Carbon Emission Trading

We all are very much aware of global carbon footprint and climate change. These are one of the major  undesirable gifts of modern era. It becomes necessarily important to deal with these issues with the high order of priority so as to ensure the sustainability of nature and humans. One of the practical and fissile solution for these is Carbon Emission Trading.

It works by setting up the upper limit on the emission of greenhouse gases(GHGs) by the emitters. This is easily achieved by converting the external cost of GHGs into monetary units by a proper mechanism.

In an emissions trading system, permits may be traded by emitters who are liable to hold a sufficient number of permits in the system. In layman's language, if an industry emits the lesser amount of GHGs than it is allowed to, it can trade the difference with the industry that is emitting more than its limit. It undoubtedly gives polluters an incentive to reduce their emissions.

Carbon emissions trading has steadily increased in recent years. According to the World Bank's Carbon Finance Unit, 374 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) were exchanged through projects in 2005.

With the creation of a market for mandatory trading of carbon dioxide emissions within the Kyoto Protocol, the London financial marketplace has established itself as the center of the carbon finance market, and is expected to have grown into a market valued at $60 billion in 2007.

The British organisation Sandbag promotes cancelling carbon credits in order to lower emissions trading caps.

But there exists other side of the coin as well. Developing nations complain that developed nations, with  their relatively much higher financial resources, obtain the permits for their inefficient industrial projects. This leaves lesser permits for the developing nations with their limited financial resources and hence, makes it tougher for them to build the necessary industrial infrastructure and maintain the steady industrial growth, which is of much higher priority for them.

Despite of few criticisms, it can be concluded that carbon emission trading will play a major role in  cutting done the GHG emission significantly in the coming times.

Common Wealth Games 2010

Around seven years ago, when the morning newspapers broke the good news of India winning the bid to host Common Wealth Games 2010, no one ever imagined that this very 'good' news will lead to the verge of serious embarrassment for our beloved country, India.

This is now a very well known fact that games are just around the corner and we are not even completely done with the stadiums. Just imagine the condition of the rest of the infrastructure.

Many of the star athletes have already pulled out over various issues ranging from security to the inadequate infrastructure of the games.

Who is the culprit? Who is responsible for this shameful situation?

In my opinion, all credit can not be given to anyone person or any particular organization. This is a result of  very hard earned, reputed and famous sluggishness and corrupt practices on the part of each and every person directly or indirectly related to CWG, without any much differentiation between the clerk at Mrs. Sheila Dixit's office and Mr. Suresh Kalmadi, the president of organizing committee.

We are part of such a unique system where projects enjoy longer time in the files than the actual execution. Most of the incomplete or poorly built infrastructure projects were stuck in the files of Babus for their recommendation and approval till the year 2007-08.

It is really awe-full to see that senior most officials of the organizing committee are found guilty of greedy, corrupt and unethical practices in various issues related to the games. Now at such a point of time, their blaming game is at its all time best in order to prove themselves innocent. No one is ready to shoulder the responsibility for the delay or inappropriate practices.

I think, seniors officials like Mrs. Sheila Dixit and Mr. Suresh Kalmadi should come forward and admit the mistake on their part instead of hog-washing the public and make sure that the games are elegantly concluded. Though they are trying to maintain the prestige of the games and the country, but its too less and too late to compensate the loss.

Being an optimistic Indian, i can just pray about the decent completion of the games without disgracing the image of India further.

Introduction

Environment... what does this word mean?

In my sense, it includes everything that surrounds us or is nearby us. It is not just confined to the terminologies related to earth, trees, rivers, or any such thing. Rather, it includes all those things that are part of our life, no matter living or non-living. It includes our family, friends, society, office, etc.Even the sofa lying in your living room is, more or less, a part of it.

It reflects your basic nature and behavior. Seldomly, people try to judge you with your environment you live in.

So, it becomes unquestionably important to make sure that our environment is as good as we are.

This blog is a very small effort to surface various environmental issues and threats pertaining at present, need to be concerned about them and, of-course, possible solutions for them.