As a country grappling with political and infrastructural problems, there are very few issues that do not evoke extreme, often diametrically opposite, reactions in India. Population control Bills, vaccination policy, farmer income initiatives, river water sharing mechanisms or surrogacy laws—there is no dearth of topics that have triggered controversy, and …
It is indeed amazing. It was only four months ago, in April, that the Ministry of Petroleum was telling the Supreme Court that it is not possible for it to supply high quality diesel. And that all it could do is to supply diesel with a sulphur content of 0.25 …
Health and drinking water: We will spare no efforts to ensure that potable drinking water is available to all villages in the next five years. Age-old and traditional methods of water utilisation, in both rural and urban areas, will receive urgent attention. Environment: We will establish an appropriate legal framework …
Why is it that no political party takes environmental problems seriously? It was under the Congress party that the environment department was created, and then the environment ministry was formed. It was the Congress party that considered environment an issue related to the people, and it has been the Congress …
In the run-up to the elections in India, a number of trivial issues have come to occupy the political landscape, marginalising fundamental issues that concern the common man. One such issue is the way we manage the natural environment. The days when environment was all about beautiful birds and butterflies …
Politicians do more to deplete water than provide people a sustained supply At the recent meeting of the World Water Commission in Stockholm - set up last year with the support of several governments and United Nations' agencies - to develop a vision for water management in the next century, …
euro-election results gave a mixed report on the state of the "Greens' in the European Union ( eu ). Voter turnout was poor in many countries and was only 24 per cent in the uk . Of the major political groupings, the centre-right came out best with 224 out of …
The rapid increase in small-mining in poor nations, often employing women and children, is taking a heavy toll by way of fatalities and diseases, said the International Labour Organisation (ILO). On an average, there has been a 20 per cent rise in the past five years in 35 countries studied …
the world is changing rapidly. People have talked about globalisation mainly in economic terms. But the 21st century may see a form of political globalisation which could pose a serious threat to the 20th century concept of sovereignty. Political globalisation will be pushed by the same technological change which is …
This paper discusses the political circumstances which help explain why the insanitary living conditions of such a large section of India’s urban population have been ignored, and contrasts these with the circumstances which explain successful sanitary reform in Britain in the second half of the 19th century. In India, there …
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an independent scientific and technical body under the sponsorship of UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) which provides the world with the 'science' of global warming. But with politics getting increasingly separated from science it is important to review what this …
A review of the positions of these three groups shows important differences in approach towards trading, as well as their approach towards the three mechanisms laid out in the Kyoto Protocol: Joint Implementation (Article 6), CDM (Article 12) and Emissions Trading (Article 17). There are important differences between the Free …
"Meaningful participation' is being defined in many ways, depending on the interests of the party involved. One such approach is to use the (cdm). • The purpose of the
The Costa Rican government has recently agreed to swap its tropical rainforest with a Nebraska-based power company, Tenaska Inc. The deal would mean that the us power utility would pay the Costa Rican government
The Kyoto protocol provides that industrialised countries can agree to invest in carbon efficient projects in each other's territory. The first such deal, post-Kyoto, has been struck between two most likely partners: Russia and Japan. Japan has to meet a difficult target of six per cent cut from 1990 levels. …
Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol says that the conference of parties (COP) shall define the relevant guidelines for emission trading. But without waiting for the COP to define principles, emissions trading is starting to take place. • British Petroleum (BP) is going to use its sprawling oil company as …
Six months after the Kyoto meet, governments convened again to deliberate climate-change affairs. The United States led an attempt to set up a free market trading system which would enable the us to do zero at home and allow other developed countries to meet their emissions reduction commitments by paying …
when Kerala government coined the slogan adhikaram janangali lekku (power to people) it sounded like a political gimmick. But after the government entrusted panchayats with the task of supervising local development, what unfolded was beyond the expectations of many. Thousands of villagers, otherwise isolated, now participate in gram sabhas (village …
Of california's land area of 40.4 million hectares (ha), about 40 per cent (16 million ha) is classified as forest. The us Forest Service (fs) has classified about 42 per cent of these as timberlands (timberland is forest area that can produce more than 8.1 cubic feet per ha of …
