TERI working on Sunderbans project

 
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is working on a project on the Sunderbans delta, a fragile ecosystem now threatened by rising sea-levels, TERI director-general R.K. Pachauri said. Dr. Pachauri, chief of the Nobel-prize winning United Nation's Intergovernmental panel on climate change, was talking to journalists after holding an hour-long discussion with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Wednesday. He described the meeting in the State Secretariat as "an enlightening one." "We discussed the impact of climate change on West Bengal and how the government would tackle this, especially in view of its dependence on fossil fuels," he said. Nuclear power as a clean fuel source was not discussed at the meeting.The TERI also submitted a proposal to the Chief Minister to set up a climate-related research centre. "This State has a very diverse ecosystem with the Himalayas in the north and the Sunderbans in the south – this needs to be protected," Dr. Pachauri said. "Here, there are droughts and floods – melting Himalayan glaciers will bring about many changes that we need to worry about," he said.Earlier, he launched a scheme for green-rating of environment-friendly buildings. This rating, being introduced for residential as well as corporate buildings, would be given by the TERI in partnership with the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Green Power Corporation, the corporate entity of the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency, which is headed by S.P. Gonchaudhuri.

The Hindu, 8th August 2008