Country’s varied topography, space constraint make it an uphill task, they say. The telecom industry is finding it difficult to implement the recent directions issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on cutting carbon emissions. DoT had issued directions on January 4, wherein it asked the service providers to frame a Carbon Credit Policy detailing methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Government asks service providers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With an aim to minimise carbon emissions from the fast-growing telecom sector in India, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked service providers to frame a Carbon Credit Policy, detailing methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The directions were issued on January 4 after much deliberation over the recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in its report, Approach towards green telecommunications, submitted last year.

A well-calculated compensation plan eases relocation pain of forest dwellers from the core area of Melghat Tiger Reserve. It’s not the kind of relocation story that one usually hears. Early last year three villages were uprooted from their traditional land in the core area of the Melghat Tiger Reserve to make way for free movement of the big cat. They did not protest, and walked away with their belongings and herds of cattle.

Will Britain's court of appeal uphold government decision to slash solar power subsidies? After a short-lived solar boom for residential solar installations in the UK, the industry has run into trouble with the government slashing subsidies in the wake of the sharply falling silicon prices and poor fiscal conditions prevailing in the country. In October-end last year, UK minister for climate change Greg Barker slashed benefits for the solar power producers. The solar industry has decided to fight against what it calls “unjust” and “overly speedy” cuts.

Third complaint against Chinese companies flouting rules filed. Probe underway. The trade dispute between the US and China over renewable energy equipment is growing shriller. The Wind Tower Trade Coalition (WTTC), a coalition of producers of wind towers in the US, has filed a complaint with the US Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission seeking anti-dumping and countervailing investigations into the Chinese and Vietnamese wind towers imports in the US market. Two similar probes against China are already underway.

Say studies have shown that Indian waste is unfit for the purpose. With the fear of losing their means of living looming over them, waste pickers from across the country have opposed Delhi government’s plan to install three waste to energy plants in the city. “How can the proposed energy generation of 40 MW justify the loss of 350,000 jobs,” asks Dharmendra Yadav, general secretary of All India Kachra Sharamail Mahasang (AIKSM) which organised a state-level meet of waste pickers on December 22.

Mission to reduce chances of glacial lake's outburst fails to achieve target. The Thorthormi glacial lake in northern Bhutan is considered the country's likeliest climate-induced disaster. The lake, perched at a height of more than 4,400 metres, is swelling because of melting ice, and is in danger of bursting its wall. Efforts by the Bhutanese government to lower the lake's water level is yet to eliminate the risk of a disaster, which may sweep away communities living in the upper catchment of the Pho Chu river, fed by the glacier.

EU Aviation Directive will be binding; airlines' operations cost to increase. Starting January 1 in the new year, all flights operating in the European Union will be subjected to carbon emission limits. The regulations will also apply to aircraft flying in and out of the 27-nation bloc. This follows the European Court of Justice, the highest court of the European Union, ruling in the affirmative that the aviation industry shall be subjected to a cap on its carbon emissions.

The 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Durban in December 2011. Negotiations were heated and acrimonious, as the world desperately searched for new ways to avoid the toughest of questions—how to drastically reduce emissions to keep the world somewhat within safe levels and how to do this while ensuring equity. With uneasy answers, the easy solution was to push the world to another round of messy negotiations for a new treaty, protocol or legal instrument or something like that.

After CNG, the national capital is all set to run its public transport fleet on biogas. Ambitious as it may sound, but Delhi plans to run its buses on biogas. In collaboration with the Swedish government, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy plans to set up a biogas plant inside Kesopur Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) complex in West Delhi. The plant will receive raw gas emitted by the STP and upgrade it so that it can be used to propel vehicles.