For billions of people, mountain meltwater is essential for drinking water and sanitation, food and energy security, and the integrity of the environment. But today, as the world warms, glaciers are melting faster than ever, making the water cycle more unpredictable and extreme. And because of glacial retreat, floods, droughts, …
This analysis provides us greater insight into an adaptation-led strategy to reduce climate change risk and increasing urban resilience in keeping with India’s development and priorities challenges. This attempts shifts the emphasis away from a largely mitigation and techo-centric response that has come to dominate the climate crisis discourse emanating …
This study aims to stimulate discussion on the elements of appropriate national legal frameworks for bioenergy, particularly in developing countries. It provides legislators and policy-makers with a methodology to assist in identifying areas of law which may affect bioenergy regulation, and in designing key elements of national bioenergy laws.
The climate change conference, attended by 189 countries, had two components: the 12th Conference of Parties (cop-12) to the un Framework Convention on Climate Change (unfccc) and the second conference of the parties serving as the meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol (cop/mop-2). Australia and the us are …
Projected anthropogenic warming and increases in CO2 concentration present a twofold threat, both from climate changes and from CO2 directly through increasing the acidity of the oceans. Future climate change may be reduced through mitigation (reductions in greenhouse gas emissions) or through geoengineering. Most geoengineering approaches, however, do not address …
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), statutory organisation, was constituted in September, 1974 under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. Further, CPCB was entrusted with the powers and functions under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981. It serves as a field formation and also …
This article examines Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as a near-term strategy for reducing CO2 emissions in a typical medium-sized U.S. city. The paper compares the expected CO2 emissions from three scenarios to meet the city's growth in work trips by 2011: a no-build option that relies upon private automobiles and …
This article analyzes the challenges to effective environmental protection in the power sectors of China and India. Its analytical framework consists of identification of environmental policies and regulations affecting electricity generation, assessment of problems faced when implementing these policies and regulations, and finally recommendations for surmounting the barriers encountered.
Since entry into force of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1994, negotiations on controlling future greenhouse gas emissions have turned into one of the largest development issues of our time. In February 2005, the Kyoto Protocol entered into force and 9 months later a historical first …
This article examines the question of how to interpret a relationship between income and carbon emissions in a country (the environmental kuznets curve [EKC] for carbon). A very simple and graphical structural model of an EKC is developed, and the problems of applying the concept to carbon are discussed. A …
It has been suggested that the large scale use of biofuel, that is, fuel derived from biological materials, especially in combination with reforestation of large areas, can lead to a low-cost reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. In this paper, a model of three markets: fuel, wood products, and land …
Climate change poses a major risk to the global economy: It affects the wealth of societies, the availability of resources, the price of energy and the value of companies. The financial industry has a two-fold responsibility. On the one hand, it needs to prepare itself for the negative effects that …
Proposals for greenhouse-gas reductions have been met with widespread skepticism in the developing world, in part because such countries find their conventional air-pollution problems more pressing. The goal of this article is to examine whether reductions in carbon emissions that are ancillary to conventional pollutant reductions from a policy to …
There is dramatic evidence that various Greenhouse Gases are responsible for Global Warming and climate change. This present study discusses the potential of Organic Agriculture both to avoid and to sequester Greenhouse Gases (GHG), and makes comparisons with conventional agriculture. The second part describes how Organic Agriculture can be considered …
Greenhouse gas emissions from developing countries will likely surpass those from developed countries within the first half of this century, highlighting the need for developing country efforts to reduce the risk of climate change. While developing nations have been reluctant to accept binding emissions targets, asking that richer nations take …
This study looks at the linkages between dams and climate change. It analyses the climate change legal regime as represented by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol and attempts to highlight the relevance of its provisions, decisions and processes to the planning, appraisal, design, construction, …
The concept of joint implementation as a way to implement climate change mitigation projects in another country has been controversial ever since its inception. Developing countries have raised numerous issues at the project-specific technical level, and broader concerns having to do with equity and burden sharing. This paper summarizes the …
As the Durban COP enters the homestretch it is worth stepping back a few years – to COP-13 at Bali in 2007. For it is the Bali COP that led to the creation of the Ad-hoc working groups for Long-term Cooperative Action (AWGLCA) and for the Kyoto Protocol (AWGKP), which …
With the carbon market in doldrums, emerging economies like India will have to announce bolder schemes for a low carbon future The just-concluded Durban climate meet has been branded by many as a great saviour with even greater hopes being expressed for future. Reams have been written on how the …
Extreme caution needs to be taken while mulling of linking different carbon markets Ever since the green shoots of carbon markets sprung up in countries outside the European Union (EU), economists all over the world are sharpening their modelling and forecasting tools to once again create a new chaos – …
