Category:

Climate, Environment, Renewable Energy

Heatwave claims over 17,000 lives in 50 years in India: Study

Heatwave is one of the extreme weather events (EWE). In 50 years (1971-2019) EWE killed 1,41,308 people. Of this, 17,362 people were killed due to heatwave — a little over 12 percent of the total deaths recorded, the study said.

The maximum heatwave deaths were in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, it added.
The research paper was authored by M Rajeevan, Secretary of Ministry of Earth Science, along with scientists Kamaljit Ray, S S Ray, R K Giri and A P Dimri, earlier this year. Kamaljit Ray is the lead author of the paper.

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Study indicates association of cloud bursts with forest fires

The study led by Alok Sagar Gautam from HNB Garhwal University and co-authored by S N Tripathi from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and Abhishek Joshi, Karan Singh, Sanjeev Kumar, R C Ramola from HNB Garhwal University can help improve the understanding of the complex mechanism of cloud burst, weather prediction and climate change condition over this region of Himalayas, the DST said.

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Why Mukesh Ambani’s gigafactory for hydrogen could be a game-changer

Zero-carbon electricity will be instrumental in decarbonizing, but it can only go so far, and we’re still quite a ways away from there. Power sector emissions flattened out early last decade, and almost certainly peaked for good in 2018.
Greater demand for renewable power will drive that curve down further, which will in turn incentivize its use in any process that can substitute electricity for something that creates greenhouse gas emissions.

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Development bank climate finance spending hit $66 bln in 2020 – report

A total $38 billion, or 58%, of the total went to low and middle income countries, the 2020 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance said.

Additional finance committed by other sources alongside the development banks totalled $85 billion, while direct funding from private sources was $5.9 billion.

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Floods may be nearly as important as droughts for future carbon accounting

“These wet extremes have basically been ignored in this field and we’re showing that researchers need to rethink it when designing schemes for future carbon accounting,” said senior study author Alexandra Konings, an assistant professor of Earth system science in Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). “Specific regions might be much more important for flood impacts than previously thought.”

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MS&AD becomes the first Japanese insurer to adopt coal exit policy

Yuki Tanabe, Program Director at the Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES), said: “We welcome MS&AD’s announcement to completely end insurance underwriting for new coal-fired power generation projects, and urge other Japanese non-life insurers, such as Tokio Marine and Sompo, to establish similar policies immediately.”

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CRISIL launches ESG scores of 225 companies

Said Ashu Suyash, MD & CEO, CRISIL, “ESG is already playing a material role in the decisions of governments, regulators, investors, lenders and corporates. This will not only transform the investment management industry, but also redefine corporate India’s approach to risk management for sustainable value creation. Our survey shows over 80% of issuers and institutional investors intend to integrate ESG in their decision-making. Our India-focused framework sieves through the challenges of disclosure quality and standardisation by leveraging our deep sectoral expertise and proprietary databases. Our ESG research, data, insights, assessments and solutions will empower customers and stakeholders to make decisions with conviction, and contribute to sustainable progress globally.”

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