Evolving Animals of the Pyro Age

Animals have been evolving since a long time in order to fit the challenges posed by climatic conditions. Jnyanam Bordoloi is absolutely right when he says species evolve over time, in order to survive and eventually thrive, in some of the most difficult environments created by climate change. When we know which species are leading the race for survival, we can work for the conservation of the ones who are at risk, and the fragile ecosystem they hold

Health Hazards Posed by Sanitary Pads

In this article, Dr Rina Mukherji discusses revelations made by a recent study on menstrual products. Undertaken by Toxics Link, this study reveals the rampant use of plastics and plasticizers in sanitary pads – the most popular menstrual product used by Indian women

Achieving Sustainable Development through a Cohesive Response

In 2016, Dr Ash Pachauri founded the POP (Protect Our Planet) Movement alongside Dr R K Pachauri. With a key focus on climate action and sustainable development, the POP Movement mobilizes and mentors young people around the world, inspiring them with knowledge to undertake projects and implement actions in their schools, colleges, communities, and homes. In this interview, Dr Ash Pachauri reflects on the foundational idea behind the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the need to move away from silo-ed approaches towards collaborative and coordinated action, especially with the active leadership of business and industry among other stakeholders, promoting community engagement, and the unique opportunity for India to represent the Global South in the G20.

Need for Nations to 'Mainstream' Sustainable Development With Inclusive Policymaking, Societal Participation, Innovation

Dr Rajiv Chhibber is Vice President, External Affairs at Sahajanand Medical Technologies, a leading developer and manufacturer of minimally invasive coronary stent and vascular systems. In this interview, he reminisces launching the first-of-its-kind Heat Action Plan for the city of Ahmedabad, which is now a role model for many states who have embarked upon the same. It was also the first city in South Asia to create a comprehensive early warning system and preparedness plan for extreme heat events fuelled by climate change. Keep reading to know more...

Plastic Waste Management in India Importance of Data

In India, plastic waste management has long been a challenge and is considered an issue mainly due to the lack of infrastructure, efficient systems for collecting and processing plastic. In this analytical article, Mandavi Singh has considered estimates of all plastics for the reporting year 2018-19 to understand the plastic production, consumption and end-of-life data along with the recycling from available data sources. This is to develop a clear comprehension about the plastic scenario in India and to develop a quantitative understanding of the size and nature of major commodity plastic production, consumption, and waste flows in India.

Enhancing Livelihood of Farmers and Forest-dependent Communities Through Carbon Financing Mechanism in India

Carbon financing is a result-based mechanism that allows companies wishing to offset their GHG emissions to buy carbon credits generated from their projects. In this crisp article, Aniruddh Soni tells us that TERI is developing several Carbon Finance projects via Voluntary Carbon Markets in the AFOLU sector. The beneficiaries involved in the carbon finance project developed under ARR are small-scale farmers, who are practising sustainable agroforestry practices within their private farmlands. On the other hand, REDD+ projects aim at benefiting the forest-dependent communities along with the forest department.

Indo-German Climate and Environment Cooperation Adds a New Highlight on Forests

Preserving India's precious wetlands and fighting the global threat of marine litter, protecting the beauty and importance of the Himalayan regions, ending landfills of waste and creating green jobsIndo-German Climate and Environment Cooperation addresses a wide range of topics. Both countries have been working together since more than 60 years bilaterally as well as internationally. Further, India has been a priority country in particular for the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Government from its start in 2008 support climate action and biodiversity conservation. Read on to know more...

Hariyali Gram Empowering Rural India to Lead the LIFE Movement

In this succinct article, Charu Lata and Akanksha Golchha highlight the transformative Hariyali Gram initiative in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra states in India. Hariyali Gram is a women-led initiative with an emphasis on policy implementation and scalable business solutions for the adoption of climate-friendly solutions at the village level.

Pioneering Climate Finance in India TCCL Helping India to Realize its Climate Goals

Climate Finance has always been viewed as a public sector initiative. India's ambitious plans were constrained by the inadequate capacity of such institutions to meet the agility, innovation, and deep understanding required to finance dynamic cleantech sector. TCCL has played an important role in mainstreaming of emerging sectors such as solar rooftop, energy efficiency, electric mobility, and water treatment. TCCL has been able to do this by developing a profound understanding of the rapidly evolving sector including technical, commercial, regulatory, contractual, and E&S expertise. In this succinct article, Manish Chourasia says about challenges to crowd-in capital from global north and role of TCCL in channelizing these funds.

Banyan Tree - Enjoy the Majesty and Mystery of this Tree of Life

Banyan trees are one of the most iconic and well-known tree species in the world. In fact, January 17 is celebrated as Banyan Tree Day. In this article, Dr Elsa Lycias Joel says cities need more banyan trees since they recharge the depleting groundwater table. Let's forget the inherent challenges that come with managing an unseen resource such as groundwater and start conserving and nurturing banyan trees.

Look Who's Been Found! Some New Species Found in 2022

Amidst the disheartening news all around, 2022 brought forth some sightings to cheer. Benita Sen hopes 2023 will bring us more to be happy about.

LM Wind Power Produces 50,000th Wind Turbine Blade in India

LM Wind Power, a GE Renewable Energy business, has completed the production of the 50,000th wind turbine blade in India. The blade was built at LM Wind Power's manufacturing site in Vadodara, Gujarat.

Tigers for a Healthy Tomorrow - Securing Safer Havens for Wild Tigers

India is home to the magnificent big cat-tiger. WWF-India began tiger conservation in the early 1970s by providing support to Project Tiger by the Govt. of India-the first-ever tiger conservation programme in the world.

Pomegranate Genome Sequence - Application and Usage

With the aim of generating genomic wealth to support accelerated pomegranate improvement programme, the genome sequencing programme was initiated at ICAR-NRCP in 2015-16. The ICARNRCP has assembled a reference-quality genome (346.08 Mb) of pomegranate variety Bhagawa consisting of only 342 scaffolds with an average N50 value of 16.12 Mb. Read on to know more about this pioneering study...

Producing 'Green' Hydrogen Through Seawater Split

Researchers have successfully split seawater without pre-treatment to produce green hydrogen. \"We used seawater as a feedstock without the need for any pre-treatment processes like reverse osmosis desolation, purification, or alkalization,\" said Associate Professor Zheng. The team published their research in the journal Nature Energy.

BaaS (Batteries as a Service)

The electrification of Indian mobility is happening at a remarkable pace—the India Energy Storage Alliance IESA) projects that the electric vehicle EV) market in India is expected to achieve a CAGR of 49 per cent in the 2021-2030 period. But these projections could remain just on paper if policymakers do not actively take steps to overcome the roadblocks on the electric highways. In this article, Dhruv Verma says that if executed well, battery swapping can be the greatest impetus to EV adoption, benefitting manufactures, consumers, and the environment.

A Peek into Pench A Travelogue

This article by Harshad Sambamurthy has been written in the form of a travelogue on Pench. Colloquially referred to as‘Mowgli-land’ Pench is named after the river that flows through it. It is India’s only tiger reserve that stretches across two states Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra). Read on to know more...

Sustainability in the Face of Climate Change A Training Programme by Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR)

WOTR is organizing a 4-day Training on Climate Resilient Agriculture CRA) Practices for Ecosystem-based Adaptation EbA) in Semi-Arid Regions wherein participants will be equipped with a deep understanding of organic fertilizers and biopesticides, as well as integrated pest management IPM), integrated nutrient management INM), and system of crop intensification SCI) techniques for sustainable agriculture.

Rising Air Pollution in Delhi The Potential Solutions

In this article, Suyash Gupta tries to find answer to the question that what Delhi can really do to moderate and reduce the rising air pollution levels!

Water Conservation in Rural India Adopting Nature-Based Solution with a Sustainable Approach

In this article, Niharika Singh and Amit Kumar Thakur highlight that when issues such as water scarcity, less agricultural yield, decline in groundwater levels, etc., are highlighted in the communities, Corporate Social Responsibility CSR) projects can be designed on the need and demand basis. With this vision, several different CSR initiatives are being implemented on-ground after identifying the possible interventions on need-basis. One such intervention can be rejuvenating the water bodies accounting many advantages and benefitting the rural communities.

Solar Radiation Modification Potential to Offset Warming and Ameliorate Climate Hazards

The Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative C2G) is a foundation-funded initiative of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. C2G seeks to catalyse the creation of effective governance for climate-altering technologies, in particular for solar radiation modification. Here, we are in conversation with Janos Pasztor, Executive Director, C2G for TerraGreen.

Traditional Agriculture for Sustainable Development

A Satoyama Approach

Climate Actions For Businesses - How Big Should These Be?

When we talk and act on climate action and the energy transition in emerging economies, the discussion can range from topics such as climate mitigation, adaptation, energy transition, financing, and business model innovation to next generation technologies. In this article, Biba Jasmine says that given the current debate and discourse around net zero and carbon neutrality, it is important to pause for a moment and reflect on whether companies need to realign their purpose to serve a more holistic set of stakeholders—including the environment— and leverage additional channels to demonstrate their commitment to more sustainable activities along the value chain. It stands to reason to ask what companies can—and must—do to make progress towards a low-carbon economy.

Africa's Green Hydrogen Potential

Harnessing Africa’s solar energy to produce 50 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2035 can help secure global energy supply, create jobs, decarbonize heavy industry, enhance global competitiveness and transform access to clean water and sustainable energy. The analysis has been commissioned by the European Investment Bank, the International Solar Alliance and the African Union, with the support of the Government of Mauritania, HyDeal, and UCLG Africa.

Giving to Amplify Earth Action

The IKEA Foundation has joined a new initiative, Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA), by the World Economic Forum. The initiative will leverage philanthropic capital to generate the $3 trillion needed each year from public and private sources to tackle climate change and nature loss.

The Art of Bird Conservation

Rupa Samaria is a bird artist who aims at creating awareness on the issue of bird conservation through her art works both in India and overseas. The birds on her canvas come alive. Well, their calls can also be listened to. In a chat with N Kalyani, the Delhi-based artist shares the kind of art she creates, and the conservation issues that she thus espouses. Samaria also reminisces the house sparrow, a bird rarely seen now in urban settings.

Nature-Based Solutions - Used by Tribals in India

In this article, Himanshu Kumar and Nikita Sethi discuss the concept of nature-based solutions and how ignored communities and tribals have substantially contributed to nature conservation and sustainable resource management. Documenting and integrating the indigenous technical knowledge systems into modern knowledge systems could be highly beneficial for India to move towards a more resilient and sustainable future.

Green Skills Workforce Training - Paving the Way to Net Zero

Rehan Haque, CEO of metatalent.ai, discusses how green skills training via AI-moderated orkforce upskilling is important for businesses to adopt to prepare for a greener economy.

Cleaning Musi River - Learning from International Examples

This insightful article by Sonia Grover and Charu Bhanot is an outcome of literature survey done for a project for two basins—Yamuna and Musi rivers. In the earlier article, they discussed about Yamuna River. This article is particularly on Musi River and talks about the challenges and reflections from best practices at international scale that could be used as learning to improve water quality of the basins.

Butterfly Ecology and Conservation - A Review

In this article, Onam Vaid throws light on the fact that butterflies play an important role in the ecosystem as they are pollinators and components of the food chain. Butterflies help scientists in ascertaining the health of environment. But, the research studies on butterflies are very limited. Further research should be conducted to obtain details and documentation on butterfly diversity for their conservation.