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India doubles coal cess to finance clean energy

With $100 billion needed for India’s ambitious 100GW solar plan, the finance minister has doubled a cess on coal twice within the last nine months, but his 2015 budget is weak on measures to check air and water pollution

India took an important step on Saturday to finance its ambitious plan to generate 100 gigawatts of solar power by 2022, by doubling the cess on coal. Presenting the country’s annual…Read more

Indian Railways to generate 1,000 MW of solar power

Carrying goods by train rather than road will reduce energy use and carbon emissions, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said in his maiden budget speech

The Indian Railways – the country’s largest organization and biggest employer – will generate 1,000 MW through solar power on the rooftops of the myriad buildings it owns. Delivering his maiden speech as Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu informed Parliament on Thursday that the…Read more

Indian coal power plants world’s most polluting

Carbon emissions from coal-based thermal power plants in India are rising fast and will continue to go up in the near future. A recent report warns that these plants are among the most inefficient and polluting in the world

India has the world’s third largest coal reserves, and its power generation is primarily dependent on burning coal, both now and in the future. But the coal-based thermal power plants in…Read more

Breathing gets more injurious to health in India’s capital

Already notorious as the world’s most polluted city, New Delhi is struggling with worsening air quality, public apathy and government myopia

The air that residents of New Delhi breathe takes three years away from their life spans, says a recent study by Michael Greenstone of the University of Chicago. The study, involving environmental economists from Harvard and Yale universities as well, says, “Bringing all regions of the…Read more

Sexual harassment charge forces Pachauri out of IPCC chair, TERI

After 13 years as chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Kumar Pachauri has been forced to step down, following a charge that he sexually harassed an employee of TERI, the think tank he heads. He also went on leave from TERI

Facing a charge of sexually harassing a woman colleague in the think tank he heads, Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, chair of the…Read more