From Bali to Copenhagen

Jamshedpur, Sept. 15: Pollution has been a cause of concern for people for some decades now, but few steps have been taken to control it.

Tata Motors Limited today organised a seminar on carbon emission reduction as part of an awareness campaign at Management Training Centre in Telco today.

S.B. Borwankar, the plant head of Tata Motors at Jamshedpur, was the chief guest and he called for an urgent need to reduce the green house gas emissions for the benefit of future generation.

Carbon credits are emerging as a new market for developing Asian nations, reports Umesh Pandey in Singapore

As Asia starts to witness a rise in carbon trade, many markets are looking to start trading Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits and Thailand is not being left behind.

Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, China (both in Shanghai and Beijing) are all reported considering opening exchanges for trading carbon credits.

Rather than merely adhering to national climate-change rules, industries, such as cement, can lead the way with their own global agreements
by Elaine Coles

Indian cos big carbon credit hedgers

The risk-taking ability of an Indian entrepreneur, coupled with his penchant for maximising returns has resulted in India having the largest number of unsold carbon credits among all carbon markets in the world. According to Green Ventures, India currently has over 46 million unsold carbon credits. This means over 40% of world's unsold CERs (certified emission reductions) or carbon credits are from India.

The government is working on an exhaustive set of norms, which would include tax concessions for the industry, to reduce carbon emissions. The ministry of science & technology would submit a report on norms for reduction of carbon emissions to PM's Council on Climate Change in November this year. "The norms would include tax concessions and legislative framework to motivate India Inc to effectively undertake carbon emissions' reduction programme,' said minister of science and technology Kapil Sibal.

BRITISH state schools are to be included under the government's new domestic carbon emissions trading scheme from April 2010, the environment minister said on Wednesday. Energy use in schools will be measured and count toward the emissions permit quotas of local authorities, which in turn will be encouraged to advise schools on energy efficiency, Hilary Benn said. "Young people stand to gain most tomorrow from the action we take on climate change today. That's why schools should be included in the shift to a low carbon economy," Benn said in a statement.

As India heads into the G-8 summit to face the world on its climate change strategy, the government's policymakers believe India has a more evolved and far-sighted climate change policy than China. China released its climate change action plan in 2007 and will join India as the favourite targets for the developed world in fending off pressure on climate change. Senior officials here said India's action plan focused on energy security and sustainable development while the Chinese plan focused mainly on emission reduction.

For the first time in history, oil prices breached the $135 per barrel mark last month. Since then, prices have ebbed slightly but the fallout in India is just the beginning. On June 5, the Central Government bravely increased petrol, diesel and LPG prices. This year oil subsidies are likely to cost the country over Rs 2,20,000 crore

Global Warming as we all know is one of the serious environmental issues resulting from Green House Effect. Out of all Green House Gases (GHGs), carbon dioxide is the most significant one as its concentration in the atmosphere is increasing at an alarming rate. The most interesting aspect of the GHGs is that they allow the incoming solar radiations to come to earth, but do not allow the longer wavelength radiations of the earth to go up. These are reflected back to the earth surface. As a result the earth's surface temperature is getting warmer.

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