CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION (C-SPAC)
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CHAPTER 4An e-newsletter of the CUTS Centre for Sustainable Production and ConsumptionNo 4, November, 2001 |
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CHAPTER-4 No.4 |
CONTENTS
Environmentally sound technologies and practices Advertising and sustainable consumption |
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World’s governments are meeting at Marrakesh from October 29 to November 9 2001 to finalise the procedures and institutions needed to make the Kyoto Protocol fully operational. They will do this by negotiating a package of formal Conference decisions on the basis of political principles agreed by ministers and senior officials last July in Bonn. The principles set out by the Bonn Agreement as a basis for the Marrakesh decisions include: · Developed countries will provide greater access to funds and technology so that developing countries could limit emissions and adapt to climate change. They will also minimise the economic impact that their efforts to reduce emissions will have on developing countries. A Special climate change fund for adaptation, technology transfer, and emissions limitation will be established under the Convention. In addition, a Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund will be established to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes. In July, developed countries made a joint political statement pledging to contribute $410 million per year by 2005 to help developing countries manage their emissions and adapt to climate change. A system for contributing to and overseeing the various funds needs to become quickly operational. · Developed countries can receive credit towards their Kyoto emissions targets for carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere by sinks. Eligible activities include revegetation and the management of forests, croplands and grazing lands. Individual country quotas have been set. As a result sinks will account for only a fraction of the emissions reductions that can be counted towards the Kyoto targets. · Energy efficiency, renewable energy, and forest sink projects can qualify for the Clean Development Mechanism. Developed countries are to refrain from using nuclear facilities in the CDM. · Use of the Protocol’s three flexible mechanisms should be supplemental to domestic action, which will constitute a significant element of the effort made by each Party. · A Compliance Committee with a facilitative branch and an enforcement branch will oversee the compliance mechanism. For every ton of gas that a country emits over its target, it will be required to reduce an additional 1.3 tons during the Protocol’s second commitment period. Additional compliance procedures and mechanisms will be developed after the Protocol enters into force. These decisions will also address how to increase the flow of financial and technological support to developing countries under the Climate Change Convention. With the new funding and rules in place, the Parties to the Convention could start discussing the political issues that are likely to dominate the next few years, including the widespread desire to re-engage the US in emissions limitation, the second period for emissions cuts under the Protocol (on which negotiations should start by 2005) and the prospects for expanding the group of countries with emissions targets. The Marrakesh conference will make an input to the World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg in September 2002. Happy reading and comments are welcome! Arjun Dutta CUTS-CSPAC Industry to be ozone sensitised The Indian Government is working towards sensitising the industry and services sector to facilitate the switch over to non-ozone depleting substances (ODS) technology. The Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Shri T.R. Baalu opines that there is still a need to increase awareness among consumers and service sector to use goods and services that employ non-ODS technologies. While speaking at the Seventh International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, he mentioned that the Central Government has fully exempted payment of customs and excise duty on capital equipment for ODS phase-out projects and new investments using non-ODS technologies. The import and export of ODS have been brought under the restricted category following a licensing system that already exists. Baalu also added that the ability of the Indian enterprises to convert to non-ODS technologies mainly depends on availability of funds and technology and the spirit of Montreal Protocol is to assist enterprises in developing countries to catch up with these technologies. (Source: Business Line, September 18, 2001) In line with the parent company’s global Ozone Protection Policy that was formulated and implemented in 1992, Coca-Cola has till date invested Rs 470mn in installing pollution control equipment in the market place. According to a company release, its investments in CFC-free equipment last year, was about Rs. 1bn. Coca-Cola India has been in the process of placing equipment that uses non-CFC refrigerants since 1995 and it has over 2,72,000 coolers and refrigerators in the market that are CFC free. (Source: Business Line, September 17, 2001) Effort to sensitise students on atmospheric issues CUTS-CSPAC and Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM) jointly organised a discussion titled “Atmospheric issues and its importance at the World Summit on Sustainable Development” at IISWBM, Calcutta on September 20, 2001. The objective of the program was to sensitise students on the history of Multilateral Environment Agreements and its importance at the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held at Johannesburg in from 2nd to 11th September 2002, the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols and how far we have been able to keep the commitments and industry response to atmospheric issues in West Bengal, India. The panellists discussed that India has around 50 environmental laws with provisions for imprisonment of violators and new laws are coming in. The main bottleneck as far as these laws are concerned is implementation. It was also discussed that global warming is going to affect developing countries much more than the developed countries. Ironically the countries, which are least responsible for such environmental degradation, will pay the highest price so they need to have a proactive agenda. The discussion apart from attracting healthy participation from students of IISWBM and Jadavpur University also attracted participation from city-based experts on environment and atmospheric issues, representatives from government bodies, non-government organisations, academicians and media. ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND TECHNOLOGIES & PRACTICES 46th session of The International Lead Zinc study group The International Lead Zinc study group held its forty-sixth session in New Delhi India from 16-18 October 2001 under the Chairmanship of Mr. H Ockenfels. The sessions included meetings of the Study Group’s Statistical and Forecasting Committee and Economic and Environment Committees. In the second meeting of the Economic and Environment Committee held under the Chairmanship of Dr. David Wilson a discussion was held on the recycling practices and policies in India and a number of other countries. The Committee also discussed projects to enhance capacity building in lead and zinc industries of developing country members of the ILZSG. It was agreed that this constituted an important area of Study Group activity and this action was endorsed. (ILZSG-Press release, October 18, 2001) Power Paper, an Israeli start-up company, has developed a flexible and environmentally energy source in a small plant just outside Tel Aviv. The wafer thin batteries are environmentally friendly and good enough to eat! Technically, the battery works like a standard one. It has a cathode one side, an anode on another and an electronic core that converts chemical energy into electrical energy in a cyclic process. What is new is the secret recipe for the power-producing materials. It is a chemical cocktail that allows the materials to be printed on flexible substrates including paper. With a shelf life of two and a half years, potential mass production costs of few cents and capacity of 20mAh (milliamps per hour) per square inch, these batteries can be designed by area to suit the power needs of musical greetings cards, smart cards, mouse pads and health care devises. The battery is not yet rechargeable and not quite powerful to drive devices such as cellular phones and other electronic devices. (Source: The Financial Times, August 06, 2001) ADVERTISING AND SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION ASCI’s initiative to build people’s faith in adsThe Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has launched a campaign featuring the Indian consumer activist and television personality, Priya Tendulkar to build public confidence in advertising and to ensure that no advertiser gets away with dishonest, indecent or misleading advertisement. The 30-second television commercial will urge consumers to complain to ASCI if they come across an ad that is dishonest and misleading. This is to demonstrate to the public that the advertising community is a responsible lot. Launching the campaign Sam Balsara said that this is a step against the consumers’ complain that ASCI does not make effort to educate genuine consumers about the redressal system available to them. (Source: Business Line, August 17, 2001) Marketers turn to games to pitch their products Marketers are increasingly using computer games as an advertising medium. Car racing games have open advertising on car, but other advertising contained within the game itself is more subliminal. Major car manufacturers use the medium, and at gaming sites companies pay for their listing alongside conventional games. Many games are "viral" and can be sent via email. This style of advertising concerns critics because it slips past the notice of parents to unsuspecting young people. Techniques like pop-up windows strengthen this effect. (Source: Sydney Morning Herald, October 09, 2001) Monograph: “Greening the Lead acid battery sector in India: Structure, Problems and Needs” 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, 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 in light of the enacted Battery (Management and Handling) Rules 2001 on May 16, 2001. [Corrigendum: The name of the monograph “Lead acid battery sector in India: Problems and prospects” carried in Chapter 4(3) will now read as “Greening the Lead acid battery sector in India: Structure, Problems and Needs”] EcoConsumer, Issue 3, 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-labelling and a host of related topics, including Ecofrig i.e. environment friendly refrigerator. |
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If you are receiving this electronic newsletter inadvertently, we apologise for the same. Please do let us know to make the necessary amendments. CUTS Centre for Sustainable Production & Consumption (CUTS-CSPAC) 3 Suren Tagore Road, 2nd Floor, Calcutta-700019, India Telefax: 91-33-24601424, Fax: 91-33-24407669 Email: cuts-calcutta@cuts.org Website: http://www.cuts-international.org/ |
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Centre for Sustainable Production & Consumption (CUTS-CSPAC)
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Suren Tagore Road, 2nd Floor, Calcutta-700019, India Telefax:
91-33-24601424, Fax: 91-33-24407669 Email:
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