Environment

India finally announced its mitigation pledge last week, its so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contribution or INDC for the approaching Climate Summit in Paris in December this year which is expected to conclude an international agreement … Read more

With much fanfare, US President Barack Obama took to the White House podium to announce, as part of his administration’s action plan on climate change, a new Clean Power Plan aimed at cutting carbon emissions … Read more

Anyone following the climate negotiations, especially since the disastrous pattern set at Copenhagen in 2009 and even more so given the tepid progress made since the wishy-washy Durban summit in 2011, could have seen it … Read more

China has for the first time declared that it would cap its absolute emissions by “around 2030”, and attempt to achieve this even earlier, along with announcing a target of 20% non-fossil fuel energy by … Read more

During his election campaign, Prime Minister Modi repeatedly assailed the environmental regulation prevalent in the country at the time for obstructing development and damaging India’s economic growth. It was clear even then that a future … Read more

Within days of the BJP-led government coming to power, announcement was made of an enhanced policy thrust on ethanol-blending of petrol. While the earlier biofuels policy of the government, initiated by the Vajpayee-led NDA government … Read more

The season for the volume by volume publication of the much-awaited Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) opened last week with the releases on 27 September 2013 of the … Read more

In the aftermath of the Uttarakhand disaster, most of the rescue work especially of pilgrims appears to have been completed now (second week of July), even though many thousands of people are still missing and … Read more

It is about 10 days since Uttarakhand was hit by torrential rains and cloudburst of a scale not seen in the state in over 50 years, which, along with accompanying floods and landslides, have caused … Read more

To anyone visiting China for the first time, the experience comes as a shock, despite all that one has read, heard or even seen on TV. This writer was no exception. The scale in which … Read more

More than 2000 people died and over 10,000 were affected by industrial pollution during the 1950s and 60s in and around the coastal Japanese town of Minamata. A chemicals factory of the Chisso Corporation using … Read more

This column is admittedly, and regrettably, late in running an article commemorating the 50th year after the publication in September 1962 of Rachel Carsons’ “Silent Spring,” arguably one of the most influential books of our … Read more