ANNOUNCEMENTS
CUET PG 2023: Candidates will be able to check the changes, addition of courses, universities at the official website — cuet.nta.nic.in.
CUET PG 2023: The National Testing Agency (NTA) Thursday released a corrigendum for the Common University Entrance Test (CUET-PG) 2023 examination. Candidates will be able to check the changes at the official website — cuet.nta.nic.in.
According to this corrigendum, the English and Foreign Languages University will accept CUET PG score as an eligibility criteria for its postgraduate programmes. “The English and Foreign Languages University had earlier withdrawn from CUET (PG)-2023 at the last moment due to which the name of the University is not reflected in the list of participating Universities. However, the courses offered by the University are visible in the bunching list. Now the University has again joined CUET (PG)-2023 and the candidates can apply for the same,” the official notice stated.
In addition to this, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Parul University (Vadodra), Netaji Subhas University of Technology (Dwarka, New Delhi), SRM University Delhi, Gyani Inder Singh Institute of Professional Studies affiliated with Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University (Dehradun), University of Science & Technology (Meghalaya), TERI School of Advanced Studies, Quantum University, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology (Noida), Sharda University, among others will also take CUET PG score now.
The University of Jammu, Pondicherry University, Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya Sagar, Tripura University, Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Dr B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi, and many others have added a few courses to their list of CUET PG courses.
There are also a few corrections made in the list, which were caused due to typographical error.
Meanwhile, the UGC Chief, M Jagadesh Kumar, has assured students that the exam schedule will soon be released as it is still a work in progress. “In a few days, we will announce the date sheet of CUET-PG. NTA is working on it.
[https://cuet.samarth.ac.in,”]https://cuet.samarth.ac.in,” he tweeted.
Read MoreNEW DELHI: Pitching for collective efforts to deal with critical issues of climate change and pollution, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the environment is not just a global cause, but also personal as well as collective responsibility for every individual, and environment conservation is a commitment and not compulsion for India.
"Human empowerment is impossible without a better environment and the way forward is through collectiveness rather than selectiveness," said Modi in his written message to the TERI's annual World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) which was jointly inaugurated here by Guyana vice president Bharrat Jagdeo, COP28 president designate Sultan Al Jaber of UAE, and India's environment minister Bhupender Yadav.
Underlining India's efforts to deal with the global challenges through long-term roadmap for sustainable and environment friendly lifestyle, the Prime Minister said, "Our initiatives to adopt a healthier, cleaner lifestyle include upgrading infrastructure to encourage electric mobility, increased use of biofuel for transportation, leverage hydrogen as a fuel, convert waste to wealth and water treatment plants to ensure clean rivers.
"We are striving to meet an increased portion of our demand for electricity from renewable and alternative sources of energy. Through latest technology and innovation, we are devising solutions to diverse urban challenges, particularly pollution and cleanliness."
The inaugural day of the three-day Summit saw the participants make a clarion call to keep the 1.5 degree Celsius goal alive without compromising on the principles of equity and justice at forums such as the G20 and the UN climate conferences (COPs). They also emphasized on the need to provide financial support to developing countries for facing those challenges, and looked to India for taking up leadership roles in resolving various issues during its G20 presidency.
Pointing out that it is impossible for many developing countries to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without financing, the vice president of Guyana said, "The small countries not only need climate finance, they need a reform of the global financial system to achieve sustainable development."
Underlining the criticality of balance in the discourse on sustainable development in order to find lasting solutions, he said, "We need to reduce the production of fossil fuels, we need carbon capture, utilization and storage, and we need a mass transit into renewable energy. It is the combined action on all three fronts that will deliver lasting solutions. But often the debate is between the extremes, and sometimes it clouds the search for solutions. Balance is crucial."
In his opening address, India's environment minister noted that combating climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation transcend political considerations and is a shared global challenge. “India is contributing significantly to be a part of the solution,” he said while noting how living in harmony with nature has been traditionally in Indian ethos and the same has been reflected by the mantra LiFE or 'Lifestyle for Environment' coined by Prime Minister Modi.
The COP28 president designate, Al Jaber, who received the distinguished alumni award from TERI School of Advanced Studies on the occasion, noted that the goal of keeping 1.5 degree Celsius alive is just non-negotiable. "It is also clear we cannot continue business-as-usual. We need a true, comprehensive paradigm shift in our approach to mitigation, adaptation, finance, and loss and damage,”he said.
Recognizing the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for guiding India on its path to a sustainable future, Al Jaber said, "This great country is well on its way to becoming the third largest economy in the world. And this makes it one of the largest consumers of energy.
As such, India’s sustainable development is critical, not just for India, but for the whole world."
The first day of the Summit saw different proceedings on its theme - ‘Mainstreaming Sustainable Development and Climate Resilience for Collective Action’. India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant also participated in one of the key sessions where he highlighted different points around Mission LiFE, climate finance, circular economy and the need to decarbonise hard to abate sectors through green hydrogen.
Read MoreBisleri International Pvt. Ltd., India's leading mineral water company, has strengthened its sustainability strategy by launching 'Bisleri Greener Promise.' The sustainability philosophy focuses on creating a greener future by reinforcing and implementing programs in recycling, water conservation and sustainability.
Under the aegis of this philosophy, the company has become one of the first consumer goods companies to be plastic-neutral and water positive. It further emphasizes its promise to the sustainable development of the country by announcing bold initiatives under plastic recycling and water conservation.
The company has outlined its vision to connect with 20 major cities to collect and recycle 12,500 tonnes of plastic by 2025, through its Bottles for Change initiative. Additionally, it has also announced restoration or building of 350 dams in Maharashtra and Gujarat to provide water security and enhance crop production. Under the initiative, Project Nayi Umeed, more than 35,000 million litres of water will be harvested, and it will help irrigate more than 23,000 acres of land. The company aims to reduce its carbon footprint by 10% and lower the use of virgin plastic by over 7%.
Furthermore, the company released its sustainability report defining its progress in environment, social, and governance (ESG) practices. The report has been developed by TERI School of Advanced Studies. It highlights the company's efforts in building a circular economy, utilising resources efficiently, reducing GHG emissions, replenishing water, and recollecting packaging material.
Angelo George, CEO, Bisleri International Pvt. Ltd., said, "At Bisleri International, we develop solutions that fuel business growth and, at the same time, address environmental challenges. We are in constant pursuit of creating a positive impact, and continue to integrate our business strategy with sustainability goals. Thus, ensuring that we operate purposefully and responsibly. Innovations in packaging will continue to be our focus for the next three years and we aim to be ready for the guidelines on reuse targets stipulated by Government."
As part of its commitment to protect the environment and mitigate the effects of irresponsible disposal of used plastic, Bisleri International's Bottle For Change initiative works towards bringing behavioural change and raising awareness about the importance of post-consumer plastic. Through the programme, Bisleri International has brought a behavioural change amongst 600,000 citizens by organising sensitisation workshops and collection drives. These workshops and drives were conducted at over 3500 housing societies, 680 educational institutions, 790 corporates, and 600 hotels & restaurants across seven cities. The efforts have resulted in collecting and recycling over 4000MT of used plastic.
For Project Nayi Umeed, the company focuses on building or restoring Check Dams, rainwater harvesting and empowering communities. It provides access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, benefiting farmers and their families. Through the programme, it has built or restored over 200 Check Dams in Gujarat and Maharashtra. These Check Dams have helped harvest approximately 22 billion litres of water, covering more than 124 villages and benefiting almost 40,000 family members of farmers. Over 13,000 acres of land have been irrigated through the project, turning barren lands into fertile farms. Also, for every litre of water drawn, eight litres of water is replenished from the ground.
Dr Shruti Sharma, assistant professor, TERI, SAS, said, “We at TERI School of Advanced Studies believe that resource efficiency and waste management are the keys to smart, sustainable and inclusive development. We work together internally and externally to maximize shared knowledge and impact. Bisleri International Private Limited has been practicing triple bottom line as an approach. We are happy to partner with them to develop their first Sustainability report. Hope this aligns all their stakeholders to their work towards sustainable development.”
Read MoreDate | News Title | Source |
31-March-2023 | More universities to consider ... | The Indian Express (Online) |
22-February-2023 | WSDS: PM Modi pitches for coll... | The Times of India |
20-February-2023 | Bisleri International unveils ... | FnBNews. Com (Online) |
15-February-2023 | Cabral urges Goa students to m... | The Times of India (Online) |
05-February-2023 | Two MoUs inked to boost green ... | The Times of India (Online) |
21-December-2022 | IPCA Center for Waste Managem... | Etvbharat |
17-November-2022 | Making oceans critical to clim... | Investing.com (Online-IANS World News) |
16-November-2022 | TERI Policy Brief launched at ... | ANI News (Online) |
15-November-2022 | TERI SAS partners with Cisco N... | Financial Express (Online) |
16-October-2022 | Right Time to Start up on ESG... | The Economic Times; Page No. 04 |
Carbon pricing is the value ascribed to the external costs – usually social costs – of pollution emitted by an industry. The price on carbon emissions is applied either through a carbon tax or an emission trading system.
Representative Image Source: AP
In the 1920s, a British economist, Arthur Pigou, highlighted the social benefits of making industries pay for the costs of the pollution they caused. In time, this concept was taken up in different ways, which have led to the concept of ‘carbon pricing’.
According to the World Bank, carbon pricing is the value ascribed to the external costs of pollution emitted by an industry. External costs are those that do not affect the industry itself directly – most industries receive the full benefits of fossil fuel consumption, but only bear a trivial fraction of its climatic cost. Instead, public systems pay a socially tragic price – such as the costs of losing crops because of poisoned air/water and health care costs because of heat/cold waves or extreme weather events from global warming.
Carbon pricing is an economic tool used to push industries, households and governments to bring down emissions and invest in cleaner options. It helps in shifting the burden of damage caused by pollution onto those responsible for the pollution but does not dictate how or where emissions can be reduced. Instead, it puts an economic value to pollution and allows polluters to decide whether to reduce emissions or continue polluting but pay the price for it.
Carbon pricing/taxes/trade are under the control of a country’s government. The government decides what taxes to levy and polluters pay these taxes to the government. Ideally, these taxes should be used to either offset the extra burden of carbon taxation on low-income groups or on remedial projects to offset the effects of pollution.
Why a price on carbon?
Carbon is priced because carbon-based gases (of which carbon dioxide or CO2 is most prevalent) are the most abundant greenhouse gases (GHGs) in most emissions. Therefore, pricing carbon provides an incentive for households, firms, industries, and governments to reduce emissions cost-effectively.
According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report (March 2022), the window of action for meeting the goals set by the Paris Convention (a reduction in GHG emissions such that global warming is restricted to 1.5–2 degrees C above pre-industrial times) is rapidly closing. The report, titled Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability states that without immediate action, rising global temperatures and climate change with create conditions beyond human tolerance.
Currently, the price on carbon emissions is applied in two ways; one is through a carbon tax, and the other through a cap-and-trading or emission trading system (ETS).
What is carbon tax?
Carbon taxes are the prices that governments impose on polluters for each metric ton of CO2 emissions (mt CO2e) generated. These taxes are levied on coal, oil products, and natural gases, according to their carbon contents. The advantages of levying carbon taxes are many. By internalising the externality of pollution costs, the tax motivates industries to improve energy efficiencies, move towards low-carbon fuels and renewable energy sources. The concept of carbon taxation can also be applied to other GHGs and pollutants. In addition, carbon taxes are fairly easy to administer as add-ons to already existent fuel taxes and generate revenue for governments that can be routed towards funding other aspects of the sustainable development goals.
Carbon taxes are, however, are not problem-free. One of the main arguments against carbon taxes is that they make fossil fuels more expensive, which will disproportionately affect people of lower income groups. In addition, carbon taxes may discourage investment and economic growth as businesses may shift production into countries without carbon taxes. Another issue with carbon taxation can centre on how the revenues collected from the taxes are utilised – should they be used towards alleviating tax burdens on workers due to rising fuel prices or towards repairing environmental degradation? Finally, the administrative costs of monitoring and measuring emissions, and uncertainties in measuring the social costs of carbon pollution can make carbon taxation a difficult task.
Individuals and households bear the brunt of carbon taxes when the price of the tax – which is usually directly levied on an industry – trickles down to consumer prices.
What is carbon trading? What are carbon credits?
Carbon trading is a market-based approach to pricing carbon emissions by putting a cap on or limiting the total amount of carbon-based pollution that can be produced. In this system, a central authority, in most cases, governments, allocate or sell a limited number (set as a cap) of permits that allow a specified amount of emissions over a period of time. In this system, each polluter is allotted a specific quota or allowance of pollution that it can emit.
However, polluters are then allowed to trade these permits with each other. For example, if a polluter manages to reduce its carbon emissions to levels lower than its assigned permit values, it is allowed to sell the right to emit carbon to another polluter which may be producing more emissions than it has permits for.
A carbon credit is a generic term for a tradeable certificate or permit representing the right to emit a certain amount of CO2 (usually 1 metric ton) or an equivalent amount of different GHGs. It is, in a sense, the basic trading unit for carbon markets.
The carbon trading market was set up in 1997, after the Kyoto Protocol was signed. Under this protocol, all participating countries were to set and adhere to a limit on their carbon emissions over a series of commitment periods. However, the protocol also allowed countries to trade emissions permits with each other. Apart from these permits, other tradeable carbon commodities could also be used, including carbon removal units (from activities such as reforestation), emission reduction units, and certified emission reductions (from clean development mechanism projects).
The prices in cap-and-trade schemes, which use carbon credits, are market driven (meaning that their prices vary according to demand and supply), although the government controls how many units/credits are allotted to each industry/stakeholder, and so how many credits are available for sale on the whole.
Carbon is priced because carbon-based gases, primarily carbon dioxide, are the most abundant greenhouse gases in most emissions. Photo by marcinjozwiak/Pixabay.
Criticisms of the carbon pricing system
Currently, the Environmental Defense Fund states that the cap-and-trade system is the most “economically and environmentally” sound approach to limit emissions and mitigate global warming. This is because the cap sets a firm limit on pollution and trading encourages cutting emissions in the most cost-effective manner.
However, there are several arguments that have been put forward (apart from the issues on carbon taxation) to highlight that carbon pricing, including carbon trading is insufficient to mitigate climate change. These arguments point out that carbon pricing places more importance on increasing efficiency than on effectiveness and encourages optimisation of existing systems rather than on transforming them to reduce pollution. Furthermore, it has been pointed out that current issues with emissions are a fundamental systemic problem of society, and not just a market problem; therefore, they will require more than just a ‘price on pollution’ to overcome.
“First and foremost, one must remember that carbon pricing, especially carbon taxation, is a tool to make cutting carbon emissions more economical – it is not necessarily a tool to cut the total amount of carbon produced”, says Nandan Nawn, a professor at the Department of Policy and Management Studies, TERI School of Advanced Studies and a member of the Biodiversity Collaborative.
“If we take the example of pollution from cars, a tax may not incentivise the owner-users to reduce the use of fossil fuels. After all, in urban areas, owning and using many cars is more of a status symbol, just like owning land in the rural areas. There are just too many incentives – EMI (equated monthly installment) is the most important – that fits nicely with this ‘aspiration’. For most users, fossil fuel is an ‘essential commodity’ and the quantum of its use is independent of price changes. On the other hand, making the emission standards stricter has the potential to reduce the pollution emitted by a running engine per unit of time. But according to ‘Jevons Paradox’ or the ‘rebound effect’ (expounded by William Stanley Jevons at the House of Commons two and a half centuries ago), if the rise in car numbers increases at a rate higher than the rate at which emissions are reduced, total emission will increase. There are no easy solutions here, given the political economy of carbon in India,” Nawn explains.
In addition to these issues, unlike how the cap-and-trade program drove innovations to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants, the rise in technological innovations for reducing carbon emissions have not met with the same success. Although there is some evidence that innovations in low-carbon technologies are being driven by the European Union’s ETS (EU ETS) and China’s ETS, there are doubts that this will help in driving climate change mitigation at the desired rate.
What is the current rate at which carbon is priced?
According to The World Bank’s Global Carbon Pricing Dashboard as of April 2021, global carbon pricing initiatives range from less than $1 to as high as $137 per mt CO2e. There are currently 65 carbon pricing initiatives across 45 national jurisdictions. In 2021, these initiatives would cover 11.65 Gmt CO2e, which represents 21.5% of the global GHG emissions. However, less than 1% of the global emissions (5 out of 65 initiatives) are currently priced at close to or above the least estimated social cost of carbon, which, according to the IMF, is 75 USD per mt CO2e. A publication in 2021 in the journal Environmental Research Letters, places the social cost of carbon at a whopping >3000 USD per mt CO2e if climate-economy feedbacks and temperature variabilities are taken into account. As of November 2021, the average weighted price of carbon stood at 3.37 USD per mt CO2e.
How does carbon pricing work in India?
Currently, India does not have any explicit carbon pricing or cap-and-trade mechanisms; instead, it has an array of schemes that place an implicit price on carbon. The Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT) scheme aims to reduce emissions from energy intensive industrial sectors by setting specific energy reduction targets. Industries that exceed the targets are awarded Energy Saving Certificates (ESCerts), each of which is equal to one metric tonne of oil. Those industries unable to meet the targets are required to buy ESCerts (from units that have exceeded their targets) through a centralised trading mechanisms hosted by the Indian Energy Exchange.
The Coal Cess is a tax on coal that was introduced in 2010, which aimed to use the collected revenue to finance clean-energy initiatives and research via the National Clean Energy Fund. However, the idea failed to achieve significant outcomes as a large part of the collected revenue remained unutilised. In 2017, the coal cess was abolished and replaced by the Goods and Services (GST) Compensation Cess; the proceeds of this tax are used to compensate states for revenue losses due to a shift to the new indirect tax regime.
Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPOs) and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) are aimed at encouraging India’s growing renewable energy sector. All electricity distribution agencies are required to source a specific minimum of their electricity requirements from renewable energy sources. For each state, the RPO is fixed and regulated by the respective State Electricity Regulatory Commission. The RECs are market-based instruments that aid in achieving RPOs through trading at power exchanges.
Internal Carbon Pricing is a tool used by the private sector in India to reduce emissions voluntarily, so that they can channel investments into cleaner and more energy-efficient technologies to meet corporate sustainability goals. Currently many major Indian private companies such as Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata, Infosys, and Wipro, use ICP to lower their carbon footprints.
Can I participate in carbon trading?
Households and individuals at this stage, cannot directly participate in carbon trading, as carbon emissions calculations at such small scales are not very accurate. Households may be part of a larger trading scheme, where the carbon emissions of an area – for example, an entire city – are calculated, and used as measures to note increases/decreases in carbon emission profiles. The main issue with the carbon credit system currently, especially for small businesses or individual land holders, is that agencies that provide credentials for and evaluate carbon credit generation, charge very high fees, which may not be offset by the income generated from selling the carbon credits themselves.
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