Category:

Climate, Environment, Renewable Energy

India to give $3.5 billion in revised clean tech scheme for automakers – sources

Under the revised scheme, companies that qualify will get cashback payments equivalent to around 10%-20% of their turnover for EVs and hydrogen fuel cell cars, one of the sources said.

Carmakers would need to invest a minimum of about $272 million over five years to qualify for the payments.

Auto parts makers will get incentives to produce components for clean cars and for investing in safety-related parts and other advanced technologies like sensors and radars used in connected vehicles.

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From locusts to cyclones: the human cost of interlinked disasters

The huge locust swarm which hit the Horn of Africa in the Spring of 2020, and Cyclone Amphan, which struck the border region of India and Bangladesh in May that year, might not seem, on the face of it, to be connected, but a report released on Wednesday by UN University, the academic and research arm of the UN, shows that there were connected underlying causes: greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, which are affecting the environment in unpredictable ways, and a lack of sufficient disaster risk management.

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‘It’s connected to you’: Shared causes fuel surge in disasters

From Arctic heat and wildfires to Texas cold-weather power outages and Amazon deforestation, threats around the world that may seem unrelated are increasingly compounding each other, United Nations researchers said in a report released Wednesday.

The underlying causes of the rising risks – from climate change to lack of cooperation among governments and ignoring the value of nature in economic decision-making – are common across many of them, researchers said.

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Northwest, central and south-central India new hotspots of intense heatwave

Heatwaves have emerged as a deadly health hazard, claiming thousands of lives across the globe in recent decades, with episodes strengthening in frequency, intensity and duration in the past half-century in India as well.

This has caused severe impact on health, agriculture, economy and infrastructure. In such a scenario, it is extremely important to identify the most heatwave vulnerable regions of the country to prioritise immediate policy intervention and stringent mitigation and adaptation strategies, the Department of Science and Technology said.

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Cos can incorporate rewards, incentives to achieve ESG goals

According to Willis Towers Watson’s Global Executive Compensation Trends, ESG has become a critical business consideration, impacting companies’ cost of, and access to, capital. ESG goals and outcomes directly impact the company’s reputation with the public and employees, and often play a role in attracting and retaining a new generation of talent.

Companies with strong ESG practices have been found to deliver more sustainable returns, including higher levels of value creation and risk mitigation.

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Blue sky thinking: 5 things to know about air pollution

Air pollution is also harming also harms our natural environment. It decreases the oxygen supply in our oceans, makes it harder for plants to grow, and contributes to climate change.Around 90 per cent of people go through their daily lives breathing harmful polluted air, which has been described by the United Nations as the most important health issue of our time. To mark the first International Day of Clean Air for blue skies, on 7 September, UN News explains how bad it is and what is being done to tackle it.

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Marsh launches Flood Risk Index, Indonesia,Brazil,India,Russia and Mexico most vunerable

Over 2.2 billion people are exposed to flooding globally.1 Since 1980, over 4,500 flood disasters resulted in over $1 trillion in damages, accounting for 40% of natural catastrophe losses globally.
The five G20 countries with the largest shares of population and economic assets exposed to flooding are:China,India,Argentina,Russia,Germany

In the event of flooding, the five G20 countries where people and economic assets are most vulnerable to harm are:Indonesia,Brazil,India,Russia,Mexico

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Munich Re raises €1bn green bond

Christoph Jurecka, chief financial officer(CFO), Munich Re , said climate protection is an integral part of our Ambition 2025 Group strategy.

“By issuing a green bond, we have once again leveraged the capital markets to fund green investments. We strengthen our capital base, which gives us the financial flexibility to take advantage of current growth opportunities,” he said.

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Pollution likely to cut 9 years of life expectancy of 40% of Indians

More than 480 million people living in the vast swathes of central, eastern and northern India, including the capital, New Delhi, endure significantly high pollution levels, said the report prepared by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC).

“Alarmingly, India’s high levels of air pollution have expanded geographically over time,” the EPIC report said.

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