-Deccan Herald The world is not ready for cLIMate change, which poses a number of serious risks, says the planet's leading body of cLIMate scientists. The Intergovernmental Panel on CLIMate Change (IPCC) at its conference in Yokohama, Japan recently released a major report on the impact of cLIMate change, with the goal of spurring world leaders to act more decisively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The report warns of serious impacts...

-Women's Feature Service   For tribal communities, the forest has traditionally been their habitat, their source of income and their nutritional lifeline. So protection of the green cover and ready access to forest produce are issues that are connected with their survival. In India, while The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, recognises the rights of forest-dwellers over land and other resources, in reality there...

-The Hindu   Ideological labels are likely to mislead by channelling the debate into issues of capitalism and socialism and detract from the real problem George Santayana said: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Having forgotten the license-permit-quota-raj that enveloped us from 1950 to 1980 and its ‘crony socialism,' many intellectuals, mediapersons and politicians have now discovered ‘crony capitalism.' The license raj consisted of stifling controls imposed on...

-Reuters OSLO: World powers are running out of time to slash their use of high-polluting fossil fuels and stay below agreed LIMits on global warming, a draft UN study to be approved this week shows. Government officials and top cLIMate scientists will meet in Berlin from April 7-12 to review the 29-page draft that also estimates the needed shift to low-carbon energies would cost between two and six percent of world...

-The Business Standard   Policy roadblocks holding back solar power The solar energy sector is beset with several problems that need to be sorted out to allow it to expand to its potential. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which was set up in 2010, has largely failed to supercharge the sector. Its first phase aimed at creating 1,100 megawatts of new capacity; only 252 MW has been added. Its second phase...