Global CO2 Emissions: Zeroing in on Net Zero
Date : March 19, 2021
The global debate on combating climate change is in a decisive phase. The recent extreme weather events in Uttarakhand and Texas only highlight the challenge ahead. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that global CO2 emissions should reach net zero by 2050 to have a reasonable probability of limiting global warming to 1.50 C. This is a narrow time window. Considering that t...
Climate Communication in the Time of COVID-19
Date : May 8, 2020
Communicating about climate change has never been easy. The subject is complex, marred by uncertainties and tends to evoke emotionally and politically charged responses. How then do we talk about climate change as the global community grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic today? How do we do this in a post-pandemic world? In the last few years, climate change moved to the centre stage of gl...
COVID-19: To Pause and Look Back To See The Future
Date : May 6, 2020
The COVID-19 outbreak has deracinated life across the globe to expose the structural weaknesses of our system, such as income inequalities, weak healthcare systems, inadequate education, and the lack of global co-ordination. Throughout history, we have faced many deadly pandemics. Yet, after centuries of development, we stand at the crossroads witnessing human fatalities along with impacts on the ...
COVID-19 and the Renewable Energy Sector
Date : May 6, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected all sectors of the global economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its global GDP growth estimate from 3.3% from just three months ago to a contraction of 3%, something not witnessed since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The energy sector has not been immune to COVID-19. The outbreak has contributed to a dampened demand for oi...
5 Individual Actions Against Climate Change
Date : August 20, 2019
“It's the individual effort of everybody working together towards a collective goal that causes real, effective change”. -David Hogg Climate change is no longer a thing of the distant future. It is happening as we speak and is reflected in the increasingly frequent droughts and hurricanes, in the heatwaves scorching some areas and in the snowstorms muffling others. It is not a reality we...
A Solar Step Ahead for Small Businesses
Date : November 28, 2018
The rooftop solar sector in India is gradually gaining momentum. More and more home owners as well as businesses are expressing an interest in adopting rooftop solar systems. We spoke to Mr. Akash Rao, Proprietor of the popular Guruprasad Udupi restaurant in New Delhi, who for the last two years, has been using a solar rooftop system to meet the restaurant’s power needs. Read what Mr. Akash has ...
Blue Sky Thinking: What is Needed
Date : November 17, 2017
Before we despair at ever seeing blue skies above Delhi by fixing its awful air quality, we must remember that such situations have prevailed in other major cities like London and Los Angeles and have been tackled successfully. This did not happen overnight but took several years working to a thought out comprehensive plan. What is needed? First a recognition that this is a problem that can be ...
F20 Foundations Platform on Climate Change
Date : November 1, 2017
The F20 Foundations Platform is an alliance of over 40 foundations that have joined forces in order to further shape the political discourse on future sustainability measures. At the July 2017 G20 Summit in Hamburg, the Platform called for common and transnational action towards a zero-carbon economy and the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Further, the Foundations Platform aims to hi...
The Auto Industry and the Public Good
Date : May 9, 2017
Let me start with two quotes from Peter Drucker: “It is management’s public responsibility to make whatever is genuinely in the public good become the enterprise’s own self-interest.” “The proper social responsibility of business is to tame the dragon – that is, to turn a social problem into economic opportunity and economic benefit, into productive capacity, into human competenc...
The Cleaning of the Cook Stove
Date : April 4, 2017
Recent press reports indicate some very welcome trends in cleaning up the cooking fuel being used. State run oil companies have reported signing up 30 million cooking gas consumers in 2016-17, with 2/3 of them from poorer families. In the last three years, the number of active LPG consumers have gone up by 58 million from 140 million in 2014 to 198 million in 2017. This means that 71% of Indian...