Opinion
'Partnership key to tackle climate change challenge'
05 Jun 2002 |
Dr R K Pachauri
| The Hindu Business Line
The negotiations on the Climate Change Convention and the Kyoto Protocol are fought fiercely by various governments due to their impact on the national energy economics. The assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been providing the scientific template for all climate change discussions since 1988. Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri, Director-General of the Tata Energy Research Institute, became the first Indian to be elected Chairman of IPCC, during the recent elections at the international scientific and technical body. In an e-mail interview to Business Line, he spelt out his priorities and concerns.
5 June: connecting the web of life
01 Jun 2002 |
| TERI Newswire 8(11)
5 June 2002 marked the 30th World Environment Day. As is usual every year, many events were held the world over to commemorate the occasion, which was in keeping with the original resolution passed at the 1972 Stockholm conference. The resolution had recommended that 'the General Assembly of the United Nations designate 5 June as World Environment Day and decide that on that day every year the United Nations system and the governments of the world undertake worldwide activities reaffirming their concern for the preservation and enhancement of the human environment, with a view to deepening environmental awareness and to pursuing the determination expressed at the Conference.'
Water: cause for war in the future?
17 May 2002 |
| TERI Newswire 8(10)
Ancient civilizations began and flourished on the banks of mighty rivers but, in the developing world, these rivers are severely polluted. The Yamuna is a case in point: the stretch from Delhi to the Chambal confluence is highly polluted, mainly because waste water from Delhi, Mathura, Agra, and Etawah is discharged into the river untreated and the river does not flow fast enough to dilute the load of pollutants.
Why we need a water regulator
08 May 2002 |
Dr Syamal Kumar Sarkar
,Dr Kaushik Deb
| The Economic Times
An outcome of the low level equilibrium in India's urban water sector is that most service providers are not financially viable. The current institutional and regulatory framework, in fact, does not encourage efficiency. Little emphasis exists on performance improvement; rather, the current focus is only on physical expansion of water supply systems. There are no incentives to bring about changes in the existing unsustainable management of the water system. Incomes generated by local bodies as well as many state institutions fall acutely short of requirement for capital investment, operation, maintenance and upgradation of water services.
Information technology: the last mile
02 May 2002 |
| TERI Newswire 8(9)
Information technology has indeed broken the barriers of time and distance-what is often overlooked is that it has also added a few of its own. To read ink on paper, all it takes is literacy and light: to read text off a PC's monitor, it takes a great deal more. If ICT (information and communication technology) is to serve the rural poor in India, we need to take a close look at three crucial ingredients: needs, delivery mechanisms, and content.
'I'm not there to change the world. I can only change its level of knowledge'
29 Apr 2002 |
Dr R K Pachauri
| The Financial Express
Rajendra K Pachauri's election to the chairmanship of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on April 19 has made news for both the right and wrong reasons. There has been excitement over the fact that the panel - which assesses the impact of global warming - will be headed, for the first time ever, by a representative from a developing country. But his election has also generated controversy. With the US supporting his candidature and the Europeans voting for the then incumbent, has Dr Pachauri further weakened the IPCC, an organisation already divided on North-South lines? Questions are asked about his personal credibility and some also doubt the economist-engineer's qualification for the top job. In a talk with Parul Malhotra of The Financial Express, the Indian government's official nominee sets the record straight, outlines his agenda for the IPCC and his vision for tackling climate change.
A charged climate
13 Apr 2002 |
Dr R K Pachauri
| The Times of India
He is the high priest of environmentalism in India. As head of TERI, he is arguably one of India's foremost policy-makers in the environmental field. Today, in the running for chairmanship of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), R K Pachauri finds himself facing allegations that he is being backed by a powerful oil lobby in the US. Speaking to Lalita Panicker, he counters these charges and speaks of the lack of environmental awareness in India.
Privatizing electricity distribution
10 Apr 2002 |
Dr Syamal Kumar Sarkar
| The Economic Times
Restructuring the electricity business through corporatisation and subsequent privatisation has been the model followed in Orissa in 1995. This has now been adopted by some states as part of power sector reform in India.
Strategic interests, not terrorism, propelled US to launch attack on Iraq
03 Apr 2002 |
Dr R K Pachauri
| The Financial Express
The war on Iraq has raised many questions about fairness, the human cost, international norms and the impact on the global economy as well as our own economy. Director-General of TERI and chairman of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, R K Pachauri says war portends ill not only for Iraq but also for oil dependent countries like India. In an interview with Ramesh Menon, he says that strategic interests propelled the United States to launch an attack on Iraq. If the war continues for long, oil prices would shoot up and the war's environmental impact would go beyond Iraq's borders.
Climate change: beyond the atmospheric phenomenon
02 Apr 2002 |
Dr R K Pachauri
| TERI Newswire 8(7)
The plenary session of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is to be held in Geneva during 17-20 April 2002. The IPCC is a body set up in 1988 through the initiative of the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme essentially to provide scientific assessments of all aspects of climate change which is threatening the globe. One of the items in the agenda of the forthcoming session in Geneva is the election of the new Bureau of this body, which has a total of 30 members, including the Chairman of the Panel.