We aim to convert Delhi’s transport system to electric in 25 years, says Sisodia Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia during the presentation of the budget said that in the next 25 years, the city has to be made free of “environment pollution” and the government plans to convert the entire transport system into an electric vehicle system. But there were no detailed road maps in the budget speech about how to achieve the targets. No new scheme was announced separately. “Environment section has set the ambition for pollution-free Delhi and a target for a fleet of electric vehicles but without stating the scope, targets and specific budgetary support for full range of action,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a research and advocacy organisation in Delhi. “However, we appreciate the focus on electrification of fleet and target for buses and overall public transport,” she added. Also, there were no major new major projects or schemes related to the environment announced in the budget apart from progress and completion of multiple ongoing projects. Cleaning the Yamuna The Minister said that the Yamuna can be cleaned in the next three years. “Interceptor sewer project work is also nearly 99% completed. With the help of STP and Interceptor, the Yamuna can now be cleaned completely within the next three years,” he said. In last year’s budget, Mr. Sisodia announced as the first point in the environment section that the government’s aim was to reduce air pollution in the city to one-third of the 2020 level, in five years. The reduction in air pollution to one-third was promised by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly election in 2020, as part of the AAP’s 10-point guarantee card too. But this aim or its status did not find any mention in the present budget or the Outcome budget of last year, which was tabled in the Delhi Assembly on Monday. “As we are approaching a century of our Independence, we would all like to put an end to the environmental pollution,” Mr. Sisodia said. Mr. Sisodia said that the installation of two smog towers is in its “final stage”. One of the towers will take at least three more months to be completed, according to several officials. Meanwhile, the second smog tower is not being installed by the Delhi government, but by the Central government. Smog tower is a 20-metre-high structure fitted with several air purifiers to clean the air. “The funds for the smog tower are being released in four instalments. The government is about to release the second instalment. The work is about 50-60% complete and it is expected to be completed in June,” a Delhi government official said. Both towers are being constructed following Supreme Court orders. On January 13, 2020, to control air pollution, the SC ordered the Delhi government to build a smog tower at Connaught Place by April 13. But after missing that deadline, the government was given 10 months’ time in July. The need to establish a smog tower was mentioned in last year’s budget also.
The environment has been a big concern in recent years. With air pollution increasing and natural disasters occurring all over the globe, it is time for us to ask ourselves, what we have done to the planet! While a lot of world leaders are not taking the threat of climate change and global warming as seriously as they should, there are many celebs who are trying to raise awareness and save the natural world. From green screens to green fields, many Bollywood celebs are on the front lines, fighting as eco warriors in the war for the planet’s survival! Here are some of Bollywood's most vehement eco warriors you should take inspiration from. A huge supporter of conscious environmentalism, Dia Mirza is the UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador for India. She actively participates in drives to make the world a better place, from cleaning up the environment to advocating wildlife preservation. 2. Rahul Bose A protestor for the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Rahul Bose has been championing the environment for a very long time. He was even appointed the Oxfam Global Ambassador in 2007! He works closely with a lot of other environmental NGOs as well. 3. Nandita Das A big advocate for rainwater harvesting and saving water, Nandita Das had been fighting to raise awareness about water pollution, dropping water levels, and more. She has also collaborated with the Centre for Science and Environment to spread awareness about the conservation of water. 4. Alia Bhatt A huge advocate for banning plastic pollution, Aliaa Bhatt changed her own life to inspire many others. She took on the challenge of reducing plastic waste from her life to zero by switching to glass bottles instead. She also urged her followers to beat plastic pollution. 5. Raveena Tandon With a lot of activism under her belt, Raveena Tandon also champions sustainable living and coexisting with the environment. She is part of the Earth Brigade Foundation’s effort to save the wildlife sanctuaries going through a water crisis. She urges people to recycle and preserve the earth! 6. Gul Panag Bringing environmental activism to her home, Gul Panag is one of the celebs who walks the talk. She has switched to an electric car to help lower the air pollution levels, and also uses sustainable solar energy at her home. She is an advocate for sanitation and water disposal as well. 7. John Abraham John Abraham has been a staunch advocate for animal rights for a very long time. He has sworn off meat, and has been very vocal about his support for animals. He is also part of the PowerLight A Village initiative which provides solar power to remote locations. 8. Priyanka Chopra The global actor has made a name for herself by being an active campaigner for clean and green initiatives. She is one of the campaign ambassadors for Greenathon, and she also funded and supported a drive to clean up the plastic waste on the banks of the Yamuna in Agra. The environment is not something we can afford to lose. All of humanity depends upon it. You might think of the green and beautiful as vacation destinations, but the world and the foliage it holds is more than that. It is sustenance and life itself. There are many individuals who are working hard to alert us about the deteriorating environmental standards. We applaud the eco-warriors of Bollywood who are determined to raise awareness about the dismal condition of the earth.
Lockdown improved city’s air, experts say time to think local Experts, however, attributed the reduction to the “unprecedented conditions” brought about by the Covid-19 lockdown and called for reforms to curb pollution by local and regional factors. The pollution levels in Delhi last year were the lowest since 2014, according to the economic survey report released on Monday. The outcome budget, also presented on Monday, showed that 79% of government projects, to tackle pollution levels in the national capital and improve the environment, are on track. Experts, however, attributed the reduction to the “unprecedented conditions” brought about by the Covid-19 lockdown and called for reforms to curb pollution by local and regional factors. The government data also showed that the average levels of major pollutants, including that of PM10 (particulate matter with diameter less than 10 micrometres), PM2.5 (ultra-fine particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 micrometres) and nitrogen dioxide, have been decreasing steadily over the years. The annual average concentrations of PM2.5 decreased from 149 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/m3) in 2014 to 101 ug/m3 in 2020, the survey report tabled by finance minister Manish Sisodia on Monday showed. The economic survey also said the annual average PM10 level also dropped from 324ug/m3 in 2014, to 187ug/m3 in 2020. In India, the acceptable standard for PM 2.5 is 60ug/m3 and for PM10 it is 100ug/m3. The annual average for PM2.5 and PM10, at all monitoring locations in Delhi, exceeded the prescribed standards, the report said. In the outcome budget, only around 15% of the projects to tackle pollution were behind schedule, a finding that bodes well for a city that has been plagued by rising pollution for long, especially during winter months. “All 26 ambient air quality monitoring stations are functional. Around 621 stack samples regarding the emission of industries, power plants, hotels etc., were tested up to December 2020, against the target of 700 samples during 2020-21,” the outcome budget report said. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy), Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said, “Despite the declining trend (year-on-year basis) due to action taken over the past few years — shift to clean fuels for industry and transport, power plants, trucks, old vehicles — the winter PM2.5 concentration has bounced back, unmasking the impact of local and regional pollution. This demands quicker and more ambitious regional reforms to curb pollution.”
A study commissioned by the NITI Ayog has underlined the urgent need for expanding and remodeling the drainage system in the State Capital. Nalas, drains, water courses and flood plains should be clearly delineated and boundaries fixed in new developments. There should be strict enforcement of relevant byelaws/regulations in the new layouts, the NITI Ayog said. An underground drainage system should be constructed to flush water from any place, whether it is at high or low elevation till the final place of discharge like the Musi river in Hyderabad’s case. The problems in the twin cities including the October last year floods found mention in the report filed by the committee constituted by the NITI Ayog for formulation of strategy for flood management works in the entire country and river management activities and works related to border areas 2021-26. The report said Hyderabad urgently needs to expand and remodel its drainage system. Besides lakes and canals, wetlands and watersheds would play a crucial role in absorbing excess rainfall. “But regrettably, rapid urbanisation in the twin cities has resulted in loss of a large portion of the wetlands,” the report said. Quoting an analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment in 2016, it said 3,245 hectares of water bodies were lost in Hyderabad between 1989 and 2001. In the long term, the effect of flooding due to deluges could only be mitigated if urban planners take into account the hydro-geology and ensure that construction, development and land occupation do not take place in a way that would reduce the area of wetlands. Engineering solutions like linking all the 185 tanks in and around Hyderabad with modern technology to divert the flow of water during the deluge coupled with measures to control floor (rainwater) flow by restoring nalas and removing encroachments would help prevent flooding and inundation. The report lamented that Hyderabad and even Telangana State did not have disaster management plans. They are not fully utilising the Doppler radar which could give advance and precise warnings. “The focus is on disaster response, even while allowing unplanned growth,” the report said.
The serious consequences that challenge us far beyond the current pandemic have yet to cross our mind COVID-19 has not only claimed more than 2.5 million lives around the world, with more than 0.15 million deaths in India, but also future prospects of our children. According to a study by the Centre for Science and Environment on the ‘pandemic generation’: 375 million children, from newborns up to the age of 14, are likely to suffer the long-term effects of malnutrition, stunting, mental health issues, increased child mortality rate and losses in education. The Invisibles According to UNICEF report, 99% of children under 18 worldwide (2.34 billion) live in one of the 186 countries with some form of movement restrictions in place due to COVID-19. Sixty per cent of all children (1.4 billion), worldwide, live in one of the 82 countries with a full (7%) or partial (53%) lockdown. More than 500 million children were forced out of school all over the world, with India accounting for over half the number. The government’s helpline for children (1098) received more than 4.6 lakh calls during the first phase of the nationwide lockdown. 30 per cent of calls were simply pleas for food and about 9,385 of these calls were cries for help from children who were being subjected to physical, emotional or sexual abuse, or being trafficked, or abandoned. Children from the marginalized and invisible sections of the society, who live in child care institutions (CCIs), observation homes, street children and child labourers, have been the silent collateral victims of the lockdown to date. Children are generally the most vulnerable in any crisis because they do not have any representation in the polity. The picture becomes even bleaker for children who were born or growing up during the pandemic especially from the marginalized and invisible sections of the society. They are at a greater risk of disease, poverty, malnutrition, sexual violence and poorer access to basic rights such as education and healthcare. Street children have always been exploited in normal times, but now the worry is that these children are also probably being sexually exploited and facing abuse because they are not visible anymore. According to a United Nations survey of high-income economies, a third of the countries worldwide did not implement any policies designed to support children during the first wave of the pandemic. Singapore, for one, requested the pre-school programmes and student care centres to cut their fees by 50 per cent for a short time. However, India chose to look the other way. The governmental expenditure on children has been cut down by almost Rs 16,000 crore in the Union Budget 21-22, while the NEP made lofty claims about online education and increasing the student enrolment ratio by 50 per cent with little clarity on how the policy will be implemented. Children may not have been the face of the pandemic, but they are one of the worst affected, especially those who are already vulnerable. The pandemic could very well become yet another mutation called the child rights crisis with its impact on their health, learning, and mental well being. Only a holistic approach by the whole society can prevent it so that children do not become its worst victims.
Overall Calcutta’s average PM 2.5 value in the 2020-21 winter, 94 microgram per cubic meter of air, stood second among metro cities Winter is gone but the air quality of the city and its fringes continues to be “unhealthy”, according to data generated by West Bengal Pollution Control Board as well as by a consortium led by IIT Delhi. Data from nine automatic measuring stations run by state Pollution Control Board (PCB) and from 7 air pollution sensors set up by IIT Delhi and The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) under NASA programme, being accessed by Metro, show that at 7.30pm on Monday, barring Rabindra Sarobar and Jadavpur, the air quality index value at all other places were hovering between 150 and 200, which is considered “unhealthy”. Barasat leads the pack with 188, followed by Rabindra Bharati with 177, rest of the places remain close by. PM 2.5, the most toxic air pollutant that can travel deep into lungs and trigger a range of diseases including cancer, is the prime factor behind the poor air quality in all these places. ADVERTISING “The data shows that the pollution is not confined to the heart of the city but is actually spread across greater Calcutta. The air quality values reflect the impact of the locally generated pollution along with the pollutants that has travelled from other places,” Sagnik De, a scientist from IIT Delhi told Metro. “The pollution results now point out the impact of sources like vehicles and construction,” said a scientist from the environment department of Calcutta University. Earlier a study carried out by Delhi-based environmental think-tank Center for Science and Environment (CSE) had also pointed out that the sources of highly toxic PM 2.5 pollutants in Calcutta, whose rise in Calcutta was the highest among all other Indian cities during last winter, have been mostly local unlike Delhi. Overall Calcutta’s average PM 2.5 value in the 2020-21 winter, 94 microgram per cubic meter of air, stood second among metro cities. Delhi topped the chart with an average PM 2.5 value of 186 micrograms. The period from October 1 to January 31 (2020-21) has been considered as winter. The maximum PM 2.5 value recorded in Calcutta during this winter was 199 micrograms, which was more than thrice the national limit of 60 micrograms. CSE report also points out that while Calcutta’s average PM 2.5 level and peak PM 2.5 value during 2020-21 winter showed a significant spike over the winter before, both parameters showed decline in overall eastern India. “The fact, Calcutta showing a trend reversal within eastern India, means significant number of local factors is involved in pushing up city’s PM 2.5 pollution values. This is unlike Delhi where external factors are significantly responsible,” said Anumita Roy Choudhury, air pollution head, CSE. “While surrounding regions contribute to Delhi’s air pollution, Calcutta’s air pollution sources are mostly local” said environment activist Subhas Datta. Unless there is administrative action and rise in awareness; lungs will continue to be choked with toxic pollutants in Calcutta, he said.
Given the devastating economic toll the COVID-19 pandemic has had on women and girls, the imperative to mark International Women’s Day carries more weight than usual this year. The idea of a day celebrating the accomplishments of the female gender in the U.S. reaches back to 1909. Throughout the subsequent decade, the concept was embraced by countries including Austria, Denmark, Germany, Russia and Switzerland, but it wasn’t until 1975 that the first International Women’s Day was celebrated and adopted by the United Nations. As I began identifying leaders to include on this third annual list, I was inspired by the introduction to "All We Can Save," an essay and poem collection co-edited by marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (who you can find on this year’s list) and Katharine Wilkinson (who we recognized on the first Badass Women list in 2019). They celebrate a rise in climate leadership distinguished by four important characteristics: it is focused on "making change rather than being in charge"; it is committed to responding in ways "that heal systemic injustices rather than deepening them"; there is "an appreciation for heart-centered, not just head-centered, leadership"; and there is "a recognition that building community is a requisite foundation for building a better world." By not including women at equal levels — in companies, in government, in NGOs and elsewhere — the climate movement is itself experiencing a crisis, they argue. "As the saying goes, to change everything, we need everyone … We need feminine and feminist climate leadership, which is wide open to people of any gender." When it comes to those shaping the corporate climate movement — either from within companies or as part of NGOs and policy organizations that recognize the critical role businesses must play in addressing the climate emergency — I’m grateful to say it’s becoming easier to find women with a seat at the decision-making table. This list, selected subjectively, celebrates a diverse, intergenerational set of leaders. Speaking of giving credit where credit is due, nominations are open for the seventh annual Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards, to be conferred by the Women in Sustainability Alumnae Group at a virtual ceremony May 19. Nominees must have at least seven years management and leadership experience, and have made a noteworthy contribution to the cause of corporate climate action. I can think of plenty of worthy candidates, how about you? You’ve got until March 24 to suggest them. And now, I invite you to meet the 2021 class of Badass Women. Jacinda Ardern Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister, New Zealand LinkedIn | Twitter New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wasted little time raising the stakes in her nation’s fight against climate change after handily winning re-election in October. Drawing on that mandate, Ardern declared a "climate emergency" and set the wheels in motion for New Zealand’s public sector to become carbon neutral by 2025. "This declaration is an acknowledgment of the next generation," she told parliament early in December. "An acknowledgment of the burden they will carry if we do not get this right and do not take action now." New Zealand, a nation of about 5 million people, in late January reported progress toward its goal to cut emissions by 30 percent over the next decade compared with 2005 levels — but recognized current measures won’t be enough to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Ardern was praised for her government’s aggressive containment of the COVID-19 pandemic last year — her country reported just 25 deaths. She passed a Zero Carbon Bill during her first term that mandates net-zero emissions by 2050 and campaigned on tougher action this term. Ardern is being watched closely: Her administration has been criticized for being lenient on reducing biogenic methane from agricultural production — notably dairy cattle and sheep — which accounts for almost half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions and roughly 6.6 percent of its GDP. Her idea is to phase in reductions. Farmers could face higher taxes or the elimination of irrigation subsidies as early as 2022 if they don’t act to reduce their impact. Alyssa Auberger, Baker McKenzie Alyssa Auberger, CSO, Baker McKenzie LinkedIn | Twitter Over the past year, many professional services organizations that previously had little to say publicly about their climate change strategy — from law firms to management consultants to ad agencies — found themselves under closer scrutiny not just for their own footprint but for supporting some of the biggest climate deniers around. Amid that soul searching, one of the largest law partnerships in the world, Baker McKenzie, named its first chief sustainability officer, Alyssa Auberger. A partner in the firm’s Paris office, with more than 20 years’ tenure, Auberger previously led Baker McKenzie’s consumer goods and retail practice. In that role, she was engaged in helping clients develop strategies for supply chain transparency disclosures and claim, emissions reporting and human rights. "In terms of our partnership with our clients, this means being able to understand what sustainability means to their businesses across all industries and identifying how we can help them with their environment, social and governance needs," she said. "For our own people, it means a focus on nurturing a business that aligns with and respects our own unique values, cares about communities and gives us all a sense of purpose that goes beyond the billable hour." Baker McKenzie established its climate change practice two decades ago, one of the first firms to do so, and it is one of the largest law organizations to belong to the United Nations Global Compact, which it joined in 2015. It uses the Sustainable Development Goals as a guidepost for many of its policies and has aligned its business with eight of them. Boma Brown-West, EDF+Business Boma Brown-West, Director of Consumer Health, EDF+Business LinkedIn | Twitter A mechanical engineer by training who spent the early part of her career in the private sector at Whirlpool, Boma Brown-West leads the Environmental Defense Fund’s work to eliminate toxic chemicals and other substances with questionable consequences for human health from consumer products and retailer store shelves — everything from paints to makeup to baby food. As part of her role, Brown-West manages the NGO’s Five Pillars for Safer Chemicals Leadership program. She is at the center of the NGO’s working relationship with Walmart, among other retailers and consumer brands, helping it launch in 2017 an expansive strategy to reduce its chemical footprint for consumables by 10 percent by 2022. Promoted to her current position in October, Brown-West — a prolific EDF author based in Washington, D.C. — last year drew attention to the disproportionate impact that cosmetics and beauty products have on women of color. Her team in August expanded its relationship with beauty retailer Sephora, which has committed to reducing certain high-priority chemicals in the products it sells by 50 percent in the next three years. One other recent crusade is pushing e-commerce retailers such as Amazon, eBay and Walmart to disclose more about the climate effects and chemical compositions of the millions of products they sell, which EDF supported with a roadmap of suggestions in summer 2020. "We want to call attention to how the biggest environmental impacts and the biggest health impact of products is really due to the products themselves and the creation and the use of a product," Brown-West noted at the time. Martina Cheung, S&P Global Martina Cheung, President, S&P Global Market Intelligence; Head of ESG, S&P Global LinkedIn | Twitter When it comes to market intelligence, S&P Global — the New York-based parent company to Dow Jones, Trucost and soon-to-be IHS Markit — is a familiar, respected name in boardrooms. Martina Cheung is the executive driving the growth strategy across S&P's portfolio of ESG ratings, benchmarks and data products. After a career as a consultant, Cheung joined S&P in 2010 and has led diverse strategic initiatives and titles including vice president of operations, chief strategy officer and head of risk services. Drawing on that perspective, she encourages sustainability leaders to spend more time with their counterparts in finance. As she observed during GreenBiz 21 in February: "I think the partnership with the CFO is incredibly important, the partnership with investor relations because sustainability goes to the heart of performance." A new parent, Cheung has been outspoken about the need for more flexibility and support for women who choose to juggle careers and family responsibilities, a message she has amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. In other words, one of the "S" factors in ESG. "As employees work from home, children and family members have become regular fixtures in the background of online meetings," she wrote in an editorial for NBC. "Their increased visibility can lead to better communication about the burden of family care, more expansive family-leave policies and reduced stigma around taking such leave." Deb Haaland Debra Haaland, Congresswoman; Secretary Nominee, Department of the Interior Twitter As of this writing, New Mexico Congresswoman Debra Haaland has yet to be formally confirmed as Secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior, but she already has a long history of championing climate-related causes. Raised in a military family, Haaland identifies as a 35th generation New Mexican and an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna. Before entering public service, she oversaw the second largest tribal gaming enterprise in the state, where she focused on the creation of earth-friendly business practices. There are many "firsts" on her resume: the first Native woman to lead a state party, the first to serve in Congress and, if successfully confirmed, the first Native person to hold a U.S. Cabinet position. Those critical of her appointment point to Haaland’s support of the Standing Rock pipeline protests as extreme — she brought food to the tribes camped out to protect their territories’ natural resources and heritage. "When we’re thinking about our environment, you can destroy faster than you can rebuild," she said at the time. "You can cut down a 500-year-old tree. That tree is never going to grow back like that again. Climate change is real, and I’m going to fight to the bitter end to protect our environment because it’s the only one we have and our environment gives us everything." Last year, Haaland led a coalition that proposed the 30 By 30 Resolution to Save Nature, aimed at creating a strategy for the U.S. to preserve at least 30 percent of the ocean and land by 2030. President Joe Biden announced his support for that philosophy just one week after taking office in January. Celine Herweijer Celine Herweijer, Partner, Global Innovation and Sustainability Leader, PwC LinkedIn | Twitter The newly anointed group sustainability chief for one of Europe’s largest banks, HSBC — a role she will assume in July — London-based Celine Herweijer is a familiar feature in the continent’s corporate climate movement. In her current position as innovation and sustainability leader for consulting firm PwC, Herweijer has advised some of the world’s largest financial services organizations and asset management companies on climate risk strategy and sustainable finance initiatives. She has served on numerous committees for the World Economic Forum and the United Nations, among other groups, and is co-chair of the We Mean Business Coalition. Like many other banks, HSBC has pledged to step away from its funding of fossil-fuels interests and other high-carbon industrial activities with a pledge to achieving net-zero financed emissions across its customer portfolio by 2050. (It aims to reach net-zero for its own operations and supply chain by 2030.) Skeptics have criticized its commitment for not going far enough. Still, the company is stepping out as an innovator in sustainable finance — it was the first buyer into a new reef credits system in Australia, and Herweijer’s innovation lens and ongoing research into risks associated with nature and biodiversity loss no doubt helped land her new job. "The cascading physical, regulatory and legal, market and reputation risks we see mean nature risk now needs to be a mainstream issue for corporate enterprise risk management," Weijer said last year. "We have an opportunity to extend the recent response of regulators, businesses and investors on climate change to nature; both are interrelated and both pose a systemic risk to the global economy." Mellody Hobson, Ariel Investments Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO and President, Ariel Investments LinkedIn | Twitter Mellody Hobson joined Chicago-based Ariel Investments, one of the largest African American-owned mutual funds in the United States with more than $15 billion in assets under management, as an intern. Today, she is co-CEO, responsible for strategy and planning. Ariel’s focus is on nurturing small and midsize capitalization stocks, and in mid-February, the firm announced a bold new initiative — Ariel Alternatives, aka "Project Black." The goal is to invest in businesses owned by Black or Latinx entrepreneurs, as well as middle-market companies that are not minority-owned, with the goal of helping them change their ownership model. Its partner is JPMorgan Chase, which has committed to co-investing $200 million. One of Hobson’s convictions is that American’s must be "color brave," a phrase she coined in her 2014 TED Talk. She commented in a February interview: "I'm going to always take the hopeful route here and say we have become more brave, but we have to be much braver than we are." In "Civil Rights 3.0" corporations need to step up much more proactively, Hobson observed. We’ve had plenty of talk, and now we need elbow grease and accountability, she said. An active outside director, Hobson chaired DreamWorks Animation up until its sale to NBCUniversal, and in March became chairperson of Starbucks. In October, her alma mater announced plans for a new residential college. The new facility, Hobson, the first to be named for a Black woman at Princeton, will appropriately be built on the former site of a building previously named for Woodrow Wilson, whose name was removed in June because of his racist views and policies. Kara Hurst, Amazon Kara Hurst, Vice President, Head of Worldwide Sustainability, Amazon LinkedIn | Twitter Now in her seventh year with Amazon, Kara Hurst — the company’s first sustainability executive via previous gigs with The Sustainability Consortium and BSR — leads the team that helped orchestrate many ambitious commitments that the giant company has made in the past two years. She was instrumental in designing Amazon’s signature program, The Climate Pledge, launched with Global Optimism in September 2019, which includes a commitment to earn net-zero carbon status by 2040 — 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement timeline. As of Feb. 17, there were 53 signatories representing 18 industries. "The Climate Pledge is a call to urgent action," Hurst said in a February interview. "I think one of the things that also distinguishes the pledge is a commitment to sending these market signals, the demand for the products and services that companies need to help us decarbonize." For Seattle-based Amazon, that includes a plan to invest $2 billion in climate tech and decarbonization services; a $100 million fund to support reforestation and urban greening projects; the purchase of 100,000 electric vehicles for the company’s delivery fleet; and the creation of the Climate Pledge Friendly labeling program, which makes is easier to research the sustainability attributes of products. Hurst’s causes outside Amazon include board positions with Stolen Youth, an organization dedicated to eradicating sex trafficking; as well as with the roundtable for sustainability that’s part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Ellen Jackowski, HP Inc. Ellen Jackowski, Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer, HP Inc. LinkedIn | Twitter For HP Inc., sustainability strategy isn’t just a source of operational or ESG differentiation, it’s a revenue driver — $1 billion in customer contracts for the past two fiscal years. Ellen Jackowski is the Palo Alto, California, company’s long-time sustainability innovation champion, who ascended to her current position in June. Jackowski was at the center of HP’s ongoing project in Haiti to collect ocean-bound plastic waste and incorporate the material into the company’s printer cartridges and, as of May, into some of its personal computers. So far, that effort has diverted 1.7 million pounds of plastic, or 60 million bottles. Like many consumer products companies, the HP sustainability team is also focused on reducing the impact of its packaging — its goal is to eliminate 75 percent of single-use plastics by 2025. She also leads the company’s work on fighting deforestation, through efforts such as a partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to restore and manage up to 20,000 acres in Brazil’s endangered Atlantic Forest, or through the HP Sustainable Forests Collaborative, which includes Chenming Paper, Domtar Paper and New Leap Paper. One of Jackowski’s latest initiatives is a program, HP Amplify Impact, that calls upon HP’s expansive partner network — including the companies that resell its computers — to set sustainability goals. "Our team is not just tracking how partners select their suppliers — we’re measuring the carbon reductions across the value chain," she wrote in February. "We’re also tracking the overall impact on people and on communities, collectively with our partners. That’s where we will find real inspiration and momentum." Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Image by Landon Speers Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Co-founder, Urban Ocean Lab and Ocean Collectiv, All We Can Save LinkedIn | Twitter Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson has lived at the intersection of practical environmental conservation strategy and social justice for years, through her consulting work with Ocean Collectiv, dedicated to addressing issues such as overfishing and habitat destruction. Her research on the role coastal communities can play in climate solutions — including policy work on offshore wind development and the Blue New Deal — is supported by her second venture, Urban Ocean Lab. Last year, the New York-based scientist tapped into her experience and her friendship with climate solutions expert and author Katharine Wilkinson of Project Drawdown to co-launch a project dedicated to amplifying the work of women in the climate movement — scientists, policymakers, activists and, notably, BIPOC. All We Can Save, the book they birthed in September, features 41 powerful voices. Johnson and Wilkinson have spun the dialogue into a nonprofit focused on supporting — financially, intellectually and otherwise — female climate leaders. Johnson’s own voice has become far more familiar. In November, she began co-hosting a Gimlet Media podcast, "How to Save a Planet." Her passionate call for the climate movement to confront racism was prominently published in the Washington Post in June. "To the white people who care about maintaining a habitable planet, I need you to become actively anti-racist," she wrote. "I need you to understand that our racial inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis. If we don’t work on both, we will succeed at neither." Rose Stuckey Kirk, Verizon Rose Stuckey Kirk, Senior Vice President, Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer, Verizon LinkedIn | Twitter Rose Stuckey Kirk, who spent much of her career as a journalist, has been more visible than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic. Much of her attention over the past year has been surfacing ways for Verizon to help support struggling small businesses. Two notable efforts include a $1 million grant for the We Mean Business coalition, aimed at helping up to 1 million small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) with carbon footprinting tools; and its $10 million commitment in February aimed at supporting SMEs in historically underserved communities. Both fall under Citizen Verizon, the Basking Ridge, New Jersey, teleco’s initiative for economic, environmental and social advancement. The pandemic didn’t stop Verizon from advancing its sustainability strategy significantly over the past 12 months, with a pledge to become carbon neutral by 2035 and the pricing of a second $1 billion green bond meant to support the construction of renewable energy resources for its telecommunications networks. Raised in Arkansas with seven siblings, Kirk serves on the board of numerous organizations, including the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Leadership Council and the C-200 women’s leadership initiative. She was executive producer of the 2017 documentary "Without a Net: The Digital Divide in America." "Whether in education, nonprofit, business, media, policy or another industry, the individuals who have influenced me the most are the innovators — the leaders and change-makers who are pulsing the world forward," Kirk said in a 2017 Forbes interview. "Those who don’t just talk — who act." Jill Kolling, Cargill Jill Kolling, Vice President, Global Sustainability, Cargill LinkedIn | Twitter Jill Kolling, a former entrepreneur and management consultant who hails from Minneapolis, joined the agricultural giant in 2015. Over the past six years, she has been at the center of the strategy to build a global sustainable team focused on climate science, water and sustainable agriculture practices. As one of the largest private companies in the U.S. — and a huge buyer of commodities such as soybeans, which have been linked to deforestation — Cargill’s work on climate action is highly scrutinized, and Kolling’s team has been pushed to set ambitious, transparent commitments. Among the initiatives that have emerged under Kolling’s leadership include the company’s science-based climate commitments, which include a target to reduce operational GHG emissions by 10 percent by 2025 and those from the Cargill supply chain by 30 percent per ton of product by 2030. Her team also last year set context-based water targets that aim to restore 158 billion gallons of water and reduce about 5,500 tons of water pollutants in priority watersheds. And like many agricultural companies, Cargill is investing in regenerative agriculture, with the goal of advancing practices such as planting cover crops or rotational grazing on 10 million acres. "I think farmers are starting to realize that it's ultimately the consumer who's starting to care more and more about this," Kolling told GreenBiz last summer. "Over the coming years, those pressures and those desires from consumers to want to know more about how their food was produced and having greater expectations, we believe it's going to grow and will continue to trickle back to the farmer.” Yuko Koshiishi, Suntory Yuko Koshiishi, General Manager, Corporate Sustainability, Suntory LinkedIn | Twitter With more than $21 billion in revenue as of 2019, Japan’s Suntory is parent to well-known water, tea, soft drink and spirits brands, including American bourbons Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark. Company veteran Yuko Koshiishi, who has held multiple communications and business development assignments over the past two decades, is the woman behind its sustainability strategy. The hallmarks of Suntory’s climate action plan include a high-level commitment to eliminate "petrol-based materials" from its PET bottles by 2030, a pledge it is supporting with a mechanical recycling process called Flake-to-Preform; it’s also developing chemical recycling approaches. To address and decrease its heavy dependence on water, Suntory created a concept back in 2003 called Natural Water Sanctuary, which it uses to protect the watersheds near its production facilities in places such as Japan, India, Mexico, the United States and Spain. The goal: to cultivate more water — and habitat in those watersheds — than it uses in its plants by 2050. "Water is a very localized issue, which means we need a tailored approach for each site," Koshiishi said late last year. Suntory also has embedded sustainability considerations into its procurement policies: All new suppliers are screened on criteria including environmental considerations such as emissions, as well as broader factors such as ethics, security and human rights. "We have maintained the momentum behind our sustainability strategy during the pandemic," Koshiishi said in October. "This includes working closely with our supply chain to make sure that we are promoting sustainability in the sourcing of raw materials, transportation and production processes." Ellen MacArthur Ellen MacArthur, Founder and Chair, Ellen MacArthur Foundation LinkedIn | Twitter It’s the rare corporate sustainability professional who doesn’t recognize the name Dame Ellen MacArthur. The British sailor-turned-circular economy strategist’s eponymous foundation has been instrumental in getting some of the world’s best-known, biggest brands to commit to moving away from linear models of economy production to processes that prioritize the recirculation and regeneration of materials and products. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) was created in 2010 to inspire next-generation business leaders to rethink and redesign their approaches. The idea was born during MacArthur’s three-year-long "journey of discovery" around the world from 2006 to 2009. "If we create a circular economy, if we use things rather than using things up, then why can’t we build a future that works," MacArthur said at the EMF launch. Since that time, EMF, based in Cowes, U.K., has orchestrated collaborative initiatives targeting everything from plastics to food waste and bringing together large companies, NGOs and policymakers. In 2018, it raised the stakes further, joining the World Economic Forum, World Resources Institute, the United Nations Environment Program and several dozen other organizations to create the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy. And last summer, it convinced 50 CEOs in food, fashion, finance and plastics — including the leaders of Danone, H&M, L’Oreal, Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever — to commit to making circular principles a fundamental part of their post-COVID economic recovery plans. Essentially, to push reset. "This is something that’s moved phenomenally quickly in the last five years, and I think that’s because it has to," MacArthur said during a presentation at Circularity 20. "The brands know it has to." Roma McCaig, Campbell's Roma McCaig, Vice President, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Campbell Soup LinkedIn | Twitter With much of her early career focused on operational efficiency, change initiatives and stakeholder engagement, Roma McCaig brings a relatively unique point of view to her work on ESG strategy for food company Campbell Soup. She’s been influencing the Camden, New Jersey, company’s sustainability strategy for the past three years, first as head of responsible sourcing in the procurement function and for just under two years in her current role. Under McCaig’s leadership, Campbell is working to improve its transparency about progress — it hasn’t reached its renewable goal, for example, and that work continues. The company also identified 14 areas of ESG focus ranging from climate to human rights to board diversity — issues that are material to its business in the future. And it’s committed to reporting against those risks. Among the new commitments McCaig has cultivated over the 12 months include a pledge to halve food waste and loss by 2030 as part of the 10x20x30 initiative; a vision to transition 100 percent of its packaging to recyclable or industrial compostable materials by the same time frame; and a push to set science-based targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the company’s supply chain. As part of its COVID-19 response, it donated more than $8 million in cash and food to organizations across North America. “During these challenging times, it is more important than ever that we continue to build a sustainable and resilient supply chain, while giving back to the communities that we call home,” McCaig told a consumer goods trade publication in May. Maria Mendiluce, We Mean Business Coalition Maria Mendiluce, CEO, We Mean Business LinkedIn | Twitter With more than two decades of experience in policy and sustainable development, energy economics expert Maria Mendiluce brings both private and public perspectives to her relatively new role as CEO of the We Mean Business coalition, with positions with the Spanish prime minister’s economic team and Iberdrola’s CEO office among her career highlights. The initiative, which focuses on coordinating corporate climate action, is a collaboration among BSR, B-team, CDP, Ceres, CLG Europe, The Climate Group and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). It's Mendiluce’s mission to orchestrate coordinated responses on key issues, including amplifying the voices of businesses that want national governments to deliver zero-carbon economic stimulus packages as part of the response to COVID-19. "Governments need to take confidence from the growing call from businesses for policies that will boost the economy and get us on track to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030," she said in May. "By doing so, they will enable companies to invest now and innovate at the scale and pace that is necessary to build back better and create the future we all want." A champion of women’s leadership in sustainability, prior to joining the coalition Mendiluce was with WBCSD. There she played a pivotal role in establishing the Alliance to End Plastic Waste; the Transforming Urban Mobility Project; and the Low Carbon Technology Initiative. Mendiluce also serves on the boards for organizations including the Science Based Targets initiative and the Energy Transition Commission. Rebekah Moses, Impossible Foods Rebekah Moses, Head of Impact Strategy, Impossible Foods LinkedIn | Twitter Just five years ago, Impossible Foods launched its plant-based (aka "fake meat") burgers in a handful of specialty restaurants. Today, while the category it represents is still tiny — just 1 percent of the meat market — the company’s consumer brand recognition and its presence in mainstream supermarkets have grown by leaps and bounds. One of its first hires was Rebekah Moses, an agricultural and international development scientist who previously worked on numerous field projects domestically and in the Middle East. She’s head of impact strategy for the San Francisco-based company, valued at $4 billion in August. It’s her job to calculate the potential environmental outcomes associated with eating an Impossible Foods product versus the ones associated with meat cultivated from farmed animals. That’s not necessarily to "demonize behavior" but to raise awareness of habitat loss and other side effects of eating animal meat, and to keep that philosophy central within the company’s innovation process. While the health and agricultural impacts of the Impossible Burger have been criticized — after all, one of the main ingredients, soy, is closely linked with deforestation — Moses says it requires less land and water to produce, and the production process emits fewer GHG emissions than raising animals for meat. Cultivating a variety of plant protein sources will be crucial for the future of food systems, Moses said in a recent interview. She noted: "One of the really interesting questions for our industry is how do you actually biodiversify your protein and fat ingredient streams so that you support agricultural diversity within the system itself?" Sunita Narain Sunita Narain, Director General, Center for Science and the Environment LinkedIn | Twitter Indian environmental researcher Sunita Narain has been associated with the country’s Center for Science and Environment for close to 30 years, starting as an assistant and assuming the director general role in 2011. She’s also a prolific writer and the editor of a fortnightly magazine on politics and environment, Down to Earth, published in New Delhi. Narain’s work and recommendations have directly informed India’s policies including around air pollution, with a focus on how to learn from strategies used by the Western world and leapfrog them. One example is the adoption of buses that run on compressed natural gas (CNG) in India’s capital city. Water is one of the issues about which Narain is most passionate; one of India’s largest rural economic development programs focuses on the ecological restoration of more than 1 million bodies of water. She has been recognized for her research on rainwater harvesting and local water management policies, and co-authored two books on the topic: “Dying Wisdom” and “Making Water Everybody’s Business.” In November, Narain was recognized with the Edinburgh Medal, rewarded annually to scientists who have made significant contributions to the wellbeing of humankind. "We need cooperation, we need equity, and we need climate justice," Narain said in her acceptance speech, pointing to the disproportionate burden that the world’s poor carry when it comes to the effects of climate change. Malin Nordin, IKEA Malin Nordin, Head of Circular Development, Inter IKEA Group LinkedIn | Twitter Sweden’s IKEA is at the leading edge of circular economy principles among retailers, through initiatives such as the furniture buyback program it tested last year on Black Friday in countries including Australia, Canada and Russia. The idea — to resell what’s still usable and recycle what’s not — was spearheaded by the team led by IKEA’s head of circular development, Malin Nordin. A chemical scientist by background, Nordin said the company’s vision to be 100 percent circular by 2030 starts with the design process. Through research in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund, it has identified 32 priority materials in woods, plastics, papers, metals and textiles that have the most potential to stand up in a circular model, Nordin has noted. "One aim of circular design is to develop products that can be useful throughout the changing lives of our customers,” she said, pointing to examples such as baby cots that can be transformed into toddler beds or modular storage systems. One principle central to Nordin’s mission is upholding the company’s vision of creating products that are affordable, a principle it calls "democratic design." "When you add the idea of circular design to the idea around democratic design, it makes the problem even better, even more valuable," she said in a November interview with EMF. Damilola Ogunbiyi, Sustainable Energy for All Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO, Sustainable Energy for All; Co-Chair, UN-Energy LinkedIn | Twitter After years of focusing on energy access in Nigeria — where she was the first female managing director of the country’s rural electrification agency — Damilola Ogunbiyi stepped into her current position in early 2020. She’s also a commissioner for the Global Commission to End Energy Poverty. As CEO of Sustainable Energy for All in Vienna, Ogunbiyi is responsible for promoting the development of reliable, affordable and sustainable energy not just in Africa but globally by 2030, the mandate set out by U.N. Sustainable Development Goal 7. She has extensive experience in shaping policy to that end. In Nigeria, Ogunbiyi was instrumental in supporting the construction of solar mini-grids and home systems across the country, where her work was particularly focused on energizing universities and healthcare facilities. At Sustainable Energy for All, she’s prioritizing the "smart use of data, next partnerships and scaled involvement of the private sector." Two core programs: the electrification of healthcare facilities and a focus on clean cooling, for which the organization estimates that more than 2.2 billion people globally lack access to clean, efficient options. "To truly deliver the vision of SDG7 and universal energy access in a sustainable way, decentralized solutions must be our focus to reach the most vulnerable and remote populations," Ogunbiyi said in a July 2020 interview. "We also need to build a bigger market for clean cooking fuels, so women don’t have to use dirty fuels to cook dinner for their family." Sanda Ojiambo, UN Global Compact Sanda Ojiambo, CEO and Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact LinkedIn | Twitter Sanda Ojiambo has made a career out of cultivating effective partnerships between businesses and civil society. Before she ascended to the CEO and executive director positions at the United Nations Global Compact last summer, she was head of sustainable business and social impact for Safaricom, the largest telecommunications service provider in Kenya. There, she managed multiple relationships between Safaricom and U.N. organizations. During her initial months at the UN Global Compact, which now includes more than 12,000 companies and 3,000 other signatories, Ojiambo has urged business leaders to confront the issues of racial injustice that have surfaced more visible during the COVID-19 pandemic and to do their "due diligence" when it comes to establishing and enforcing human rights throughout their entire value chain. One initiative designed to speed the response is the new SDG Ambition Accelerator, a six-month-long executive training program meant to help leaders more holistically incorporate the Sustainable Development Goals into business strategy — no matter their industry. "There has to be an ‘all of’ sector, a multi-sectoral approach to driving this [social] change," Ojiambo said during a GreenBiz 21 keynote interview. "Each time I’m in a different sector, there’s different views, different challenges and certainly different opportunities." Raised in Nairobi, Ojiambo earned international development and public policy degrees in the U.S. and Canada. She worked in Somalia before her Safaricom career, shaping programs for CARE International and the U.N. Development Program focused on issues including education, safe motherhood, environmental conservation and dismantling land mines. Maria Outters, Sodexo Maria Outters, Group Senior Vice President, Sustainability/Corporate Responsibility, Sodexo LinkedIn | Twitter Born in Africa and fluent in four languages, Maria Outters joined French food services company Sodexo 12 years ago and held positions in human resources, marketing and group strategic planning before becoming its sustainability and CSR lead in January 2020. She’s also part of the investment committee for Sodexo Ventures. It was an eventful year for many reasons, but Outters’ team used the economic, social and health crises brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic to "reaffirm" its sustainability commitments, including a commitment to reducing food waste by 50 percent at more than 1,500 sites. The program will continue as sites reopen: As of June, the company had saved the equivalent of 4.8 million meals. Sodexo is also prioritizing the adoption of alternatives to single-use plastics and a plan to raise the mix of plant-based foods on its menus to more than 30 percent globally. The company renewed a longstanding relationship with WWF centered, in part, on responsible sourcing of land commodities and seafood. "Underlying economic and social challenges ahead will magnify the need for economic models built on sustainable consumption patterns and solutions preserving natural resources," Otters said in June. "These priority actions in the current environment are part of our pragmatic approach to work with our clients, suppliers and employees to bring back confidence and seize the window of opportunity to make the recovery a turning point when it comes to sustainability." Katrina Shum, Lush Katrina Shum, Sustainability Officer, North America, Lush Cosmetics LinkedIn | Twitter Katrina Shum is challenging the personal care industry to get naked. As North American sustainability manager for 25-year-old U.K. company Lush Cosmetics, she leads a program working to doff single-use, plastic packaging across five manufacturing facilities, two distribution centers and 250 retail shops. Lush’s approach: Create solid versions of its products — from shampoo to toothpaste and more — that reach back to its roots more than 20 years ago, when the company’s founders "packaged" their soap in old pipes and other discarded containers. Its strategy is unique for an industry that creates an estimated 120 billion package a year, many of them impossible to recycle, if consumers remember to even try. Lush’s approach also conserves water. Plus, why not devote the millions if not billions of dollars consumer brands spend on packaging into true product innovation, Shum asked in an essay last year. What about labels with instructions and ingredients? "Leveraging technology, we have developed the Lush Lens App, which allows customers to use their phones to scan products and get the typical information they would find on a physical label, along with engaging and interactive content about the ingredients and stories behind them," Shum wrote. For products that still require plastic or paper packaging, Lush has been sourcing post-consumer recycled content for more than a decade. The reverse logistics haven’t been easy, but Lush’s vertically integrated production model has helped, she wrote. One of Shum’s "pet peeves" is food waste, she revealed in an October interview, and she keeps close tabs on her habits at home in the Vancouver area. The focus isn’t surprising: Prior to Lush, Shum worked on a sustainability strategy for food service giant Aramark. Dawn Wright, Esri Dawn Wright, Chief Scientist, Esri LinkedIn | Twitter Much of the ocean’s potential role in reversing climate change is unfathomable, literally — with just one-fifth of the its floor cataloged in maps. Dawn Wright, the first Black American woman to deep-sea dive in an Alvin submersible, is leading geographic information systems (GIS) company Esri’s quest to map the rest by 2030. "How can we take care of this planet, how can we understand this planet, how can we protect it if we don’t know the totality of it?" Wright said in a 2019 interview. "We have better maps of the moon, better maps of Venus and even Mars than we have of the oceans of the Earth, because the Earth is an ocean planet." As chief scientist for the software company, Wright spearheads Esri’s work in the scientific and research communities, where she champions the use of GIS imagery and data in applications ranging from flood risk planning to fighting deforestation. The company’s partnership network is expansive: last year, it teamed with Microsoft on its "Planetary Computer" initiative, aimed at helping protect biodiversity. A marine geologist and oceanographer by training, Wright was a full professor at Oregon State University for more than 25 years (she’s still on the faculty there) before joining Esri in 2011. Tae Yoo, Cisco Tae Yoo, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, Cisco LinkedIn | Twitter One of Cisco’s earliest employees — she joined more than 30 years ago before the technology company went public — Tae Yoo has placed the concept of inclusion at the center of its CSR and sustainability initiatives with a goal to "positively impact 1 billion people by 2025." She has also helped elevate this strategy to the company’s board of directors. Reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic in the San Jose, California, company’s 2020 CSR report, Yoo noted: "To avoid reinforcing prior inequities and vulnerabilities, it is critical that we apply significant effort on rebuilding … Living our purpose means continuing to get everyone involved, and that’s exactly what we intend to do." For Cisco, making an impact takes many forms, such as the Cisco Networking Academy, a program Yoo established in 1997 that has helped more than 2.7 million people find jobs since 2005. She also leads Cisco’s work on other educational programs, such as the 21st Century Schools Initiative. The networking hardware giant first set a GHG reduction target in 2006, and as of its 2020 fiscal year, it had cut Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 55 percent, just shy of its upcoming goal in FY 2022. Elsewhere, Yoo’s experience as the co-founder of Cisco’s business development organization has doubtless helped inform her strategy about tough strategic decisions. One of her team's top priorities is embracing circular economy business models (it’s an EMF founding partner), which calls for all of its new products to incorporate core principles such as reusability, recyclability and repairability by 2025. This, too, will require collaboration with the company’s expansive network of technology and service partners.
There are multiple estimates, all of which come with significant policy implications, as it determines who benefits from government schemes, and who does not. In a speech last September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that 85% of India’s farmers own small tracts of land. The timing of the address was crucial. Modi was defending the new controversial farm laws and trying to make a larger point on why collective contract farming – which one of the three laws seek to allow – would be beneficial for India’s farmers. But, if one was ever able to ask the Prime Minister the absolute number of farmers that the 85% he mentioned would translate to, you would be lucky to get a response. This is because the Indian government doesn’t quite know how many farmers there are in India, or indeed, who really is a farmer. In fact, last month, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare was asked in parliament this very pointed question: ‘How many farmers there are in India?’ The minister, Narendra Tomar, responded not by providing the number of farmers but by providing data for the number of operational landholdings in the country. That is also what Modi was referring to when he spoke about 85% of farmers owning small tracts of land. Both Modi and Tomar were providing data that the government of India often provides when it is asked for the number of farmers in the country – data on the number of operational landholdings, that is the number of farms. The operational landholdings data comes from the Agriculture Census of India of 2015-16 and it does not provide the number of farmers in the country. It is a proxy – at best – for the number of farmers in India. It provides the total number of landholdings in the country, that is the number of farms and not farmers. The number of farmers could be higher or lower, although most experts believe the former is more likely. “It might be more common in most parts to have more farmers than holdings,” says economist Sudha Narayanan, who is writing a paper on this very subject. Narayanan is an associate professor of economics at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) and specialises in agriculture economics. The agricultural census is not the only source of an estimate – or proxy – for the number of farmers in India. There are several. Different government departments and statistical organisations provide figures that vary quite a lot. In their upcoming paper, Narayanan and Shree Saha, who is a PhD candidate at Cornell University, provide a table that gives a snapshot of the different estimates of the number of farmers according to different arms of the government of India. There are as many as five different estimates and none of them provide a good answer to the question ‘how many farmers there are in India’. How various government estimates try to capture the number of farmers in the country. Credit: Narayanan and Saha. In fact, they don’t even agree on who is a ‘farmer’. Some seek to define those engaged in farming based on whether it is their main (what ‘main’ means is also different in different estimates) source of income, while some focus on whether agricultural land is owned. Some take both into account. Some seek to ascertain the number of individual farmers. Others want to know how many farming households there may be in India. One (the population census) is a complete population count exercise while the others are sample surveys. So, the first problem that needs to be addressed is to define who a farmer is. This is particularly important now as income support schemes gain currency and problems will emerge if a database of beneficiaries does not exist. That problem has already emerged under the hastily announced and implemented PM Kisan scheme, but more on that a little later. The National Commission on farmers set up in 2004 under M.S. Swaminathan sought to address the question of defining farmers. According to Narayanan and Saha’s paper that definition is “very broad and inclusive” as it did not seek to define a farmer based on ownership of land alone and paved the way for a tiller or cultivator to be classified as a farmer too. It also allowed for women to be characterised as farmers, something they continue to be deprived of as it is male members overwhelmingly who are landowners. Adoption of this definition would enable government policy to focus on the person practising farming rather than the land which is being farmed, as the current definitions overwhelmingly focus on. But, adoption has not happened 14 years after the Swaminathan report was submitted to the central government. Why is this important? How a farmer is defined in government papers has very practical implications. It determines who benefits from government schemes, and who does not. For instance, availing a loan under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC), in practise, requires land ownership title. That financial inclusion under KCC remains sub-par despite this, is another story. Those without a clear land title are excluded from the Pradahan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) too as it requires farmers to possess a KCC account. So, tenant farmers who are responsible for the sowing and the harvest, and the associated costs, do not have access to the KCC loans, that are supposed to serve crop loans – or working capital loans – and the PMFBY, which is supposed to be an insurance against crop loss. On the other hand, landowners who may not be doing the actual cultivating get the benefits. All this while the impact on women farmers is disproportionately worse. As many as 73.2% of women in rural India are engaged in agriculture, but women own only 12.8% of the total agricultural land holdings. Another flagship Central government scheme where those who do not own land are left out is the PM Kisan scheme. This is crucial because the policy direction appears to be moving in the direction of more income support schemes. The scheme was launched just a couple of months prior to the Lok Sabha polls of 2019 with retrospective effect so that one instalment could be transferred before polling. Under it, each ‘farmer family’ that owned less than two hectares of land was to be provided income support of Rs 6,000 per year. As the Centre did not have a database for the number of ‘farmer families’ in the country, it once again relied on the agriculture census of 2015-16. That census, as you would remember, does not provide data for the number of farmers or farmer families. Instead, it provides data for the number of farms, or operational landholdings in the country. So the Centre initially estimated that 12.5 crore farmer families would benefit from the scheme and that it would cost the taxpayer Rs 75,000 crore. After reelection in May 2019, Modi’s government decided to expand the ambit of the scheme to include all farmers in the country. That meant that all 14.5 crore farmer families in the country, or more precisely 14.5 crore farms in the country would be eligible to receive the Rs 6,000 a year under PM Kisan. One would think that given the increase in the number of beneficiaries, the total amount allocated for the scheme would also increase proportionately. But, that did not happen. In fact, the government quickly realised that it won’t even be able to spend the amount that had been initially allocated. For the benefit of the scheme to reach 14.5 crore farmer families, as the government claimed it would, it needed to spend Rs 87,000 crore in a year. In reality, in 2019-20, which was the first full year of the implementation of the scheme, the Centre only spent Rs 48,714 crore reaching around 8 crore farmers. In the next year, it spent around Rs 65,000 crore and the allocation for PM Kisan has now been reduced to that amount. That means the government has allocated only enough to benefit 10.83 crore farmers and not 14.5 crore. To put this into context, the extension of the scheme to ‘all farmers’ should have meant that the original Rs 75,000 crore allocation increased to Rs 87,000 crore as per the agriculture census database which the government was using. Instead, the allocation has been reduced by 13%. Some of the responsibility for this, according to the ministry of agriculture, has to lie with states as they have been slow in providing the database to the Centre. West Bengal has refused to participate in the scheme altogether. The chief reason for the curtailed spending, however, is the lack of a database for farmers. “We went in blind into PM Kisan with no idea who the beneficiary is,” a senior official at the ministry of agriculture and farmers’ welfare said. The problems with using operational landholding data to transfer amounts to beneficiaries who are individuals and not pieces of land have emerged under PM Kisan. Narayanan explains that the number of actual beneficiaries could be more in some states and less in some states than the number of landholdings. “If there are siblings in separate households with both names on the patta that they jointly farm, you would have 2 farmers and 1 holding. If the siblings live in a joint family, both names are on the patta, but they have informally demarcated land into two and each farms it independently of the other – they would be counted as 2 holdings and one farmer. So both are possible,” she says and adds, “In general, it might be more common in most parts to have more farmers than holdings.” Something similar was said by an agriculture ministry official speaking to Down to Earth magazine. “The database on the total number of farmers is poor. On one hand, landless farmers are excluded from the scheme and on the other hand, the number of such families could be more than what the records for operational landholdings show.” Most states have, so far, fewer farmers registered under PM Kisan than the number of landholdings in their states. “The process is not finished yet. More farmers are registering,” the agriculture ministry official we spoke to said. But, some states have registered more farmers than the number of landholdings in their state. For instance, from Punjab more than twice the number of farmers than the number of farms in the state have registered under PM Kisan. Gujarat has registered 6 lakh more farmers than the number of landholdings, while Uttar Pradesh has registered more than 5 lakh more. Mizoram and Manipur have more than three times the number of farmers than landholdings, as per the PM Kisan database. Explaining the unique problems with the northeastern parts of the country, the ministry official speaking to Down to Earth said, “Another issue, specifically in the north-eastern states, is that they have common property resources and the farmlands are owned by a community rather than one person. So, individual records are not maintained. Also, states have to take up the initiative of mobilising the farmers for registering with the scheme.” Yet another problem that has plagued PM Kisan is that of amounts being transferred to ‘ineligible beneficiaries’. This problem is also, at least partly, a consequence of the lack of a database of farmers. The Centre told Parliament last month that 32.91 lakh people who were not entitled, as per the PM Kisan guidelines, to be beneficiaries under the scheme ended up receiving the benefit. That is more than 3% of the total beneficiaries registered under the scheme. Some of the ineligible beneficiaries were those who were ‘income tax payees’ and were thus ineligible for PM Kisan. These were discovered when the PM Kisan database was linked with the income tax database. While some others were registered under the PM Kisan scheme when the computers of agriculture department officials were hacked. “Certainly, if the database of farmers was created first and the scheme was launched only after that, many of these problems would not have happened. But that would have taken time,” the ministry official who spoke to us said.
As we approach Stockholm+50, we are looking at an increasingly inequitable world; where poverty and marginalisation are growing Sunita Narain It’s been a generation since global leaders met in Stockholm in 1972 to discuss environmental challenges. Then the concerns were for the local environment; there was no talk of climate change or even the depletion of the ozone layer. All that came later. In 1972, the discussion was on the toxification of the environment as water and air were foul. Anil Agarwal, Centre for Science and Environment’s founder-director, was in Stockholm for this first ever UN Conference on the Human Environment, and he spoke often about how the lakes of this city were so polluted with industrial effluents that you could develop a camera film in the waters. These lakes are now pristine. So, you could argue that much has changed in the past 50 years. But not really. The toxification of the environment is still a pressing concern; countries have indeed cleaned up locally but added to the emissions in the global atmosphere. Now, we are out of time as climate change impacts are spiralling out of control. This is why as we approach Stockholm+50, we are looking at an increasingly inequitable world; where poverty and marginalisation are growing and where climate change risks are reaching not just the homes of the poor but also the rich. We need, therefore, to change paths; to re-configure not just our language but also our approach to, what we can call, our common future. This is why next year when the world marks the 50th anniversary of the Stockholm conference, it must stand differently — not to state the problem but to show the way ahead. This is also why we need to discuss consumption and production. We cannot sidestep this anymore. This is the most inconvenient of all discussions. The fact is when we stitched up the global ecological framework in terms of the many agreements — from ozone, climate, and biodiversity to desertification and hazardous waste — the world realised that the actions of one country exceeded its boundaries. It had to act globally and cooperatively as we live in an interdependent world. During this time, we also signed another agreement on free trade — the economic globalisation agreement. But we never really understood how these two frameworks — ecological and economic globalisation — would counteract each other. As a result, we have worked to build an economic model based on discounting the price of labour and of the environment. We have pushed production where these costs are cheaper; we have built for overproduction as goods have become cheaper and more disposable. But we have also made sure that all countries are now vested in this model of growth. All countries want to be part of the global factories that produce goods as cheaply as possible. This comes then at the cost of environmental safeguards and labour conditions. The poor in the world are on the aspirational ladder to get richer with more goods and more consumption and more waste. Today, Covid-19 has disrupted this out-of-control journey to produce as cheaply as possible and to consume as much as possible. But as the world builds back, it has the choice to do things differently. This is also because Covid-19 has brought us lessons that we must not forget. One, we have understood the value of labour — migrant labour — that was invisible and unwanted; today it has become important for industry. We have seen how labour returned home — not just in India but across the world. And how this impacted production. We can see already that industry is working hard to bring back its workers; it is offering them better pay and better working conditions. This will increase the cost of production. Two, we understand today the value of blue skies and clear lungs — we know that the lockdown resulted in lowered pollution and we value this now. This investment in the environment will increase the cost of production as well. Three, we understand the value of investing in land-agriculture-water systems. People who went back to their villages are rebuilding their livelihoods. It is time to secure resilient futures there with food production systems that are sustainable, nature-friendly, and good for health. Four, we are now in the world of work from home; even when the new normal comes, we will want to have hybrid systems that will allow us to work remotely, reduce travel stress, and also have interactions and collaborations that enrich our world. This will change consumption patterns as well. And five, governments are financially strapped. They have to spend much more and, therefore, cannot waste. This is where they will want to invest in circular economies — find ways of making resources out of waste; do more with less. All this has the potential to change the way we consume and the way we produce. So as the world meets again next year to mark 50 years of when the conversation started on human beings and their impact on the environment, we have an opportunity to do it right by nature this time. This time, we have the existential crisis of climate change staring us in the face. We cannot waste more time talking the talk anymore. It’s not an option. Not anymore. The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment | sunita@cseindia.org | Twitter: @sunitanar
A re-invigorated biodiversity management policy is India’s survival strategy. At this point in our development trajectory, we don’t pay any heed to either biodiversity or landscape conservation. India has been ablaze with devastating forest fires in Uttarakhand and in Orissa’s Similipal. Why aren’t these being discussed with the same intensity as the Tapovan catastrophe in February? Several scientists have been reported saying that the dramatic fall in rainfall this season has a directly co-relation with these fires in Uttarakhand. This may be a fact, but the absence of rainfall is caused by climate crisis. India has to gear up to protect its spectacular biodiversity from the many cataclysmic events that are bound to attack our country as climate change intensifies. A re-invigorated biodiversity management policy is India’s survival strategy. At this point in our development trajectory, we don’t pay any heed to either biodiversity or landscape conservation. We can only grow if we avert an ecological and environmental collapse. We cannot afford expenditure on disaster relief and rehabilitation, instead of innovation, education and health. Let’s go back to the drawing board for every single project, with new focus on biodiversity. India must rapidly build and nurture grassroots-based habitat monitoring and governance. Incentives can make or break this. Well known conservationist, Bishwajit Mohanty from Orissa, points out in Down to Earth magazine, how local women can be involved in sweeping forest floors in specific seasons to prevent fires and Van Panchayats can be incentivised to catch poachers. Locals, not politicians, must co-own the forest more than they do, along with the forest department. The bus for a stable, sustainable future is moving on. Let’s race and catch it.
Located in Mayurbhanj district, the forest fires in Similipal—India’s largest and Asia’s second- largest biosphere reserve—have spread across 21 ranges. India’s largest biosphere reserve, Similipal, located in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha is currently witnessing enormous forest fires which have reportedly spread across multiple ranges for over 10 days. The reserve is home to over 300 species of birds, varieties of reptiles, fish among others, including the endangered Bengal tiger. While Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar claims that the fires have been brought under control, satellite pictures of NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System have showed that the fires continue to rage over Odisha and Similipal. Talking about the extent of the forest fires, Aditya Panda, a wildlife conservationist based in Odisha, told NewsClick, “I'm on my way back from the interior hill districts of the state to the capital and there wasn't a single forest or hill during the 300 km journey that wasn't on fire.” Similipal, which derives its name from ‘Simul’ (silk cotton) tree, spans over 5,569 sq km, and the area is inhabited and surrounded by adivasi population. The transition zone of the reserve has 1,200 villages with a total population of about 4.5 lakh. Tribals constitute about 73% of the population. Reportedly, the fires began after local residents set fire to the dry leaves, which snowballed into the current crisis. Aditya Panda explained, “The fires are set off by the people for the harvest of mahua flowers and fruit, tendu leaves and for bushmeat poaching. The early onset of summer this year has started these practices sooner than usual. The Forest Department should have anticipated this and taken precautions well in time. There are set SOPs for fire prevention and a Rs 50 crore budget available for this." Also read: Odisha: ‘Ease of Doing Business’ at Cost of Tribal Land and Livelihood The local adivasi communities burn down the dry leaves in order to protect the mahua trees from moths and animals that attack the sweet fruit. Another reason, is that the fires help poachers who benefit from the animals running towards the outer areas away from the fires. However, activists and researchers have said that simply putting the blame squarely on the adivasi communities dwelling in the area cannot absolve the state from taking its responsibility. Biswajit Mohanty, secretary of the Wildlife Society of Odisha, writing for Down to Earth magazine pointed out, “It is now believed that the annual fire control budget for Odisha is Rs 50 crore. This includes temporary fire squads equipped with air blowers, vehicles and safety wire. A state-level toll free number can also be used to inform the administration of fire occurrences. Unfortunately, despite several requests by the writer, the number is publicised only through print or electronic media. Thereby, a majority of forest-dwelling communities remain unaware of the service.” He added, “Several measures should be taken to control forest fires which involve community participation. Women NTFP collectors can be trained to sweep fallen leaves under mahua trees and burn them in a controlled manner, which will prevent the fire entering forest areas.” Reiterating that the state needs to take up the responsibility, Sricharan Behra of the Centre for Survival and Dignity (CSD) said, “The forest fires in the area are not new. The adivasis living in the area are usually held responsible for the fires. While they are being blamed completely, the real issue is that the forest officials who should be preventing these fires are escaping their responsibility.” “Instead of accusing those officials, the authorities are running behind the adivasi communities. Every year this happens, so the responsibility of the department needs to be questioned. As the soil dries up and the area becomes fire prone, there is a greater need to look into the bigger lacunae of the system, while involving the local adivasis in the preventive measures,” Behra added. As the fire continues to engulf more areas, the focus is moving towards more involvement of the local communities in the preservation practices as well as sensitisation of the forest department towards indigenous practices. However, how far these measures will be implemented remains to be seen.
The major findings of the study are that city of Hyderabad as well as Telangana do not have disaster management plans. HYDERABAD: Hyderabad urgently needs to expand and remodel its drainage system. Besides lakes and canals, wetlands and watersheds play a vital role in absorbing excess rainfall, but regrettably, rapid urbanisation in the twin cities has resulted in the loss of a large portion of the wetlands, according to a Niti Aayog report. The major findings of the study are that city of Hyderabad as well as Telangana do not have disaster management plans. They are not fully utilising the doppler radar, which can give advance and precise warnings. It recommended that the focus should on disaster response, even while allowing unplanned growth. Niti Aayog’s “Report of the Committee Constituted for Formulation of Strategy for Flood Management Works in Entire Country” has an exclusive chapter on the Hyderabad floods-2020. An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment in 2016 revealed that 3,245 hectares of water bodies were lost in Hyderabad between 1989 and 2001, the report said. In the long run, the effects of flooding due to deluges can only be mitigated if urban planners take into account the hydro-geology of cities and ensure that construction, development and land occupation do not take place in a way that reduces the area of wetlands, the report concluded. The engineering solutions like linking all the 185 tanks in and around Hyderabad city with modern technology to divert flow of water during deluge, coupled with measures to 50 control flood (rainwater) flow by restoring nalas and removing encroachments would help prevent flooding and inundation. Delineate nalas, drains One major suggestion made by report is that nalas, drains and watercourses should be clearly delineated and boundaries fixed while planning new developments. Overflowing lakes led to maximum damage during floods, says report During last year’s unprecedented rains and floods in Hyderabad, much of the damage was caused by the overflowing of lakes, in particular the Hussainsagar in the heart of the city and the breaching of stormwater drains, according to Niti Aayog’s ‘Report of the Committee Constituted for Formulation of Strategy for Flood Management Works in Entire Country’. The report identified construction over lake beds and encroachments of drainage channels as some of the problems that have exacerbated flooding and inundation in the city. The report recommends that an underground drainage system should be constructed to flush rainwater from any place, whether it is at a high or low elevation, till the final place of discharge, like the Musi river in Hyderabad’s case. According to estimates, in the last few decades, water bodies have drastically come down from one lakh to 185 within the Greater Hyderabad Capital Region. Of the 185 lakes, the surplus weirs and courses are completely closed for 75 lakes. These lakes used to work as flood sink of the city. In absence of these, city is more vulnerable to any natural disaster On October 14, 2020, after a night-long rain, the daily rainfall recorded at the weather monitoring station of the IMD was 19.2 cm. The water drowned the roads and inundated homes worth crores in upmarket localities like Manikonda, Gachibowli, Rajendranagar and Madhapur in the western part of the city. As per the GHMC data, parts of the Nadeem Colony abutting Shah Hatim Talab had water rise to 12 feet after the downpour on October 13. Devi Nagar and Chudi Bazaar colonies in Goshamahal saw the water rise to 10 feet. Similar were the scenes in several other colonies like Hafiz Baba Nagar, Al Jubail Colony, Ghazi-e-Millat Colony, Chandrayangutta, Ghouse Nagar, Moin Bagh, Edi Bazar, Talab Katta and Riyasat Nagar in the Old City area. All these localities witnessed water rise to four feet. Close to two dozen colonies around LB Nagar too faced a similar fate. Thirty-three lives were lost in the city, with the GHMC estimating that at least 37,409 families were affected. The Municipal Administration ministry pegged the city’s losses at Rs 670 crore.
Environment was one of the metrics under the Sustainability Pillar on which Delhi scored 56.02, slightly above the national average of 53.63, securing the 28th rank. Consistent poor air quality and high levels of microscopic particulate matter pollutants have got Delhi 42nd rank in the environment category among 49 cities with a million or more population in a survey by the Union housing and urban affairs ministry for the Ease of Living report that was released on Thursday. Environment was one of the metrics under the Sustainability Pillar on which Delhi scored 56.02, slightly above the national average of 53.63, securing the 28th rank. According to the report, for ranking the cities on environment indicators such as water quality, total tree cover, hazardous waste generation and air quality index (measuring SO2, NO2, and PM10) were considered. Despite steps by local and central agencies, Delhi’s city’s air quality takes an annual plunge every winter, with the air quality hitting ‘emergency’ levels on the AQI scale, especially between December and January. The cold conditions and low wind speed often contribute to worsening the pollution levels. A CSE analysis released on Wednesday showed that in 2020 even though the severity and duration of smog episodes were lower, the seasonal average levels of PM 2.5 was higher.
Every winter season, the National Capital Region records a spike in air pollution levels. And instead of going down owing to various measures from governments and citizens, the pollution levels have only increased year-on-year. In the winter season of 2020-2021, the pollution has notched higher levels once again, as per the latest analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The overall city-wide average pollution was recorded at 186 micrograms per cubic metre i.e., 7% higher than the 2019-2020 winter months, reveals the CSE analysis. “This demands quicker and more ambitious regional reforms to curb pollution from all sources with the scale with speed,” says Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director-research and advocacy, CSE. More pollution, less seasonal peaks Despite a year-on-year increase in pollution levels, the seasonal peak in pollution levels witnessed a reduction by 8% as compared to last winter owing to the meteorological conditions and change in the farm stubble burning patterns. This could be the reason for the reduced number of emergency-level pollution episodes across the national capital region this winter. Delhi recorded at least 23 ‘severe’ air quality days this winter season. The capital city had recorded 25 ‘severe’ days in 2019-2020 and 33 such days in 2018-19. At the same time, the number of days with the ‘poor’ category of AQI had increased between October 15, 2020, to February 1, 2021. “Winter season is always a special challenge when inversion and cool and calm weather traps and spikes daily pollution. But this is also the bar to understand the effectiveness of round-the-year action in reducing long-term pollution in the region. Despite the declining trend (year-on-year basis) due to action taken over the last few years on clean fuels for industry and transport, power plants, trucks, old vehicles etc, the winter PM2.5 concentration has bounced back, unmasking the impacts of local and regional pollution” said Anumita Roychowdhury. The analysis indicates that north Delhi and east Delhi recorded the highest concentration of the PM2.5 level pollutant in the entire capital city during the winter season. Jahangirpuri was designated as Delhi’s prime pollution hotspot in the season, with an average PM2.5 level of 256 micrograms per cubic metre. Apart from this, Alipur, DTU, ITO, Nehru Nagar, Patparganj, Sonia Vihar and Vivek Vihar also registered higher seasonal averages. Among the neighbouring regions of the capital, Ghaziabad recorded a higher spike in pollution levels. Fewer smog episodes One of the other main findings of the analysis was the reduction in the severity of smog—a mix of smoke and fog—episodes this year. This winter season, the capital city recorded only two continuous smog episodes, which were of shorter duration as compared to the previous year. The first occurred on November 3 and lasted for seven days, while the second one was of shorter duration on December 22—which lasted only three days. On the positive side, at least 12 ground-based stations recorded an improvement in seasonal average air quality, with most improvement noted in NSIT Dwarka, Wazirpur and Shadipur. Avikal Somvanshi, programme manager in CSE’s Urban Lab team of the Sustainable Cities programme adds: “This analysis has helped us understand the regional patterns as well as the local variations. Even though there is considerable regional variation, peak pollution episodes increased and synchronised within the region. The uneven rise across monitoring locations—even contiguous locations—brings out the impact of local pollution.” The analysis of the entire Delhi was conducted based on data obtained from various apex government agencies like the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB). Altogether, the team at CSE collected data from more than 81 air quality monitoring stations under the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) of the CPCB. Additional information on stubble fire was derived from the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), while weather data was sourced from the Palam weather station of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).