Planet too warm? Bury the CO2

Japan is the latest country to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it in deep geo logical formations, oceans or as mineral carbonates. There is good reason. The Land of the Rising Sun is the fifth largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. It faces the weighty task of cutting them by 25% by 2020 against 1990 levelsThe Japanese project, at Mikawa power station near Fukuoka Prefecture, is a sign of the increasing credibility of CO2 capture and storage. It is the latest in a worldwide foursome: Sleipner field in the North Sea where the Norwegian oil and gas group Statoily captures CO2 and injects it beneath the seabed; The Weyburn-Midale project in Canada; and, Salah in Algeria. Should India be taking heed? Particularly now, when our cities are reportedly producing less greenhouse gases than Washington, New York and London? Yes and no, says Prabhat Upadhayaya, research associate, climate change division of The Energy and Resources Institute. He says, “Developed countries are supportive of this relatively-new technology. But till concrete results are out, developing countries such as India won’t be comfortable adopting it.”

Cost is obviously a factor but there are safety issues too. What if CO2 deposits from developed countries are sent to the Third World for storage? What if CO2 stored below the surface leaks? Who will take responsibility?

Japan’s unique experiment, called carbon capture and storage (CCS) is being conducted by its Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth. It traps say, 10 tonne of CO2 from flue gas, which is a by-product of the coal that is burnt to produce electricity. Then the CO2 is injected into the ocean using nozzles, pipes and high-pressure chambers.

The Americans seem just as serious about using CO2 capture as a gloriously ‘green’ measure. In September American Electric Power and its French partner, Alstom, conducted an experiment similar to Japan’s in Mountaineer Plant, West Virginia, which is poised to become the world’s first coal-fired power plant to capture and bury some of its CO2. Here, smoke from the plant’s chimney is mixed with an ammonia-based chemical and heated to release CO2. This is compressed into a liquid-like state and injected into a layer of sandstone 7,800 feet below and then into a layer of dolomite 400 feet below that. The liquid will squeeze into the rock’s tiny pores. It is hoped the gas will stay there for millennia. Nearby monitoring wells will evaluate storage conditions. The project will operate for about five years and can store about 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 annually.

India’s independent power producers would prefer a wait-and-watch policy. Harry Dhaul, D-G, Independent Power Producers Association of India says it’s early days yet for CCS. “There are many questions that need to be answered: what kind of market structure will it have, how much carbon will you capture, who will finance it....Abroad, governments support such initiatives.”

But the developed world is serious about carbon capture. The US is investing $2.4 billion in the technology and hopes to establish it within a decade, its energy secretary Steven Chu recently said. Ten ‘demonstration’ plants will be up and running by 2016. Europe is also aiming for a similar number of coal-fired plants with this technology by 2015.

Time for India to give carbon capture another look?

Link TOI

‘Green bonus’ likely for States to protect forest cover

The State governments may soon be entitled to a “green bonus” for protecting and expanding their forest cover.

“We are looking at evolving a new mechanism to reward states for maintaining the forest cover and also provide incentives to expand it,” said Mr Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest.

The MoEF has suggested that along with Central grants through the Planning Commission or Finance Commission, the States should be given additional “green bonus” for protecting and expanding forest cover. It is the responsibility of the State governments to protect forests, which act as carbon sinks sequestrating green house gases. “We need greater sensitivity by the State government on this issue,” Mr Ramesh said.

A recent survey showed that 21 per cent of India’s geographical area was under forest cover. Two per cent of the area had high density forest cover, while 10 per cent had medium density and the remaining nine per cent was degraded forest.

Protecting forest cover is important and that the country cannot afford to lose it, especially the ecological hotspots such as the Western Ghats, North East, Himalayan ranges among others. States such as Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh that have large areas of forest cover were making valuable contribution to the national eco-system, Mr Ramesh said.

Further, Mr Ramesh said that there was a need to monitor continuously as to how much of greenhouse gases have been absorbed by the forest cover. ISRO has started monitoring the absorption of greenhouse gases and would expand the network of stations in different parts of the country.

Preliminary estimates by MoEF suggest that about 10 per cent of the country’s annual green house gases were absorbed by the forest cover. “There is a need to measure and monitor on a continuous basis,” Mr Ramesh added

Link TOI

CMS VATAVARAN, Film Awards

CMS vatavaran, Environment &Wildlife Film Festival was held in New Delhi from 27-31 October 2009

Indian and International Film Screenings

The CMS VATAVARAN, environment and wildlife film festival, saw screening of films on several issues like sustainable technologies, wildlife conservation, natural heritage etc. The programme began with screening of the film ‘Don’t Rubbish It’ by Chandrashekhar Reddy which was followed by films like ‘Chotti Si Kahan Ababeel Ki’, ‘Pushed to kill’ and Sesh Asha’.The story of Ganges’ traced the journey of Ganga and pollution of the river on its way. Anil Yadav , “Do you” film depicted how children’s are interested in plantation,

Shot from film "Cheetahs Against All Odds"

the director of ‘‘Chotti Si Kahani Ababeel Ki’ interacted with the audience and made a humble request to the authorities to spread technical knowledge in rural India. Other films which are worth mentioning are ‘The land of Vanishing Lakes’,’ A shawl to die for’, The soul of water’ and ‘Garbage Island’.

Shot from film "A Fable From Himalayas"

The following films bagged the awards

Sl. No.	Award Name	TITLE	CATEGORY	DIRECTOR
	National
1	Best Cinematography Award	A Shawl to Die For	Livelihood	Rita Banerji
2	Best Story Award	S.O.S. - Save Our Sholas	Forest for Life	Shekar Dattatri
3	Best Editing Award	The Silk Route	Livelihood	Gurmeet Sapal
4	Amateur Film Award	My Purple Sunbird	Amateur Film	Sunil Raj
5	Films for Children Award	A Fable from the Himalayas	Films for Children	Nitin Das
6	Public Service Announcements (PSA) Award	Don't Buy Trouble	Public Service Announcements (PSA)	Himanshu Malhotra
7	Student Film Award	Garbage Island/ a lost People	Student Film	Amar Sharma
8	Low Budget Films Award	Kaanam - Life Story of a Midland Hill	Nature	Babu Kambrath
9	Viewer's choice Award	Traffic Light	Public Service Announcements (PSA)	Rajesh Saathi
10	2009 Festival Theme: Climate Change and Sustainable Technologies Award	IN THEIR ELEMENTS	2009 Festival Theme: Climate Change and Sustainable Technologies	Inder Kathurai
11	2009 Focus: Natural Heritage Conservation Award	Reviving Faith	2009 Focus: Natural Heritage Conservation	Rishu Nigam
12	Climate Change Award	The Final Tide	Climate Change	Vikram Mishra
13	Ecotourism Award	Leave Nothing but Footprints	Ecotourism	Sanjay Barnela
14	Forest for Life Award	Gaon Chhodab Nahin	Forest for Life	K. P. Sasi
15	Livelihood Award	Chilika Bank$	Livelihood	Akanksha Joshi
16	Nature Award	Rolling Dunes of Thar	Nature	Naresh Bedi
17	Water for All Award	Kali Bein (The Black River)	Water for All	Surendra Manan
18	Wildlife Conservation Award	The Asiatic Lion - on a roll call	Wildlife Conservation	Praveen Singh
19	Environmental Conservation Award	Goa Goa Gone	Environmental Conservation	Kurush Canteenwala
20	Best of the Festival Award	Deeply Superficial	Water for All	Veneet Raj Bagga
	International
1	Best of the Festival Award	The Soul of Water (Vattnets Sjal)		Kurt Skoog
2	2009 Festival Theme: Climate Change and Sustainable Technologies Award	Satoyama: Japan's Secret Forest	2009 Festival Theme: Climate Change and Sustainable Technologies	Tetsunori Kikuchi
3	Animation Award	Save Our Planet!	Animation	Filip Vandewiele
4	Climate Change Award	The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning	Climate Change	Mark Terry
5	Environmental Conservation Award	One Man, One Cow, One Planet	Environmental Conservation	Barbara Burstyn and Thomas Burstyn
6	Films for Children Award	Liliputi Mimikri (Liliputian Mimicri)	Films for Children	David Attila Molnar
7	Nature Award	Rain Forest - The Secret of Life	Nature	David Warth, Michael Balson
8	Student Film Award	Why Don't we Ride Zebras?	Student Film	Hannah Smith Walker
9	Water for all Award	The Soul of Water (Vattnets Sjal)	Water for All	Kurt Skoog
10	Wildlife Conservation Award	Eco-Crimes: Tibet-Connection	Wildlife Conservation	Heinz Greuling and Thomas Weidenbach

Work Shop on climate change-Towards Carbon Neutral Indian cities

Shri Rajendra Singh,Chairperson of Tarun Bharat Sangh who sketched and compared the pre and post independence scenario. He focused on three main areas; encroachment, pollution and over-exploitation of rivers and emphasized that more work should be done at the local level. Mr Vijay Kumar from DHI Group spoke about water availability, population explosion and also offered hard and soft solutions for conservation of natural resources. Other panelists who were present for discussion were Mr R.K Srinivasan, water expert from Centre for Science and Environment, Dr Pramod Aggarwal,senior scientist in Indian Agricultural Research Institute and Mr Suresh Prabhu, Former Union Minister of Power, Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises and Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Symposium on Challenges in Conserving Natural Heritage

Shri S.K Misra, Chairman of INTACH who has been recently adorned with Padmabhushan. Misra gave a brief outline of all the challenges that the world is facing such as global warming, climate change, pollution of water bodies and so on. Dr Shobita Punja,director of Heritage Education and Communication Service engaged the audience by establishing and explaining the relationship shared between natural and cultural heritage. Other speakers like Mr Mahendra Vyas,environmentalist and advocate in Supreme court recapitulated and analyzed all the laws and policies that can be used for protection of wildlife and natural resources. Mr M Vedkumar president of Forum for Better Hyderabad spoke of initiative taken by locals to conserve the natural heritage and keep the city green.

International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ) Congress

IFEJ congress began with a panel discussion on the subject “Adapting to Climate Change: Oxfam India”. The session was chaired by Dr.Pradipto Ghosh, India’s climate negotiator on adaptation finance. He clearly stated that India expects rich nations to take on binding emission reduction commitments without putting adverse economic stress on developing nations. The speakers for the session were Ms Aditi Kapoor, Lead specialist (Economic Justice) Oxfam India, Prof. Santosh Kumar; Head of the policy planning & cross-cutting Issues and Dr.Shiraz Wajih, member of Climate Action Network, South Asia. All of them gave their lectures on adapting to climate change. Dr.Shiraj Wazih closed the session with a presentation of a case study of flooding in the Rohin Basin in Uttar Pradesh. He emphasized the importance of creating a deliberate synergy between local & scientific knowledge.

CAR Workshop : RSS and covering stories over the borders

Jan-Morten Bjørnbakk, a journalist from Norwegian News service gave information on RSS reader and use of RSS feeds to gather news and information from various sites across the world.