जलवायु संकट अब भविष्य का खतरा नहीं, बल्कि हमारे सामने खड़ी हकीकत है. नेपाल में आई विनाशकारी बाढ़ से लेकर भारत में बढ़ती गर्मी, अचानक होने वाली भारी बा... https://www.aajtak.in/science/story/sunita-narain-yamuna-dead-nepal-flood-climate-crisis-dskc-2635258-2026-09-03
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and the Centre for Science & Environment (CSE) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen collaboration in biofuels, biomass resource utilisation, waste-to-resource solutions and circular economy initiatives. The partnership aims to combine the complementary expertise and capabilities of both organisations to develop and scale sustainable solutions supporting India’s transition towards cleaner energy and sustainable resource management. BPCL and CSE to Collaborate on Key Biofuel Segments Under the MoU, BPCL and CSE will collaborate across several key areas of the biofuel and sustainable energy ecosystem, including: Compressed Biogas (CBG) Bioethanol Biodiesel Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Biomass resource utilisation Waste-to-resource solutions Sustainable utilisation of biofuel by-products The collaboration will explore opportunities to improve the utilisation of biomass and waste resources while supporting the development of sustainable fuel solutions. Focus on Circular Economy and Resource Utilisation The partnership will focus on strengthening circular value chains by exploring sustainable ways to utilise biomass resources, waste streams and biofuel by-products. Key areas of focus include: Developing waste-to-resource solutions Promoting efficient biomass utilisation Exploring sustainable applications for biofuel by-products Supporting stronger circular value chains Identifying innovative and scalable solutions for cleaner energy BPCL and CSE Highlight Complementary Expertise Subhankar Sen, Director (Marketing), BPCL, and Dr. Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE, highlighted the importance of combining the complementary expertise and capabilities of the two organisations. The partnership aims to advance innovative and scalable solutions that can support India’s cleaner energy transition while promoting sustainable resource management. Partnership to Support India’s Clean Energy Transition The MoU comes as India continues to explore cleaner energy alternatives and sustainable approaches to resource utilisation. Through collaboration in biofuels, biomass and waste-to-resource solutions, BPCL and CSE aim to contribute to the development of sustainable energy models and strengthen circularity across the resource value chain. About BPCL Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is a Maharatna public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. The company operates across the oil and gas value chain, including refining, petroleum products marketing and energy-related businesses, while expanding its focus on cleaner and lower-carbon energy solutions.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Centre for Science & Environment (CSE) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore collaboration in biofuels, biomass resource utilisation, waste-to-resource solutions and circular economy initiatives. Under the MoU, the two organisations will identify and explore opportunities across the biofuels value chain, including Compressed Biogas (CBG). The collaboration will cover areas such as assessment of feedstock and development of supply chains, biomass and waste resource management, utilisation of by-products, technology assessment, pilot and demonstration projects, market development, capacity building and knowledge sharing. The partnership comes as India accelerates its transition towards cleaner energy and sustainable resource management. BPCL said the collaboration aims to combine its growing biofuels portfolio with CSE's The two organisations will also explore opportunities to assess and utilise biofuel by-products, including Fermented Organic Manure (FOM), digestate, Bio-CO₂ and DDGS. The initiative will also look at developing sustainable value chains and potential carbon credit opportunities associated with bioenergy projects. Speaking on the occasion, Subhankar Sen, Director (Marketing), BPCL, said the partnership marked an important stage for the company as it looks to work more closely with other organisations to develop sustainable solutions. "This close collaboration with CSE represents a defining moment in our organization's life cycle. We are entering an era where organizationxal success is defined by collaboration and partnerships--combining our strengths to achieve what neither could do alone," Sen said. CSE's Director General said the organisation would bring its experience of working with municipalities and its understanding of the CBG ecosystem, while BPCL would contribute its industrial capabilities and execution strength. "I am highly confident that we will leverage our respective strengths. While CSE brings its deep expertise in working with municipalities and understanding the Compressed Biogas (CBG) ecosystem, BPCL brings the industrial capability and execution strength to scale these solutions," the Director General said. The MoU provides a broad framework for cooperation and knowledge exchange between BPCL and CSE. Specific projects and activities will be taken up through separate agreements, wherever mutually agreed, with such agreements defining the scope, responsibilities and mechanisms for implementation. The collaboration is expected to support the development of innovative and scalable bioenergy solutions by bringing together expertise in research, policy, waste management and industrial execution. (ANI)
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday to collaborate on biofuels, biomass utilisation, waste-to-resource solutions, and circular economy initiatives. The agreement covers the full biofuels value chain, including Compressed Biogas (CBG). Key areas of joint work include feedstock assessment, supply chain development, biomass and waste resource management, technology evaluation and pilot projects. The two organisations will also explore market development, capacity building, and knowledge sharing. The MoU additionally addresses the assessment and utilisation of biofuel by-products such as Fermented Organic Manure (FOM), digestate, Bio-CO₂, and Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS). The partnership will also look at potential carbon credit opportunities linked to bioenergy projects. BPCL Director (Marketing) Subhankar Sen said the collaboration marked a significant moment for the company, emphasising that combining the strengths of both organisations could achieve outcomes neither could deliver independently. CSE Director General said the partnership would draw on CSE’s expertise with municipalities and the CBG ecosystem alongside BPCL’s industrial and execution capabilities. Specific projects under the MoU will be governed by separate agreements defining scope, responsibilities, and implementation. BPCL, a Fortune Global 500 company and India’s second-largest oil marketing company, operates refineries in Mumbai, Kochi, and Bina with a combined capacity of around 35.3 million tonnes per annum. The company has set a target to achieve net-zero emissions in Scope 1 and Scope 2 by 2040. CSE is a New Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation focused on environment and development issues.
Climate chaos, in fact, is turning into an ever-present nightmare in India. Extreme weather events such as excess rainfall, unseasonal cyclones, debilitating droughts and heat waves have increased in both regularity and intensity across the land. “Every season today is characterised by an extreme weather event,” remarks K.J. Ramesh, former director general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD). This is evident in the numbers. From January to March this year, extreme weather battered India on 87 out of 90 days. The pattern was no accident: in 2024, the country suffered climate shocks on 322 out of 366 days, or 88 per cent of the year, according to the Centre for Science and Environment, which maintains a yearly tracker. This surpassed the 318 days in 2023 and 314 in 2022.
“The one thing that we do not need more of is more reports and more incremental steps to fix what is today an existential crisis.” NEW DELHI (India CSR): Sunita Narain, Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Padma Shri awardee, delivered a sharp warning on India’s environmental crisis at the inaugural session of the 8th International Conference on Sustainability Education (ICSE) 2026 in New Delhi. “The Yamuna is dead; it just hasn’t been officially cremated,” Narain said, pointing to the severe pollution levels in the river as it passes through Delhi. Referring to CSE’s analysis of India Meteorological Department records, she said India is witnessing an extreme weather event almost every day. Linking the recent Nepal disaster to wider ecological pressures, Narain criticised the long-standing development approach that assumes rivers, mountains and natural systems can be re-engineered without consequences. She cited dissolved oxygen readings in the Yamuna, saying the level declines from around six at the river’s entry point into Delhi to zero by the time it reaches ISBT. According to her, this is scientific evidence of the river’s ecological collapse. Narain also argued that Delhi’s air pollution cannot be addressed only by adding electric vehicles. The more fundamental solution, she said, is to rebuild efficient and accessible public transport so that people do not have to depend on private vehicles. “The one thing that we do not need more of is more reports and more incremental steps to fix what is today an existential crisis,” she said. The remarks came during the inaugural session of ICSE 2026, organised by the Mobius Foundation under the theme, “Sustainability Education for Transformative Action.”
देश में हर दिन 1.7 लाख टन कचरा पैदा होता है सेंट्रल पॉल्यूशन कंट्रोल बोर्ड के अनुसार, देश में हर दिन 1.7 लाख टन कचरा पैदा होता है। इसमें से 22% कचरा लैंडफिल में जाता है और 17% का कोई हिसाब-किताब नहीं है। एक्टिविस्ट ग्रुप्स और एक्सपर्ट्स का कहना है कि ग्रामीण कचरे का डेटा तो बिल्कुल भी नहीं गिना जाता है। द हिंदू की एक रिपोर्ट में नई दिल्ली स्थित सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट (CSE) में सॉलिड वेस्ट मैनेजमेंट और सर्कुलर इकोनॉमी के प्रोग्राम मैनेजर सिद्धार्थ सिंह ने कहा, 'ग्रामीण इलाकों के लिए कचरे का डेटा मौजूद ही नहीं है।'
Per the UNEP, the most expensive step in the waste management chain is collection: in the form of crew wages, vehicle fuel and maintenance, insurance, and other indirect costs. A recent CSE report on plastic waste management, which Mr. Singh co-authored, also found that primary collection and transportation account for the bulk of costs in Indian cities.
Every monsoon, swollen rivers give Nepal a surge of hydropower, creating a surplus. Some of that could supplement downstream neighbour Bangladesh’s fossil-fuel-dependent electricity supply. But as the two countries do not share a border, electricity trade between them must pass through India’s transmission network, which comes with some conditions. Since 2024, Nepal has been exporting 40 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Bangladesh through India’s transmission network every June to November. It wants to export 20 MW more. But this June, the Indian power trading company which manages cross-border grid operations with Bangladesh declined the request, Nepali government officials told the Kathmandu Post. The company, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited, reportedly cited capacity constraints on the India-Bangladesh transmission line. In July, India held energy cooperation talks with Nepal. While there was development on bilateral energy coordination, there was no resolution on the 20 MW issue. That amount is minuscule compared to the size of the three countries’ electricity grids, which have a combined total installed capacity of around 586 GW. But energy experts, officials and power-sector analysts in those countries told Dialogue Earth the 20 MW impasse is more nuanced than it appears. There are technical, procedural and political factors at play, they note. While Bangladeshi and Nepali experts point to unused capacity on the India-Bangladesh transmission link, Indian experts say there could be a genuine capacity limitation on the line. In the absence of a regional body and trade mechanism dedicated to energy, procedural lapses and politics also have major roles to play, they note. Strained India-Bangladesh relations since Bangladesh’s 2024 change of government may also be involved. Nepal’s growing role as a hydropower exporter must also be viewed together with its vulnerabilities. On 26 August, a flash flood swept through the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli river systems, killing at least 900 people. The flood also damaged 12 hydropower plants and critical transmission infrastructure, according to India Today. A Nepal energy ministry official told Bloomberg nearly 360 MW of hydropower capacity has been damaged, and that the country may seek electricity from India to bridge shortages. It is too early to know how the catastrophe will affect Nepal’s energy exports. Why Bangladesh wants Nepal’s hydropower Nepal and Bangladesh have complementary electricity needs. The summer monsoon gives Nepal surplus hydropower, which Bangladesh can use to diversify its energy sources. In the dry winter, these roles reverse somewhat – Nepal faces shortages while Bangladesh’s demand dips – making cross-border trade beneficial in both directions over the year. In 2025-2026, Nepal’s total installed capacity reached 4.1 GW, but monthly peak domestic demand stood at only around 2.5 GW, according to the Nepal Energy Authority. Electricity exports bring total demand up to about 3.2 GW. Bangladesh has 32 GW of installed power generation capacity, 98% of which is dependent on fossil fuels, according to energy think-tank Ember. The country wants to diversify sources to meet its current demand. Bangladesh also aims to cover 20% of its electricity needs from non-imported renewables by 2030. Energy trade between Nepal and Bangladesh therefore makes “economic sense”, says Shahriar Ahmed Chowdhury, director of the Centre for Energy Research at United International University in Dhaka. “Hydropower from Nepal and Bhutan could provide Bangladesh with a cheaper source of electricity than many of the country’s existing generation sources,” says Shafiqul Alam, lead analyst for Bangladesh energy at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “Ideally, electricity trade should work both ways,” Chowdhury says. But expanding such trade is “a political decision”, he notes. “The volume is small, but it is important because it marks the beginning of cross-border electricity cooperation.” Cross-border electricity trade helps Bangladesh primarily by shielding it from geopolitical disruptions to energy supplies, volatility in international fuel prices and diversification, experts say. After all, the additional 20 MW will not help Bangladesh meet its 20% renewables target. There is no plan to include imports within what is a domestic generation target, says Aninda Islam Amit, Bangladesh’s state minister for power, energy and mineral resources. He expects the country’s private sector to “take the lead” on renewables as there are “incentives for private entrepreneurs”, he tells Dialogue Earth. For Nepal, the energy trade is part of a much larger ambition. During the July energy talks, it agreed to increase its export capacity as India ups its import capacity. Nepali energy minister Birajbhakta Shrestha tells Dialogue Earth that the deal is another step towards fulfilling the country’s agreement to export 10 GW of electricity to India, signed in 2024. A Nepali energy ministry official, requesting anonymity, says the immediate 20-MW issue could be resolved through trilateral discussions between Nepal, India and Bangladesh. India holds the missing link The 40 MW Nepal currently exports to Bangladesh is transported by the Baharampur-Bheramara high-voltage DC interconnection from east India, where it arrives on a transmission line from southern Nepal. The Baharampur-Bheramara link between India and Bangladesh has a transfer capacity of 1 GW. The country typically receives around 920-930 MW through the link, leaving some unused transfer capacity, said a Bangladesh Power Division official speaking on condition of anonymity. Nepal has also been considering alternatives. “If power cannot be exported via the Baharampur-Bheramara line, there is option for Nepal to export the additional 20 MW through other Indian transmission lines connected to Bangladesh,” says Manoj Silwal, former deputy managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority. Apart from the Baharampur-Bheramara link, Bangladesh also imports nearly 1.7 GW from India: 160 MW through the Surajmaninagar to Comilla interconnection, and 1.5 GW from Godda to Rohanpur, the latter operated by Adani Power. However, transporting the 20 MW via existing corridors may not be feasible for a few reasons, says Nikit Abhyankar, an energy efficiency expert at the University of California, Berkeley. It is possible that these corridors are fully utilised. Additionally, the average amount of electricity a transmission line carries is not necessarily the capacity that is safely available, Abhyankar notes. At times of peak demand, power flows can be much higher, and some capacity must be reserved to manage unexpected failures elsewhere in the system. “I would be very surprised if they are actually going to operate a 1,000 MW line at 1,000 MW capacity,” Abhyankar says. A line may also be unable to deliver its rated amount of electricity due to losses from transfers. In a high-voltage DC connection, such as Baharampur-Bheramara, some electricity is lost when power is converted from AC to DC, as it travels along the transmission line, and when converted back to AC at the receiving end. Abhyankar estimates that roughly 40-50 MW could be lost on a 1-GW line. The Baharampur-Bheramara corridor is also loaded with India’s own exports to Bangladesh. India’s Central Electricity Authority “doesn’t want to run the line close to its thermal limit … on a line that also carries India’s own bilateral exports”, notes Binit Das, deputy programme manager for renewable energy at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). For the India-Bangladesh link, battery storage could potentially help if the line has spare capacity during periods of lower demand, Abhyankar adds. But feasibility depends on how much the power flow on the interconnection varies over the day.
Renewables accounted for a record one-fifth of Indian power generation in July — even as thermal energy led with more than 65% of the 182.52 billion units generated. The outlier was hydropower generation which declined 10.75% year-on-year during the first quarter of FY27 as reservoirs hit their lowest levels since 2023 amid erratic weather conditions. Government data now highlights a strange contrast: surging green capacity is sharing space with persistent coal generation as the 500 GW renewable energy target for 2030 looms. Coal has remained the backbone of energy supply in India — accounting for nearly 79% of the total energy supplied domestically in FY25. Production grew by 4.98% during the same year to reach 1047.52 million tonnes. Non-coking coal retained a dominant share at around 93.65% of the total production during FY25. The situation has not changed significantly in the ensuing months. CEA data for July 2026 shows thermal energy generated 119.36 billion units in July. According to government data cited by Reuters, coal-fired power generation surged to a near-three-year high in June amid increased cooling demand during an extended heatwave and below-average monsoon rainfall. The publication calculated daily data from Grid India to report that coal-fired power generation had risen about 14% year-on-year to 120.20 billion kWh in June — the highest since November 2023. At the same time, data from the government’s Report of the Expert Committee on Energy Statistics contended in July that the “estimated potential for generation of energy from renewable resources reached 4,704 GW by the end of March 2025”. Solar led the list with a staggering growth from 748,990 MW in FY24 to 33,43,378 MW during FY25. Wind Power now stands at 11,63,856 MW while large hydro is at 1,33,410 MW. Coal flexibility as the way forward? India introduced a ‘flexible coal’ policy in January 2023 — mandating all relevant power plants to modify their equipment to run at a minimum technical load of 40% as per a phased plan. The Centre for Science and Environment also contended in a newly released report that coal flexibilisation can help India create an additional 18GW to 34 GW of renewable energy space and potentially to reduce power sector emissions by up to 8.37%. “Enhancing the flexibility of the existing coal fleet can play a role in balancing the system and enabling greater integration of renewable energy. We are not talking about renewable vs coal here. We are talking about renewable and coal, and about how to integrate the two. The task is not to replace coal, but to displace it,” CSE director general Sunita Narain argued during a recent event. But the plan has reportedly been put on hold as India logged its fifth-driest June since 1901 amid strong El Nino conditions. Searing heat has led to a surge in power consumption and correspondingly, a growing demand for coal power. Renewable energy sources remain still somewhat curtailed by a lack of battery storage despite the overall increase in generation. Documents viewed by Reuters indicated recently that the plan had been “pushed back by a year” as regulators
In parts of Karnataka, "improved" cookstove projects were rolled out as climate interventions designed to reduce emissions and generate carbon credits. On paper, they promised cleaner cooking and measurable climate benefits. On the ground, the story was far less convincing. A Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) study found that households were often made to pay for the cookstoves themselves. Many were unaware that these projects were part of carbon credit schemes—and no financial returns reached them. More concerning, some households that already had LPG connections didn’t even use the stoves. In 2022, Jyoti Shital Chavan from Yarnaal village in Belagavi district was introduced to "improved" cookstoves at a meeting organized by Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project, a charitable trust supporting rural communities in Karnataka through micro-credit and infrastructure initiatives. Manufactured by Mumbai-based Greenway Grameen Infra, the stoves were promoted as a way to reduce fuelwood use and cut COP2 emissions. Before this, Chavan already used both an LPG connection and a traditional mud chulha. Under another cookstove project implemented by EKI Energy Services, Shakarya Kalacharantimath from Belagavi's Bidi village received an "improved" cookstove from her daughter three years ago. But she uses it only once a month, continuing to rely mainly on traditional mud chulha and LPG cylinders. “An improved cookstove with a single burner is not practical for a large family,” she told Down to Earth-CSE. Trishant Dev, Deputy Programme Manager at CSE, explains, “What we found was that the community was absolutely not aware of carbon credits... and no money was coming their way.” “Many of them were also not using the cookstoves… in a way, you were encouraging communities to shift back to wood-based cooking,” he adds. India’s Carbon Market Moment India is rapidly positioning itself as a global hub for carbon markets. According to Grand View Research, the carbon credit market in the country generated a revenue of roughly $4 million in 2023. It is projected to cross $49 million by 2030. There are two kinds of carbon credit markets—compliance market and voluntary market. Compliance markets are formed and regulated by regional, national, or international government bodies. They set up legal targets for regulated entities (industries/sectors) to cap emissions. Voluntary markets are national and international markets, where individuals and companies choose to offset emissions by buying credits from projects like biogas plants and improved cookstoves that reduce emissions. As of now, India only functions in voluntary carbon markets. The government is now stepping in with the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) with an aim to formalize the sector and align it with India’s climate goals. But even as the market expands, fundamental questions remain about what it actually delivers.
Warangal findings have a striking parallel in Hyderabad. The Centre for Science and Environment’s Urban Heat Stress Tracker Hyderabad, published in 2024, found that Hyderabad’s built-up area more than doubled between 2003 and 2023. Built-up land increased from 298.3 sq km, or 20.6% of the city’s geographical area, in 2003 to 636.58 sq km, or 44%, in 2023.
Conference on Sustainability Education Mobius Foundation will host the eighth International Conference on Sustainability Education in New Delhi on September 2 and 3, at the India Habitat Centre. Speakers include Sunita Narain, Vibha Dhawan, Kartikeya Sarabhai, Ashok Khosla, Ravi Singh, Erach Bharucha, and international experts from Hungary and Denmark. To register, visit https://tinyurl.com/mrrv9zua
MUMBAI: A city-wide air quality reading may be giving Mumbaikars a false sense of comfort. Pollution levels can vary dramatically between neighbourhoods, with some parts of Mumbai recording nearly three times the seasonal PM2.5 levels of others, pointing to a growing need for pollution controls that target specific hotspots and sources rather than relying largely on municipal boundaries. A Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) analysis of real-time CPCB data through Jan 31, 2025 found Deonar had Mumbai’s highest seasonal average PM2.5 concentration at 80 micrograms per cubic metre, followed by Shivaji Nagar at 76 and Malad West at 75. Borivali East, in contrast, recorded 29 µg/m³ — about 2.8 times lower than Deonar. “The law supports what needs to be done; application & implementation need to catch-up,” said Justin Bharucha, managing partner, Bharucha & Partners, whose firm prepared the analysis. “We need an AQI data spine with localised data sourcing & dissemination for the MMR. A single AQI number is an effective disservice to the purpose of helping citizens assess and address our quality of air crisis.” The contrast is significant because a single Mumbai or MMR AQI can smooth out such local variations. For residents living close to an industrial cluster, landfill, congested traffic corridor or construction zone, the city-wide number may bear little resemblance to the air they actually breathe. One MMR, many pollution profiles The problem becomes more complicated outside Mumbai's municipal limits. A snapshot cited in the analysis showed Thane, Bhiwandi, Dombivli, Mira Bhayandar and Mumbai at 52 on the US AQI scale at 7.30am on Aug 21, 2026, while Kalyan and Ulhasnagar were at 55, Tarkhad 53, Virar 54 and Badlapur 56 — all in the "Moderate" category. But such town-wide figures can potentially mask spikes around individual industrial clusters. The analysis specifically points to the TTC and Taloja clusters, while cautioning that this is an inference and that a current 2026 station-level breakdown for these clusters was not located.
According to a new report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India produces about 19,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day. Of this, 62 percent of plastic is used for packaging, compared to the global average of approximately 40 percent. Plastic packaging consumption is growing at an annual rate of 8 to 9 percent. If this trend continues, plastic packaging consumption, which stood at 1.1 crore tonnes in 2022, could rise to about 2 crore tonnes by 2030.