The specified file temporary://file0OFs4O could not be copied, because the destination directory is not properly configured. This may be caused by a problem with file or directory permissions. More information is available in the system log.
The 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Durban in December 2011. Negotiations were heated and acrimonious, as the world desperately searched for new ways to avoid the toughest of questions—how to drastically reduce emissions to keep the world somewhat within safe levels and how to do this while ensuring equity. With uneasy answers, the easy solution was to push the world to another round of messy negotiations for a new treaty, protocol or legal instrument or something like that.
After CNG, the national capital is all set to run its public transport fleet on biogas. Ambitious as it may sound, but Delhi plans to run its buses on biogas. In collaboration with the Swedish government, the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy plans to set up a biogas plant inside Kesopur Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) complex in West Delhi. The plant will receive raw gas emitted by the STP and upgrade it so that it can be used to propel vehicles.
Countries protect their renewable energy equipment. Exporting nations see it as trade barrier. The world is witnessing an increase in trade disputes in the renewable energy sector. Countries are trying to strengthen their renewable energy base by preferring indigenous products over imports. This is an obvious dampener for countries with good renewable energy equipment manufacturing capabilities and advanced technology. They argue that such policy measures hinder free trade. Their complaints at the World Trade Organization (WTO) are piling up. India is the latest to be in the spotlight.
The safety of the Mullaperiyar dam is not a matter for judicial determination. This dispute is eminently a case for an agreed settlement by amicable talks between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Talks at the intergovernmental level must be supplemented by civil society moves to bring the people concerned in the two states together.
India's agricultural productivity is not keeping pace with its population, despite its growing economy. Advances in transgenic technology could alleviate the situation, but there is strident opposition in the nation to genetically modified (GM) crops from non-governmental organizations and from spiritual gurus, in the name of tradition, biodiversity and other ill-founded concerns. (Correspondence)
The depiction of farming's greenhouse-gas footprint (estimated at 30.9% of total emissions) is derived from a 2007 report that used data from 2004 (Nature 479, 279; 2011). But relative estimates of emissions from different sources have altered appreciably since then, largely because fossil-fuel usage and cement production for building have both escalated. (Correspondence)
Events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami are of crucial importance for the future of atomic energy — in Japan and globally. To respond adequately to the accident, we have to know precisely what happened then and what is continuing to happen now.
Even Japan’s political leaders struggle to get answers regarding the Fukushima disaster. It is just the latest example of the government’s lack of independent scientific advice. (Editorial)
