Category:

Climate, Environment, Renewable Energy

Pandemic recovery to push emissions to all-time high – IEA

Spending plans for clean energy allocated by governments around the world in the second quarter of this year add up to $380 billion, making up just 2% of their total stimulus funds in response to the pandemic, the IEA said. The energy watchdog said the figure represented around a third of what it envisioned was needed to put the world on course to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.

read more

Climate change is driving a large increase in intense, slow-moving storms, a new study has found.

Researchers from the Newcastle University and the UK Met Office Hadley Centre used very detailed climate model simulations and found that slower storm movement acts to increase the amount of rainfall that accumulates locally, increasing the risk of flash floods across Europe beyond what has been expected based on previous studies.
The scientists estimate that these slow-moving storms may be 14 times more frequent across land by the end of the century. It is these slow-moving storms that have the potential for very high precipitation accumulations, with devastating impacts, as currently seen in Germany and Belgium.

read more

Global sustainable debt issuance will crack $1 trillion mark in 2021 -IIF

With corporations and financial institutions under growing pressure from investors to up their environment, social and governance (ESG) game, the issuance of bonds to raise money for climate-related or social projects, or linked to sustainability targets, is an increasingly popular option.

Sustainable debt sales more than doubled year-on-year in the first half of 2021 to over $680 billion, closing in on the $700 billion issued during the whole of last year.

read more

As floods hit western Europe, scientists say climate change hikes heavy rain

In general the rising average global temperature – now about 1.2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average – makes heavy rainfall more likely, according to scientists.
The floods follow just weeks after a record-breaking heatwave killed hundreds of people in Canada and the United States. Scientists have since said that extreme heat would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, which had made such an event 150 times more likely to occur. 

read more

Ola got 100,000 bookings for electric scooter in one day

“I am thrilled by the tremendous response from customers across India for our first electric vehicle. The unprecedented demand is a clear indicator of shifting consumer preferences to EVs. This is a huge step forward in our mission to transition the world to sustainable mobility,” Ola Chairman and Group CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said in a statement.

read more

How the world’s first carbon border tax may play out

The measure, which will affect producers of steel, cement and aluminum in countries with looser environmental rules, would boost commodity costs and reroute trade flows. But it will take years to implement and have a limited impact on global emissions.
The new levy is likely to do very little to curb greenhouse gas emissions. With a carbon border adjustment of $44 a metric ton, a United Nations body estimates emissions would only fall by 27 million tons, a meager 0.1% of the total. At $88, it would drop by 45 million tons. The price of carbon in the EU is currently about 53 euros ($62) a ton.

read more

Vice prez stresses on importance of enforcing ”polluter pays” principle

“From panchayat to Parliament, all stakeholders must act proactively in protecting the environment,” Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said.

Highlighting recent disasters such as the flash floods in Himachal Pradesh, landslides in Uttarakhand and heat waves in Canada and the United States, he said these are instances of increasing frequency of extreme weather events due to global warming and climate change.
He stressed on the need to act stringently with violators of pollution laws and consider strict enforcement of the ”polluter pays” principle, the statement said.

read more