Bernama: The construction of biogas plants in Kumrose village, Chitwan district in central plains of Nepal will make it the first village in the country to be free of fossil-fuel and become environment-friendly, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “We started with a pilot project. In the beginning 14 biogas plants were installed with donation. Once

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ABC News: Climate changes and rising carbon dioxide levels don’t just affect the environment. Experts say they also affect your nose. Warmer temperatures and higher carbon dioxide levels mean certain plants will thrive, and those are the plants that tend to make us sneeze during allergy season. Allergies may seem like a minor nuisance, but

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Scidev.net: Nepal is looking at waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies to address its huge energy deficit and also manage growing urban and industrial waste. Half of Nepal’s households are off the national grid while supply shortfalls and interrupted power cause industries losses worth 60 billion Nepali rupees (US$ 700 million) annually. Last month (26 April), the ‘Waste-to-Energy

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The world is driven by fossil fuels like oil and gas. This has some negative repercussions: Rising energy prices due to decreasing deposits, dependence on unstable oil and gas producing regimes and global warming. It becomes clear, that a revolution in the way how we produce and use energy is necessary. Central to this energy

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CNN: Environmentally-friendly biofuel may have come a step closer with the news that scientists in the UK think they have found how a genetically-modified bacterium can produce diesel oil – on a very small scale so far.  British scientists may have found a new way to pump high quality diesel into the tractors, trucks and

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CNN: Using biofuels as the European Union demands will force up costs for British motorists, make food more expensive for poorer countries and may increase the greenhouse emissions they are meant to cut, a report says. Biofuels, widely seen as the green way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may in some cases be worse for

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In a world where it’s commonly believed that one person can’t make a difference, one Indian man is proving that argument to be false. Jadav Molai Payeng is a modern-day hero to those who fight to protect natural habitats around the world. He’s not a traditional activist, but a man who was motivated 30 years

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Researchers have come up with a neat solution to the problem of producing some forms of biofuel waste – add it to cement, and make concrete nearly a third stronger than other versions. LONDON, 23 March – Engineers are working on yet another way to deliver more energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions. The latest

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The Voice of Russia: The increasing use of biofuel to help meet the UKs commitment to renewable energy – is being hotly debated. Members of the Department for Energy and Climate Change are considering whether to accept plans – for new subsidies to burn trees in British power plants. But some scientists believe renewable energy

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New Scientist: When many countries are choosing their next generation of power stations, they will be tempted to pick wind turbines. Thanks to better design, building wind farms can now be cheaper than building new coal or gas power stations. Figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance show that this is already the case in Australia.

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Daily Climate: India has made giant strides in increasing rice production, both to feed its own people and for export. But the price has been massive water consumption, and rising greenhouse gas emissions. India has to find a new model of development if the twin challenges of job creation and climate change are to be

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Scientific American: China burns nearly as much coal as all other nations combined, including coal shipped from the U.S. Chinese coal consumption surged for a 12th consecutive year in 2011, with the country burning 2.3 billion tons of the carbon-emitting mineral to run power plants, industrial boilers and other equipment to support its economic and

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Nature: Rising demand for yarsagumba threatens to cause ecological damage. Yarsagumba, the world’s most expensive medicinal fungus, is in serious decline in Nepal because of over-harvesting, researchers warn in a study due to appear in the journal Biological Conservation1. Known as ‘Himalayan Viagra’ because of its supposed libido-boosting powers, the fungus can fetch as much

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World Bank: A project that has reforested 3,000 hectares of previously barren land in China’s southwest Guangxi is issuing its first carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism. The Facilitating Reforestation for Guangxi Watershed Management in Pearl River Basin Project was the first reforestation project to be registered in the world under the United Nations

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ADB: Empowering the poor through access to energy — ADB promotes new approaches for scaling up access to energy for the poor. Access to modern, cleaner energy is essential to human development. Yet the majority of the world’s energy poor are living in Asia and the Pacific: more than 700 million people still have no

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SciDev.net: Algal biofuels, like crops, demand land, water, fertilisers, pesticides and inputs that are costly for India, says Hoysall Chanakya Of late, there is heady euphoria over ‘green’ algal biofuels that are dangled as a panacea for developing countries such as India. While it is true that algal biofuels can contribute to a fossil fuel-free

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Mongabay: The World Bank’s forest carbon fund got a $180 million injection from Finland, Germany and Norway, reports Point Carbon. The bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which is providing funding to develop and implement Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) projects in three dozen tropical countries, now had $650 in its coffers. According

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MRD: This paper presents a detailed review of atmospheric pollution observed in the Hindu Kush–Himalaya (HKH) region and its implications for regional climate. Data from in situ measurements made at high-altitude stations in the HKH region, observations from satellitebased instruments, and global climate modeling study results are discussed. Experimental observations discussed include both atmospheric measurements

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Reuters: Green schemes to fight climate change by producing more bio-fuels could actually worsen a little-known type of air pollution and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020, a study showed on Sunday. The report said trees grown to produce wood fuel – seen as a cleaner alternative to oil and

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Fastcoexist: A Safer Stove For The Developing World, Created By Indian Student Entrepreneurs.. Having an open fire in your house is dangerous, and it’s not good to inhale the smoke. But it’s how billions of people cook and heat their houses. The Greenway Smart Stove aims to change that–with no moving parts and at a

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Practical Action: This short video was taken during a visit to the Ochola family, a poor family living on the outskirts of Kisumu in Kenya. The head of this family of 8 is Betty, a widow for the past two years.  The family make their living from farming a small plot of land they own and

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TIES: The UN Climate Change Conference (COP18) in Qatar starts today, and in the next two weeks discussions will be held to assess progress in dealing with climate change. The UN climate talks shed light to the urgent needs for bold climate action, and this is a perfect time for all of us in the

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Scidev.net: A pledge to increase support for biodiversity targets in developing countries is welcome, but care for indigenous people is vital too. This month’s (October 2012) meeting of the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), held in Hyderabad in India, came as a reality check on the

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World Crunch: The future of Bhutan‘s agriculture industry will be organic. The country, which mainly grows oranges, apples, rice and potatoes, had decided to become 100% organic in the next 10 years. Situated in the craggy foothills of the Himalayas, only 3% of the kingdom’s territory is actually farmland. However, 80% of the population of

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Nature: Increased atmospheric CO2 and rising temperatures are expected to affect rice yields and greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions from rice paddies1, 2, 3, 4. This is important, because rice cultivation is one of the largest human-induced sources of the potent GHG methane5 (CH4) and rice is the world’s second-most produced staple crop6. The need for meeting

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Scidev.Net: Large-scale cultivation of Jatropha – known as a potential source of biofuel – can improve the soil quality of degraded lands and address climate change, says a new study. Jatropha curcas seeds yield oil that can be processed into biodiesel, but scientists at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad,

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Nature: Abundance of soil nutrients a limiting factor in plants’ ability to soak up carbon dioxide. As carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to climb, most climate models project that the world’s oceans and trees will keep soaking up more than half of the extra CO2. But researchers report this week that the capacity

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Guardian: Report says 10% objective competes with food production and should be scrapped in effort to reduce food price spikes European targets to replace fossil fuels with biofuels are contributing to spikes in food prices and global hunger, according to the latest analyis by Oxfam. The aid organisation is calling for EU energy ministers meeting

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Mongabay: The European Union may cap the use of crop-based biofuels over fears they can drive up food prices and aren’t effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions relative to conventional fuels, reports Reuters. The rules were spelled out in draft legislation seen by Reuters. They still need the approval of lawmakers to go into effect.

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India Water Portal: This article provides a brief background of the situation of floods in Assam, their impact and possible solutions, through a video interview with Dr. Partha J Das, Programme Head, ‘Water, Climate & Hazard (WATCH)’ Programme, Aaranyak. Background The north-eastern region of the country receives a large share of the summer south-west monsoon’s

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Nature: Drought reduces plant productivity, induces widespread plant mortality and limits the geographic distribution of plant species1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. As climates warm and precipitation patterns shift in the future8, 9, understanding the distribution of the diversity of plant drought tolerance is central to predicting future ecosystem function and resilience to climate

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Guardian: Study says EU-grown rapeseed biodiesel falls under 35% marker, adding weight to calls to end food biofuels. The growing row over biofuels is ready to flare up again with German researchers claiming to have found evidence that European-produced biodiesel does not meet the sustainability targets claimed by Brussels. Two experts at Friedrich Schiller University

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Mankind has removed more than half of the planet’s original forest cover. All the time this land stays barren and unrestored, the lives of millions of people and the survival of entire communities, cultures and ecosystems, remain under threat. We can restore many of these landscapes. A restored landscape can accommodate a mosaic of different

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Science 20: In recent years, international climate  policy has increasingly focused  on limiting temperature rise,as opposed  to achieving greenhouse-gas-concentration-related  objectives.  The agreements reached at the United Nations  Framework Convention on Climate Change conference in Cancunin 2010  recognize that countries  should take urgent action to limit the increase in global  average temperature  to less  than  2

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Last September, the documentary photography exhibition COAL+ICE, a project of Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations, opened at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing to widespread international acclaim. The show features 30 photographers from around the world and collectively tells the story of the consequences our earth faces due to mankind’s continued use of

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Alertnet: Dumping iron in the seas can help transfer carbon from the atmosphere and bury it on the ocean floor for centuries, helping to fight climate change, according to a study released on Wednesday. The report, by an international team of experts, provided a boost for the disputed use of such ocean fertilisation for combating

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Alertnet: Investors will soon be able to buy corporate bonds with a ‘climate’ certification, much as consumers with strong social and environmental convictions now buy coffee and chocolate products with labels such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance. Carrying such a certification will enable institutional investors and pension funds, which have been looking to make their

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Science20.com: Global climate change has stimulated efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. Photosynthetic organisms use solar energy to generate reducing equivalents and incorporate atmospheric CO2 into organic molecules. Cellular phenotype is a manifestation of gene expression levels, metabolic demand, resource availability, and cellular stresses. The variation in raw material for production of biofuels ranges from hydrocarbon

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Cattlenetwork: In a summer like this, as we watch crop conditions whither in record-setting heat and dry conditions, we might wonder whether we’re seeing an anomaly or a preview of coming years. And if the climate is changing, how will it affect agricultural production? A new report from the USDA’s Economic Research (ERS) service examines

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Mountain Voice: In a series of Mountain Voice, the Climate Himalaya team interacted with authorities working on energy renewable energy issues in the western Himalayan region of India, to understand that how much scope such mountain states have in energy security and how people could be involved in such processes. What is the scope of

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Green Bang: Climate change could make many of the foods we now take for granted unaffordable in the future. Everything from rice and wheat to meat and fresh vegetables could become far more expensive if average global temperatures rise by more than 2 degrees C, according to researchers at the University of Manchester in the

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BBC: Climate change is driving adaptive shifts within species, but research on plants has been focused on phenology. Leaf morphology has demonstrated links with climate and varies within species along climate gradients. We predicted that, given within-species variation along a climate gradient, a morphological shift should have occurred over time due to climate change. We

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CGIAR: New hard-hitting analysis from the Asia Development Bank (ADB) leaves no doubt that climate change is the single biggest risk to food security in the continent where 60% of us live. At the sub-continental level, the picture is of course more complex. Recent science suggests there may even be spots of optimism for food

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Nature: Arid and semi-arid ecosystems cover ~40% of Earth’s terrestrial surface1, but we know little about how climate change will affect these widespread landscapes. Like many drylands, the Colorado Plateau in southwestern United States is predicted to experience elevated temperatures and alterations to the timing and amount of annual precipitation2, 3, 4. We used a

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IPS: Agroforestry is gaining ground as a tool for climate change adaptation and mitigation in Central America, a region where global warming could generate losses equivalent to 19 percent of gross domestic product. Agroforestry is our only alternative to mitigate and adapt to climate change,” Alberto Chinchilla, executive director of the Central American Coordinating Association

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Washington Post: More than 50,000 U.N. officials, scientists, environmental advocates and a few heads of state will gather this coming week in Rio de Janeiro for a conference on sustainable development. They’re assembling 20 years after the first Earth Summit was held in the same city, and the goal now, as it was then, is

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Scidevnet: Indoor air pollution caused by cooking with biomass fuels could be a risk factor in depression among women in their child-bearing years, a new study shows. The study covered 952 women, between 25 and 46 years of age, from 15 villages in West Bengal state, who cooked with wood, dung cakes, crop residues and

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Huffingtonpost: Agriculture stands at the nexus of three of humankind’s greatest challenges in the 21st century: achieving food and nutritional security, adapting to a changing climate that will severely hit agricultural production, and making a significant contribution to reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture. As the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change has argued,

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CO2Science:The authors write that “deforestation exerts a number of regional and local climate effects,” including “a decrease in water vapor mixing ratio (Sen et al., 2004), reduced precipitation (Werth and Avissar, 2005), and a change in the water cycle (Houghton, 1990),” along with “an increase in near-surface air temperature (Sampaio et al., 2007).” What was

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SciDevnet: Parts of the developing world, particularly India and countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, will suffer food shortages if their planned biofuels targets are implemented by 2020, a study has warned. The study, which looked at 25 countries and geographical regions, including Latin American and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States, found that the

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Click Green: A new study from the University of California, Davis, provides a deeper understanding of the complex global impacts of deforestation on greenhouse gas emissions. The study, published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change, reports that the volume of greenhouse gas released when a forest is cleared depends on how the trees

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Gadling: The Himalayan Stove Project is a non-profit organization that has a very clearly defined message and goal. The group looks to improve the lives of those living in the Himalaya Mountains while simultaneously preserving the environment there as well. To accomplish this lofty goal, the HSP intends to deliver 10,000 clean cooking stoves to

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FIBL: Climate change mitigation is urgent, and adaptation to climate change is crucial, particularly in agriculture, where food security is at stake. Agriculture, currently responsible for 20-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions (counting direct and indirect agricultural emissions), can however contribute to both climate change mitigation and adaptation. The main mitigation potential lies in the

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Scientific American (blog): One day after new test results showed that only 32 percent of U.S. 8th graders are proficient in science, a group of 26 states has helped draft a document that may bring about a major overhaul of science education in this country.  Known as the Next Generation Science Standards, the draft sets ambitious

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The Independent: Waste milk creates a carbon footprint equivalent to thousands of car exhausts, according to a study that highlights the environmental costs of inefficient farming and the aggressive marketing of supermarket food. Scientists have calculated that the 360,000 tonnes of waste milk that is poured down British drains each year creates greenhouse gases equivalent

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National Geographic: Giant sauropods produced huge amounts of greenhouse gases, study suggests. Dinosaurs may have helped warm ancient Earth via their own natural gaseous emissions, a new study says. Like modern-day ruminants, giant plant-eating dinosaurs likely had microbes in their guts that gave off large amounts of methane—a potent greenhouse gas even more effective at

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Environmental Research Web: University of California, Berkeley, scientists are drilling into ancient sediments at the bottom of Northern California’s Clear Lake for clues that could help them better predict how today’s plants and animals will adapt to climate change and increasing population. The lake sediments are among the world’s oldest, containing records of biological change

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PHYS.ORG: For algae to power our cars and planes, production needs to be low carbon and cost effective, which means working with natural processes, not against them, say scientists. Algae could become an important source of sustainable biofuel, as production doesn’t compete with food crops for land. But we may need to change the way

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Devex: Global demand for food will double in coming decades, through population growth and rising levels of consumption. Ensuring the planet produces enough food for all in a sustainable way will be a real challenge, and climate change will hamper our efforts if it is not tackled. Food security is crucial to helping the poorest

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Zee News: Climate change will be an additional stress on Indian forests, especially in Upper Himalayan stretches, which are already subjected to multiple challenges including over-extraction, livestock grazing and human impact, a government report said here today.   India’s second National Communication to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, released by Environment Minister

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