Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of In Re: News Item titled "Are missing palm trees causing more lighting deaths in Bihar appearing in ‘The Times of India’ dated 29.05.2025". The original application was registered suo-motu based on the news item titled "Are missing palm trees causing …
A framework for updating the Climate Treaty MukulSanwal [1] On September 23 the world’s leaders will meet in New York to shape the contours of a new global agreement to address climate change. India will face acute pressure to take on commitments to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and needs …
The focus on current and per capita emissions has not led to the desired results MukulSanwal[1] The UN Climate Summit was expected to develop an understanding on the contours of a new climate regime, by staying away the Prime Ministers of India, China, Russia and Germanysignalleda lack of confidence that …
MukulSanwal[1] Global climate policy is being reframed, moving away from an exclusive focus on emissions, the symptoms, to the causes of the problem, use of energy, and new sustainable development architecture. The Co-chair’s Non-Paper, as the draft negotiating text,shows that divergent perspectives on how best to achieve the Objective of …
Compromises have to be made by all Mukul Sanwal The current impasse in the climate negotiations provides an unprecedented opportunity for the BRICS countries to re-frame a global challenge that has divided countries for the last 20 years. In an increasingly interdependent world for growing economies an agreement is more …
Mukul Sanwal[1] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has now unequivocally stated that “the evidence suggests that outcomes seen as equitable can lead to more effective [international] cooperation”. India is an example of the unenviable position developing countries find themselves in. Though it is the world’s fourth largest emitter, its …
Lima witnessed the end game of a 20 year old negotiation around doing away with differentiation between countries at different levels of development and the beginning of negotiations on a global pact for sharing the carbon budget. It is all about geopolitics, not about the global environment. The Lima Call …
Sunita Narain @sunitanar Climate change negotiations are by now predictable. The already-industrialised come to each conference of the parties (COP) with a clear game plan, that is, to erase their contribution to the emissions already present in the atmosphere, thereby effectively remove the differentiation between their responsibility and that of …
Moving from emission reductions to energy use as the basis for international cooperation must now shape our approach to the climate negotiations MukulSanwal[1] The Prime Ministerof India has called for a bold new vision on climate change,effectively moving from ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’, focused on burden sharing, to ‘sharing responsibility …
Moving sustainability from ideas to reality and regaining the leadership of developing countries MukulSanwal[1] Prime Minister Modi’s focus on ‘lifestyles’ marks a departure from India’s 40 year old approach to global environmental concerns where India, and other developing countries, stressed poverty rather than patterns of natural resource use. At one-fourth …
@sunitanar Why this weird weather? Why have western disturbances—the extra-tropical storms that originate in the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas—been lashing us again and again, with devastating impacts on agriculture? Is this normal? Or has weird weather become the new definition of normal? The India Meteorological Department says the severe and …
The Pope has said he hopes the document, entitled LautadoSii (Praised be),’On Care for Our Common Home’, will influence the UN conference on climate change in Paris this year. Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon praised the moral leadership being demonstrated by Pope Francis, also hoping that this …
Technical examination and periodic assessmentswith respect to “fairness” and “ambition” are at the heart of the climate regime and involve important trade-offs; even in the Convention, negotiated twenty four years ago, in 1992, assessment and review (Article 10) was the very last item to be agreed. While the proposals are …
What countries will do at the national level is less important than the nature and scope of international cooperation MukulSanwal[1] The just concluded tenth round of preparatory meetings at Bonn, an 83 page compilation document yet to become a negotiation text, 193 countries seeking to secure their national interest and …
There are two opposing visions of the new climate regime and the unresolved issue is whether the multilateral consensus at Paris will be around climate justice, reflecting the concerns of the majority of the human population, or environmental integrity, which reflects the approach adopted in the negotiation text, released on …
A. DRAFT AGREEMENT [ The Parties to this Agreement, Pp1 Being Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, hereinafter referred to as ôthe Conventionö, Pp2 In furtherance of the objective of the Convention, Pp3 Recalling decision 1/CP.17, whereby the Conference of the Parties to the Convention decided …
The developing countries must take the lead just as they have done in the transformation to sustainable development Mukul Sanwal[1] The United Nations process has been jolted with developing countries unanimously rejecting the text that was to be the basis for negotiations. Even more unprecedented is the lack of confidence …
India’s pivotal role: speaking for the late developers Mukul Sanwal[1] Since 1992 the key issue dividing countries in global environmental negotiations has been ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’and ‘climate justice’ can operationalize that principle to the satisfaction of all countries in a universal regime. As the political consensus moves away from …
Mukul Sanwal[1] The Paris Agreement shifts the global concern away from the sole focus of the Climate Convention on emissions reductions, which is really the symptom of the problem, to dealing with its causes, that is, human activities inthe urban transition.The Purpose of the Agreement, or the new global climate …
@sunitanar The much-awaited Paris Agreement on climate change was adopted by all members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Saturday. The Agreement will now be open for ratification by each member nation from April 2016 onwards. Some highlights from the draft text: Achievements for developing …
Based on the three Low Carbon Earth Summits respectively being successfully held in Dalian (LCES-2011), Guangzhou (LCES-2012) and Xi'an (LCES-2013), BIT's 4th Annual Low Carbon Earth Summit-2014 (LCES-2014) will be convened in Qingdao, China, during September 21-23, 2014. With the theme of 'Green Action for Sustainability', this summit will comprise …
