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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Himalayan Times: Reducing green house emission is indispensable for attaining sustainable economic growth, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has pointed out. The report on green house gas emission of South Asian countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Nepal, prepared recently has mentioned that negative impact has been made in economic growth by

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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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Guardian: With governments failing to promote green energy, top scientists say the drive to keep temperature rise below 2C has stalled. The development of low-carbon energy is progressing too slowly to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday. With power generation still dominated by coal and governments failing to increase investment

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Business Green: China confirms it is moving forward with carbon market plan as India’s prime minister vows to double renewable energy capacity within four years. China and India have both signalled this week that they will deliver ambitious climate change policies within the next few years, including the creation of a Chinese national carbon market

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HT: Voicing his concern on “painfully slow” progress in climate talks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hit at rich nations for not doing enough to fight climate change. Singh, while inaugurating the Fourth Clean Energy Ministerial, also made it clear that rich nations, who were responsible for a bulk of global warming causing greenhouse gas emissions,

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CNN: The Group of Least Developed Countries, a key partner in the long-running United Nations climate talks, has told the Climate News Network it is willing to agree a core demand of the industrialised world on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases. In what could be a far-reaching move, the world’s poorest countries say they are

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‘Adaptation Ideas’ is a new series of Climate Himalaya. Here we will be showcasing a number of simple, practical and innovative ideas those could be adopted by individuals, communities and organizations for various environment friendly adaptive practices at home, offices and in public places.  The purpose of this ongoing series is to disseminate and communicate

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Dr. Madhav Karki writes about the commitments made by the member countries during Rio+20 summit on various sustainable development goals (SDGs) on low carbon green economy principles and good governance practices, in socio-economic and environmental perspectives. He argues that post Rio+20 actions should be more cohesive, participatory, multi-disciplinary and simple in approach, so that they

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Sciencedaily: The UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, if successful, could make a significant contribution to the efforts to limit climate change to target levels, according to a new analysis from IIASA and ETH Zurich. The study, published today in Nature Climate Change, showed that reaching the 3 energy-related objectives proposed by the United Nations

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Environmental Expert: Four UN Agencies to Assist 30 Countries in Transition to a Green Economy.  Nairobi — A new partnership launched today by four UN agencies aims to support 30 countries over the next seven years in building national green economy strategies that will generate new jobs and skills, promote clean technologies, and reduce environmental

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Nepal Times: Eastern Nepal’s model township is on its way to becoming the country’s first Green City. Nepal’s easternmost district of Ilam is known for its diligent citizens and scenic tea gardens, but it is also showing the way about how towns can be cleaner and greener with community participation and competent leadership. The main

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UNDP: Poverty reduction and economic growth can be sustained only if natural resources are managed on a sustainable basis. Greening rural development can stimulate rural economies, create jobs and help maintain critical ecosystem services and strengthen and strengthen climate resilience of the rural poor. Conversely, environmental challenges can limit the attainment of development goals. The

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SciDev.net: A sustainable development summit in India has endorsed the idea of making access to energy a new millennium development goal (MDG) after 2015. The Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, held 31January – 2 February, ended with the hope that a report resulting from the online consultations and meetings will be presented to the UN General

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Deccanherald: Asia is the world’s most water-stressed continent, a situation compounded by China’s hydro-supremacy in the region. Beijing’s recent decision to build a slew of giant new dams on rivers flowing to other countries is thus set to roil riparian relations. China – which already boasts more large dams than the rest of the world

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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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Scidev.net: An online atlas of global renewable energy potential has been launched to try to identify the most promising places for investment and to help guide governments’ energy policies and planning. The open access ‘Global Atlas for Solar and Wind’ was launched last month (13 January) at the annual general assembly of the International Renewable

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Climate News Network: 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. LONDON, 30 January – India has to find a new model of development if the twin challenges of job creation and

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The Ecologist: Luke Dale-Harris questions whether our concern over climate change is actually driving us to invest in renewable technologies that negatively impact the very natural wonders we are aiming to preserve. Even if the naysayers are right and they produce little else, wind farms most certainly generate debate. Ever since they started to become

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Prevention Web: The World Economic Forum 2013 has spawned an impressive collection of reports that build a strong case for prompt and substantial action on climate change, development and sustainability. The Global Risks Report 2013 warns that stresses on economic and environmental systems are on a “collision course” that could pose “unprecedented challenges” to global

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Alertnet: Instead of talking about climate change mitigation or climate change adaptation, developed and developing national governments – including Laos, Cambodia, Rwanda, Afghanistan and Nepal – are making plans to simultaneously reduce carbon emissions and build up resilience to the impacts of climate change. Eight of the least developed countries (LDCs) have developed some kind

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Zee News: Unprecedented dam building in the Indian Himalaya holds serious consequences for biodiversity and could pose a threat to human lives and livelihoods, researchers have found. The team was led by Professor Maharaj K. Pandit from the University Scholars Programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Prof Pandit, who also holds a courtesy

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CSE: Study quantifies the impact of hydel projects on the ecology of the mountain range. THE Himalayas are virtually under bombardment—of dams. They would have the highest dam density in the world, with over a thousand water reservoirs dotting the mountain range in India, Bhutan, Nepal and Pakistan, over the next few years. These projects

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BBC: An audit has found that EU-funded energy efficiency projects are not cost-effective in EU member states. The projects examined by the Court of Auditors were in the Czech Republic, Italy and Lithuania. Those countries received the most EU funding for such projects in 2007-2013. National authorities used the funds to refurbish buildings, but the

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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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IEA: The role of International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the Green Climate Fund to realise the potential of energy efficiency in developing countries. Improving energy efficiency (EE) can reduce energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and deliver a range of other benefits such as improved air quality, enhanced economic competitiveness and, at the national

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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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Guardian: The world’s two biggest emitters face political problems that will make the talks for the next few years difficult. China and the US are to be the clear focus of the next year of climate change negotiations, following a hard-fought climate conference that ended in Doha on Saturday night. The world’s two biggest emitters

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CoP18: Illiterate Grandmothers Become Solar Engineers: Incredible Story of Solar Mamas. Rafea Anadi appears almost lost within her long, black veil. Short of stature and slightly bowed, she seems she could be blown away by the wind. But one look in her dark brown eyes – unflinching, unafraid – and you know that Ms. Anadi

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Mr. Shankar Sharma: Energy has become a crucial part of the modern society, so much so that per capita availability of energy is considered as an indicator of Human Development. However, the social, economic and environmental impacts of demand/supply of energy are so great that only a holistic and objective consideration of all the related

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Scientific American: The amount of power to be reaped from tapping low- and high-altitude winds dwarfs global demand. Wind turbines on land and offshore could readily provide more than four times the power that the world as a whole currently uses. Throw in kites or robot aircraft generating electricity from sky-high winds and the world

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Times of India: India can cut agricultural emissions and subsidies by creating a market for farm offsets India has committed to a non-binding target to cut its emission intensity by 20-25 % (from 2005 levels) by 2020.This does not include agriculture. To meet this target and to adapt to climate change without sacrificing growth, India

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Deccan Herald: American researchers have found that fluctuating water levels in dams and reservoirs emit large amount of greenhouse gases, the main culprits of global warming. Researchers at Washington State University-Vancouver have documented the emission of greenhouse gases like methane, as water levels go up and down in dams and reservoirs. Methane is 25 times

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Countercurrent: Climate shocks are on the way. We’ve already spewed so much carbon into the atmosphere that a cascade of worsening crop failures, droughts, floods, and freak storms is virtually guaranteed. You, your family, and your community will feel the effects. Ironically, however, avoiding climate change also has its costs. It makes sense from a

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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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Scidev.net: Researchers from across the developing world are attending a series of meetings to push forward the science and policy issues they have identified for inclusion in next week’s Rio+20 summit. Science and technology communities from five regions (Africa, the Arab States, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America) met during 2011, and some of their

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UNESCO: We must not miss the opportunity of the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development to set a new agenda for a sustainable 21st century. In Rio, we must see where we stand, cast a cold eye on our successes and failures and draw a new road map for the future. We are not starting

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Domain B: We are all aware of global warming; but fewer of us realise what exactly the notorious ‘carbon footprint’ implies. Prakash Nayak, chairman, IET Power Panelexplains, outlining activities which generate the biggest and smallest carbon footprints Most of us have heard of the ‘carbon footprint’; that notorious culprit responsible for the accumulation of greenhouse

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Financial Express: Fight climate change with green energy. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has emphasised on the need for incorporating renewables in the energy matrix for climate change mitigation and for reducing greenhouse gasses. India’s national agenda on climate change is to reduce carbon emissions by 25% by 2020 in tune with its Copenhagen

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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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Albright Stonbridge Group: In the energy and environment sector, India currently faces a clear inflection point with the potential to become an innovative leader in the use and development of clean energy and renewable products.  While the scale of the energy and environmental challenges is tremendous, it also represents a significant opportunity.  The Government of

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Nature: Some countries could save money by switching from solar to wind. Generating wind energy is more than twice as cheap as solar photovoltaic (PV) energy production, a study of alternative energy in six developing countries has found. The findings, published in Nature Climate Change last week1, could help inform global debates on financing initiatives

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BBC News: Leading energy ministers have been told the world is on track for a long-term temperature increase of 6C unless they change their priorities. The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on current trends, emissions would double from 2009 to 2050. The deputy director of the IEA, Richard Jones, urged ministers: “Please take our warning

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The financial budget — in the world’s largest democracy — will always be studied closely. A budget that meets the expectations of one billion people — with conflicting priorities — is a herculean, and perhaps impossible, task. However, and I am certain you will agree — the one need no one can deny is the

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Himalayan Times: Nepal’s 40,000 biogas plants have been registered with the Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCC) for carbon trading. According to the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre (AEPC) under the Ministry of Environment, the executive board of UNFCCC has approved 40,602 biogas plants so far. “Now, biogas use helps us

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Climate change and the accompanying threat of ocean acidification from anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are among the most daunting environmental problems in the world, posing major socioeconomic, technical and environmental challenges. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), average global temperatures should not rise by more than 2oC above pre-industrialized levels

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Since there’s nothing that can be done about climate change, because there’s no scalable alternative to fossil fuels, I’ve always wondered why politicians and other leaders, who clearly know better, feel compelled to deny it. I think it’s for exactly the same reasons you don’t hear them talking about preparing for Peak Oil. 1) Our

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Solar power has always had a reputation for being expensive, but not for much longer. In India, electricity from solar is now cheaper than that from diesel generators. The news – which will boost India’s “Solar Mission” to install 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022 – could have implications for other developing nations too.

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Reuters: Norway will spend NOK 1.8 billion ($300 million) a year to devise ways to help some of the world’s poorest people get better access to energy and to develop a new market-based system to limit emissions from global energy production, a foreign ministry official said Wednesday. The Nordic nation expects to launch a plan

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Despite the economy, people are investing in solar, wind and hydro power for their local communities. Late last year we – Co-operatives UK and The Co-operative Group – published a new report which reveals the growing number of people who are choosing to start renewable energy co-operatives in their communities, against all the odds. What

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A growing number of municipalities in Argentina are joining a movement aimed at tackling the problem of waste disposal while producing clean, inexpensive energy. Since 2006, more than 650 people have taken part in biogas production courses offered by the Fundación Proteger (Protect Foundation) in the municipality of Cerrito, in the eastern Argentine province of

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National Geographic: Wind is a form of solar energy created by interactions between atmospheric heating, irregularities in the earth’s surface and the earth’s rotation. Wind is a clean energy source that is endlessly renewable and remarkably reliable. It does not pollute the air or cause acid rain like fossil fuels. (See References 1) Advances in

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Suman K A: The UNFCCC Secretariat in partnership with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will create a series of platforms to encourage adaptation and mitigation projects that have promise to deliver high resilience and low carbon growth. This will be done through the Momentum for Change Initiative to be launched in Durban at CoP17. The

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Amrit Banstola: The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that ―warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from scientific observations of increases in global average temperature, melting of snow and ice, and rising of global average sea level. And from various evidences from recent studies, the climate change

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CBS News: A food versus fuel debate has raged for the past few years as ethanol consumes more and more of the U.S. corn supply. Ethanol will use about 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop this year, and for the first time ever, more corn will go into motor fuel production than into feed

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NRDC Executive Director Peter Lehner and Director of Global Strategy & Advocacy Jacob Scherr joined UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner at the United Nations today to declare victory in the decades-long campaign to eliminate leaded gasoline worldwide. At the event, Dr. Thomas Hatfield of California State University, Northridge, released an independent, peer-reviewed study, which found

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New York Times: Nepalganj (Nepal)-Here’s an unlikely starting point for clean energy: No toilets, and plenty of dung. In developing countries where domestic animals are ubiquitous and sewage systems rare, biogas technology — in this case methane derived from feces — can provide both valuable fuel and improved sanitation. Unlike directly burning animal dung, the

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MSNBC: The high peaks of the Himalayas may soon be a beacon for adventurous solar power entrepreneurs, suggests a new study that identified the lofty region as having some of the world’s greatest potential to capture energy from the sun. Other regions not traditionally considered hotbeds of solar power potential include the Andes of South

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Guardian: The lack of international action on cutting emissions highlights need to research geoengineering further, says Jane C S Long. Jane C. S. Long, associate director-at-large of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, is convinced that the only sensible way to combat climate change is to work toward “a zero-emission energy system as fast

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Suman K A: The National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency, one of the key missions, of the National Action Plan for Climate Change has at its core – unlocking staggering INR 74,000 crore energy efficiency opportunities, reducing annual fuel savings by 23 mtoe, avoiding energy capacity addition worth 19000 MW, and achieving 98 million tCO2-e

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