The climate crisis is starving polar bears. Humans should take note
Despite the belief that animals have an unimpeachable survival instinct, polar bears are increasingly making wrong energy expending decisions in their desperate search for food. In trying to adapt to the climate crisis, projects can actually make us more vulnerable or simply waste resources. For example, we keep building higher flood barriers, only to see the water redirected to an area without protections or have them breached as climate change intensifies storms
How financial engineering can help Europe go green
For funding renewable projects, derivatives such as two-way contracts have existed for long but inertia prevents their greater adoption. Each project has a target price, determined at a competitive auction. When market prices are lower than the target, the government makes up the difference. When the market goes higher, the producer pays the excess to the government
Climate Crisis: A four-point primer for India’s young entrepreneurs scouting for green opportunities
The past 12 months have been the hottest ever, and there will be consequences both environmentally and economically if we don't make a course correction. Today's young business owners must use their imaginations, and develop long-term, viable solutions for the future
Rise in climate financing underscores need for green taxonomy
Harmonising taxonomy with global frameworks will ensure interoperability across markets, facilitating seamless cross-border investment flows
Explained: 10 degree average gap in Mumbai's maximum & minimum temperatures
According to IMD's weekly forecast, the significant gap between Mumbai's day and night temperatures is expected to persist until at least February 15. This can have implications for health, as well as the environment.
Germany makes a risky bet on Hydrogen energy
Hydrogen is expensive and the cost of building, and then later upgrading, power plants to burn a fuel which isn’t yet widely available is also high. Hydrogen’s potential has been downgraded in recent years after being initially touted as the fuel of the future, powering planes, trains and automobiles and heating homes
The 1.5-degree breach is a serious warning on the climate front
Halting or reversing the temperature rise through massive emission reduction appears to be a mirage that the global community is chasing with little success. Therefore, countries prone to extreme weather events need to take proactive action to adapt and minimise their impacts. This can be achieved through constant monitoring and evidence-based policy actions
MC Interview | Crude prices will remain at current levels, India’s imports will rise: IEA oil markets head
From now till 2030, India will be the largest source of oil demand growth globally, says Toril Bosoni. As a big crude oil buyer, India can certainly do term deals at better terms and better prices, she said.
Is India scorning the energy bounty that transformed China?
If renewable energy falls short, coal is going to make up the difference, either with — or more likely without — Carbon Capture and Storage. Rather than depending on an unrealistic and unproven new technology to lock away pollution, India must give renewable energy developers certainty and policy backing. The best way to decarbonise the coal sector isn’t to bury its emissions — it’s to bury the industry as a whole
China’s clean technology is made of dirty metals
Decarbonisation is fueling consumption of metals, chemicals and glass, which are in turn causing a lot of greenhouse pollution as they’re manufactured. Clean-energy products are much more efficient than the alternative once they’re being used — but producing them is causing a spike in carbon emissions
Climate Change: California atmospheric river and Chile fires are just the beginning
Earth so far has warmed by only about 1.2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages. Every tenth of a degree by which we crank up the global thermostat increases the atmospheric chaos and threatens tipping points that could fuel exponentially more warming and destruction
What's Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa got to do with food sustainability?
These attacks on works of art are eco-terrorism. George Bernard Shaw defined murder as the most extreme form of criticism. Similarly, terrorism is the most extreme form of advertising.
Climate bugs in developmental economics
There is a crucial need to intensify efforts to mitigate emissions. But developed economies are sluggish in adopting solutions and in fact are making solutions more expensive than the problem
The world’s forests are doing much better than we think
The UK as a whole has nearly three times as much forest as it did at the start of the 20th century. China’s forests have increased by about 607,000 square kilometers since 1992, a region the size of Ukraine. The European Union has added an area equivalent to Cambodia to its woodlands. But Brazil alone removed enough woodland since 1992 to counteract all the growth in China, the EU and US put together
Explainer: Why wildfires are on the rise in India, and their impact
Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, which experienced reduced precipitation this winter, observed a rise in forest fires.
Budget 2024 Expectations Highlights: Space tech industry urges for GST relief on satellites and launch vehicles
Budget 2024 Expectations Highlights: Space tech industry urges GST exemption expansion to satellites, launch vehicles, and ground equipment in the upcoming Interim Budget.
Indian entry wins Sundance 2024 documentary competition: Nocturnes spotlights Eastern Himalayan biodiversity
Indian documentary film Nocturnes—winner of the 2024 World Cinema Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival—was shot on location in the misty mountain forests of Arunachal Pradesh.
Biden’s green spending splurge is a hard model to copy
US industrial policy is too expensive and China-sceptic to become a global standard
Plastic bag bans have failed in every way except one
You need to use a reusable plastic bag 52 times before its environmental impact drops below that of a disposable one, rising to 20,000 times for organic cotton. A better solution would be to give people the option of using bags with the lowest single-use climate impact — and then charge a discouragingly high price for all carry bags, so that they get reused as much as possible
Ayodhya will be a model for sustainable development for all Indian cities: Dikshu Kukreja
Kukreja, who played a large part in drafting the plan for the temple city says that apart from the environmental aspect, the plan is for a modern conurbation that is firmly in touch with its ancient roots
Snowless Kashmir sparks concerns over key sectors, ecology and economy
It is Chillai Kalan, the 40-day harshest winter period in Kashmir and the people are still waiting for the first snowfall of the season.
Snow-less in Kashmir, Himachal | Is India experiencing a snow drought, and what are the potential consequences of this phenomenon?
This winter, the elevated regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh have experienced minimal to no snowfall, potentially triggering cascading effects on both the local ecology and livelihoods.
Focus on climate change, extreme weather at IMD's 150th year celebrations
Vice-president Jagdeep Dhankhar and Union minister Kiren Rijiju spoke on the role of weather forecasting in climate change mitigation and climate resilience.
Bill Gates says global health spending key to halting climate change
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that he co-chairs announced plans to spend $8.6 billion on health care technology and programs in 2024
Azerbaijan has a mighty job ahead for COP29
The fear voiced by many activists is the annual gathering is once again overseen by those with a vested interest in slowing down the transition away from fossil fuels, which was agreed upon last year
