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IPCC report will put more pressure on automakers

Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director — Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science & Environment (CSE), believes the auto industry needs to gear up for a “comprehensive lifecycle-based carbon neutrality approach” across the entire manufacturing process. This is consequent to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report which has cautioned about the increasing risks of climate change and greenhouse emissions. In India, manufacturers and their suppliers have already begun working towards fresh targets for energy-efficient carbon neutral components. According to Roychowdhury, automakers have to “pay extra attention” to designing vehicles to cope with more extreme weather. Be it flooding or extreme heat, “all these climate-sensitive designs” will happen and it is therefore important to be future ready. As she says, there will be operational changes too. “The IPCC report says the transit infrastructure is also going to be very vulnerable to the extreme — you know, the devastation and destruction we will have to keep in mind.” It is in this backdrop that financing becomes crucial in order to work towards this new roadmap. “How that is going to change is something we will really have to understand,” says Roychowdhury. For instance, the damages incurred as a result of a sea level rise in Mumbai could be in the range of $50 billion by 2050. “Global climate finance has to work towards equity and countries like India should be able to source that finance to fund some of the big transitions,” she adds. Within India itself, aligning investments in different sectors, including transport and vehicles, is critical. Increasingly, all governments around the world are under pressure. India has committed itself to reducing one billion tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030 which essentially means that the future is about steering clear of fossil fuels. Beyond this is the need to ensure a carbon-neutral production process. With the IPCC report also stating how heat islands are going to increase in cities, Roychowdhury says vehicles need to adapt to extreme climate conditions like heat and floods. “Even testing requirements need to take into account additional climate and heat stress. This is how the whole ecosystem needs to adjust and adapt to the changing scenario.” In her view, what is “very powerful” about the report this time is that it is an explicit and strong recognition of the problem of equity and inclusiveness. Essentially, it has focused on the “one very critical area” which is displacement that will happen owing to climate change. The report specifically mentions Mumbai which ranks second among the 20 largest coastal cities scheduled to see flooding and a rise in sea levels. With its river-line coast, where rivers are also flowing in, this “mixed ecosystem is actually going to increase the (city’s) vulnerability”. Flooding will also lead to higher home repair costs for the low-income group and eat up a big chunk of their income. This is the customer segment that buys entry-level motorcycles and even at this point in time, sales are languishing because their income levels have been badly hit by the pandemic. The recently drafted Mumbai Climate Action Plan, which seeks to bring about net zero carbon emissions for the city by 2050, is a step in the right direction. The challenge is to ensure that it is implemented with a clearcut roadmap. The economic implication of climate change is huge and just cannot be ignored especially from the viewpoint of commodity prices and investment patterns. “The whole financing that is now needed from the funding of this new strategy will be a critical part of this transition,” says Roychowdhury.

Not for rich countries

I am at the annual meeting of energy business magnates and experts — perhaps the most important of all such events — held in Houston, Texas. CERAWeek, as it is called, has been held this year, after a two-year hiatus because of COVID-19. It is the worst of times — the Russia-Ukraine war has just broken out; sanctions have been imposed; and energy prices are spiralling out of control. As I sit and listen to the oil and gas producers, I realise that I am seeing a tectonic shift in the global energy chessboard. The fact is, the energy price hike before and during the war has brought back focus on the role of conventional oil and gas companies. They are buoyant about their role in the post-war energy scenario — from drilling and pumping for more oil and gas, to their role in the lucrative new markets in Europe. I wrote about this last fortnight and about the false narrative being bandied about — that this price hike and disruption is due to the efforts to transition from fossil fuels to green energy. This time I want to discuss the issue of natural gas. The Russia-Ukraine war has put a spotlight on the role of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the global energy future. LNG works where pipelines cannot reach; meaning, where major gas producers, Qatar and the United States, cannot supply. They have developed options to first liquefy the gas so that it can be transported by container ships and then gasified for use in power plants or vehicles or in homes to generate energy. The war has meant that LNG is in greater demand — the US, for one, has a surfeit of it. So, at CERAWeek, the point of conversation was how the US could work with its allies to promote the use of this "cleaner" fossil fuel. Natural gas emits roughly 50 per cent less carbon dioxide (CO2) compared to coal. But it also has the additional problem of methane emissions — primarily from flaring and leakages during transport and distribution. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas — it has a shorter residence time in the atmosphere but it "forces" the temperature to increase more than CO2 does. But the big oil and gas industry is smelling like a rose. It wants to capitalise on this opportunity of an energy crisis — and so it is making all the right noises. It says that this clean gas revolution will be done responsibly. The industry will invest in methane abatement; the CO2 emissions will be captured, utilised or stored, and, of course, it will use the gas to manufacture "clean" hydrogen. As against green hydrogen that is manufactured using renewable energy, this hydrogen will be blue—as it will be produced using natural gas, and then the emissions will be handled and abated. This plan is nothing less than a lullaby for energy-stressed governments. In this scenario, climate change can be handled without the pain of changing energy futures, and the companies who know the business will continue to run the world. Forget the fact that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that there cannot be new investment in oil and gas post-2020 if the world needs to stay on track to net-zero in 2050. Before I go any further, let me also put my cards on the table. I believe gas is an important clean fuel for our part of the world — which has a huge challenge of air pollution because of dirty combustion from coal. Way back in 1998, we at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) advocated for bringing in compressed natural gas (CNG) to displace the use of diesel in vehicles. This happened and improved air quality. Now, we have coal being used in industrial boilers across the country, adding to massive health problems because of poor air. The option is to use cleaner natural gas or to use biomass in boilers, including in our polluting coal thermal power plants. We need clean fuel so that we can have clean electricity to drive our energy transition — biomass, renewables and natural gas are our best bet to clean up local air pollution. But the question is, if the already industrialised world should also get the "benefit" of using this fossil fuel. The fact is the carbon budget has already been appropriated by a few countries for their growth. These countries need deep decarbonisation, which would mean a transition to renewables and other non-fossil energy sources. They cannot re-invest in fossil fuels and call it clean and green. The problem is not just that these countries will take up more of the carbon budget because of their continued use of fossil fuels. It also means that the price of the energy transition will go up — already, LNG is being diverted to Europe, which has a higher capacity to pay the costs. This will mean that countries like India will find it difficult to get out of the coal trap. This is cheaper fuel, however dirty, and because it is under our ground it has a higher quotient for the energy security experts. It takes us backwards. It makes the entire world unsafe and insecure. This is where the rubber meets the road — quite frankly. DTE The writer is the Director-General of CSE and editor of DownToEarth. Views expressed are personal

Toxic fumes fill Delhi’s skies after vast landfill site catches fire

Blaze at 65-metre high ‘mountain of shame’ in Ghazipur still not completely put out Parts of a fire that broke out on Monday at a gigantic landfill site on the outskirts of Delhi known as the “mountain of shame” were still smouldering 24 hours later, choking local residents who have complained of breathing in toxic fumes. Dozens of firefighters struggled to douse the flames at the landfill site in Ghazipur, due to its height and a lack of access roads. The precise cause of the fire has not been established but Monday was the hottest day in India’s capital so far this year and experts said the heat could have increased the amount of methane generated by decomposing waste. Once methane crosses a certain limit, a fire is ignited. Advertisement “My son was the first to start itching his eyes and coughing,” said Shyam Biswas, who sells flowers in the local wholesale market. “Then my father began and when we went out on the balcony we saw the sky filled with black smoke.” As the landfill comes into view from the highway that passes through Ghazipur, it looks like an eerie mountain range with vultures circling above. Waste pickers in Delhi Cleaning up India's waste: but what is the future for army of tip pickers? Read more Packed with the rubbish of Delhi’s 20 million residents, the site has grown since it was set up in 1994 to cover 80 acres and reach a height of 65 metres. It exceeded its capacity more than a decade ago but 2,500 tonnes of waste continue to be dumped on it every day. Like other Indian cities, Delhi has no system of waste disposal and treatment other than dumping it in landfills. A study in 2020 by the Centre for Science and Environment found more than 3,000 mountainous landfills across India containing 800m tonnes of rubbish. The country’s tallest mountain of rubbish – in Mumbai – is estimated to be 18 storeys high. The Ghazipur landfill is a constant health hazard. Last year, fires broke out four times. In 2017, a large part of it loosened and broke away, crashing on to the road and killing two people. For people living in the areas surrounding it, the air is always toxic. The decomposing waste releases noxious gases, exacerbating the already heavily polluted air. A World Air Quality report last week found that Delhi was the world’s most polluted capital city in 2021 for the fourth consecutive year. “The problem is that it is mixed waste that has not been segregated so the fire will have released all manner of toxins – sulphur dioxide, carbon soot, nitrogen, and particulate matter into the air, making the air far worse than usual,” said Richa Singh, from the Centre for Science and Environment. By noon on Tuesday, 24 hours later, the fire was still smouldering. The local government in Delhi is working on flattening the landfill, a sisyphean task given that rubbish continues to be dumped there every day.

Water security, management need more attention

World Water Day (WWD) is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis, in support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. In 2022, World Water Day is celebrated under the theme “Groundwater: Making the invisible visible”, and Unesco was the lead UN agency. As the theme brief explains, “Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere. Out of sight, under our feet, groundwater is a hidden treasure that enriches our lives. Almost all the liquid freshwater in the world is groundwater. As climate change gets worse, groundwater will become more and more critical. We need to work together to sustainably manage this precious resource. Groundwater may be out of sight, but it must not be out of mind.” A new World Water Development Report is released each year on or near World Water Day, to provide decision-makers with tools to formulate and implement sustainable water policies. Global warming and climate change have the potential to put water security in India at risk, Delhi-based non-profit, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said in a statement, adding that India is witnessing a repeat of 2021 conditions, when temperatures touched 40 degrees Celsius as early as February in some parts of the country. CSE researchers said the rising heat had severe implications for water security. First, it would mean greater evaporation from waterbodies. One option is to work on underground water storage, or wells. According to the CSE, India’s irrigation planners and bureaucracies should not discount the management of groundwater systems. Increased heat can also lead to a drying up of moisture in soils. It will make the land dusty and will increase the need for irrigation. In a country like India, where the bulk of food is still grown in rain-fed regions, it will intensify land degradation and dust bowl formations. This means water management must go hand-in-hand with vegetation planning to improve the ability of soils to hold water, even in times of intense and prolonged heat, the non-profit noted. Third, heat will drive up the use of water — from drinking and irrigation, to fighting fires in forests or buildings. Already, devastating forest fires have been witnessed in many parts of the world and in the forests of India. This will only increase as temperatures go up. The demand for water will increase with climate change, making it even more imperative that water as well as wastewater are not wasted, the CSE has said. Climate change is already showing up in terms of the increasing number of extreme rain events. This means that one can expect rain to come as a flood, making the cycle of floods followed by droughts even more intense, according to the CSE. India already has fewer rainy days in a year. It is said that it rains for just 100 hours on average in a year. Now, the number of rainy days will further go down, but extreme rainy days will increase. This will have a huge impact on India’s plans for water management. It means that the country needs to think more about flood management. The World Bank in its WWD brief points out that India has only four percent of global water resources, making it among the most water-stressed in the world. A large number of Indians face high to extreme water stress, according to a recent report by the government’s policy think tank, the NITI Aayog. India’s dependence on an increasingly erratic monsoon for its water requirements increases this challenge. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this pressure on water resources, even as the frequency and intensity on floods and droughts in the country increases. The World Bank is engaged in different aspects of water resource management and the supply of drinking water and sanitation services across the country. The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/47/193 of 22 December 1992 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993. States were invited to devote the Day, as appropriate in the national context, to concrete activities such as the promotion of public awareness through the publication and diffusion of documentaries and the organization of conferences, round tables, seminars and expositions related to the conservation and development of water resources.

Delhi’s oversaturated landfills are tinderboxes waiting to ignite: Experts

According to the Delhi Fire Services data, four fires were reported from the Ghazipur landfill in 2021. In 2020 and 2019, eight and six such incidents were reported, respectively. East Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill saw the first major fire of this summer on Monday, which, if one goes by past year records, is just a precursor to the fires to come. According to the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) data, four fires were reported from the landfill in 2021. In 2020 and 2019, eight and six such incidents were reported, respectively. At the Bhalswa landfill, there were 12 fires last year while two fires were reported this year so far. In 2020 and 2019, one and six fire incidents were reported, respectively, from that site. Similarly, Tughlakabad landfill reported two fires this year, while there was no fire last year. This landfill reported six blazes in 2020 and 25 in 2019, the fire department data shows. “The steep vertical surface makes these landfill sites almost inaccessible. Sources of fires are located 10-20m down the surface and using water further increases the problem as due to the porosity of landfill, the entire mound becomes unstable. Unstable landfill portions have collapsed in the past,” a DFS official said, asking not to be named. A section of the oversaturated landfill had collapsed in September 2017 claiming the lives of two people. Atin Biswas, a waste management expert and program director of municipal solid waste sector in Centre for Science and Environment, said, “There can be two causes for such fires. First, is human factor; waste pickers who scavenge the waste may inadvertently start a fire. Second, and the more dominant reason, is methane generation from rotting food waste. Once the pressure of trapped methane gas crosses a threshold, a fire is ignited. That kind of fire is much harder to extinguish as normal fire tenders cannot reach the source of the fire.” East corporation mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal said the fire at Ghazipur on Monday was due to rising temperatures causing a buildup of trapped gases. “During this season a lot of dry waste and leaves reach the landfill. There is no human error involved. The environmental conditions could have ignited the fire which has spread. It should be controlled in half an hour,” the mayor said. However, the fire continued to burn even late into the night. The fires also cause another grave problem, one that has become Delhi’s perennial bane — pollution. The emissions from Bhalswa landfill, the oldest operational dump, is the highest, say officials. While minor fires and smoke is a year-round occurrence there, come summer and it also witnesses the maximum number of fires. Experts say toxic fumes that these landfills include extremely polluting and greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide and monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, dioxins and furans. Dipankar Saha, former head of Central Pollution Control Board’s air laboratory, said depending on the wind speed, the smoke could travel several kilometres from the landfill. “Unburnt hydrocarbons are released during the combustion process and landfill sites also have plastic and batteries which can release toxic chemicals, heavy metals and furans,” said Saha, adding that the impact can range from short-term — such as an itchy throat or eyes — to long-term, such as asthma. Data from two nearest ambient air quality stations — Patparganj and Anand Vihar — showed that the average PM10 levels ranged form 150-355 micrograms per cubic, from 2pm to 10pm, while the PM2.5 levels ranged from 50-120 µg/m3. The safe standard for PM10 is 100µg/m3,and PM2.5 is 60µg/m3. Solutions Based on the directions issued by the National Green Tribunal, the East corporation launched a bio mining project to flatten this garbage mountain. Agarwal said the bio mining of Ghazipur started in 2019 and the corporation has set a deadline of December 2024 to completely clear the landfill. Similar trommelling and bio mining exercises are on in Bhalswa and Okhla sites as well. However, issues such as suspension of the process during monsoon, continued dumping of fresh waste and disposal of inert waste have slowed down the project. Biswas said in long run, the only solution is to prevent food waste from reaching the landfill. “Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, financial incentives have been linked to push local bodies to divert the waste reaching landfill sites before 2026. Segregation at household is the way forward,” he said.

Jaffrabad to get waste management tech park

Officials said the technology park, spread over a 1,000 square metre area, is a trial project to see the viability of incorporating waste processing technologies at a local level and reduce the pressure on landfills. The East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s new technology park in Jaffrabad, which features several pilot projects for decentralised processing of municipal waste, will be inaugurated by K Vijay Raghavan, the principal scientific advisor to the Central government, on Tuesday. Officials said the technology park, spread over a 1,000 square metre area, is a trial project to see the viability of incorporating waste processing technologies at a local level and reduce the pressure on landfills. “The trials of various pilot units are now complete and the park will be fully operational to treat 10 tonnes of municipal solid waste every day. The technology is being touted as a ‘decentralised solution’ for processing of waste at local level so that minimal waste is sent to landfill sites which will also help municipal waste cut down on transportation cost,” said a senior EDMC official. The work on the project started in 2018 under the “waste to wealth” mission. The project features semi-automated segregation of municipal solid waste into various components for utilisation separately. “The project has been carried out by the office of principal scientific advisor and we have just provided land. We will assess the performance of these pilot technologies to see if they can be replicated at other sites if funds are available to us,” a senior EDMC sanitation department official said. EDMC areas have 469 colonies spread across 64 wards which support about 23.5% of Delhi’s population. The sanitation department estimates that the Jaffrabad dhalao, which receives 10 tonnes of fresh waste each day, caters to a population of 22,000. “Such smaller waste processing plants can decentralise waste processing and reduce waste transportation cost. This can be the first step in moving towards zero landfill,” the office of principal scientific advisor has stated in a statement. Under the technology park, a 1,000sqm area, which was earlier used for open dumping and waste collection, has been turned into mini-decentralised waste processing facility. “The park will be able to process 10 tonnes of municipal waste which will be segregated and treated. We will be able to recover a tonne of compostable elements that can be turned into manure, two tonnes of combustible waste that can be used for energy generation and 1.5 tonnes of recyclable material. The combustible waste will then be processed on site using various pilot technologies, leaving only 5-10% of inert material reaching landfills,” said a sanitation department official. Delhi generates around 11,119 tonnes of municipal solid waste every day. Atin Biswas, a waste management expert and programme director of municipal solid waste sector in Centre for Science and Environment, said, “We can have all the state-of-the-art technologies but segregation of waste at household level is the first step.”

Union Agriculture Ministry To Draft Standards For Natural Farming

The central panel will be preparing the draft standards for the certification system for natural farming. A 12-member committee has been formed by the national center for organic and natural farming of the department of agriculture and farmer welfare(DA&FW) of the Union agriculture ministry to develop rules for a natural farming certification system. The group will discuss developing a pesticide residue-free product certification system and process guidelines. It will outline the contours of the natural farming system, including standards, as well as define and develop simplified compliance assessment procedures, develop a minimum set of documents required at various levels, suggest an institutional framework for the operation of the certification system, investigate the feasibility of providing a comprehensive certification system that includes crop, livestock, and processing, suggest a specific logo for pesticide residue-free and natural farming, and establish detailed guidelines. The committee has been given until April 20 to provide its first interim report, and until the first week of May to deliver its final report. Umendra Dutt, executive director of Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM), a Punjab-based organization that promotes organic farming, has been appointed to the committee. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) highlighted in a report titled "Organic and Natural Farming in India: Challenges and Opportunities" that just 2% of India's net sown land is organically farmed and that only 1.3 percent of farmers are registered to undertake organic farming. Natural farming is a method in which agricultural practices are guided by natural laws. This strategy works in tandem with the natural biodiversity of each farmed area, allowing the complexity of living species, both flora, and fauna, that create each ecosystem to thrive alongside food plants. "To stop the overuse of insecticides and pesticides, natural farming is the way to go," Dutt added.

साल 2024 में भी बहुत खराब रहेगी दिल्ली की हवा, पढ़िए सफर इंडिया के पूर्व परियोजना निदेशक का पूर्वानुमान

सफर इंडिया के पूर्व परियोजना निदेशक डा. गुरफान बेग ने वायु प्रदूषण की दिनोंदिन गहराती समस्या पर चिंता जताई है। उन्होंने कहा कि यूं तो पूरे देश में यह समस्या विकराल रूप ले रही है, लेकिन उत्तर भारत इससे सर्वाधिक प्रभावित है। वर्ष 2015 के बाद तो प्रदूषण के स्तर में और तेजी से वृद्धि हुई है। जलवायु परिवर्तन, चरम मौसमी घटनाएं और भौगोलिक परिस्थितियां समस्या को और बढ़ा रही हैं। डा. बेग सोमवार शाम लोधी रोड स्थित इंडिया इंटरनेशनल सेंटर (आइआइसी) में ‘वायु प्रदूषण : प्रभाव और निवारण’ विषय पर आयोजित आइआइसी स्वर्ण जयंती व्याख्यान में बोल रहे थे। उन्होंने कहा कि दिल्ली की स्थिति में आने वाले वर्षो में भी बहुत सुधार होने की उम्मीद नहीं है। अभी दिल्ली में पीएम 2.5 का सालाना स्तर 170 माइक्रोग्राम प्रति क्यूबिक मीटर रहता है, जबकि वर्ष 2024 में थोड़ा कम होकर 128 माइक्रोग्राम प्रति क्यूबिक मीटर तक पहुंच जाएगा, लेकिन श्रेणी बहुत खराब ही बनी रहेगी। आइआइटी कानपुर में सिविल इंजीनियरिंग विभाग के प्रमुख प्रो. एसएन त्रिपाठी ने कहा कि वायु प्रदूषण, यानी एयरोसोल अब स्वास्थ्य के साथ-साथ प्रकृति को भी प्रभावित कर रहे हैं। मानसून चक्र बदल रहा है तो ग्लेशियर भी तेजी से पिघल रहे हैं। हैरत की बात यह कि शहरों के बाद अब गांवों में भी हवा की गुणवत्ता खराब होने लगी है। कुछ प्रयास हो रहे हैं, लेकिन अभी बहुत प्रयास करने की जरूरत है। बाल रोग विशेषज्ञ डा. शिंजिनी भटनागर ने बताया कि वायु प्रदूषण बच्चों पर ही नहीं, भ्रूण के विकास पर भी नकारात्मक असर डाल रहा है। 40 से 42 प्रतिशत बच्चे सामान्य से कम वजन के साथ जन्म लेते हैं। उनका रक्त प्रवाह प्रभावित होता है और बहुत से बच्चे तथा भ्रूण तो बच भी नहीं पाते। वहीं, सेंटर फार साइंस एंड एन्वायरमेंट (सीएसई) की महानिदेशक सुनीता नारायण ने कहा कि वाहनों की बढ़ती संख्या और पुराने वाहन, दोनों हवा में जहर घोल रहे हैं। दिल्ली की सड़कों पर 97 प्रतिशत जगह वाहन ही घेर रहे हैं। उन्होंने स्वच्छ ईंधन को बढ़ावा देने और निर्माण नीति बनाने पर जोर दिया। साथ ही कहा कि पर्यावरण संरक्षण और राजनीति साथ-साथ नहीं हो सकती। इस व्याख्यान में सूत्रधार का दायित्व आइआइसी के आजीवन ट्रस्टी शैलेश नायक ने संभाला।

Crop yield, net returns and soil health – organic farming leads on all counts, finds CSE study

In its latest report, Centre for Science and Environment presents irrefutable evidence of the benefits of non-chemical farming, supported by its analysis on crop yield recorded during 2014-19. The yields were found to be the highest with organic farming, followed by integrated agriculture and finally, the inorganic approach. On February 1, while presenting the Union Budget 2022, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that chemical-free farming will be promoted across the country and the foundation for it would begin with fields within a five kilometre (km) wide corridor along the Ganges. A day later, on February 2, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based research and advocacy group, released its report titled Evidence (2004-20) on holistic benefits of organic and natural farming in India, which presents irrefutable evidence of the benefits of non-chemical agriculture. With respect to crop yield, the CSE report highlighted that out of the 504 times that yield results were recorded during 2014-19, the yields were found to be highest 41 per cent with organic approach, followed by 33 per cent with integrated, and 26 per cent with inorganic approach. “In the case of vegetables, oilseeds and cereals, yield with organic approach was highest more times than integrated and inorganic approach. In pulses and spices, it was highest more times with integrated approach than with organic and inorganic approach,” the report observed. Similarly, cropping systems with an organic approach have scored the highest in terms of all the parameters on soil health – organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The report’s findings on soil bulk density, soil bacteria, fungi, micronutrients etc also offered a similar verdict. “Despite the push given to it through periodic pronouncements from India’s leaders, the country’s efforts to upscale non-chemical farming practises have largely remained half-hearted at best,” said Sunita Narain, director general of CSE during the virtual event of the launch of the report. “CSE’s new report on the subject presents robust evidence which makes it clear that we can upscale organic and natural farming. It is time to invest adequately in a well-funded nation-wide programme for this,” she said. The CSE report compares results of three approaches – organic farming, integrated (which partly involves chemicals) agriculture, and inorganic (dependent on chemicals) farming. These results documented in the report are based on the evidence collected on various factors like crop yield, cost of cultivation, income, livelihood, soil health and environment, and food quality and nutrients. The report is based on two sets of sources – the results of the All-India Network Project on Organic Farming (AI-NPOF), 2004-19; and the CSE researchers combed through about 90 scientific studies on organic and natural farming published between 2010 and 2020 in India. Key findings of the report The CSE report has brought forward some key points with regard to crop yield, income and livelihood and health of the soil. It presents a comparison between the three approaches of organic, integrated and inorganic farming. “Among three approaches, out of 63 cropping systems, cost of cultivation was highest in 63 per cent cropping systems with organic approach at 15 centres, 8 per cent with integrated approach at three centres, and 29 per cent with inorganic approach at eight centres. With organic approach, the cost of cultivation was lowest in five per cent cropping systems,” notes the new report. The CSE report has brought forward some key points with regard to crop yield, income and livelihood and health of the soil. With organic approach, the mean cost of cultivation was lower than inorganic in 19 per cent cropping systems. The report goes on to say that the cost of cultivation is higher with organic approach than an integrated approach. “This high cost is explained by the fact that organic and bio-inputs used in the AI-NPOF are largely purchased from the market and not produced on-farm, as the project involves experimental farms. Whereas, organic inputs cost less if produced on-farm by farmers,” reads the report. The food quality and nutrition with organic approach were also found to be better than inorganic and slightly better than the integrated approach, the CSE report observed. Also Read: Non-pesticidal management in agriculture is a win-win for farmers and consumers While the report’s release came a day after the announcement made by FM for promotion of chemical-free natural farming, Amit Kumar, programme director, Sustainable Food Systems programme, CSE, and co-author of the CSE report, said that these are relatively small steps compared to the need of the hour. “Hopefully, our new report, which highlights that there is strong long-term evidence that organic and natural farming is not only profitable and sustainable but also productive, will propel the country to invest more adequately to upscale and encourage such a mass movement,” he added. The food quality and nutrition with organic approach were also found to be better than inorganic and slightly better than the integrated approach, the CSE report observed. Also Read: Using indigenous seeds to sustain livelihoods, fight climate change and pay off loans Recommendations of the report CSE researchers have called for development of a roadmap to set the long-term agenda for adoption of agro-ecological approaches across different parts of the country in view of their benefits on multiple and cross- cutting aspects such as nutrition, livelihood of farmers, natural resource conservation, biodiversity, resource efficiency, soil- health, disease resilience and mitigation of climate crisis. In addition to that, the report has also demanded to shift the focus on supporting farmers during the transition to organic and natural farming through technical and financial support. Apart from this, it has called for a targeted, ambitious and well-funded nationwide programme developed to drive the change towards organic and natural farming and promotion of organic fertilisers and biofertilizers instead of chemical fertilisers. The report also recommended that states should step up their action in a concerted way to promote organic and natural farming. “This should be done through a series of measures such as those related to organic seeds, bio-inputs, capacity building of farmers and providing market linkages,” the report stated.

Leachate in Aravallis a problem, citizens’ group writes to Haryana govt

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram, however, has denied the claims, stating leachate was being treated at the landfill site itself and no waste was entering the forest area. Citizens’ initiative Aravalli Bachao Andolan (ABA) has written to the Haryana government for a solution to the problem of leachate discharge and contamination of the groundwater table of the Aravallis next to the Bandhwari landfill site adjacent to the Delhi border in Gurugram, citing high levels of pollutants. The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), however, has denied the claims, stating leachate was being treated at the landfill site itself and no waste was entering the forest area. In January, ABA had approached the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) to collect samples from the area flagging possible contamination. On February 9, CSE released a report which showed high levels of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), nitrogen content, electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids (TDS) in the samples of liquid discharge it tested. It also found that levels of heavy metals, including chromium, nickel and mercury, present in the solid waste samples were above the prescribed standard. CSE officials said they collected two samples of the leachate flowing into the forest adjacent to the landfill site, and a sample of the waste dumped into the forest area on the Delhi-Haryana border on January 14. One sample of the leachate and waste each was sent to CSE, while the second leachate sample was sent to Spectro, a private testing lab in Delhi. CSE’s test results also showed that the liquid discharge entering the forest, which was collected only a few hundred metres from the landfill site, had 100 times the pollutants generally found in urban waste water. While the ministry of environment and forests’ standard for leachate discharge is 2,100mg/l for TDS, the leachate sample tested showed a level of 14,600mg/l. Meanwhile, the standard level for COD is 250mg/l, while the leachate sample tested showed a level of 10,892mg/l; and the BOD readings were found to be 2,465mg/l as opposed to a standard of 350mg/l. Faecal coliform was found to be around 93,000 as against a standard of less than 1,000 for every 100ml of water. Similar readings were observed from the private testing lab’s reports as well. The solid waste found dumped inside the Aravallis around 500 metres to 1km from the landfill site was found to have a high presence of heavy metals--chromium and nickel levels tested at 262.7mg and 128.7mg--while the compost standards under the solid waste management rules prescribe the safe limit for both metals as 50mg. Neelam Ahluwaliaof the ABA, who was also present on-site during the sample collection, said waste is dumped in several areas of the forest in Gurugram, including Mangar Bani. “This particular area is right next to the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road adjacent to the Delhi border, and it is clear both the leachate and the solid waste can cause environmental harm,” said Ahluwalia. Experts say while these findings are not shocking near a landfill site, it is alarming that such high levels of pollutants are found in the Aravallis, which is an eco-sensitive zone. “If the waste is found deep within the forested area and not around the landfill site, then it is cause for concern. Delhi, particularly south Delhi, has a low groundwater table and the remaining water can get contaminated this way through the leachate,” said Atin Biswas, programme director, municipal solid waste at the CSE. Dr Shyamala Mani, an independent health expert who has served as a member of technical and advisory committees in the ministries of environment and forests, science and technology, health & family welfare, said the biodegradable component of mixed waste dumped on the roadside often degrades rapidly over a period of 15 days to a month, leaving behind materials that are non-biodegradable. “That is what is seen in this analysis too. While the carbon and nitrogen content is low, the proportion of the non-biodegradables is high and the percentage of heavy metals, especially chromium, nickel and mercury, is high since domestic garbage often contains high amounts of discarded batteries, paints and bulbs especially tube-lights and CFLs. Such mixed waste can have an adverse impact on the surface and groundwater at Bandhwari and nearby villages and forests,” she says. An MCG official, meanwhile, said there was a problem last monsoon at the Bandhwari landfill, but it was fixed. “Our capacity to treat leachate is 500 kilolitre per day and around 200 kilolitre of leachate is being produced. There was a problem last monsoon, but it was fixed. Similarly, waste was found to be dumped last month in a forest pocket, however no other instances have been reported,” an official said, requesting anonymity.

Central panel to set natural farming bar

Bathinda: The national centre for organic and natural farming of the department of agriculture and farmer welfare (DA&FW) of Union agriculture ministry has constituted a 12-member committee to draw the standards for certification system for natural farming products. The committee will deliberate to define certification system and process protocols for pesticide residue free product certification. It will define contours of natural farming system, including standards, define and develop simplified compliance assessment protocols, develop minimum set of documents needed at different levels, suggest institutional framework for operation of certification system, explore feasibility of providing integrated certification system comprising of crop, livestock and processing, recommend specific logo for pesticide residue free and natural farming and to formulate detailed operational guidelines on proposed certification system. The committee has been asked to submit first interim report by April 20 and the final report by first week of May. Umendra Dutt, executive director of Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM), which is promoting organic farming in Punjab, has been taken as the member of the committee. Till now a mere 2% of India’s net sown area is organically farmed as only 1.3% of the farmers in India are registered to do organic farming, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had revealed in a report ‘organic and natural farming in India: challenges and possibilities’. “Natural farming is the need of the hour to stop excessive use of insecticides and pesticides,” said Dutt.

Will climate action be a casualty?

Climate change is the result of our demand for energy, we know. Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, are the reason the world is today on the edge of a precipice. The 2022 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reiterates that the impacts of a warming planet will be catastrophic. The fact is, not just our world but even the energy market is on a boil — fuel prices skyrocketed even before the Russia-Ukraine war broke out. The question is if this hike in prices will accelerate the move to a greener, cleaner energy future? Or will the governments backtrack and re-invest in the still-reliable fossil fuel energy system? In other words, will this price turbulence give the energy business of the past a new lease of life? Europe, and Germany in particular, is at the centre of this conundrum. It has invested in renewable energy, but has also relied on the import of natural gas — a cleaner-than-coal fossil fuel — to meet its electricity needs. Roughly 40 per cent of this natural gas comes from Russia. Now the war has jeopardised this supply. Germany has stopped certification of the already built Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which would have transported gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia. It is walking a tightrope on its existing gas contracts from Russia. German chancellor Olaf Scholz issued a statement on March 7, saying that his country and Europe as a whole were dependent on Russia to meet energy needs for heating, mobility and electricity, and so they could not sever these ties in the short term. But it is also a fact that Europe is under pressure from Ukraine and the United States to do more. On the same day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said his country was looking to coordinate with European allies on the possibility of banning the import of oil from Russia. This not only spooked the markets, spiking oil prices to over $139 (more than Rs 10,000) a barrel (nearly 159 litres), but is also an indication of things to come as the war escalates. So now, energy security is at the core of policy — as much as, if not more than, climate change. Germany has decided to invest in building two liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals so that it can diversify its supply. In this process, Europe has become the new destination for US natural gas companies. On the other hand, Europe is looking at its investment in renewables — wind and solar — as the "energy of freedom", giving this clean source an added emphasis. The question is if this disruption in the oil markets will derail the move towards energy transition or speed it up? It is the same in the United Kingdom, which has set itself up as a climate leader with aggressive reduction targets. But now, ironically, its Committee on Climate Change has cleared the decks to expand oil and gas extraction in the North Sea. The UK is not as dependent on Russia for its energy supply, but its household energy prices are set to double in April. Its energy regulator has lifted the price cap, which on the back of increased oil and gas prices, will add to the household bills. So, the UK is worried about the energy poverty of its people and the anger it will lead to. Therefore, at this moment, the government, which preached that developing world should shun coal because of climate change, has decided to re-invest in its own fossil fuel industry. Will efforts to combat climate change then become a casualty of this energy war? Oil and gas prices have been seeing a high partly because of the two years of COVID-19, when the world saw degrowth like never before. As a result, demand for energy fell; there was under-investment; and new capacity was not added. But then, as the lockdowns were lifted and countries returned to business as usual, energy demand soared. And this led to price hikes. The war has just added fuel to this fire. But what it has done is build a convenient narrative that the energy transition — pushed as it is because of the urgency to combat climate change — was unplanned and unfeasible; that it has led to large-scale disruptions and will not work. Instead, what is needed is to plan for a transition that it is pragmatic and balanced. This, then, is the logic for the resurgence of the conventional energy business. There is a difference, of course. This argument is combined with new language of the need to abate emissions from fossil fuels, including the need to invest in methane reduction; carbon capture technologies so that the emissions from refineries can be pumped back into the ground; and in hydrogen as the next-generation fuel. In this way, the current energy crisis could lead us back to the fossil fuel business, which has been indicted for years for adding emissions to the atmosphere and for jeopardising life on earth as we know it. It seems that we have not learnt the lessons on the impact of burning fossil fuels as yet. And this, at a time when the world is running out of time and carbon space, is indeed something that should worry us enormously. (Author is Director General of CSE and Editor of Down To Earth, an environmentalist who pushes for changes in policies, practices and mindsets; Courtesy: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/)

Assam: NHAI starts felling trees to expand NH-37 in Guwahati despite protests

Guwahati: Despite protests and outrage, the National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI) has started felling trees for the expansion of of National Highway 37 in Guwahati. Over 2500 tress including some age-old will face the axe along the Guwahati bypass. The NHAI is going to expand the NH-37 from Jalukbari to Khanapara from present four-lane to six-lane. Citizens and environmentalists have raised the matter on social media platforms alleging that the trees need to be saved. On Saturday, activists belonging to Friday For Future India, Guwahati organised a protest to raise their voice against the “ruthless cutting down of trees”. The citizens, who joined the protest, hugged the trees and formed a human chain to express their resentment against the felling of trees. “Citizens of Guwahati started observing that trees in Jalukbari were being chopped down and soon the news that 2000 trees will be chopped spread around. Among these are some age old trees that cannot be compensated with 10 new saplings each. The important ecosystem services that these trees have been providing to our city are priceless. It is a matter of concern for the entire city and we urge the citizens to come forward and raise their concerns,” said Friday For Future India, Guwahati in a statement. Over 300 trees, most of them estimated to be around 70 to 80 years old, have been cut for development projects, in Guwahati and its adjacent areas in the last two years. According to Kamrup east divisional forest officer Rohini Saikia, 12 trees, some of those oldest, have been cut down for construction of the flyover at Zoo Road Tiniali and at least 54 trees were cut for the construction of the 1.2 km two-lane flyover on GS Road in the Dispur area, In a study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Guwahati turned out to be the most polluted city in the entire Northeast region with a winter average PM2.5 of 81 ug/m3. PM2.5 concentration of Guwahati’s air is currently 32.8 times above the WHO annual air quality standards and falls into the “very unhealthy” category.

6 takeaways from Sunita Narain’s edited volume 'The Pandemic Journal'

The book is a documentation of the public health and humanitarian crises in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sunita Narain, director general at the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), has brought out an edited volume titled The Pandemic Journal: A prologue to a world that would never be the same again. (CSE, 2021). The book documents the public health and humanitarian crises in the wake the_pandemic_journal_book_cover (1)of the COVID-19 pandemic – exodus of workers from India’s cities, breakdown of global supply chains, vaccine chauvinism, and the struggle to find medical oxygen – with the purpose of remembering in order to build back better. We bring you six takeaways from this book: 1. A blow to the informal sector According to this book, after a nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, 2020, to contain the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, 125 cities/towns reported outmigration. Millions of workers in the informal sector set out for their villages. It was not the fear of COVID-19 that triggered this large-scale migration but the fear for survival without money, food and work. Unfortunately, this return to their villages did not always bring solace and safety as the poor continued to face uncertainty and a bleak economic future. 2. Damage to the agrarian economy The timing of the pandemic was cruel. This book reminds us that from the beginning of February to the end of April, farms and forests yield crops that ensure critical flow of cash for rural households. Praveen Parmar, a farmer from the Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh, is quoted as saying that his distress was caused by poor planning and not the crop cycle. The government had not procured food grain before announcing the lockdown, so farmers struggled to find space for storing wheat. Spoilt grain meant huge losses to them. 3. Strain on global pharma supply chains The pandemic exposed inequality that lies beneath the interconnectedness that globalization celebrates. As countries scrambled to provide medical essentials, the pharmaceutical industry’s reliance on China and India for the bulk of production became clear. While countries in Europe and North America banned export of masks and protective equipment to put their own people first, they were able to get active pharmaceutical ingredients from India citing humanitarian grounds. 4. Burden on health care system As hospitals devoted themselves to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic on a war-footing, people suffering from other life-threatening diseases got neglected. This book points out that India accounts for approximately a quarter of the world’s tuberculosis burden, and data from the Union government’s Nikshay portal shows that the total number of TB cases notified each month came down drastically during the lockdown. When there is such a delay in identifying new cases, family members of the person with TB are at great risk of exposure and infection.

Status Check: Has India Achieved Its Goal of 175 GW Renewable Energy by 2022?

India has installed 119 gigawatts of solar, wind, bio-power and small hydro power capacity against a target of 175 gigawatts for 2022 India is short of its installed renewable energy target for 2022 by 32%, as per latest data from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). India's renewable energy (RE) capacity (excluding large hydro power) has increased by about 66% since 2018. In fact, its non-fossil fuels' installed capacity has been growing faster than fossil fuel capacity for at least five years, IndiaSpend reported in November 2022. Even then, India has fallen short of its RE targets. The target, set in 2015, was 175 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity to be set up in the country by the year 2022. This included 100 GW from solar power, 60 GW from wind power, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro power. India has achieved 119 GW. Out of this, 62% of the solar power target (62 GW of proposed 100 GW), 70% of the wind power target (42 GW of 60 GW), 107% of the bio-power target (10.7 of 10 GW) and 98% of the small hydro power sector target (4.9 of 5 GW), had been achieved by November 30, 2022. In January 2017, IndiaSpend had reported about the hurdles that India faces in meeting its RE goals, such as inadequate funding for clean energy, problems with grid balancing and in land acquisition for RE projects. Some of these challenge areas exist even now – such as integration of renewable energy with the power grid, buyers' constrained capability to purchase RE, and raising the necessary finance for RE projects, especially in emerging economies such as ours, said Disha Agarwal, Senior Programme Lead, at the New Delhi-based think tank, Council for Energy Environment and Water (CEEW). Also Read - Are Early Adjournments Of The Rajya Sabha More Common Under The BJP? Apart from these, there are a few more reasons for India lagging behind its RE targets. "Part of this could be attributed to external factors like COVID-induced supply chain disruptions. Lack of coordination between national targets and state level enforcement is another factor," Ashwini Swain, a fellow at New Delhi-based research organisation, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), told FactChecker. Also Read - Coal vs Natural Gas: Are They Equally Responsible For Global Warming? We have reached out to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to ask if any of the RE projects currently under implementation will be completed by the end of 2022. We are yet to receive a response by the time of publishing this story, and we shall update the story when we receive one. Large hydropower added to renewable energy target The initial RE goal did not include large hydro power projects (projects with a capacity of more than 25 megawatts). But, in 2019, India changed its definition of renewable sources of energy, bringing large hydro into its ambit. The rationale was that hydropower can help bring stability to the electricity grid versus renewable sources like wind and solar that are intermittent. Large hydropower projects are mostly located in the Himalayas and the North-East Region, and will enable socio-economic development of the region by providing direct employment in the power sector, the government had said at the time. In a recent response, Minister of New and Renewable Energy R. K. Singh also took into account large hydro projects in the calculation of installed renewable energy capacity, despite its omission from the original target, and informed Parliament that 165.94 GW, or 95% of the 175 GW renewable target has been achieved. In addition, "76.13 GW is under various stages of implementation and a capacity of 36.44 GW is under various stages of bidding," the minister informed Parliament. On the other hand, a Rajya Sabha response from the ministry earlier this year excluded large hydro power in measuring progress towards the 2022 target. But can large hydro power be considered a green source of energy? In a Lok Sabha reply in March 2021, the Minister of New and Renewable Energy R. K. Singh claimed that one of the measures taken by the government to transition to clean energy was to classify hydropower dams as renewable energy sources. But, experts that FactChecker reached out to suggested that large hydro projects often come with adverse ecological impacts. "Large hydro plants or mega-dams divert and reduce natural flows, restricting access for animal and human populations that depend on rivers. Generally, small hydroelectric plants (with an installed capacity below 25 megawatts), carefully managed, do not cause as much environmental damage, since they divert a relatively small amount of water," said Binit Das, Deputy Programme Manager for Renewable Energy at the New Delhi-based environment think tank, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). He also pointed out that mega-dams cause 'reservoir emissions' – plant material that was present before flooding begins to decay as the water sits still in the reservoir, releasing methane into the atmosphere as it decays. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide (CO2) and has a warming potential that is 28-34 times higher than CO2 over a 100-year period. Agarwal from CEEW told FactChecker that even though large hydropower has served as a crucial power-grid balancer in recent years, hydropower projects still face the risks of natural disasters, many of which are increasingly climate-induced. IndiaSpend has previously reported on why large hydro plants are drivers of climate change and socio-economic adversity. FactChecker has written to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to understand whether large hydro power can be counted amongst renewable energy sources and if so, why it was not included in the initial renewable energy targets set in 2015. Even though India has not fully achieved its RE target for 2022, over the past few years, the country has developed a robust tendering mechanism, competitive players for deployment of renewable power, and established itself as a preferable location for clean energy investment, Swain said. Efforts must be made towards "converting national targets to state level action, domestic manufacturing of clean energy components to support the scale of deployment, parallel investment in complementary infrastructure like transmission networks and balancing resources like storage".

How India is looking to put lid on plastic waste

NEW DELHI: Life without plastic seems unthinkable today. Global plastic production has grown from 2 million tonnes in 1950 to 348 million tonnes in 2017. But this non-biodegradable material has polluted air, soil and water. Some 11 million tonnes of plastic waste flows annually into oceans, and more than 800 marine and coastal species are estimated to be affected by plastic pollution. India made its first big pitch to curb plastic use on June 5, 2018 – World Environment Day – when it vowed to phase out single-use plastics (SUP) by 2022. The 2018 pledge has led to two major recent developments – last month’s notification of guidelines to make manufacturers and brand owners accountable for managing plastic waste in India, and a global resolution by 175 countries at the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) early this month to forge a “legally binding” international agreement by 2024 to end plastic pollution. These developments have turned the focus on minimising plastic pollution in a manner that helps India move towards a circular economy through efficient collection, recycling and reuse of plastic waste. But there are process and policy hurdles in the path to circularity. “There are two versions of the circular economy idea. The original idea had no space for end-of-pipeline interventions like incineration and landfilling,” said Dharmesh Shah, senior technical advisor, Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) who attended the UNEA in Nairobi. However, the version that was subsequently introduced by big businesses “does not challenge unsustainable production practices and considers the end-of-pipeline technologies that destroy resources an integral part of circularity,” said Shah. Most governments endorse this approach as it does not ruffle the system, but it is far from the true idea of a circular economy, he added. India’s early efforts on plastic waste were mostly confined to the unorganised sector, but Siddharth G Singh, deputy programme manager of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said plastic regulations in India have acquired an edge with the SUP ban notification that lists single-use items such as carry bags, straws, stirrers, plastic cutlery and earbuds for phase-out. The ministry in February also notified extended producer responsibility (EPR), streamlining collection and recycling of plastic waste, and fixing accountability of producers, importers and brand owners for managing products in an environmentally sound manner until the end of their life cycle. It has for the first time also set up a ‘market mechanism’ for plastic waste management where an efficient approach lets waste generators earn credits that can be sold and purchased. Singh, however, believes the absence of recycling targets between 2021-22 and 2024-25 creates ambiguity. “No technology exists to verify the claims of the use of recycled content in plastic packaging,” he said. Previous attempts to ban or phase out multi-layered plastic were scuppered by the ‘politics of recycling’. High plastic industry representation in committees drives policies in their favour, leaving municipalities to deal with plastic pollution using taxpayers’ money, he said. Once the global agreement to end plastic pollution is in place, international scientific and technical cooperation to manage plastics over their full life cycle, and design reusable and recyclable products and materials will pick up. Shah said the new approach will “target the unsustainable production of plastics, which is where the real resolution lies…. This also addresses the largely ignored issue of toxic substances in plastics. Over 10,000 chemicals are used in manufacturing different types of plastics. They will have to be phased out for a clean circular economy. ”