DESERT NATIONAL PARK IN UNESCO HERITAGE LIST

The Desert National Park is situated in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan close to the India- Pakistan border. Spread over an area in excess of 3150 sq km, this is probably the largest park of India. The Desert National Park accounts for 73 villages/hamlets within its territory though, mercifully, the density of humans within the park is only seven persons per sq. km.
The Desert National Park is home to endangered species like the Great Indian Bustard
it is home to Rajasthan’s State bird, the Great Indian Bustard, State tree, Khejri, State animal, chinkara, and State flower, rohida. Some 17 km from its boundary in Jaisalmer is the Wood Fossil Park at Akal, dating back to the Jurassic period.
The Desert National Park, notified back in 1980, is among four sites from India approved in the tentative list of natural heritage properties, which include the Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh, the Bitarkanika Conservation Area in Orissa and the Neora Valley National Park in West Benga.
The existing UNESCO heritage site in Rajasthan in the category is the famous bird sanctuary, the Keoladeo National Park near Bharatpur.

VEDANTA RESOURCES
 Vedanta Resources is an international mining and metals company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest mining and non-ferrous metals company in India and also has mining operations in Australia and Zambia. Its main products are copper, zinc, aluminium, lead and iron ore. It is also developing commercial power stations in India in Orissa (2,400 MW) and Punjab (1,980 MW).
 Vedanta has been criticised by human rights and activist groups, including Survival International and Amnesty International, due to their operations in Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa, India that are said to threaten the lives of the Dongria Kondh that populate this region. The Niyamgiri hills are also claimed to be an important wildlife habitat in Eastern Ghats of India as per a report by the Wildlife Institute of India as well as independent reports/studies carried out by civil society groups. In January 2009, thousands of locals formed a human chain around the hill in protest at the plans to start bauxite mining in the area.Vedanta's Alumina Refinery in Lanjigarh was critiqued by the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (the statutory environmental regulation body) for air pollution and water pollution in the area. According to Amnesty International, local people reported dust from the plant settling on clothes, crops and food. An environmental impact assessment by the government found dust pollution was within acceptable limits. Vedanta officials claimed there was no dust pollution from the plant at all. An environmental inspection of the plant reported water pollution by the plant including increasing the pH value of the river Vamshadhara below the refinery and a high level of SPM in the stack emissions.
  In October 2009 it was reported that the British Government has criticised Vedanta for its treatment of the Dongria Kondh tribe in Orissa, India. The company refused to co-operate with the British Government and with an OECD investigation. They have rejected charges of environmental damage, saying it may be related to the increased use of fertiliser by farmers.

THE STRATEGY

The poverty, drought and land degradation in the dry lands can be broken by adopting a four-pronged science-based strategy developed by ICRISAT and its partners for drought mitigation. First is growing drought tolerant and climate change ready crops to match the available length of the growing season and low soil moisture Second is contingent action to replace affected crops with those that are more drought tolerant. Third is the efficient management of natural resources, arresting land degradation, conserving soil moisture and harvesting water in the rainy season for supplemental irrigation. Fourth is empowering stakeholders through capacity building, enabling rural institutions and formulating policies supportive of dry land agriculture. Policies and programmes supportive of dry land agriculture to be implemented are:  Increasing significantly public investments in dry land agriculture, including higher funding for agricultural research and rural infrastructure.  Developing sophisticated techniques of predicting and forecasting the monsoons in the context of climate change.  Enabling collective action and rural institutions for agriculture and natural resource management.  Rehabilitating degraded lands and diversifying livelihood systems for landless and vulnerable groups.  Recharging depleted groundwater aquifers and enforcing strong regulations on groundwater extraction. 
Along with appropriate policy and institutional innovations, can have a significant impact in increasing agricultural productivity. India should start investing for the long-term sustainability of the farming sector particularly in dryland agriculture. By doing this, India will enable its farmers to win the gamble with the monsoons for good. Initiating government support for water saving options (e.g., drip irrigation and dry land crops). Including dry land crops in the minimum support price scheme.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BIODIVERSITY - CHENNAI

International conference on "biodiversity in relation to food and human security in a warming planet": Chennai declaration. The conference held at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai from 15 to 17 February 2010.
Chennai declaration makes a bridge of issues at global, national and local levels between the challenges for conservation and food security These include: 1) According economic value to the services nature and agriculture rendered and setting up mechanisms for payment for such services;
2) Acknowledging that the custodians of biodiverse resources are farmers and fisherfolk;
3) Finding markets for neglected but nutritious crops;
4) Including rural communities in biodiversity strategies;
5) Refocussing research and development priorities and promoting biodiversity literacy through public education to build an ethic of conservation.
2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. BUREAU OF FOREST GENETICS TO COME UP IN DEHRA DUN A National Bureau of Forest Genetics is to be established in Dehra Dun under the Indian Council for Forest Research and Education to help protect the country’s diminishing forest resources.
A sum of Rs.20 crore was sanctioned for the project.
Kolleru Lake is one of the largest freshwater lake in India. It is located in Andhra Pradesh state, India. Kolleru is located between Krishna and Godavari delta. Kolleru spans into two districts - Krishna and West Godavari. MONSOON DELAY – PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS Science-based strategies could greatly help vulnerable farming communities
India’s agriculture as a gamble with the monsoons. About 60 per cent of India’s farms depend on rains, so the monsoons are indeed critical to India’s agriculture, which accounts for a sixth of the country’s economic output.
ICRISAT is a non-profit and non-political research organization that serves the poorest of the poor in the semi-arid areas of the developing world. Founded in 1972.Headquarters Patancheru, Hyderabad, India .
Climate change is real and its implications are going to be borne by all, most especially the poorest of the poor. The impact of climate change on rainfall pattern is not going to be a temporary phenomenon. This is only the beginning and delayed monsoons, unexpected rains and heavy downpours are likely to be the rule rather than the exception.
There is a direct link between water availability and poverty in the dry lands.

CHANG LA PASS

The Changla Pass or Chang La Pass (el. 5,425 m (17,799 ft)) is a high mountain pass in India.The Changla Pass is on the route to Pangong Lake from Leh. It is named after the nomadic tribes of the region Changpa. La in Changla indicates pass. A temple dedicated to Changla Baba has been created by grateful travellers, invoking the spirit of the pass. The small town of Tangste is the nearest settlement. The Changla Pass is the main gateway for the Changthang Plateau situated in the Himalayas. The nomadic tribes of the region are collectively known as the Changpa or Chang-pa. The Chang La is the third highest motorable vehikel pass in the world.
A REPOSITORY OF SEEDS ON CLIFF TOP OF HIMALAYAS
 Nestled 17, 500m high on a cliff top in the Himalayas, Chang-La has the sub zero temperatures and low humidity necessary to suspend seed life for future generations.  It is a site carefully chosen. It is far from rising seas and tectonic plate movement but at around 75km from Leh aiport, it is close enough to human civilisation today to deposit the country’s agricultural heritage with ease.  Chang-La, opened last December, currently holds 5,000 seeds from the Ministry of Defence, prioritised for qualities such yield or resistance to temperature, pests or humidity. But its total capacity is ten times that and,
 The facility in India aims to rival that at Svalbard in Norway, which can hold up to 3 million seed varieties, by opening up its vaults to the international community.
 Crop seeds, developed slowly and carefully over thousands of years, are not only the source of sustenance for humankind but the best repository of genetic material scientists can use to help develop food resistant to the vagaries of climate change.
THE SVALBARD GLOBAL SEED VAULT
 The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is a secure seedbank located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen near the town of Longyearbyen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. The facility was established to preserve a wide variety of plant seeds from locations worldwide in an underground cavern. The seed vault holds duplicate samples, or "spare" copies, of seeds held in genebanks worldwide. The seed vault will provide insurance against the loss of seeds in genebanks, as well as a refuge for seeds in the case of large scale regional or global crises. The island of Spitsbergen is about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the North Pole. The seed vault is  managed under terms spelled out in a tripartite agreement between the Norwegian government, the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT) and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (also known as NordGen and previously named the Nordic Gene Bank, a cooperative effort of the Nordic countries under the Nordic Council of Ministers). : Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, and India.
Construction of the seed vault, which cost approximately 45 million Norwegian Kroner (9 million USD), was funded entirely by the Government of Norway. Storage of seeds in the seed vault is free of charge. Operational costs will be paid by Norway and the Global Crop Diversity Trust.The primary funding of the Trust came from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, Switzerland, and Sweden, though funding has been received from a wide variety of sources including four developing countries

IPCC EXPRESSES REGRET OVER GLACIER MELTING CONCLUSION

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
A paragraph in the 2007 Working Group II report ("Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability"), chapter 10 included a projection that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035.
Glaciers in the Himalaya are receding faster than in any other part of the world (see Table 10.9) and, if the present rate continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by the year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the Earth keeps warming at the current rate. Its total area will likely shrink from the present 500,000 to 100,000 km2 by the year 2035 (WWF, 2005).
This projection was not included in the final summary for policymakers. The IPCC has since acknowledged that the date is incorrect, while reaffirming that the conclusion in the final summary was robust. They expressed regret for "the poor application of well-established IPCC procedures in this instance".
MANSAGAR LAKE 
Mansagar Lake is a manmade water body, situated between Amber and Jaipur, in Jaipur District. is a scientific intergovernmental body tasked with evaluating the risk of climate change caused by human activity. The panel was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), two organizations of the United Nations. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President of the United States Al Gore.

 It was formed due to instituting a dam across river Darbhawati between Khilangarh hills and the hilly ridge on the opposite hill.  Jal Mahal, an architectural monument, is situated in the midst of the lake. Surrounded by hills, it is the home for a variety of migratory and resident birds.

GREEN RATING MUST FOR GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS

 In a landmark decision, the Union government has made it mandatory for all new buildings of the public sector undertakings and the government to seek new green rating norms in an effort to ensure energy efficiency and tackle climate change threats.  Under the GRIHA scheme, buildings would be rated by technical expertise from TERI, which is headed by R.K. Pachauri. The aim of a green building design was to minimise the demand for non-renewable sources and maximise its utilisation.  GRIHA The national rating system for green buildings in India, GRIHA has been developed and operationalized by
TERI  The Energy and Resources Institute, commonly known as TERI (formerly Tata Energy Research Institute), established in 1974, is a research institute based in New Delhi focusing its research activities in the fields of energy, environment and sustainable development.  TERI is an independent, not-for-profit, research institute focused on energy, environment and sustainable development, devoted to efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. 
The origins of TERI lie in Mithapur, a remote town in Gujarat, where a TATA engineer, Darbari Seth, was concerned about the enormous quantities of energy his factory spent on desalination. He proposed the idea of a research institute to tackle the depletion of natural resources and energy scarcity. J. R. D. Tata, chairman of the TATA Group, liked the idea and accepted the proposal. TERI was setup with a modest corpus of 35 million rupees. On the invitation of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, TERI registered in Delhi in 1974 as the Tata Energy Research Institute. As the scope of its activities widened over a period of time, it was renamed The Energy and Resources Institute in 2003. TERI. GRIHA is an acronym for Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment. It was conceived by TERI and developed jointly with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to the Indian Government. It is a green building design evaluation system and is suitable for all kinds of buildings in different climatic zones of the country.

 The Institute's Director General Rajendra K. Pachauri is also the chairman of the 2007 Nobel Prize awarded Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. TERI's Executive Director is Dr Leena Srivastava.

FRANCE: CARBON TAX RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL

 Nicolas Sarkozy’s dreams of putting France on the frontline of the fight against global warming are in disarray, after his flagship carbon tax was ruled unconstitutional two days before it was due to come into effect.  In an unexpected and embarrassing blow, the court responsible for ensuring the validity of French legislation rejected the reform as ineffective and unfair.  It ruled that rather than being the revolutionary measure Mr. Sarkozy promised, the tax would have let off many industrial polluters, while placing a disproportionately heavy burden on ordinary households. INDIA SET TO LEAD EFFORT FOR BINDING BIODIVERSITY TREATY  India is set to take the lead in pushing for a single legally binding treaty for access to and benefit sharing of biological resources at the 10th Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to be held at Nagoya, Japan, in October.  The CBD was one of the key agreements adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. 
1. Conservation of biological diversity.

2. sustainable use of its component and
3. Fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of generic resources. The convention, while reaffirming the sovereign rights of nations over their biological resources, established three main goals.

2000-2009: WARMEST DECADE ON RECORD

 The past 10 years have been the warmest in recorded history, according to the UK Meteorological (Met) Office.  Figures released at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen show despite 1998 being the warmest year on record, has been the warmest decade recorded in 160 years.  In a separate announcement, the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva that 2009 will be one of the 10 warmest individual years recorded. The provisional figure for warming during the year is 0.44C above the long-term average of 14C.  A third paper released today, from the German research group Germanwatch, showed that Bangladesh, Burma and Honduras were the three countries most affected in the past 20 years by extremes of climate.  Also in the top ten were Vietnam, Nicaragua, Haiti, India, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and China.  Only four developed countries were in the top 20 of countries most prone to weather disaster: Italy at 12, Spain at 14, Portugal at 14 and the U.S. at 18.  The 2003 drought in southern Europe, which led to tens of thousands of deaths and huge insurance losses, as well as a series of category 5 hurricanes in the U.S. are responsible for these rich countries being placed so highly in the league table.

WHAT'S YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT?

"Carbon footprint refers to the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that we generate directly or indirectly,"
Not just vehicle exhausts, almost everything we do or use leaves a carbon footprint — be it the paper we use, the computers we work on, the packaging of our groceries, or the disposables such as cups, cartons, and plastic bags that are so much a part of our life. Leave alone the carbon footprint left by the raw materials used in manufacturing these goods, their manufacturing process consumes fossil-fuel generated electricity, while the transportation process causes more emissions by way of vehicle exhausts and so does even the tarred road if one were to take into account the emissions caused by the tar refining process.
A carbon footprint is made up of the sum of two parts, the primary footprint (shown by the green slices of the pie chart) and the secondary footprint (shown as the yellow slices).

1. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane). We have direct control of these.
2. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use - those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown. To put "A carbon footprint of up to one tonne per person per year is sustainable globally, but the average city dweller far exceeds this,"
Carbon Trust, an independent carbon foot printing agency, measured the carbon footprint of a popular two-litre packaged orange drink and found it to be equal to a carbon dioxide emission of 1.7 kg! This came from the emissions during its processing, packaging and transportation. Using 1KWhr of electricity leaves a 10 kg carbon footprint. While some energy-saving methods would entail initial investments, even these would pay off over one to four years through energy savings.
For instance, invest in energy saving CFL bulbs or LED lamps. Replace your old fridge if it is over 15 years old with an energy-efficient one. Use solar lamps and cookers if possible. And then, there are other things you can do, that don't cost you a paisa. In fact, you stand to save money in the process. And the planet!

CHIKUNGUNYA

Chikungunya (in the Makonde language "that leans downward") virus (CHIKV) is an insect-borne virus, of the genus Alphavirus, that is transmitted to humans by virus-carrying Aedes mosquitoes. There have been recent breakouts of CHIKV associated with severe illness. CHIKV causes an illness with symptoms similar to dengue fever.

 CHIKV manifests itself with an acute febrile phase of the illness lasting only two to five days, followed by a prolonged arthralgic disease that affects the joints of the extremities. The pain associated with CHIKV infection of the joints persists for weeks or months, or in some cases years.

NATIONAL POLICY ON BIO-FUELS GETS NOD

The Union Cabinet approved the national policy on bio-fuels and its implementation. It also gave its nod for setting up of a National Bio-fuel Coordination Committee and a Bio-fuel Steering Committee. The new policy endeavours to facilitate and bring about optimal development and utilisation of indigenous biomass feed stocks for production of bio-fuels. The salient features of the new policy include  bio-diesel production will be taken up from non-edible oil seeds in waste/degraded /marginal lands;  an indicative target of 20 per cent blending of bio-fuels, both for bio-diesel and bio-ethanol, by 2017 has been proposed;  minimum support price (MSP) for non-edible oil seeds would be announced with periodic revision to provide fair price to the growers;  minimum purchase price (MPP) for purchase of bio-ethanol and bio-diesel would be announced with periodic revision;  major thrust will be given to research, development and demonstration with focus on plantations, processing and production of bio-fuels, including second generation bio-fuels and financial incentives, including subsidies and grants.  If it becomes necessary, a National Bio-fuel Fund could be considered.  A National Bio-fuel Coordination Committee, headed by the Prime Minister, will be set up to provide policy guidance and coordination.  A Bio-fuel Steering Committee, chaired by Cabinet Secretary, will be set up to oversee implementation of the policy.  The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been designated as the co-ordinating Ministry for bio-fuel development and utilisation while specific roles have been assigned to other ministries concerned. 
An Indo-U.S. MoU has been signed on bio-fuels with focus on joint R&D, particularly on second generation bio-fuels such as, cellulosic ethanol and algal biodiesel.

THE ASIAN BROWN CLOUD

The Asian brown cloud is a layer of air pollution that covers parts of South Asia, namely the northern Indian Ocean, India, and Pakistan. Viewed from satellite photos, the cloud appears as a giant brown stain hanging in the air over much of South Asia and the Indian Ocean every year between January and March, possibly also during earlier and later months. The term was coined in reports from the UNEP Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX). In some humidity conditions, it forms haze. It is created by a range of airborne particles and pollutants from combustion (e.g. woodfires, cars, and factories), biomass burning and industrial processes with incomplete burning. The cloud is associated with the winter monsoon (November/December to April) during which there is no rain to wash pollutants from the air.

GREEN INDIA 2047 TERI - The Energy Research Institute launched the GREEN India 2047 project on the Earth Day, 1995. The purpose of that effort was to assess what India had done to its natural resource wealth in the first 50 years of Independence. The first phase of this project was completed before Independence Day 1997, and a presentation made to the then Prime Minister Shri I K Gujral and several of his cabinet colleagues. Subsequent phases of this work revealed that while India had progressed economically, our record as a society in ensuring the conservation and proper care of the environment and natural resources had been less than satisfactory. It was also found that environmental protection is not merely a luxury or the pursuit of a dream in the eyes of idealistic environmentalists. TERI .New Delhi Director-General noted environmentalist R.K.Pachauri.
FOURTH OF INDIA TURNING INTO DESERT: ISRO
 No less than a fourth of India’s geographical area, or 81 million hectares, is undergoing a process of desertification, reveals a first-of-its-kind ‘desertification status map’ of the country created by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in collaboration with several scientific institutions across the country.
 A host of reasons are responsible for this phenomenon, including changes in rainfall pattern and over-exploitation of natural resources. The spatial inventory, which uses satellite imagery from an Indian Remote Sensing Satellite, Resourcesat, also reveals that a third of the country’s area (or 105.48 million hectares) is degraded.
 At least eight processes were at work, of which water erosion is the most pronounced (affecting 10.21 per cent of the total geographical area), followed by reducing vegetation cover (9.63 per cent) and wind erosion (5.34 per cent). Together 32.07 per cent of the total geographic area is being transformed by land degradation.
 State-wise, Rajasthan has the largest area (21.77 per cent of the total geographical area) undergoing land degradation, followed by
 Jammu and Kashmir (12.79 per cent),
 Maharashtra (12.66 per cent) and
 Gujarat (12.72 per cent).
 ISRO’s Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad served as the nodal coordinating organisation for the study.
 The research paper adds that about 15.8 per cent of the country’s geographical area is arid, 37.6 per cent semi-arid and 16.5 per cent falls in the dry sub-humid region. Put together, about 228 million hectares, or 69 per cent of the country constitute ‘dry land.’

COPENHAGEN ACCORD

This is the text of the climate accord worked out by President Obama and the leaders of several key nations in Copenhagen on Dec. 18.
1. We underline that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We emphasise our strong political will to urgently combat climate change in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. To achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, we shall, recognizing the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius, on the basis ofequity and in the context of sustainable development, enhance our long-term cooperative action to combat climate change. We recognize the critical impacts of climate change and the potential impacts of response measures on countries particularly vulnerable to its adverse effects and stress the need to establish a comprehensive adaptation programme including international support.
2. We agree that deep cuts in global emissions are required according to science, and as documented by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report with a view to reduce global emissions so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius, and take action to meet this objective consistent with science and on the basis of equity. We should cooperate in achieving the peaking of global and national emissions as soon as possible, recognizing that the time frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries and bearing in mind that social and economic development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of developing countries and that a low-emission development strategy is indispensable to sustainable development.
3. in those that are particularly vulnerable, especially least developed countries, small island developing States and Africa. We agree that developed countries shall provide adequate, predictable and sustainable financial resources, technology and capacity-building to support the implementation of adaptation action in developing countries.
4. Annex I Parties commit to implement individually or jointly the quantified economy-wide emissions targets for 2020, to be submitted in the format given in Appendix I by Annex I Parties to the secretariat by 31 January 2010 for compilation in an INF document. Annex I Parties that are Party to the Kyoto Protocol will thereby further strengthen the emissions reductions initiated by the Kyoto Protocol. Delivery of reductions and financing by developed countries will be measured, reported and verified in accordance with existing and any further guidelines adopted by the Conference of the Parties, and will ensure that accounting of such targets and finance is rigorous, robust and transparent.
5. Non-Annex I Parties to the Convention will implement mitigation actions, including those to be submitted to the secretariat by non-Annex I Parties in the format given in Appendix II by 31 January 2010, for compilation in an INF document, consistent with Article 4.1 and Article 4.7 and in the context of sustainable development. Least developed countries and small island developing States may undertake actions voluntarily and on the basis of support. Mitigation actions subsequently taken and envisaged by Non-Annex I Parties, including national inventory reports, shall be communicated through national communications consistent with Article 12.1(b) every two years on the basis of guidelines to be adopted by the Conference of the Parties. Those mitigation actions in national communications or otherwise communicated to the Secretariat will be added to the list in appendix II. Mitigation actions taken by Non-Annex I Parties will be subject to their domestic measurement, reporting and verification the result of which will be reported through their national communications every two years. Non-Annex I Parties will communicate information on the implementation of their actions through National Communications, with provisions for international consultations and analysis under clearly defined guidelines that will ensure that national sovereignty is respected. Nationally appropriate mitigation actions seeking international support will be recorded in a registry along with relevant technology, finance and capacity building support. Those actions supported will be added to the list in appendix II. These supported nationally appropriate mitigation actions will be subject to international measurement, reporting and verification in accordance with guidelines adopted by the Conference of the Parties.
6. We recognize the crucial role of reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation and the need to enhance removals of greenhouse gas emission by forests and agree on the need to provide positive incentives to such actions through the immediate establishment of a mechanism including REDD-plus, to enable the mobilization of financial resources from developed countries.
7. We decide to pursue various approaches, including opportunities to use markets, to enhance the cost-effectiveness of, and to promote mitigation actions. Developing countries, especially those with low emitting economies should be provided incentives to continue to develop on a low emission pathway.
8. deforestation and forest degradation (REDD-plus), adaptation, technology development and transfer and capacity-building, for enhanced implementation of the Convention. The collective commitment by developed countries is to provide new and additional resources, including forestry and investments through international institutions, approaching USD 30 billion for the period 2010 . 2012 with balanced allocation between adaptation and mitigation. Funding for adaptation will be prioritized for the most vulnerable developing countries, such as the least developed countries, small island developing States and Africa. In the context of meaningful mitigation actions and transparency on implementation, developed countries commit to a goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to address the needs of developing countries. This funding will come from a wide variety of sources, public and private, bilateral and multilateral, including alternative sources of finance. New multilateral funding for adaptation will be delivered through effective and efficient fund arrangements, with a governance structure providing for equal representation of developed and developing countries. A significant portion of such funding should flow through the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund.
9. To this end, a High Level Panel will be established under the guidance of and accountable to the Conference of the Parties to study the contribution of the potential sources of revenue, including alternative sources of finance, towards meeting this goal.
10. We decide that the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund shall be established as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the Convention to support projects, programme, policies and other activities in developing countries related to mitigation including REDD-plus, adaptation, capacity-building, technology development and transfer.
11. In order to enhance action on development and transfer of technology we decide to establish a Technology Mechanism to accelerate technology development and transfer in support of action on adaptation and mitigation that will be guided by a country-driven approach and be based on national circumstances and priorities.
12. We call for an assessment of the implementation of this Accord to be completed by 2015, including in light of the Convention’s ultimate objective. This would include consideration of strengthening the long-term goal referencing various matters presented by the science, including in relation to temperature rises of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Scaled up, new and additional, predictable and adequate funding as well as improved access shall be provided to developing countries, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention, to enable and support enhanced action on mitigation, including substantial finance to reduce emissions from Adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change and the potential impacts of response measures is a challenge faced by all countries. Enhanced action and international cooperation on adaptation is urgently required to ensure the implementation of the Convention by enabling and supporting the implementation of adaptation actions aimed at reducing vulnerability and building resilience in developing countries, especially

350.org.

350.org is an international environmental organizationheaded by author Bill McKibben, Headquarters Berkeley, California, USA with the goal of cutting atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions to 80% by 2050 from 2006 baseline emissions of 9,180 million tons of carbon.350.org takes its name from the research of NASA scientist James E. Hansen, who posited in a 2007 paper that 350 parts-per-million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere is a safe upper limit to avoid a climate tipping point. The current record level is 389 ppm of CO2, an almost 40-percent increase from the pre-industrial revolution level of 278 ppm. In 1988 the Earth's atmosphere surpassed the 350 ppm mark, while global CO2 emissions per capita rose.
INDIA, CHINA SIGN MOA ON CLIMATE CHANGE  Reiterating that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol are the most appropriate framework for addressing climate change, India and China signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to establish a partnership in the area for strengthening dialogue and practical cooperation. 
They agreed to set up an India-China Working Group on Climate Change that will hold annual meetings alternately in China and India to exchange views on important issues concerning international negotiations and domestic policies and measures.



BALI ACTION PLAN After the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference on the island Bali in Indonesia in December, 2007 the participating nations adopted the Bali Road Map as a two-year process to finalizing a binding agreement in 2009 in Copenhagen. The conference encompassed meetings of several bodies, including the 13th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 13) and the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP 3 or CMP 3).

The Bali Road Map includes the Bali Action Plan (BAP) that was adopted by Decision 1/CP.13 of the COP-13. It also includes the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP)negotiations and their 2009 deadline, the launch of the Adaptation Fund, the scope and content of the Article 9 review of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as decisions on technology transfer and on reducing emissions from deforestation.
Both countries were working closely for a fair and equitable outcome at Copenhagen in keeping with the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol and the Bali Action Plan.

REDD OR DEAD?

What is Redd?

Redd — Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation — would allow countries that can reduce emissions from deforestation to be paid for doing so.

Where did the idea come from?
Papua New Guinea and nine other countries proposed it in 2005 at a U.N. climate meeting. It is now likely to be one of the cornerstones of any agreement at the Copenhagen climate conference in December. It would start in 2013, and could eventually channel tens of billions of dollars a year from rich to poor countries.

How would it work?
Countries would have to show — from historical data, satellite imagery and direct measurement of trees — the extent, condition and carbon content of their forests. Verification, reporting and monitoring would be done by communities that depend on the forests or by independent organisations. Protected trees would have to be shown to have been threatened. Who pays?
There are several proposals. Countries could either be paid by "voluntary funding" — rather like existing official aid given by one country to another — or cash could be linked to trade in carbon credits.

Does everyone agree?
No. There are 32 Redd proposals, from countries, groups of countries and NGOs. The two gaining most ground are from Brazil. Once a model is agreed upon, many problems will remain. There is as yet no agreed way to accurately measure the  carbon content of different kinds of forests. The rights of the tens of millions of people who live in forests could be at risk if carbon companies move in, valuing the forests more highly than them. And land ownership is often a difficult issue to resolve — and ownership of trees, even more so.
CONTAMINATED U.S. SHIP ‘PLATINUM II’ LANDS ALANG YARD IN CONTROVERSY The ship-breaking yard at Alang, off the Bhavnagar coast in Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, is again in the thick of a controversy over the move to allow an allegedly contaminated ship to berth there.
The authorities disagreed that the ship, ‘Platinum II,’ was "laden with radioactive materials," and said it carried only "some hazardous chemical paints" barred under U.S. norms. Also said the problem was common in all pre-1980 ships which contained some asbestos and hazardous chemical paints. However, the Supreme Court already laid down guidelines for disposal of the hazardous substances.

State government authorities, meanwhile, had little idea of the origin of ‘Platinum II,’ a U.S. vessel, which environmentalist groups claimed was "renamed" after the "dead" ship ‘SS Oceanic,’ which itself was a new name given to the controversial ‘SS Independence.’ Banned under U.S. norms, the ship was believed to have been lying idle at the Dubai port for more than one and half years and was moved to Alang without the knowledge of even State government authorities.

According to Gopal Krishna, convener of the Indian Platform on Ship-Breaking, an umbrella organisation of environmentalists and human rights activists, the ship contained about 210 tonnes of materials contaminated by Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), highly toxic substances, and about 200 tonnes of asbestos-containing materials. State government authorities, however, claimed that the Alang yard was equipped to handle much larger quantities of toxic materials than what ‘Platinum II’ was believed to be carrying.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):

A convention adopted in May 1992 with the ultimate objective of the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."
Virtual water:

Vulnerability The amount of water that is directly or indirectly consumed in the production of a good or service. (also climate vulnerability): The degree to which a system is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of climate change and variability to which a system is exposed, as well as the system’s sensitivity and adaptive capacity.
Weather derivatives: Financial instruments to reduce risk associated with adverse weather conditions by, for example, providing for payments associated with a specified weather event (such as an unusually cool or hot month of August).
Weather-index insurance: Insurance where the indemnity (or payout) is based on the realization of pre-agreed values of an index of a specific weather parameter, measured over a pre-specified period of time, at a particular weather station. The insurance can be structured to protect against index realizations that are either so high or so low that they are expected to cause crop losses. The indemnity is calculated based on a pre-agreed sum insured per unit of the index (e.g. US$/millimeter of rainfall).
Win-win-(win): In the Report, this refers to measures that are beneficial for adaptation and mitigation (and development).
2020 TARGET FOR CLEAN GANGA MISSION The National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) approved an ambitious project to prevent the discharge of untreated municipal sewage and industrial effluent into the Ganga by 2020.
An estimated investment of Rs. 15,000 crore over the next 10 years will be required to create the necessary treatment and sewerage infrastructure for the ‘Mission Clean Ganga.’ The resources will be provided by the Centre and States over a 10-year period to be shared suitably after consultations with the Planning Commission.

GLOSSARY

Carbon lock-in: Actions which perpetuate a given level of carbon emissions. For example, expansion of roads and highways will tend to lock in carbon emissions from fossil fuels for decades unless there are countervailing policies to limit fuel use or control vehicle use.
Carbon sink: Any process, activity or mechanism which removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Forests and other vegetation are considered sinks because they remove carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): A mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol through which developed countries may finance greenhouse-gas emission reduction or removal projects in developing countries, and thereby receive credits for doing so which they may apply towards meeting mandatory limits on their own emissions. The CDM allows greenhouse gas emission reduction projects to take place in countries that are signatories but have no emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
Climate sensitivity: The change in global mean surface temperature in response to a doubling of the atmospheric CO2e concentration. A key parameter for translating projected emissions into projections of warming and thus impacts.
Consumptive use of water: Water removed from available supplies without return to a water resources system (for example, water used in manufacturing, agriculture, and food preparation that is not returned to a stream, river, or water treatment plant).
Coping capacity:

Damage function: The ability of people, organizations and systems, using available skills and resources, to face and manage adverse conditions, emergencies or disasters. Refers to short-term capacity in response to an event, whereas adaptive capacity refers to the long-term ability to make systematic changes to reduce the impact of climate change. In the climate change context, the relation between changes in the climate and reductions in production or consumption, or losses of assets (potentially including ecosystems or human health).
Deadweight loss: A cost that generates no benefit.
Downscaling:

Early warning system: A mechanism to generate and disseminate timely and meaningful warning information to enable individuals, communities and organizations threatened by a hazard to prepare and to act appropriately and in sufficient time to reduce the possibility of harm or loss.
Ecosystem services: The ecosystem processes or functions that have value to individuals or society, for example, the provision of food, water purification, and recreational opportunities.
Evapotranspiration: An important part of the water cycle, it is the combined process of evaporation from the Earth’s surface (from sources such as the soil and bodies of water) and transpiration from vegetation (loss of water as vapor from plants, primarily through their leaves).Forest degradation: The reduction in forest biomass through unsustainable harvest or landuse practices including logging, fire, and other anthropogenic disturbances.
Geoengineering:
fertilization of the oceans with iron to increase uptake of CO2 by algae. Geoengineering is the large-scale engineering of our environment to combat or to counteract the effects of climate change. Proposed measures include injecting particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect sunlight and the
Gini coefficient: A commonly used measure of inequality of income or wealth distribution, varying between 0 (perfect equality) and 1.
Green tax: A tax that aims to increase envi-ronmental quality by taxing actions which harm the environment.
Greenhouse gas (GHG): Any of the atmospheric gases that cause climate change by trapping heat from the sun in Earth’s atmosphere—producing the greenhouse effect. The most common greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), ozone (O3), and water vapor (H2O).
Integrated assessment: A method of analysis that combines results and models from the physical, biological, economic and social sciences, and the interactions between these components, in a consistent framework, to project the consequences of climate change and the policy responses to it.
Intellectual property rights (IPRs): Legal property rights over artistic and commercial creations of the mind, including patents on new technologies, and the corresponding fields of law.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): Established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, the IPCC surveys worldwide scientific and technical literature and publishes assessment reports that are widely recognized as the most credible existing sources of information on climate change. The IPCC also prepares methodologies and responds to specific requests from the subsidiary bodies of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The IPCC is independent of the UNFCCC.
Kyoto Protocol: An agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that was adopted in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, by the parties to the UNFCCC. It contains legally binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by developed countries.
Leakage: In the climate change context, the process whereby emissions outside of a mitigation project area increase as a result of emission reduction activities inside the project area, thus reducing the effectiveness of the project.
Land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF): A set of activities including human-induced land use, land-use change, and forestry activities which lead to both emissions and removals of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. A category used in reporting greenhouse gas inventories.
Maladaptation: Activities or actions that increase vulnerability to climate change.
Mitigation: A human intervention to reduce the emissions or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases.
National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs): Documents prepared by least developed countries (LDCs) identifying the activities to address urgent and immediate needs for adapting to climate change.
No regrets project: In the climate change context, a project that would generate net social and/or economic benefits irrespective of whether the project affects the climate or whether the climate affects the project.
Polluter pays principle: A principle in envi-ronmental law whereby the polluter must bear the cost of the pollution. Thus the polluter is responsible for the cost of measures to prevent and control pollution.
Positive feedback: When one variable in a system triggers changes in a second variable that in turn affect the original variable; a positive feedback intensifies the initial effect, and a negative feedback reduces the effect.
Precautionary principle:
serious or irreversible harm would not occur as a result of an action or policy, the burden of proof lies with those that favor the action or policy. In the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), it is a provision under Article 3 stipulating that the parties should take precautionary measures to anticipate, prevent, or minimize the causes of climate change and mitigate its adverse effects, and that a lack of full scientific certainty about possibly serious or irreversible damages should not be used as a reason to postpone such measures—taking into account that policies and measures to deal with climate change should be cost-effective in order to ensure global benefits at the lowest possible cost. A principle that holds that, in the absence of scientific certainty that
Public good: A good whose consumption is non-exclusive (so that it is impossible to prevent anyone from enjoying the benefit) and non-rival (so that the enjoyment of the benefit by one individual does not diminish the quantity of benefits available to others). Climate change mitigation is an example of a public good as it would be impossible to prevent any one individual or state from enjoying the benefit of a stabilized climate, and the enjoyment of this stabilized climate by one individual or state would not diminish the ability of others to benefit from it.
RDD&D: Research, development, demonstration, and deployment of new methods, technologies, equipment, and products.
Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD): REDD refers to a suite of actions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from forested land. Financial incentives for REDD are potentially a part of the policy response to climate change.
Reforestation: Planting of forests on lands that were previously forested but that have been converted to another use.
Resilience: The ability of a social or ecological system to absorb disturbances while retaining the same basic structure and ways of functioning, the capacity for self-organization, and the capacity to adapt to stress and change.
Risk assessment: A standardized methodology consisting of risk identification, risk quantification, risk reduction, and risk mitigation.
Robust decision making: In the face of uncertainty, choosing not the measure or policy that would be optimal under the most likely future world, but the one that would be acceptable across a range of possible futures. The process involves evaluating options to minimize expected regret across a variety of models, assumptions, and loss functions, rather than to maximize returns under a unique likely future.
Safety net: Mechanisms that aim to protect people from the impact of shocks such as flood, drought, unemployment, illness, or the death of a household’s primary income earner.
Sequestration: In the climate context, the process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in reservoirs such as new forests, soil carbon or underground storage. Biological sequestration: The removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it in organic matter through land-use change, afforestation, reforestation, carbon storage in landfills, and practices that enhance soil carbon in agriculture.
Social learning: Social learning is the process by which people learn new behavior through overt reinforcement or punishment, or via observing other social actors in their environment. If people observe positive, desired outcomes for others exhibiting a particular behavior, they are more likely to model, imitate, and adopt the behavior themselves.
Social norms: Implicit or explicit values, beliefs, and rules adopted by a group to self-regulate behavior through peer pressure; the yardstick individuals use to assess what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior.
Social protection:

Solar photovoltaics (PV): The set of public interventions aimed at supporting the poorer and more vulnerable members of society, as well as helping individuals, families, and communities manage risk—for example, unemployment insurance programs, income support, and social services. The field of technology and research related to the conversion of sunlight, including ultra violet radiation, directly into electricity; the technology applied in the creation and use of solar cells, which make up solar panels.
SRES scenarios: A set of descriptions or storylines of possible futures used in climate change related modeling developed for the IPCC. The scenarios are used to project future emissions based on assumptions about changes in population, technology, and societal development. Four scenario families comprise the SRES scenario set: A1, A2, B1 and B2. A1 represents a future world of very rapid economic growth, global population that peaks in mid-century and declines thereafter, and rapid introduction of new and more efficient technologies. A2 represents a very heterogeneous world with continuously increasing global population and regionally oriented economic growth that is more fragmented and slower than in other storylines. B1 represents a convergent world with the same global population as in the A1 storyline but with rapid changes in economic structures toward a service and information economy, reductions in material intensity, and the introduction of clean and resource-efficient technologies. Finally, B2 represents a world in which the emphasis is on local solutions to economic, social, and environmental sustainability, with continuously increasing population (lower than A2) and intermediate economic development.
Stationarity: The idea that natural systems fluctuate within an unchanging envelope of variability, delimited by the range of past experiences.
Supplementarity: The Kyoto Protocol states that emissions trading and Joint Implementation activities are to be supplemental to domestic policies (e.g. energy taxes, fuel efficiency standards) taken by developed countries to reduce their GHG emissions. Under some proposed definitions of supplementarity, developed countries could be required to achieve a given share of their reduction targets domestically. This is a subject for further negotiation and clarification by the parties.
Technology transfer: The process of sharing of skills, knowledge, technologies, and methods of manufacture to ensure that scientific and technological developments are accessible to a wider range of users.
Technology-push: The allocation of R&D resources motivated largely by inherent scientific interest, rather than market demand.
Threshold: In the climate change context, the level above which sudden or rapid change occurs.
Transaction costs: Costs associated with the exchange of goods or services that are additional to the monetary cost or price of the good or service. Examples include search and information costs or policing and enforcement costs.
Uncertainty: An expression of the degree to which a value (such as the future state of the climate system) is unknown. Uncertainty can result from lack of information or from disagreement about what is known or even knowable. It may have many types of sources, from quantifiable errors in the data to uncertain projections of human behavior. Uncertainty can therefore be represented by quantitative measures, for example, a range of values calculated by various models, or by qualitative statements, for example, reflecting expert judgment. However, in economics, uncertainty refers to Knightian uncertainty, which is immeasurable. This is in contrast to risk, wherein the occurrence of certain events is associated with a knowable probability distribution. A method that derives local- to regional-scale (10 to 100 km) information from larger-scale (200+ km) climate-projection models or data analyses. Dynamic downscaling uses high resolution models for a particular region run within a large-scale global model; statistical down-scaling uses statistical relationships that link the large-scale atmospheric variables with local or regional climate variables.