India has scored well on the global environment platform and therefore more money is being allocated to check environmental loss, Monique Barbut, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) announced on Tuesday.
As a result, she said, India will get 30 million US dollars for bio-diversity and 75 million for climate change in the next four years. This type of money India has never got before from an global environment agency. "It is much more than what they (India) got in the past 12 years," the head of the body representing 177 countries told reporters.
There is more money for climate change as Barbut admitted of their concern over India’s increasing energy needs and its possible adverse impact on the climate change. That is also a probable reason for GEF sanctioning a 45.4 million US dollars project for India to reduce carbon emissions and improve efficiency by rehabilitating coal- based power plants.
The project being carried out by the Power Ministry with the help of World Bank will cover old coal fire based power plants of about 1,200 MW. A plant each in Koradi Maharashtra and Bandel in West Bengal have been selected for the project. Discussion are on with other states for selection of the third plant, Rakesh Sinha of the World Bank said.
{{/usCountry}}The project being carried out by the Power Ministry with the help of World Bank will cover old coal fire based power plants of about 1,200 MW. A plant each in Koradi Maharashtra and Bandel in West Bengal have been selected for the project. Discussion are on with other states for selection of the third plant, Rakesh Sinha of the World Bank said.
{{/usCountry}}It is a demonstrative project, said Alok Kumar of the Power ministry. But, its success will help in introducing the cleaner technology in rehabilitating other thermal power plants in the country, he added.
India has 65,000 MW of coal-fired capacity (58 of total installed capacity) and most of them are in a poor shape. Plant load factor is lower than 55 per cent in most cases. About 30,000 MW of the capacity is in urgent need of repair and maintenance (R&M). And in the 10th plan only 20 per cent of R&M target was met.
Farmers can earn from carbon credits
In a first initiative of its type, the Chicago Climate Exchange has signed an agreement with Andhyodaya, a Kerala based NGO, for selling carbon credits earned by farmers.
About 20 farmers in Kerala, running bio-gas plants, would earn Rs 2 to 10 every day by selling carbon credits to more carbon emitting companies, said Peter Thettayil of the NGO. "The total carbon emission saved by the farmers because of use of bio-gas plants would be traded with the members of the exchange and the earning will be shared with the plant owners," he said.
Dr RK Pachauri of TERI said through the project a farmer will benefit from emitting less carbon into the atmosphere. “Similar projects can be taken up by farmers in Rajasthan and Uttranchal,” he said.
Indo-UK climate change project
A Raja, Environment minister and David Miliband, British Environment minister on Tuesday signed an agreement for second phase of climate change adoption project. The first phase was completed in 2005. “The second phase will be more specific where impact on climate change will be analysed at the locality level,” Miliband told reporters later. The projects costs 850 thousand British pounds of which 500 would be for research by Indian scientists. The project will cover impact of climate change on water, agriculture, forestry and human health.
Discovery series
Discovery channel on Tuesday announced a new 11 part series Planet Earth produced at a whooping cost of Rs 100 crore in 200 locations over a period of five years. The series provide view of never seen before landscapes and rarely spotted creatures in the world.