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On
July 23, 2001 United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the broad
political agreement by the 180 members of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change on the operational rulebook for the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol. This political agreement on the binding targets for reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions were reached at Bonn during Conference of Parties
(COP)-Part II. This break through gave a strong signal to the global economy
that emission limitation must become a part of production and consumption
process particularly after the failure of talks at COP-Part I at The Hague
during November 2000.
The
new agreement recognises the need for more financial and technological support
for developing countries to engage in a global strategy against climate
change, a provide a solid political basis for industrialised countries to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol and bring into force in time for the Johannesburg
Summit in September, 2002. According to the agreement, a special climate
change fund and a fund for least developed countries will be established under
the 1992 Convention to help developing countries adapt to climate change
impacts, obtain clean technologies, and limit growth in their emissions. In
addition, a Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund will be established to finance
concrete adaptation projects and programme.
Earlier,
in March, the world was stunned when the US President, George Bush rejected
the Kyoto Protocol. He surprisingly conditioned that developing countries
including India should start reducing emission, which violates the basic
premise of "framework convention on climate change" (FCCC) in which
US and other developed countries are expected to take the initiative of
reducing emission immediately while developing countries would not required to
reduce them immediately. This inequitable US stand meant that India’s
development would be at stake because coal, which is its major energy
resource, is GHG intensive. However, India’s annual emission per person is
much less than that of US.
As
soon as the news of the political agreement was out, many countries, which had
previously hesitated even discussing expectations from the Bonn negotiations
fully, embraced the results. However, it remains a big question whether the
Bonn agreement would be enough to revitalise the Kyoto Protocol but lets be
positive Mr. Bush!
For
more information visit http://www.unfccc.int
Happy
reading and comments are welcome!
Editor
Carbon
sinks rejected
Scientists
opined that forests and farmlands cannot be relied upon to soak up
environmentally damaging greenhouse gases. In a report, Britain’s Royal
Society has said that little is known about the effectiveness of these
so-called carbon sinks in absorbing carbon-dioxide, the main greenhouse gas,
from the atmosphere and better methods are needed to verify the impact of
carbon sinks on global warming. It was suggested that reducing the amount of
carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels should be the main way to reduce
global warming.
According
to John Shepherd, co-author of the report, these carbon sinks are of limited
size and will only work for a relatively shorter duration so these cannot make
a major contribution in reducing carbon emissions. The report said that carbon
sinks and soil absorb about 40% of carbon dioxide emissions and could soak up
as much as 45%. Therefore, the maximum that could be absorbed would only be
equivalent to a quarter of that needed by 2050 to prevent major rises in
global temperature.
The
scientists warned that in future these carbon sinks could become a source of
carbon dioxide because they could release greenhouse gases, such as methane.
They also warned that although there are some primary benefits of carbon sinks
like they are effective immediately and provide a financial incentive for the
preservation and sustainable use of forests and agricultural land, but the
long-term solution must be to cut carbon dioxide emissions through energy
saving and replacing fossil fuels with renewable and nuclear energy.
(Source: Business Line, July 09,
2001)
BACK
US
proposals for a “science-based” response to climate change, was severely
criticised by the European Union. It insisted that industrialised countries
should ratify the Kyoto agreement for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, the speech by
President Bush on climate change was “short of action to actually reduce
emissions”. Swedish environment minister, Kjell Larsson, warned that Bush’s
continued rejection of Protocol would mean postponing international action to
combat climate change.
The
Commission said that US focus on research and technological innovation fell
short of action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It added that many US
ideas on research and monitoring appeared to build on existing commitments
instead of new steps.
The
Commission also argued that industrialised countries should take the lead in
reducing emissions with clear targets in line with the Kyoto agreement since
it is neither realistic nor fair to expect developing countries to match
industrialised countries in greenhouse gas reduction.
(Source: The Financial Times June 13, 2001)
BACK
Warning
by Asian Development Bank
A
report released by Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned that rapid population
growth along with government inaction and weak institutionalisation in Asia is
pushing the region to the brink of the environmental catastrophe. The report
predicted that Asia-Pacific region is going to be the world’s biggest source
of GHG emissions by 2015. ADB said the region had already lost upto 90% of its
wildlife habitats by the mid 1980s. According to Tahir Qadri, senior
environment specialist ADB, environmental degradation in the region is
pervasive, accelerating and unabated.
Air
pollution levels in Asian cities are already among the highest in the world
and it is causing 100,000 premature deaths every year. Qadri rejected the
trade off between environmental management and poverty eradication, because to
him environmental mismanagement affects the poor first. He blamed weak
institutions and failed policies for environmental degradation.
But
the report also found something positive like China had already reduced carbon
dioxide emissions by 17% in the past five years, a period of rapid economic
growth. In Bangkok and Bogor, Indonesia water pricing prompted consumers to
use water sparingly.
(Source:
Financial Times June 19, 2001)
BACK
ENVIRONMENTALLY
SOUND TECHNOLOGIES
& PRACTICES
Battery
driven auto being experimented in Calcutta
At
Salt Lake, Calcutta two auto-rickshaws have started running on batteries
instead of petrol or diesel. These autos would run on twelve six-volt
batteries and therefore would not emit polluting gases. M. Kanappa, the Deputy
Minister of Central Non-Conventional Energy Resources inaugurated this new
type of three-wheeler.
In
incident of automobiles running on batteries are not new in the Salt Lake
township of Calcutta. Already two buses are running on batteries and they have
become quite popular among residents. While Scooter India Company has given
these auto-rickshaws almost freely its batteries have been provided by Exide
India. The State Transport Department is currently running them on an
experimental basis.
Currently,
the government is trying to find out whether this could be run economically to
make the city pollution free. According to Mrinal Bandhopadhyay, Minister of
West Bengal Non-Conventional Energy, these autos could be run successfully if
the price of battery and vehicle are decreased.
(Source: Ananda Bazar Patrika, June 30, 2001)
BACK
Companies
asked to follow green standards
The
need to create special fund to enable corporates for leasing pollution control
equipment on soft interest rate loans with a minimum ten years payback period
emerged at the seminar organised by India Operations of US-Asia Environment
partnership. Raghu Mody, president of Associated Chamber of Commerce and
Industry of India said that it is becoming increasingly imperative to conform
to the ‘green standards’ as the global community is fast becoming more
environmentally conscious in decision-making.
Now
a large number of companies are voluntarily disclosing environmental
information, but since each firm is using its own format, comparisons between
reports have become impossible. Mody has pointed out the necessity for a
unified standard. Von Millard, chief operating officer of US-AEP said that
Delhi and Calcutta Metros had decided to adopt environmentally sound practices
based on the US model to minimise the environmental damage.
(Source:
The Financial Express, July 07, 2001)
BACK
World
Bank aims at making Indian industries eco compliant
The
World Bank will be conferring with the Confederation of Indian Industry over
the acceptability of a novel ‘economic instruments’ as the policy
intervention for the Indian industry and corporates, to make them
environmentally compliant. These internationally acceptable economic
instruments would include tools like tax incentives, bank guarantees, prices
based on social scarcity values and ‘green rating’ which according to the
Bank have found a growing acceptance in the developing economies the world
around. These economic instruments are more generalised and more internally
controlled than ‘market based instruments’.
The
environment management capacity building and technical project aided by the
World Bank is currently underway with the Ministry of Environment and Forests
for final implementation. For developing economies with more than one-third of
its population below the poverty line, intra-generational equity is most
important. It refers to the distribution of net profits to different sections
of the society. It is also important on decisions related to use of
exhaustible resources or conservation of resources.
To
make a difference between the economic instruments and market based
instruments, experts say that in the former the polluter has the option of
choosing the appropriate technology for compliance while that is absent in the
later.
(Source:
Financial Express, June 11, 2001)
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FORTHCOMING
PUBLICATIONS
Research
Report:
Green
claims: Are they telling the truth?
The
issue of environmental protection permeating in our everyday lives has brought
the government, business and consumers on a common platform where each has to
play its role. This has led to the emergence of the green consumer, and has
compelled companies to look into the impact on the environment by their
operations and products. However, this has also led to increasing incidents of
misleading environmental claims. This study tries to analyse how Indian
Organisation of Standards ISO14021 standards on self declared environmental
claims are been violated in India with the help of 16 case studies, find out
if there was any need to indulge in self-declared labels and claims and the
possible reasons behind industry’s effort avoid Indian ecolabel Ecomark or
even abort it.
BACK
Monograph:
Lead
acid battery sector in India: Problems and prospects
CUTS
has successfully implemented a one-year project titled “Targeted
lobbying and training initiative to promote the Ecomark for primary
batteries/cells and facilitate environment-friendly lead-smelting” with
support from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India in
May 2001. During this project, implemented over a period of 12 months, five
capacity building workshops and one National Consultation & Expert Group
Meeting was
organised in various cities in India. This document would look at this effort
in retrospect, analyse this unique effort and explain what needs to be done in
future.
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Newsletters:
EcoConsumer,
Issue 2, 2001-This
quarterly newsletter is published by CUTS to report and discuss developments
in relation to sustainable consumption globally. It covers issues such as
global warming, environment friendly technologies and products, eco-labeling
and a host of related topics, including Ecofrig i.e. environmentally friendly
refrigerator.
Annual
subscription: US$15/Rs.50
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