws in the city, only 41,766 have functional GPS systems, the Delhi transport department stated at a meeting of the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) on Thursday. “Nearly 1,00,000 autos ply in the city, out of which 95,000 are …
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) says the new proposal of the Ministry of Power to fix the starting temperature of room air conditioners (RAC) at 24 degree C is a step in the right direction, as the current popular practice of fixing the starting temperature or switch ON temperature …
Travel demand has grown significantly in Delhi. How people choose to travel will decide the severity of pollution and congestion caused by traffic and, ultimately, liveability of the city. If people choose to use more cars and two-wheelers, the scary trend in pollution and congestion will become irreversible. This is …
Almost 100 percent water used by the slum people in Dhaka faces faecal contamination, which causes various diarrhoeal diseases and consequently, malnutrition, mostly to children, says a new study. The contamination is caused basically after collection of water from the last point of water supply by the Water and Sewerage …
A dusty plastic sheet covers a large diesel generator in a corner of a petrol station in Atrauli, a village in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh, a modest but telling sign of progress. The gas station used to shut at 7 p.m. every day because the lights would often …
Stakeholders in sanitation in the Greater Accra Metropolis have called for the urgent need to develop alternate faecal sludge and waste water management approaches to address the sanitation problem. The call was made at a stakeholders’ workshop in Accra to formulate a policy on faecal sludge management to improve upon …
The State of India’s Environment 2017, an annual publication from Down To Earth magazine released by Sunita Narain at the Jaipur Literature Festival is a unique, one-of-its-kind compilation of information, opinion and data on environment and development in India. It contains a clump of disturbing data Amidst the titles and …
Scientific evidence has established that climate change is accelerating the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like droughts, floods, unseasonal rainfall and extreme temperatures. Evidence also reveals that, globally, the poorest bear maximum losses and damage as a result of climate impacts, even though they have contributed least to …
