Tous les articles et traductions

, by Frontline

Sabarmati’s sorrow

The multi-crore Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project in Ahmedabad suffers from serious flaws.

“WE are only ‘pinching’ the Sabarmati over a 10-kilometre stretch as it passes through the centre of Ahmedabad,” explains Bimal Patel, consultant to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), which has conceived and initiated the controversial Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project. “We (…)

Sponge iron’s dirty growth

Sugandh Juneja

In the years to come, India’s expanding steel production will be largely driven by sponge iron. But its manufacturing process, based on coal, is highly polluting. The repercussions are already visible near sponge iron factories which have mushroomed in iron ore- and coal-rich areas. People are (…)

, by CETRI

Is China greening Africa?

By Stephen Marks

One telling example was the recent Chinese government-sponsored ‘top Chinese enterprises in Africa’ competition, won by China Road and Bridge Corporation [CRBC]. The aim of the award was officially stated as being ‘to commend the contributions by Chinese enterprises in Africa’ and ‘reply to (…)

, by NARAIN Sunita

Deal won, stakes lost

Cancum deal shifts burden on developing countries not developed

Last fortnight we discussed the clandestine endgame afoot at Cancun to change the framework of the climate change negotiations to suit big and powerful polluters.
Since then Cancun has concluded and a deal, in the form of a spate of agreements, has been gavelled into existence by the chair. (…)

, by IIED

Questions & Answers with Krystyna Swiderska on the Nagoya Protocol

Last month, after 18 years of negotiations and more than 2 weeks of tense discussions in Nagoya, Japan, the world finally struck a deal on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing. The agreement — the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Equitable Sharing of Benefits — was, (…)

, by Infochange

Renewable energies as big business opportunities?

Biomass and biogas are the cheap, decentralised renewable energies to choose for India. But the ministry of renewable energies — and the technocrats and entrepreneurs surrounding it — appear to favour hi-tech solutions such as grid solar power, with only a few exceptions such as the project to (…)

, by The Hindu

Little hope left for right to recycle

Clambering over garbage heaps, rummaging through trash cans, 13-year-old Supriya Bhadakwad didn’t set out to save the planet, just her family. But two decades later, in the global arena of climate negotiations, she and other rag-pickers are making their voices heard, tilting with big corporate (…)

, by NARAIN Sunita

Is bamboo a tree or a grass?

The definition is contested as the answer has immense economic implications. If bamboo is a tree or timber, it belongs to the forest department and can be auctioned to the paper and pulp industry, often at throwaway rates.
If it is a grass, then it would be classified as a minor forest produce (…)

, by IPS

Group Says Botswana Bushmen Evicted over Diamonds

Peter Boaz

The Kalahari Bushmen, who have lived in Southern Africa for more than 20,000 years, are now being starved off their land to make way for lucrative diamond extraction, says Survival International.
In past years, the Bushmen have relied on water from a borehole in one of the Kalahari (…)

Anticipated Indirect Land Use Change Associated with Expanded Use of Biofuels and Bioliquids in the EU – An Analysis of the National Renewable Energy Action Plans

IEEP, November 2010

“A new IEEP report analyses the indirect land use change (ILUC) impact of the substantial additional biofuel usage that will be generated up to 2020 by the targets under the EU renewable energy Directive. Plans from national governments setting out how they will reach these targets, which are (…)

, by NARAIN Sunita

How climate ready are we?

On a brief visit to Pakistan this week I noted that the recent floods have left deep impressions on the country’s policy and political leadership. They spoke about the scale of devastation, human suffering and the massive challenge of rehabilitation. They also noted, interestingly, that in their (…)

, by SACSIS

Wal-Mart: Predator Capitalism and the Great Game

By Glenn Ashton

At the end of September the rumours were put to bed as Wal-Mart made a formal but conditional offer for Massmart, of R32 billion. To put this in perspective this amount is less than 20% of Wal-Mart’s present annual operating income of $24 billion and a fraction of their $408 billion (R2.8 (…)

, by Infochange

World fails to meet 2010 biodiversity target

Nearly a quarter of endangered plant species are threatened with extinction, natural habitats continue to vanish, and waterbodies to be degraded. The world has failed to meet its target of a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, says the third ‘Global Biodiversity (…)

, by NARAIN Sunita

India. Fix what is broken

The high corridors of the nation are abuzz with talk about how much food should be given to the country’s poor as a right. Should it be 25 kg of rice or 35 kg of wheat a month per person at highly subsidized rates?
Then they worry who should get this right to food. All who are poor, the very (…)

, by Himal Southasian

Corralling the nomads

China’s anti-pastoralist policies in Tibet are not only culturally insensitive but environmentally disastrous.

Although its record of reserve-based biodiversity conservation is striking, Beijing’s approach to the conservation of living natural resources outside reserves is less impressive. Pressures for economic development often eclipse complex ecological and cultural factors. This is especially true on (…)

, by Tomdispatch.com

China shakes the world

Michael Klare

At this point, only one thing is clear: the greater China’s reliance on imported petroleum, the greater the risk of friction and conflict with the United States, which relies on the same increasingly problematic suppliers of energy. The greater its reliance on coal, the less comfortable our (…)

, by Frontline

Pakistan: Fury of the Indus

Floods in the Indus, triggered by the heavy monsoon rain, devastate vast swathes of land and render millions homeless in Pakistan. Moving at a furious pace from the mountainous north-western region of Gilgit-Baltistan to the fertile south, the Indus river, swollen and bursting its banks (…)