The theme of this years’ World Environment Day is lifestyles and an opportunity to reflect on the central issue of global environmentalism - how a continually growing economic system can fit within a finite ecological system.

For growing economies the stress has to be on patterns of natural resource use and not on the status of natural resources; that is, dealing with the causes rather than the symptoms of the problem of climate change. The time has come for rapidly growing Asia to distinguish between the global, regional and national aspects of climate policy, recognize the linkages and shape the deliberations for the new climate regime by taking substantive measures at home.

India’s solar power policy is now entering round two. And there is much that needs to be reviewed and reworked as the business of solar energy has seen massive turbulence in India as well as globally. In the first phase (2010 to 2013) of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) the target was to set up 1,000-2,000 MW of grid-based solar power in the country. By 2013, the country has indeed commissioned some 1,000 MW of solar power, but 700 MW of this target comes from the non-JNNSM state of Gujarat.

Very different global rules are needed for human wellbeing

Averting climate change does not need emission reduction pledges, timetables and a common legal framework.

With generous dispensing of cheap diesel to rich car owners, the  government has finally turned the market around.  Media is abuzz with the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell’s report. It says the diesel consumption growth rate at 6.4 per cent has outstripped that of petrol at 4.5 per cent. Petrol price hikes have made the fuel price gap gape wider and add to diesel’s lure.