-The Times of India The cost of air-conditioners and refrigerators could go up considerably starting next summer if the US and other rich countries force a decision at the UN climate talks in November at Doha, to order a global ban on existing refrigerant gases and replace them with costly though relatively more climate-friendly alternatives. One of the alternatives being proposed is produced jointly by DuPont and Honeywell, two US-based multinationals, and...

-The Indian Express   Rich countries must stop lecturing developing countries and accelerate their own efforts to cut emissions There is no shortage of people telling India what to do on low-carbon growth, but there is a shortage of understanding of what India is doing. Even the UNDP in its recent Asia Pacific Human Development Report urges emerging economies like India to do more for climate change. If one appreciates what India’s emissions are...

-The Hindustan Times   Had the world's leaders decided to ensure that global warming would increase to 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, perhaps to 5 degrees Celsius, instead of the 1.5-to-20 degrees Celsius threshold (over preindustrial temperatures) that scientists believe earth can tolerate, they couldn't have acted more purposively than they did at the Durban climate conference. If this sounds like a harsh judgement that radically differs from the official spin that...

Global climate strategy needs a new storyline. The original United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (“Plan A”) was signed almost 20 years ago, but lacked the specifics to drive real action. The Kyoto Protocol aimed to resolve this by curbing emissions from the industrialised world, but the US refused to play its part (Plan B). Just as Kyoto came into effect in 2005, the world was changing, with...

Emissions of harmful green house gases (GHG) from the agriculture sector in India declined 3 per cent in a period of about 13 years to 2007 due to the adoption of advanced farm technologies. CHG emissions declined from 344.48 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 1994 to 334.41 million tonnes in 2007, according to the government data. The data has been provided by Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA), a programme...