-PTI   Unsustainable growth, population, urbanisation & consumption increase impact region's environment Emissions in India and China is set to rise as the Asia-Pacific region faces mounting challenges in tackling climate change, water scarcity, species extinction and hazardous waste and their economies forge ahead, a UN report has warned. The region needs to improve governance structures and accountability and scale up successful policy initiatives to achieve sustainable development, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said...

-FAO On the path to Rio+20, FAO calls for a future with both healthier people and healthier ecosystems Sustainable development cannot be realized unless hunger and malnutrition are eradicated, FAO said in a policy document prepared for the Rio+20 Summit to be held in June in Rio de Janeiro. "We cannot call development sustainable while this situation persists, while nearly one out of every seven men, women and children are left behind, victims...

-The Economic Times The government has no immediate plans to raise the retail prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas, Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said on Monday. "I am not touching (the prices of) diesel, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or kerosene," Reddy said, adding, no date has yet been fixed for a meeting of a ministerial panel to review the prices of the three subsidised fuels. State-owned oil fuel retailers announced an...

-The Telegraph Several states today proposed user charges on rural households for the piped water provided to them but Bengal avoided taking a stand. The Centre supported the idea, proposed by states such as Gujarat, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Haryana at a conference of ministers for water supply and sanitation. Most urban households in the country now pay water charges but water has always been a free commodity in the villages....

Countries in Asia and the Pacific must strike a balance between rising prosperity and rising emission as their success or failure will have repercussions worldwide, a latest report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has said. "The Asia-Pacific region must continue to grow economically to lift millions out of poverty, but it must also respond to climate change to survive. Growing first and cleaning up later is no longer an...