By improving energy efficiency - using less energy to perform the same tasks - global ener- gy demand could be reduced by 12 per cent by 2030, saving $766 billion in building new energy infrastructure. For every $1 invested in improving energy efficiency, we would save more than $2 in infrastructure investment BY NOELEEN HEYZER

As much as 40 per cent of the world's energy is directly used in buildings, and if the indirect consumption is added

Speakers at a workshop called for taking up projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which would also help sustainable development of the country. The CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing developed countries, which emit most greenhouse gases, to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries.

These are the best of times; these are the worst of times. Charles Dickens' famous words describe the present state of European Union-Russia relations perfectly. There has never been as much trade and business between Europe and Russia. Yet political tension has not been this intense since the days of the Soviet Union.

National commodity and derivatives exchange Ltd. will launch futures contract for certified emission reduction (CERs) on April 10, 2008. NCDEX is the first exchange in any of the developing countries of the world to launch a futures contract for carbon credit issued under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on its exchange platform. The CER contract will be made available on April 10 for the delivery in December 2008. The subsequent yearly contracts are likely to be launched within two months for delivery in December between 2009 and 2012.

Not so long ago, an Indian company selling carbon credits had a cache of glamour that business-as-usual competitors could only envy. Not any more.