24 critically polluted areas under scanner
Ians
September 17th, 2009

NEW DELHI - Twenty-four areas around the country where water, air and soil pollution have reached critical levels are now being studied by experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi to see what can be done about them, Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said here Thursday.

“Meanwhile, no new industrial units are to come up in any of these areas unless a committee of experts is satisfied that it will not worsen the ambient air, water or soil quality,” he added.

Among the 24 critically polluted areas, the minister named Singrauli (Madhya Pradesh) and Korba (Chhattisgarh), two hubs of thermal power generation; the Vapi-Ankleswar belt of chemical industries in Gujarat; Trombay in Mumbai; Ranipet in Tamil Nadu; Patancheru in Andhra Pradesh and Talcher in Orissa.

Once the experts from IIT-Delhi give their report, the Central Pollution Control Board will draw up an action plan on how to clean up these areas. Ramesh said: “We shall use the polluter pays principle, and use that money to set up common effluent treatment plants, for example.”

National workshop on CDM - Orissa has large potential in CDM Trade

National workshop on CDM - Orissa has large potential in CDM Trade
Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Bhubaneswar (Press Release): Climate change is probably the biggest threat ever the world is facing today and Orissa is no exception. Orissa is most prone to climate changes, primarily because of its geographical location. The state’s fluctuating weather conditions suggest that it is reeling under climatic chaos.


For more than a decade now, it experiencing an unprecedented rise in temperatures and for a region, which is otherwise known for its moderate temperature, this is a very alarming trend: from heat waves to cyclones: from droughts to floods. In the last four years, calamities have claimed more than 30,000 lives, which are not only becoming more frequent, but have hit areas that were never considered vulnerable.

This is part of the Industrial Policy Resolution (IPR) Program which provided the required institutional and legal framework and bringing momentum to the industrial growth in the state and improving the climate for socially & environmentally responsible investment with an overall goal of higher and pro-poor economic growth and employment in Orissa. This initiative has been funded by DFID through UNIDO.IPICOL is the nodal agency.

Clean Development Mechanism is one of the project based market mechanism under Kyoto Protocol. It leverages capital from the developed nations to reduce emissions in developing projects that has been lower emissions.

Keeping this in view a CDM cell was created in IPICOL with DFID support. The technical backstopping to this Cell was provided by CTRAN, a leading Carbon Asset Management Company. Subsequently DFID routed the finance to retain the services of the key experts through UNIDO.

The objective of the workshop is to chart out a clear strategy for climate change mitigation through cleaner production in industrial sectors.200 number of invitees are participating on the seminar to share this experience of clean production.

Academicians, experts from carbon funds and validation agencies will debate over 2 days to come out with a climate change action plan for the state by industries.

The workshop is being inaugurated by Honorable Minister for Department of Steel & Mines Mr. Raghunath Mohanty, Senior Secretaries of Government of Orissa and officials from UNIDO.

As part of this programs & Clean Production Program for iron and steel Sector is being launched by IPICOL with OSIMA.

India says forests soak 10 percent emissions annually

Tue Aug 4, 2009 7:53am EDT
By Krittivas Mukherjee
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's forests are absorbing about 10 percent of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) every year, the environment minister said on Tuesday.
Jairam Ramesh's announcement was India's first quantification of climate benefits from its forest cover, a move that could boost its demand for funds to fight global warming under a U.N. scheme.
Citing a new government study, he told parliament the plan was to protect and extend the forest cover beyond the present 65 million hectares, or about 20 percent of India's land. Last week, he said the government had allocated $200 million for the scheme.
"If we take the forestry cover further, then you can imagine how much green house gas emission we can absorb," he said.
India's total GHG emissions stood at 1,853 million metric tons equivalent of carbon dioxide, about 4.9 percent of global emissions in 2005, according to the World Resources Institute.
Forests soak up vast amounts of planet-warming CO2 and can act as a brake on climate change.
Under an emerging U.N. scheme called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, or REDD, developing nations could potentially earn billions of dollars by setting aside and rehabilitating their forests.
The valuable carbon offsets they earn could be sold to rich nations to help them meet emissions goals under the program, likely to be part of a broader climate pact from 2013.
India is also trying to expand its forest cover by another six million hectares over the next six years. (Editing by Ron Popeski)

India to assess climate gain; pump millions in forests

India to assess climate gain; pump millions in forests
Fri Jul 31, 2009 7:41pm EDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will spend some $200 million to protect its forests and will announce how much carbon emission is being captured by its green cover, the environment minister said on Friday.

Jairam Ramesh said the money would go into conserving and restoring unique vegetation, controlling forest fires and strengthening forestry infrastructure, among other goals.

"This reflects the high priority that the prime minister accords to the renewal of our forestry establishment which is critical in our climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts," he said.

Forestry forms an important part of international negotiations for a new U.N. climate change deal in December, and India says efforts to conserve and increase forest cover should be considered as vital as reducing deforestation.

Forests soak up vast amounts of planet-warming CO2 and can act as a brake on climate change.

Under an emerging U.N. scheme called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, or REDD, developing nations could potentially earn billions of dollars by setting aside and rehabilitating their forests.

The valuable carbon offsets they earn could be sold to rich nations to help them meet their emissions goals under the scheme that is likely to be part of a broader climate pact from 2013.

Ramesh said India would announce on August 10 the results of a study into how much emissions were being captured by India's forests. The quantification could bolster India's demand for money for afforestation efforts under REDD.

"We have for the first time estimated how much of our emission is being captured by the forest cover," he said.

About 65 million hectares, or 20 percent of India's land, is under forest cover. Ramesh said the cover would be extended by another six million hectares over the next six years.

Carbon credit biz feels meltdown heat
24 Oct 2008, 0147 hrs IST, Nitin Sethi, TNN


NEW DELHI: With developed economies staring at a recession, talks of the global financial meltdown forcing climate change negotiations into a free Carbon credit business fells heat Collateral Damageze have gained ground.

The collateral damage from the financial contagion closest home could be to India’s carbon trade that has already locked in investments generating 31 million carbon credits annually up to 2012. Other projects worth 439 million credits that are in the pipeline could now come under the cloud.

The negotiations, meant to hammer out new targets for rich countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions after 2012 (although the rich nations want the developing ones to cut as well), could suffer a double whammy of a sharp decline in oil prices and the global financial bust.

Besides the carbon market taking a hit in India the entire move towards renewable energy could also suffer with the price of the alternative — oil — now crashing back to the US $60-70 a barrel band.

Initial signs that the deal, to be signed under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by 2009, could fall into a black hole came with a recent embarrassment for EU. The host nation for the next meeting of 180 plus countries in December 2008, Poland has revolted against EU’s climate change proposals agreed to earlier.

“Forging a Frontier: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2008”

May 27, 2008

5:00 pm

Hosted by: JP Morgan

JP Morgan Offices

270 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor

New York, NY 10017


Speakers & Panelists to include:

Katherine Hamilton (Ecosystem Marketplace)

Milo Sjardin (New Carbon Finance)

Michael Jenkins (Forest Trends)

Reiner Musier (APX)

Catherine Flax (JP Morgan Chase)

TBD (Ecosecurities)

TBD (Evolution)

TBD (MGM International)

AGENDA

5:30 – Presentation &

Panel Discussion

6:30 – Cocktail & Reception

7:30 – End


We can only guarantee a seat for the first 100 people who RSVP.

Please respond via email to Carlee Warner at the address below as soon as possible to secure your seat. We look forward to hearing from you!

For a free copy of the report please visit: www.ecosystemmarketplace.com and www.newcarbonfinance.com

Sincerely,

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New Energy Finance Ltd
415 Madison Ave, 15th Floor | New York, NY 10017
Direct: +1 (212) 744-1988 | Fax: +1 (212) 744-1987

ndia demands change in the definition of forest
24 Feb 2008, 1430 hrs IST,PTI

NEW DELHI: India has asked the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board, set up under the Kyoto Protocol, to change the definition of "forest" for the country so as to encourage small farmers to take up the projects in the forestry sector.

As per current definition of a "forest", only that project can be qualified for the CDM provided it is grown within the 30 per cent crown density in an area of 0.05 hectares with tree height of five metres.

"Now we have requested the concerned body to relax the definition for forests making it 15 per cent crown density with two metres height for trees, with the land area remaining at 0.05 hectares," R K Sethi, Chairman of the CDM Executive Board said.

"The change in definition is being sought given that small communities and farmers are not able to take up afforestation and take the benefits of growing carbon credits market," he said.

India is a global leader in CDM projects but none is from the forestry sector, Sethi pointed.

The new norms if approved would help the local farmers to grow dwarf varieties of tree alongside the seasonal crops - ensuring that they do not have to give away their agricultural income.

"The small varieties of trees would take less time and earn carbon credits fast," he said.

India, China to work on `carbon sinks`
Aasha Khosa / New Delhi March 09, 2008
Having pushed the idea that countries should be compensated for conservation of forests at the UN convention on climate change at Bali, India is once again in a leading role to make this happen.

New Delhi has invited China, that had supported India’s idea vociferously, and all other developing nations to a two-day meet where scientists and policy makers are discussing ways to quantify ‘carbon sinks’ — which in the layman’s terms means the amounts of harmful green house gases (GHG) that a particular forest has guzzled up and thereby helped climate change mitigation.

The international workshop on “developing methodology for assessment of enhancement of forest carbon stocks due to conservation, sustainable management of forests and increase in forest cover” organised by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, saw scientists from China, Bhutan Sri Lanka, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Thailand and Papua New Guinea converge at New Delhi.

Brazil, which supports a variation of the same idea on compensating forest cover gave the conference a miss. So did Indonesia, which has sizable stocks of forests.

Jagdish Kishwan, director general, ICFRE, said the meeting would aim at converging all available technologies to adopt a common approach to quantify carbon sinks.

Says Kishwan, who was present at Bali: A study by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science has reported that India would increase its carbon stocks from forests to 9.75 billion tonnes in 2030 from the present level of 8.79 billion tonnes.

The figures are an approximate assessment of the carbon worth of the forests in India. The government wants to identify a methodology acceptable to the world to measure the carbon stocks available in the forests.

The UN Inter-government Panel on Climate Change has in place a regime of compensation for reduction of GHG emissions by companies in the developed countries. They can buy ‘carbon credits’ from the companies of developing countries in case they are unable to meet their targets.

India and China are claiming to have recorded an increase in their green cover and want a similar regime for compensating forest cover.

The scientists at the meet said while the modern satellite-based and remote sensing techniques were helpful and affordable, the cost of hiring experts and data analysts was likely to grow.

Jiang Chungian, head of the Research Institute of Chinese Forestry, Beijing, said China and India would continue to remain partners in their common strategy at the global conference on climate change.

Developing countries call for funds to increase forest cover
ASHOK B SHARMA
Posted online: Monday , March 10, 2008 at 0022 hrs

New Delhi, Mar 9A group of developing countries has called for financial incentives for increase in forest cover, conservation and sustainable management with a view to combat climate change.

Taking the cue from the Bali declaration on the pay-and-preserve scheme for reducing emissions from reducing deforestation in developing countries (REDD), the two-day international workshop organised by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) which concluded in Delhi last Saturday called for financial assistance for maintenance and stabilisation of forest resources as well as for capacity building. ICFRE is under the administrative control of the Union ministry of environment and forests.

It went a step ahead of REDD in demanding equal incentives for increase in forest cover and sustainable management and conservation of forests

The recommendations of the workshop called for compensation for reducing deforestation, conservation and sustainable management of forests. Countries should also demonstrate enhancement of carbon stock to meet the objectives of UNFCCC, it said.

As maintenance, stabilization and conservation of forest resources involve opportunity cost, the developing countries require financial assistance and incentives, the recommendations said and also called for same basket of funds for increase in forest cover and reduced deforestation and degradation as well. As similar enhancement of carbon stock imply similar value and as eco-system services have additional value, the rate of incentives should be the same for one unit of carbon saved through reduced deforestation and degradation and one unit of carbon added through conservation of forests. Evaluation of baseline carbon stock should be considered including one time payment at reduced rates, the workshop resolved.

The international workshop was organized to discuss the possible methodological approaches and modalities for assessing positive increment in forest carbon stocks due to increase in forest cover, conservation and sustainable management of forests. The workshop had participations from forest departments and forestry institutes of China, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan, Malaysia and UK apart from India.

The sole representative from Annex-1 (industrial) countries, Jim Penman of UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), however, opposed certain parts of the resolutions relating to financing incentives. He suggested that the conclusions of the workshop should not be termed as “resolutions” and it should be better termed as a “views expressed by different participants.” On capacity building, the workshop called for the need to develop expertise in modern technological tools to assess forest carbon pools and changes therein, financial assistance for capacity building in developing countries and sharing of facilities and resources for capacity building among developing countries.

On technological issues, the workshop suggested a common methodology for assessment of changes in forest carbon stocks, national level accounting mechanism and national reference emissions level linked to country specific baseline year or period. It also suggested remote sensing combined with field inventory as an important and cost effective toll in assessing and verifying forest carbon stocks. A blue print for national forest carbon estimation should be formulated for developing countries.

Slowing deforestation may be worth billions: study
Mon Apr 7, 2008 12:44pm BST

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - A slowdown of deforestation from the Amazon to the Congo basin could generate billions of dollars every year for developing nations as part of a U.N. scheme to fight climate change, a study showed on Monday.

Burning of forests by farmers clearing land accounts for 20 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions. A 190-nation U.N. climate conference agreed in Bali, Indonesia, in December to work on ways to reward countries for slowing deforestation.

"Even with quite conservative assumptions, you can generate substantial amounts of money and emissions reductions," said Johannes Ebeling of EcoSecurities in Oxford, England, of a study with Mai Yasue at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

They said a 10 percent decline in the rate of tropical forest loss could generate annual carbon finance for developing nations of between 1.5 billion and 9.1 billion euros ($2.4 to $14.30 billion) assuming carbon prices of 5 to 30 euros a tonne.

Such curbs would represent about 300 million tonnes of avoided carbon dioxide emissions a year -- about the amount of heat-trapping gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, emitted by Turkey, or half the total of France.

The United Nations wants reduced emissions from deforestation to be part of a new long-term climate treaty beyond 2012 to help avert more droughts, heatwaves, outbreaks of disease and rising seas.

Ebeling told Reuters that any credits for avoided deforestation would have to be matched by tough restrictions elsewhere, for instance forcing coal-fired power plants or cement factories to pay for right to emit carbon dioxide.

BRAZIL

The study, published in the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, said there were big challenges in designing a fair system.

So far, most focus in the U.N. debate had been on rewarding countries with high deforestation rates -- such as Brazil and Ecuador -- for slowing the losses.

But nations such as Guyana or Suriname, which have maintained high forest cover, or others like Costa Rica and Chile, which have slowed or reversed deforestation, would gain little.

There were also problems such as judging the rate of deforestation or creating controls to ensure that protecting one forest does not lead to logging or clearance of another.

And some poor countries that could benefit -- such as Liberia or Myanmar -- may simply lack controls needed to regulate land use.

Still, Ebeling said he was optimistic a system could be worked out because of a widening political willingness to address deforestation as part of a new treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2013.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on:

http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/

(Editing by Mary Gabriel)