Rabi Rashmi Abasan (meaning a solar housing complex), India's first solar housing complex has been conceieved by WBREDA (West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency) and is located at New Town Kolkata and spread over an area of 1.76 acres. Each house owner within the complex will produce his own power for domestic use and feed any surplus power into the local grid.

Meeting in Bangkok in early April, climate change negotiators started grappling with key trade related issues, such as intellectual property rights and competitiveness concerns. Delegates also considered the responsibilities that countries could take on in the post-Kyoto climate regime they hope agree on by 2009. India proposed basing future commitments on per capita emissions, which could potentially

The radiations from the sun can be converted into electrical energy using devices like solar cells.

Cities worldwide are promoting environmentally "green' roofs to mitigate several urban problems. Ground cover, shrubs and other flora planted across a building's roof can reduce storm water runoff, easing the burden on local sewers and water treatment systems. And the vegetation can keep the roof cooler in summer, lowering interior air-conditioning costs and therefore peak demand on area power plants.

Power generation as well as the production of fuels for transportation requires water, and the supply of high-quality freshwater is energy intensive. A growing population and climate change will increase the pressure on both resources.

Rich nations, including the US and UK, are planning to push rapidly industrialising nations like China and India into accepting "back door" limits on their greenhouse gas emissions. They want climate negotiators to agree global technical standards on "dirty" manufacturing industries like aluminium, iron and steel, cement and chemicals - standards that would apply equally to factories in the US, Italy or India, for example. This strategy emerged last week in meetings at the Royal Society in London to discuss the successor to the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012.