Kerala seeks Athirapally power project's clearance

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 13 (PTI) Kerala government today decided to seek clearance from the Centre for the proposed Athirapally power project across the Chalakudy river in Thrissur district. The decision comes in the wake of Centre issuing a show cause notice to the state for not revoking the clearance given to the project earlier, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The Centre in a showcause notice on January 4 last had asked the state why the clearance given in 2007 should not be revoked citing environment reasons. The 163-MW power project had triggered protests from various environment groups which held that it would destroy the unique biodiversity of the region. State Electricity Minister A K Balan had met Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh last week to discuss about the project.

Source: PTI 13 Jan 2010, 16:45 HRS IST

Attingal poised to enter State’s tourism map

The Attingal municipality is all set to find a place on the tourism
map of Kerala. The civic administration has unveiled an action plan
for the development of tourism infrastructure and restoration of the
inland waterway from Murukkumpuzha to Varkala. The project is part of
the Rs.8-crore Kadhinamkulam Backwater Scheme funded by the Union
Ministry of Tourism. It includes the development of floating jetties,
tourist facilitation centres, landscaping and electrification. Of the
Rs.2.43 crore sanctioned by the Centre for the first phase of the
project, Rs.56.97 lakh will be spent in the Attingal municipality.
Facilities planned
A tourist facilitation centre, floating jetty, children's park and
toilet blocks are among the facilities to come up here. The estimated
cost is Rs.57 lakh. The scheme includes the construction of floating
jetties at Murukkumpuzhakadavu, Thazhampally, Pulunthuruthu and Vakkom
and boat race tracks at Chirayinkeezh- Pulimoottukadavu. An amount of
Rs.32.47 lakh will be spent on landscaping and improvement of basic
facilities along the Murukkumpuzha-Varkala sector while
electrification of the stretch is estimated to cost Rs.15.08 lakh. Mr.
Rajeshkumar said the construction contract had been awarded to the
Kerala Small Industries Development Corporation (SIDCO). "Attingal was
selected for the project because of the proximity to the National
Highway. With the new facilities in place, the scenic backwaters here
will become a major tourist destination," he said. The scheme is
expected to be formally launched by the first week of July.

The Hindu, June 24

Renewable energy seeks a place in the sun

Chennai: The mood in the renewable energy sector alternates between hope and despair. Every time there is a development that augurs well for the sector, players get upbeat and then wax eloquent about the potential that the country offers for the entire range of renewable energy sources. This joy is, unfortunately, often short-lived. One step forward, two steps back, is how an industry player described the green energy sector's progress. But, then, the players add that in India things happen, albeit slowly. They turn green with envy when they look at the developments in China, especially with the wind power sector. At the end of calendar 2008, China overtook India to occupy the fourth slot in terms of total wind installed capacity and jumped far ahead with regard to annual capacity addition. China added 6,300 MW of wind power capacity in 2008, taking its total installed capacity to 12,210 MW. In comparison, India added 1,800 MW, taking its installed capacity to 9,645 MW. China also boasts of a much larger manufacturing base for wind energy equipment when compared to India. Mr Ditlev Engel, President and CEO, Vestas Wind Systems, a leading wind turbine manufacturer, told this correspondent in Denmark last year that things in India have been disappointing as far as the wind energy sector is concerned, especially because the country was so much ahead some years ago. "I think India has a wonderful potential if the country wants to go ahead," was his observation. But, some like Mr G. M. Pillai, Director-General of the Pune-based World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE), an eternal optimist as far as the renewable energy sector is concerned and a vocal proponent of its advantages, in a recent interaction, listed some of the positive developments for the sector. The 50 paise a unit generation-based incentive offered by the Government of India is one such. The other is the response to an initiative taken by him – that of getting a renewable energy law enacted in the country. He said that at the political level, almost all parties were aware of the need for such a piece of legislation and was confident that this legislative impetus would give the sector the much-needed boost.A look at the ground reality is in order. Of the total 148,265 MW of installed power capacity at the end of April 2009 in the country, the renewable energy sector at 13,242 MW accounts for just about 9 per cent. Of this, the wind power capacity totals 10,134 MW, with the balance being accounted for by other renewable energy sources such as biomass, cogen, small hydro, solar and waste-to-energy projects.More advanced economies, particularly in Europe, have set ambitious targets for increasing the electricity they get from Green power sources and are following that up with major fiscal incentives and regulatory measures. In India too, there has been some movement at least as far as the regulatory measures are concerned. A number of State electricity regulatory commissions have specified that distribution utilities, in cases where the electricity utility has been unbundled, or the State electricity board itself should source a specified percentage of the power they sell to consumers from renewable energy sources. Moreover, the States are also offering attractive tariffs for power from renewable sources. All this, the industry believes, will lead to increased private sector investment in the sector. As it is, a number of multinationals and some domestic power utilities and petroleum companies are investing in the renewable energy sector.For the sector to really take off, the powers that be have to realise that incentives are needed and that these to be sector specific and properly monitored. Emerging technologies in the renewable energy sector are capital intensive, which calls for higher levels of State support through higher tariffs and funds at cheaper rates of interest.The US and Europe look at Green Power from an entirely different perspective. It is not just one that will help add generation capacity, but will also provide rural jobs. That is an approach that India too will have to adopt. If that is done, a majority of the problems will be sorted out. Wind turbines, for instance, can come up only in rural areas, where the infrastructure is poor. The developers not only have to provide this infrastructure themselves, they also have to contend with numerous "local issues," as they put it.Green Power will also help in distributed generation — having small generation capacities in places where there is not heavy demand for electricity. A number of small-size biomass power projects have been put up and more are in the pipeline. For them to come on line quickly, attractive tariffs are a must. Rather than look at different sources of electricity generation in isolation, it is necessary for all States to work out an integrated energy plan that will cover a 25-year period. This should not be confined to just how the State is going to meet its electricity needs, but also look at the transportation sector. Some States such as Karnataka, Rajasthan and Maharashtra have embarked on such an exercise. Mr Pillai of WISE believes that this is a must, as otherwise, the States will not be prepared for the sudden energy demand growth. One area that Mr Pillai wants the States to look at seriously for power generation is solar. It may be an expensive proposition now, but large-scale projects tend to bring down costs. Also, newer technologies are emerging that will help lower cost and enable larger quantity of electricity to be generated. His confident assertion was that solar power can power the entire northern region. Only policy and regulatory push can determine whether that is indeed feasible.

 

Business line, 5th June, 2009

Refugees join list of climate-change issues

There could be 200 million climate refugees by 2050, according to a
new policy paper by the International Organization for Migration,
depending on the degree of climate disturbances. Aside from the South
Pacific, low-lying areas likely to be battered first include
Bangladesh and nations in the Indian Ocean, where the leader of the
Maldives has begun seeking a safe haven for his 300,000 people.
Landlocked areas may also be affected; some experts call the Darfur
region of Sudan, where nomads battle villagers in a war over shrinking
natural resources, the first significant conflict linked to climate
change. In the coming days, the U.N. General Assembly is expected to
adopt the first resolution linking climate change to international
peace and security. The hard-fought resolution, brought by 12 Pacific
island states, says that climate change warrants greater attention
from the United Nations as a possible source of upheaval worldwide and
calls for more intense efforts to combat it. While all Pacific island
states are expected to lose land, some made up entirely of atolls,
like Tuvalu and Kiribati, face possible extinction. As it is, the
compromise resolution does not mention such specific steps, one of the
reasons it is expected to pass. Britain, which introduced climate
change as a Security Council discussion topic two years ago, supports
it along with most of Europe, while other permanent council members —
namely, the United States, China and Russia — generally backed the
measure once it no longer explicitly demanded council action.
Scientific studies distributed by the United Nations or affiliated
agencies generally paint rising seas as a threat. A 2007 report by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, detailing shifts expected
in the South Pacific, said rising seas would worsen flooding and
erosion and threaten towns as well as infrastructure. Some fresh water
will turn salty, and fishing and agriculture will wither, it said. The
small island states are not alone in considering the looming threat
already on the doorstep. A policy paper released this month by
Australia's Defence Ministry suggests possible violent outcomes in the
Pacific. While Australia should try to mitigate the humanitarian
suffering caused by global warming, if that failed and conflict
erupted, the country should use its military "as an instrument to deal
with any threats," said the paper. Australia's previous prime
minister, John Howard, was generally dismissive of the problem, saying
his country was plagued with "doomsayers." But a policy paper called
"Our Drowning Neighbours," by the now governing Labour Party, said
Australia should help meld an international coalition to address it.
Political debates have erupted there and in New Zealand over the idea
of immigration quotas for climate refugees. New Zealand established a
"Pacific Access Category" with guidelines that mirror the rules for
any emigre, opening its borders to a limited annual quota of some 400
able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 45 who have no criminal
records. But its position has attracted criticism for leaving out the
young and the old, who have the least ability to relocate. Australia's
policy, by contrast, is to try to mitigate the circumstances for the
victims where they are, rather than serving as their lifeboat. The
sentiment among Pacific Islanders suggests that they do not want to
abandon their homelands or be absorbed into cultures where indigenous
people already struggle for acceptance. Rakova, on the Carteret
Islands, echoes that sentiment. A year ago, her proposed relocation
effort attracted just three families out of a population of around
2,000 people. But after last season's king tides, she is scrounging
for about $1.5 million to help some 750 people relocate before the
tides come again. Jennifer Redfearn, a documentary maker, has been
filming the gradual disappearance of the Carterets for a work called
"Sun Come Up." One clan chief told her he would rather sink with the
islands than leave. It now takes only about 15 minutes to walk the
length of the largest island, with food and water supplies shrinking
all the time. "It destroys our food gardens, it uproots coconut trees,
it even washes over the sea walls that we have built," Rakova says on
the film. "Most of our culture will have to live in memory." — © 2009
The New York Times News Service

The Hindu, 30th May 2009

Right of way

On March 23, Greenpeace Inter' national issued full page
advertisements in the international press to draw attention to the
Olive Ridleys, which come annually to the beaches of Orissa's
Gahirmatha to nest . The advertisement drew on the hype around the
cheap car Nano by Tata, the company building the Dhamra port
along'wtth the L&T group, to raise alarm about the impact of an
upcoming port on the endangered turtles. The port at Dhamra is less
than five km from the Bhitarkanika National Park; it is 15 km from the
Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary. The beaches are one of the world's
largest nesting sites for the turtles. The turtles didn't nest there
last year; this year's nesting season-from December to March-hadn't
seen any turtles. March 24 brought a surprise. Unaware of the
advertisement-and the talk of construction work driving the turtles
away from the beaches where they breed thousands of olive coloured,
heartshaped shells emerged from the waters off the Gahir' matha coast
They were seen floating in the inshore waters around sunset.
This cycle continued from March 24-30, and the Dhamra Port Company Ltd
said the event vindicated their stand that the port does not pose .any
threat to the turtles. The company argued there were occasions earlier
when the turtles did not visit the Orissa coast Mass nesting did not
happen in the early 1980s and the late 19OOs. "The port construction
started in late 2007," a company spokesperson said. So, why didn't the
turtles come to the beach in certain years? The answers are not
known;" there are only anecdotes. People in the Kend' rapara district,
under which the beach lies,' say missile tests on the Wheeler island,
close to the Gahirmatha sanctuary, and fishing ports could be the
reasons. But there are no scientific studies to back these
conjectures. The state government, port authorities and,
conservationist&-local and international""': who claim the port
disturbs the turtles have; possible impact on turtles. The port
company had invited activists for talks to allay the impact of the
port on the turtles, if any, but the, green groups are not ready to
meet till the, company stops construction.
With talks in limbo, the port is now half complete. Violations in the
clearances given to the port have not been debated publicly because of
the impasse on the impact on the turtles. Take the example of the
environmental impact assessment (EIA) report This raises interesting
questions even about other¬port projects.
The Dhamra Port Company claimed to have all the approvals before
starting the port's construction in 2007. A Pune-based consultant
wrote the EIA report for the Dhamra port in 1997, when it was to be
built by. Internal Sea Port. Then, the port was to come up on Kani ka
island off the coast, near the mouth ofpM~ river Dhamra. In 2004, the
state government moved the location of the port to the main .land,
close to the Gahirmatha sanctuary.
The new proposal envisaged a bigger port than previously planned-cargo
handling' capacity increased to 83 million tonnes per, year compared
to the 25 million tonnes per' year proposed earlier The EIA
notification, under which the port was cleared, does not allow such
expansion.
"The Orissa government did not get new studies done because it found
the new site' most suitable for a deep sea port. Besides, Dhamra is
the expansion of an old project, so the question of a new EIA does not
arise," said A K Panda, the state's deputy secretary of port
development. There is a distinct advantage in labelling a project an
expansion of an old one: it goes for clearance to the Union: surface
transport ministry, which is charged: with developing Infrastructure
like ports. A new project, however. must get the nod from' the Union
environment ministry, responsible, for safeguarding the environment. ;
A 2006 report, by the International Union, for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN), on the scoping mission of the Dhamra port project contradicts
Panda. It said: "The new port significantly dwarfs the old port in
terms of size and potential environmental Impacts. In our view the
port is really not an expansion of an old port, the two are not even
adjacent." It also said the port would see a growth in industry in the
area. "If the port becomes a net importer of raw materials, industries
would want to be as close to the port as possible. While the port
itself might be committed to may not be so." These concerns do not
find a mention in the ETA, which addresses the turtles in two of the
160 pages. The EIA says the port site is not the nesting ground for
turtles and hence won't affect them in any way. MCN disagrees:
"Turtle hatchlings are attracted to bright lights, and it is possible
the". hatchlings will be misguided and head inland towards the port
rather the"" offshore."
There is little mention of possible impact of erosion or dredging on
turtles in the EIA. Men asked for a comprehensive environmental
management plan. So the company commissioned in 2008 a study to the
National Institute of Oceanography in Goa to find out if dredging
would affect nesting beaches. The study would be complete in May 2009;
initial findings suggest erosion and accretion of the beaches is a
natural process and an annual cyclical phenomenon and cannot be
attributed to dredging at the port site. IUCN officials suggested
safeguard measures. Nicolas J Pilcher, co chair of IUCN's Marine
Turtle Specialist Group, said mitigation measures work well and the
company had taken a proactive stand in this regard. He added IUCN
brought the world's best science to the table, which would benefit the
project. But conservationists do not buy the explanation because the
mitigation measures are limited only to the Dhamra port site. "There
have been no impact studies on ancillary and downstream projects-ship
building yard, steel plant, fertilizer plant-as a result of port,"
said a report by Sudarshan Rodrigues and Aarti Shreedhar of ATREE. The
Orissa state government is planning 11 ports, including Dhamra. The
state wants to be on par with other maritime states and has proposed a
slngle window agency for development of ports and Inland waterways. At
this point, the Importance of regulations and safeguards cannot be
overstated.

The New Indian Express, 23rd May 2009

Poor struggle to weather the storm

Mumbai is one of the world's cities most vulnerable to flooding, with over half the population living in slums, many built on reclaimed swampland. In July 2005, floods caused 900 deaths, mostly by landslips and collapsed buildings. With its crumbling drainage system, uncontrolled development and the destruction of mangrove swamps that once soaked up intense rains, the urban poor are facing increasing risks from the weather in this 21st century megacity.It's not just Mumbai. In rapidly swelling cities across Asia, Africa and the Americas, from Jakarta to Lagos to Port-au-Prince, rapid urbanisation is pushing people to live on marginal land at risk of flooding and other climatic disasters.At the same time climate change is bringing new and unpredictable weather patterns, increasing the number of storms and their intensity. Rising sea levels will leave 200 million people living in coastal floodplains at risk of losing their homes and livelihoods.The effects will be huge. Research collated by Oxfam shows that in six years' time the number of people affected by climate-related crises is projected to rise by 54 per cent, from 250 million people currently to 375 million. This doesn't include the huge numbers of people affected by wars, volcanoes and earthquakes.It takes poverty to turn a storm into a full-blown disaster. The US saw this very clearly when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Poor people are more likely to live in densely populated areas, in rickety houses, without savings or access to healthcare. Living so close to the edge, they are easily killed or pushed into utter destitution.Huge numbers of people in East and Central Africa and South Asia are growing ever more vulnerable to an annual drought and flood cycle. In 2008, failed rains in Ethiopia left millions in need of food aid. Nearly four million people, mostly peasants, were affected by floods in Bihar in 2008.Many of climate disasters don't make the headlines.. As John Holmes, the UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator said: "All these events on their own didn't have massive death tolls, but if you add them together you get a mega-disaster."The massive increase in disasters would be shocking enough if the world could cope with the current humanitarian situations. But the international system struggles to cope with current crises, like the millions going hungry in Somalia and hundreds of thousands adrift and homeless in the jungles of the Congo.In 2006 the world spent an estimated $14.2 billon on international humanitarian aid, less than the amount spent on video games. Keeping pace with the expected increase in disasters means the world will have to spend around $25 billion to maintain the current levels of humanitarian aid. But at $50 per person this isn't enough to meet their basic needs.If all governments of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) gave as much as its ten most generous countries, then global humanitarian aid would increase to $42 billion. Aid must not only be increased, it must be spent more fairly. In 2004, victims of the Asian tsunami received aid at an average of $1,241 per head. In Chad, which received far less media coverage than the tsunami, only $23 per head was spent on similarly destitute people. Their misfortune was to suffer a disaster that was slow, quiet and insidious.Poor countries can do a lot to deal with the effects of storms and flooding — if the political will is there. Bangladesh, Cuba and Mozambique have all invested heavily in protecting their people, and suffer much less loss of life in disasters than other poor countries. With extra help from the rich world and a serious commitment from developing countries' governments to invest in such prevention measures, more countries could be able to follow their example. As well as improved and increased aid, the rich world must also help poor countries to cope with the extra stress of climate change. Oxfam estimates they need to provide at least $50 billion annually — in addition to their aid budgets — to help people protect themselves from climate change. This means developing drought or flood-tolerant crops, improving infrastructures, raising bridges and roads in flood-prone areas or strengthening buildings to cope with increasing numbers of hurricanes.Stress-proofing entire regions against weather disasters is a long, hard slog. Few Western politicians are going to win plaudits for increasing aid budgets in a recession, or for cooperating with poorer nations in tackling the tough job of improving the humanitarian system.There are no Oscars for Hollywood directors making films about an Indian boy building an embankment to save his slum. This doesn't make it any less urgent or important.

 

 Business Line, 29th  April 2009 

China, the Brahmaputra and India

China's attempt to divert the Brahmaputra has reared its head again. The Chinese are apparently eyeing about 40 billion cubic metres, out of the annual average inflow of 71.4 billion, of the Brahmaputra's waters. The river skirts China's borders before dipping into India and Bangladesh. China has a serious need to feed water to its north-west territory, the Gobi Desert, which contains almost half the country's total landmass, but only seven per ce nt of its freshwater. The Gobi occupies an area of 13,00,000 sq.km making it one of the largest deserts in the world. Desertification of Gobi since 1950s has expanded it by 52,000 sq.km and it is now just 160 km from Beijing. It is said to expand by 3 km per year.China has the will and the necessary resources — manpower, technology and, above all, large foreign currency reserves in excess of a trillion dollars — to take the Brahmaputra diversion project forward; the country's economic stimulus in infrastructure could create employment potential for more than a few million people.What does this diversion mean for India? The move by the Chinese Government will put almost 40 per cent of India's hydel potential in trouble. India has hydro potential of 1,50,000 MW, of which 50,000 MW is in the North-East. Arunachal Pradesh, mainly fed by Brahmaputra's tributaries — Siang, Subansiri and Lohit — supports development of 28,500 MW hydro projects. Of this, 2,000 MW is under development by NHPC and almost 23,500 MW has been awarded to Reliance Power, Jaiprakash Power, Athena Energy and Mountain Falls Ltd, besides NHPC.Most of the awarded projects are awaiting environmental clearances, which may take two-three years, before work can begin on the ground. Since Brahmaputra is fed mainly by melted water from the Himalayan glaciers, the hydrological flow is expected to be affected during the lean flow season (winters), affecting generation from the planned plants. A move by China to divert the water will force private developers to be wary of investing in projects with the hydrological risk of not having adequate water even during normal times.With this in mind, the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) is reported to have recently held a joint meeting with the Home Ministry, the Planning Commission and the State Governments of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh to work out a suitable funding and compensation mechanism for storage projects on the Siang, Subansiri and Lohit Rivers.It was suggested at the meeting that 90 per cent of the funding of the flood moderation cost component of storage projects could be released to Arunachal Pradesh, which could then be passed on to the project authorities and, second, the amount equivalent to flood protection benefits accruing to Assam, as a result of the storage projects could be monetised and released to Arunachal Pradesh by the Planning Commission.Hopefully, this should speed up the process of the project development so that the country can claim its first user right over the waters in terms of the MoU entered into between India and China in 2002.The Brahmaputra flows 2,900 km from its source in the Kailash range of the Himalayas to its massive delta and the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh. The river drains a vast area of nearly 9,36,800 sq. km. This river system forms the largest river delta and the third largest free water fall out into the Ocean in the world — next only to the Amazon and the Congo rivers. More people live in the Ganges-Brahmaputra river basin than Western Europe and the entire North American continent.This river system is of critical interest to all the four countries, including Nepal. China is an upper riparian state and, therefore, has the freedom and capacity to divert the river. Should that happen, the irreparable loss will result in destruction of a large part of the North-East and Bangladesh. This step will also drive millions of refugees from Bangladesh into India for their livelihood. There is thus an urgent need to address this issue trilaterally.Water sustains life, environment and our culture. With global demand for water on the rise, we cannot be surprised if one country responds to its needs unilaterally; it is for us to take adequate steps before such disaster strikes.

 

Business Line, 14th April 2009

Green stimulus

 With G20 countries pledging to work for a green, low-carbon global economic recovery, a U.N.-mediated climate change agreement by the end of 2009 that can win the support of major emitters of greenhouse gases appears one step closer. The members of this economic group represent about three quarters of the global gross national product, energy consumption, and carbon emissions. It is welcome, therefore, that at the G20 London summit, they promised to make carbon emission co ncerns central to the working of their massive fiscal stimulus packages. If they devote even a part of the whole — over six trillion dollars, including multilateral development bank funds — to facilitate green growth, it could set the world economy on a low carbon path. There are many areas in which governments can intervene effectively. Public spending on infrastructure, including transport, tax and credit policies to promote climate-friendly investment, and setting energy efficiency standards are some. These policies will have a significant fiscal multiplier effect if they encourage similar moves in the private sector. In the present depressed times, these measures could save jobs and create new ones, with the bonus that they will be benign with regard to the environment.Some G20 members may draw inspiration from others who are ahead in the quest for low-carbon growth. If Germany, a world leader in renewable energy and environmental technologies employing about 1.8 million people in green technology areas, raised its output of environmental goods by an impressive 27 per cent during 2005-07, China's National Development and Reform Commission has won recognition for setting apart, under a stimulus package, nearly $100 billion for rail infrastructure and $70 billion for electricity grid expansion. Investing in upgraded electricity grids is essential to integrate expanded renewable sources of energy, notably wind. There are other key areas for governmental investment — retrofitting public infrastructure such as schools and offices with green technology, extending public transport systems, adopting green procurement policies, incubating renewable energy technologies, building demonstration projects for carbon capture and storage, and pursuing substantial afforestation. The consensus at the G20 inspires hope that it will help address the twin crises confronting all economies — climate change and the economic downturn. The good start needs to be consolidated quickly by national governments and multilateral bodies. A green recovery is vital to meeting climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges successfully. 

 

 The Hindu, 10th April 2009

Green stimulus

With G20 countries pledging to work for a green, low-carbon global economic recovery, a U.N.-mediated climate change agreement by the end of 2009 that can win the support of major emitters of greenhouse gases appears one step closer. The members of this economic group represent about three quarters of the global gross national product, energy consumption, and carbon emissions. It is welcome, therefore, that at the G20 London summit, they promised to make carbon emission co ncerns central to the working of their massive fiscal stimulus packages. If they devote even a part of the whole — over six trillion dollars, including multilateral development bank funds — to facilitate green growth, it could set the world economy on a low carbon path. There are many areas in which governments can intervene effectively. Public spending on infrastructure, including transport, tax and credit policies to promote climate-friendly investment, and setting energy efficiency standards are some. These policies will have a significant fiscal multiplier effect if they encourage similar moves in the private sector. In the present depressed times, these measures could save jobs and create new ones, with the bonus that they will be benign with regard to the environment.Some G20 members may draw inspiration from others who are ahead in the quest for low-carbon growth. If Germany, a world leader in renewable energy and environmental technologies employing about 1.8 million people in green technology areas, raised its output of environmental goods by an impressive 27 per cent during 2005-07, China's National Development and Reform Commission has won recognition for setting apart, under a stimulus package, nearly $100 billion for rail infrastructure and $70 billion for electricity grid expansion. Investing in upgraded electricity grids is essential to integrate expanded renewable sources of energy, notably wind. There are other key areas for governmental investment — retrofitting public infrastructure such as schools and offices with green technology, extending public transport systems, adopting green procurement policies, incubating renewable energy technologies, building demonstration projects for carbon capture and storage, and pursuing substantial afforestation. The consensus at the G20 inspires hope that it will help address the twin crises confronting all economies — climate change and the economic downturn. The good start needs to be consolidated quickly by national governments and multilateral bodies. A green recovery is vital to meeting climate change mitigation and adaptation challenges successfully. 

 

The Hindu, 10th April 2009

MS Swaminathan agro-biodiversity centre achieves success in Wayanad

The community Agrobiodiversity Centre (CAbC) under M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), that has been operating in the Wayanad district for a decade, seems to have been successful in conserving traditional varieties in crop plants of food value, and rare endemic and threatened species in wild flowering plants.The MSSRF expanded its activities under a broader programme to provide infrastructure to empower communities in agro biodiversity conservation and thereby, enhancing rural livelihoods, by establishing CABC in Wayanad 1997.The 10 years of work in conservation has provided ample baseline information on wild foods, yams and RET plant species seen in the Western ghats, Dr.N.Anil Kumar, Director of the centre in Wayanad, told Business Line.What is significant is that a large number of people have learned to manage their natural resources such as soil and water and improve their food security by managing their home-gardens and semi-wilderness habitats in a better way, he said. Over 500 women have been trained in the production and use, and marketing of primary health care products. Besides, a sizeable number of children had been educated on the importance of biodiversity and traditional knowledge.This has resulted in the emergence of core teams of educated youth, women and men farmers in villages and they engaged in spreading the message of sustainable resource management methods across their regions. The role played by the CAbC in slowing down the pace of conversion of paddy fields into banana fields and revival of homestead farming by promoting marginal foods such as yams and taros, and revitalisation of traditional health care practices is significant in the district and invited wider attention from the whole of Kerala, he said. Promotion of organic and LEISA farming methods and education in biodiversity aimed at tribal and rural children were the other areas of achievements, he said.However, there are grey areas in our targeted goals and achievements he conceded. For instance, he said reaching the men and women living in poverty with the goal of improving their livelihoods in s sustainable manner is still a challenging goal for us", Much more needs to be done to address various dimensions of livelihoods and poverty of the district, particularly the tribal communities such as Paniya, Kuttunaikka and Adiya.The households food and health security initiatives and income generation process by commercialising biodiversity products and ecosystem services without undermining their other values such as culture, production opportunities can prove to be a majopr improvement in the lives of the pooresr in CAbC's intervention sites.The strategic area of action, he said, is to implement four integrated packages under a strategic framework during 2008-2012.Among the packages, conservation gets high attention at the levels of in situ on farm conservation, ex situ consideration involving seed bank, in vitro cultures in the case of vegetatively propagated plants such as yams and the cultural landscapes like sacred groves etc.

The Business Line, 2nd April 2009

Computers adding to global warming

Greenhouse gases produced by big computer warehouses, including those powering the Internet, threaten to overtake those by the airline industry by year 2012-2015, adding significantly to global warming/climate change. The best energy management practices demand data centre energy efficiency and sustained interface between the IT professionals and energy management professionals, according to Mr S. Kumar Deepa, a member of the Society of Energy Engineers and Managers (SEEM) and an Energy Technologist at the Energy Management Centre, Kerala. Computer data centres, the vast collection of computers that power everything from online banking to data entry operations, consume an incredible amount of energy. Each of those large cabinets standing tall in these centres represent a rack of processing power, which generates a lot of heat. This heat is sought to be controlled by air-conditioning, which in turn involves use of huge amounts of energy. On an average, every kWh of electricity used for processing IT loads translates into another kWh of electricity for the supporting physical infrastructure such as UPS (uninterrupted power supplies), PDUs (power distribution units), chillers, air handlers, pumps and other devices. Power demand in 2005 (including for additional infrastructure) was equivalent in capacity terms to about five 1,000 MW power plants for the US and 14 such plants for the rest of the world. Total electricity bills for operating these servers and associated infrastructure in 2005 was about $2.7 bn and $7.2 bn for the US and the world respectively, Mr Kumar Deepa says. Reports suggest that the energy consumed by data centre servers and related infrastructure equipment worldwide has doubled between 2000 and 2005. Energy managers need to create a strategic road map for reducing energy consumption in data centres and IT firms. Data centres are a relatively easy target due to the very high density of energy consumption and ease of measurement in comparison to other, possibly more significant areas of IT energy use. Policy makers have identified IT and specifically data centre energy use as one of the fastest rising sectors. The flaring of energy prices in the recent past had one unintended but salutary impact on data centre managers – it substantially impacted their business models and triggered changes in the way data centre capacity is charged for commercially. The use of best energy management practices and the best available technology to process digital information, such as energy efficient computer servers and visualisation server software apart from removing the heat rejected from the data centre equipment in an energy efficient manner, provides an opportunity to improve data centre energy efficiency significantly. Environmental impact of data centres has become a significant issue for both operators and policy makers. Data centre operators are now grappling with the issues of energy security, costs and energy availability like never before. This is especially so given the pressures of fossil fuel availability, generation and distribution capacity and uncertainties surrounding the environmental energy policy.

The Hindu, 30th   March 2009

Call for paradigm shift in disaster management

The absence of adequate infrastructure enhances the vulnerability of the coastal areas in the country to the threat of natural disasters unleashed by climate change, says R.K. Mall, Associate Professor (Hydromet, Climate Change and Impacts), National Institute of Disaster Management, New Delhi. In a paper presented at a training programme on coastal hazard management organised by the Institute of Land and Disaster Management here recently, Mr. Mall said the lack of infrastructure, together with social, economic and gender inequities, aggravated the vulnerability and sufferings of the largely illiterate, unskilled and resource-poor fishing, farming and landless labour communities. "Their resilience to bounce back to pre-disaster level of normality is limited," he said. Mr. Mall observed that the largely modern science and technology-based sophisticated early warning systems were unlikely to be of much help in the circumstances. "Speedy evacuation of communities becomes impossible in the absence of good roads, communication and adequate transport facilities," he said. Stressing the need for a paradigm shift in disaster management, he said, "Hydro- meteorological natural disasters lead to salinity of soil and aquifers, submergence of standing crops and long spells of drought, exerting stress on the production of crops like paddy." Mr. Mall said climate change posed a threat to India's food security as well. He said a proper assessment of disaster vulnerability was an essential factor in helping communities adapt to climate change. He explained how vulnerability assessment was different from the mitigation studies that had formed the mainstream of climate change research over the last three decades. "Vulnerability assessment takes hold of the problem at the other end, where decisions about both mitigation and adaptation are actually made. Thus, vulnerability assessments must integrate knowledge about the environment with knowledge about humans and their activities like agriculture, forestry or fishing, resource management, political governance, energy use and culture to determine a holistic picture of how sensitive particular places are and how resilient they are to the impact of climate change."

 

The Hindu, 17th March 2009 

Climate change threatens Maldives

Rising sea levels and coastal erosion — both wrought by climate change — threatened the viability of Maldives; but, overcrowding and other impacts were already being felt by the island nation's 3,00,000 people, a United Nations independent expert said.After an eight-day visit to the country, Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing Raquel Rolnik said: "Maldives and its atolls, because of their unique geological and topographic aspects and their fragile and delicate environmental system, are already experiencing the impacts of climate change." This jeopardised the survival of the nation, which could be inundated by water. But more immediately, it jeopardised the right to housing due to the scarcity of land. Ms. Rolnik stressed the responsibility of the international community to urgently support adaptation strategies, noting that: "the post-2004 Indian Ocean tsunami reconstruction process in Maldives can be a source of precious lessons". Over the past four years, donors and agencies have mobilised over $400 million in aid, but the Rapporteur voiced concern over the allocation of resources and their management by Maldivian authorities. "In the new resettlement sites that I visited, I detected a lack of participation in the decision-making process concerning relocation, the design of new houses and the infrastructure, which resulted in new structures that were not always compatible with the livelihood of the communities," said Ms. Rolnik. The expert also noted that the tsunami may have been used by authorities as an opportunity to relocate communities, which had provoked serious conflicts. There were 3,500 people uprooted by the 2004 disaster who were still living in temporary shelters. The reconstruction process had also resulted in a surge in the price of construction materials, putting upward pressure on rental prices and aggravating overcrowding. Over 80,000 migrants from Bangladesh and other South Asian countries lived in Maldives, with half of them working in the construction sector, and the Rapporteur said she was concerned about their housing and living conditions. She called for a "human rights-based approach" to address the housing situation in the country, calling for the government and international organisations to promote public participation in making key decisions. Ms. Rolnik, who reports to the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, took up her post last May and serves in an independent and unpaid capacity, as do all Special Rapporteurs. — PTI

The Hindu, 28th February 2009

Poor people are the worst-affected by climate change, says Pachauri

Pointing out that the "poor are the worst-affected in case of climate change due to lack of infrastructure and means to counter it," Nobel laureate Rajendra K. Pachauri urged the "rich" to be "sensitive to the needs and plight of the poor."Addressing the Environment Partnership Summit 2009, organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce here on Thursday, Mr. Pachauri said that "it will be most unfair on our part to deprive the poor access to natural resources which are important for their existence."Citing the example of the heat waves that hit Andhra Pradesh a few years ago, he said that the poor people were most affected because neither were they warned beforehand nor did they have any knowledge of how to cope with the heat. On the issue of industrialised countries trying to avoid their responsibility of curbing emission rate and passing the buck to developing countries, Mr. Pachauri said: "We all look towards the new American President Barack Obama's leadership — his commitment towards environment concerns gives us hope.He stressed the need to cut down emission of greenhouse gases to save the planet. "Climate change is one of the symptoms of a larger problem… Greater scarcity of water, increasing salinity of soil, decline of agriculture due to floods, droughts and heat waves will have a serious bearing on the development factor globally."

 

The Hindu, 20th February 2009

Dry land hampers science centre project

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala State Science and Technology Museum and
Priyadarsini Planetarium here is in the process of acquiring
additional land for the proposed regional science centre in Kasaragod
as the existing land cannot meet the water requirement.The proposed
centre requires nearly 15,000 litres of water a day. But the land in
Kumbazha is 'too dry' to meet the requirement.Kasaragod is one of the
two locations of the regional science centres to be started by the
city-based museum, the other being Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha district.
"Officials of the Groundwater Department who inspected the site at
Kumbazha have informed us that the land there will not be able to
yield the quantity of water required for the functioning of the
centre," said G. Arul Jerald Prakash, Director in-charge of the museum
and planetarium."We have now contacted the local MLA and have urged
him to procure additional land, at least two cents, near the existing
plot to address the water shortage," Mr. Prakash said. The additional
land, nearly 50 metres away from the main plot, also belongs to the
district panchayat. The panchayat has to pass a resolution for the
allotment, he said.The proposed science centres, which will act as
miniature replicas of the city-based museum, will be complete with the
crowd-pulling observational telescope and planetarium. The highlight
of the centres, expected to cost Rs.9 crore each, will be an 11-inch
computerised GPS (Global Positioning System) telescope that can be
used to gaze at stars and other celestial objects. "The telescope once
aligned will automatically hunt for the planet or star you wish to
locate," Mr. Prakash said.Yet another attraction will be a mobile
planetarium that can be carried about in an airbag. The igloo-shaped
inflatable planetarium is around 10 ft in height and 20 ft in
diameter. Visitors will have to crawl into this planetarium.Some of
the other features of centres will be a science park for children,
clubs and an EDUSAT-based interactive terminal that will enable
students to talk to teachers sitting in New Delhi and clarify their
science-related queries."Once we have the basic infrastructure in
place, which includes the popular telescope and planetarium, we hope
to open it to the public by next year," Mr. Prakash said.The
constitution of district-level science centres with the objective of
inculcating a scientific temper in the minds of the rural population
has been one of the stated objectives of the memorandum of
association, a government charter, framed during the setting up of the
Thiruvananthapuram museum in 1984. "The Union government provides
financial assistance to start two regional centres at the district
level." A copy of the proposed project was handed over to Union
Minister for Tourism and Culture Ambika Soni by Education and Culture
Minister M.A. Baby last year.

The Hindu, 12th January 2009

Eco-tourism to get a boost

PALAKKAD: A high-level meeting of officials of the Departments of
Tourism and Forest and the district panchayat called by Minister for
Home and Tourism Kodiyeri Balakrishnan in Thiruvananthapuram recently
decided to exploit eco-tourism potentials of the Silent Valley and
Mannarkad forest areas of the district.The meeting which was called at
the request of Deputy Speaker Jose Baby, who represents the Mannarkad
constituency in the Assembly, decided to establish
interpretation-cum-ticketing centres at Mukkali, Attappady and
Siruvani with state-of-the-art facilities.The Forest Department was
directed to take necessary steps to get permission to use the old
unused buildings owned by the Kerala State Electricity Board for
converting them to provide accommodation for tourists in Mukkali.It
was also decided to liaison with the Irrigation Department for
transferring their unutilised buildings at Siruvani to the Forest
Department for providing accommodation for tourists in the forest and
dam areas.The meeting entrusted the Forest Department to prepare
eco-tourism projects for Silent Valley, Siruvani and Attappady within
a month. The projects will be implemented with financial assistance
from the Department of Tourism and the Attappady Hill Area Development
Society (AHADS).The Deputy Speaker told The Hindu that there was high
potential for development of eco-tourism in Silent Valley, Siruvani,
Kanjirapuzha and Attappady Hills of the Western Ghats.Mr. Baby said
that in the absence of infrastructure facilities like facilitation
centre, interpretation, ticketing, transportation and accommodation,
tourists were not able to reach these beautiful areas gifted by
nature.If the Forest and Tourism departments could jointly create
required facilities, these destinations could attract large number of
tourists, both domestic and international.These projects would also
cater to the employment needs of the tribal people who were now
dependent on forest resources only, Mr. Baby said.

The Hindu, 15th December 2008

Action plan to check dengue fever

Kochi: The city Mayor Mercy Williams, District Collector M. Beena and
the District Medical Officer K.T. Ramani, in a meeting on Monday,
decided on an action plan to combat the increasing cases of dengue
fever over the last week. According to the Mayor, fogging and spraying
had been going on intermittently, but will be intensified along with
cleaning drains and premises will be cleaned by cutting overgrown
grass.Dry day will be observed to clean up any stagnant water
collected in mud puddles that breed mosquitoes. Officials of the State
entomology cell will be overseeing the vector surveillance in the city
that will provide the information about high risk areas.Ms. Beena
outlined the cleaning operations according to the instructions of the
Minister of Health P.K. Sreemathy, who had attended a review meeting
here on Sunday.While the health squads under the Corporation Health
Officer will be involved in cleaning up the city, volunteers of
Kudumbashree and the Accredited Social Health Activists under the
National Rural Health Mission will be spreading awareness among the
public to keep the premises free of garbage and not allow water to
collect in small bowls and puddles.The collector will be calling a
meeting of the private hospitals in the city to improve reporting
about dengue fever. Under the existing notification system, only the
Government hospitals provide reports.Under the Information and
Education Campaign, school students will be made aware by training
teachers and by showing a visual campaign using a cartoon character.
Students will also be given pamphlets on the disease. Street plays
will be organised to drive the point home on cleanliness and hygiene
and precautionary measures against mosquito bites.Notices will also be
distributed to households.NRHM has already transferred the funds to
create infrastructure at the General Hospital for improving treatment
facilities and providing mosquito nets, mosquito repellents for
patients, said NRHM district co-ordinator K. V. Beena, who had
participated in the meeting.Deputy Mayor C.K. Manishankar, chairman of
the Corporation Standing Committee on Health, N.A. Mani, Corporation
Secretary Mini Antony, Corporation Health Officer C.G. Elizabeth and
District Medical Officers of Indigenous Medicine and Homoeopathy were
some of the other participants.

The Hindu, 25th November 2008

Huge demand for eco-friendly artefacts

Eco–friendly artefacts made from coconut shell and wood of coconut
palm are becoming highly prized items in the domestic/export market
segment.President of the Kozhikode District Handicrafts Artisans
Cooperative Society Ramadas Taikandi said the situation now was such
that quite often it was not possible to undertake the bulk orders for
items such as coconut shell ice-cream cups, for instance.Items such as
disposable, environment-friendly coconut shell ice-cream cups and
ladles and spoons made of coconut wood are in large demand during
sports matches and other large gatherings within the country as well
as abroad, he said."We now have an order for 50 lakh coconut-wood
spoons to be supplied in a year, from a milk marketing federation in
Bihar," said Mr. Ramdas.The bulk orders, including one from abroad for
one lakh ice-cream cups, cannot be undertaken easily owing to labour
shortage and other difficulties, he said. Power cuts pose a major
problem. The unit does not have adequate infrastructure facilities,
including state-of-the-art machinery, he added.The society's
manufacturing unit in Koyilandy has developed into a prestigious
centre in crafting out artefacts from coconut palm byproducts over the
years.The unit, which was developed in a phased manner, now employs as
many as 20 women on a regular basis, as a self-employment venture.
Besides daily wages, medical, washing and festival allowances are paid
to the women. The unit has been functioning for over 16 years now.The
Handicrafts Ministry under the Government of India and the Coconut
Development Board have provided assistance to sustain the handicrafts
centre. The Union Agriculture Ministry has chipped in with various
assistance schemes.Design development training was provided to the
employees by experts from Hyderabad.However, red-tapism has been a
major obstacle preventing the society from getting various assistance
schemes of the Union government for handicrafts development through
the Kerala Handicrafts Development Corporation, sources alleged.The
handicrafts development society has its origin in the Handicrafts
Development Centre set up in 1938. As part of a revival package, a sum
of Rs.7.5 lakh was sanctioned for the centre in 1995. A site
comprising 3.5 cents of land was bought, though state-of-the-art
machinery was yet to be installed.Self-help groups for manufacturing
the traditional 'Koyilandy' or 'Malabar' hooka have also been
formed.Mr. Ramadas claimed the Koyilandy hooka, along with the coconut
shell artefacts, was now in the process of being accorded the
geographical indication registration by the Chennai-based registration
centre.

The Hindu, 24th November 2008

Experts meet to improve weather forecast

Weather experts are probing ways to make better use of automatic weather stations by linking up various states to provide improved and user-friendly forecast to farmers and the public.Experts from various government agencies and universities are set to meet in Thrissur on November 29 for a user-oriented workshop to thrash out details. Weather experts fro the ISRO, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the Meteorology wing of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and the Centre for Monsoon Studies (CMS) of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) will meet the KAU, Thrissur to work out details regarding improved supply of weather inputs.The intended idea is better co-ordination if weather inputs and using available resources to supply hourly weather forecasts in a way that it can be easily grasped by even the layman. In the first phase, inputs from weather stations in Kerala and Tamil Nadu will be pooled. Such inputs can be made public through dedicated website in subsequent stages.Recently the KAU had announced plans for linking up with CMS, ISRO and the IMD to provide 'AgroMet' services in a timely manner to farmers in the state. The idea now is to take it one big step forward.While the number of automatic weather stations  in the country are set to go up in the years ahead, weather prediction mechanics and supporting technological infrastructure, remains something of a mystery to the general public.With public attention called towards climatic changes in the light of global warming, the new set-up is intended to close this gap and bring localiswed forecast of weather a mouse-click away.

The New Indian Express, 19^th November 2008

Gavi tourism causing strain on Tiger reserve

The increasing popularity of Gavi as an off-beat tourist destination has come into serious conflict with the requirements of conservation in Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR)Gavi is Thekkady is its purest form. It has forests, hills, waterfalls and lakes, most of which are largely unexplored. Sensing an opportunity, Kerala Forest Development Corporation (KFDC) had begun an innovative eco-tourism programme at Gavi a few years ago. The gamble paid off. The destination was such a big that KFDC was able to offset the losses made by its cardamom plantations in the area. It was thus able to pay the salaries of its Sri Lankan Tamil workers on time. There was a time, not long ago, when these poor refugees had to go without pay for six to eight months.But KFDC's and tourism's gain was conservation's loss. Gavi is a tourist paradise which after PTR was extended to 925 sq.km from 777 sq.km om September 4, 2008 is bordered on all sides by the core area of PTR.Even after PTR was declared as 'critical core area' by National Tiger Conservation Authority, at least 10 jeeps carrying tourist travel every day from Kumily to Gavi through PTR. In addition, an equal number of diesel autorickshaws, with their earsplitting noise, flit to and fro through the reserve. Last month a leopard was killed in PTR. The post-morten report said it was hit by a vehicle.Now, KSRTC too has jumped into the tourism bandwagon. On October 15, it started a Pathanamthitta-Gavi-Kumily service that passes through the inviolate area of PTR, the only mass transport through the area. "We want to promote  this service in a big way", said Pathanamthitta District Transport Officer G.Anil Kumar. Here is his sales pitch. "This is the only bus service that runs through 88km of dense tropical forest. Sit back and enjoy the sight of some of the rarest species of flora and fauna. Moreover, the route passes through the stunningly beautiful catchment areas of Sabarigiti Hydel Project".KSRTC, too has not intimated the Forest Department. This bus enters and re-enters the PTR stretch at a time barred for vehicles, between 6.pm and 8 am.All of a sudden, synergy is at work. KFDC is planning to use the KSRTC service to bring tourists from Kumily to Gayi. "In a jeep, a tourist has to pay rs.1200 for a trip to Gavi and back. But if he/she uses this bus, the cost comes down to less than Rs.80", reasons R.Radhakrishnan, the officer in charge of KFDC's Gavi tourism.According the Forest officials, a project can be classified eco-tourism only of it satisfies certain conditions. One, it should be run by the locals. (the Gavi project is run by KFDC). Two, the income should be ploughed back into the eco-development committees. (KFDC keeps most of the Gavi returns and shares just a small percentage with the locals). Three, there should be zero investment in infrastructure and hardware. (KFDC has a resort name Green Mansions and has employed jeeps for jungle safaris).

The New Indian Express, 4^th November 2008