Cement, Energy and Environment

Clean Mechanism mechanism Protocol Development (COM): A under the Kyoto that allows industrialized countries to meet their emission reduction targets by investing in low or no– emission projects in developing nations. The CDM also aims to stimulate investment in developing countries. Emissions trading : A market approach to reducing GHG em1ss1ons. Trading allows parties that emit less than their allowed emissions to trade or sell excess pollution credits to other parties that emit more than they are allowed. Global warming: The steady rise in global average temperature in recent decades, which expert believe is largely caused by man-made GHG emissions. Global warming potential (GWP): A measure of a greenhouse gas's ability to absorb heat and warm the atmosphere over a given period of time. It is measured relative to similar mass of carbon dioxide which has a GWP of 1. GWP is calculated over a specific time interval and the value of this must be stated whenever a GWP is quoted, or else the value is meaningless. For example, methane has a GWP of 25 over 100 years, which means that emission of 1 tonne of methane is the same as the emission of 25 tonnes of C02 over a 100 year period . Joint implementation (JI): An initiative of the Kyoto Protocol that allows industrialized countries to earn emission reduction credits by investing in reduction projects in other industrialized countries. Jl is related to the CDM, which involves reduction projects in developing countries. Kyoto Protocol: A binding agreement that requires 37 countries and the European Community to reduce their GHG em1ss1ons by 5 percent collectively from 1990 levels in the period 2008 - 12. It was adopted in 1997 under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and lays out specific steps countries must take to comply. More than 180 countries have signed the protocol, which entered into force on 16 1 h February 2005. Mitigation: Action that will reduce man-made climate change. This includes action to reduce GHG emissions or absorb GHGs in the atmosphere. Parts per million (ppm): A ratio-based measure of the concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is usually measured in parts per million; in 2007, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide passed 384 ppm, an increase of more than 100 ppm since 1750. Other less widespread GHGs may be measured in parts per billion or parts per trillion. Peak date: The air that atmospheric concentrations of GHGs must stop growing and begin declining if a given target concentration is to be achieved. Per capita emissions: The total amount of GHGs emitted by a country per unit of population. Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDO): A policy that aims to reduce GHG emissions form deforestation and forest degradation. In principle, REDD provides financial incentives for countries to maintain and preserve forestlands as carbon sinks rather than cutting them down. Stern review: A report on the economics of climate change prepared by Lord Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank economist. It was published on 30 October 2006, and argued that the cost of dealing with the consequences of climate change in the future would be higher than taking action to mitigate the problem now. Courtesy: Green Energy, Vo/.5, Nov-Dec 2009, Pp37-38. INDIA TO PROVIDE INSTITUTIONAL INPUTS TO UN CLIMATE CHANGE PANEL In a bid to help fill scientific knowledge gap at the sub– regional level, India for the first time has agreed to provide key institutional inputs to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Fifth Assessment Report, due in 2014. The Union Environment Ministry, in October last year, had set up the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment (INCCA) that brings together 120 institutions and over 220 scientists across the country to generate indigenous climatic data. 4x4 assessment The INCCA is expected to come out with a comprehensive report in November after concluding its Four by Four assessment in four sectors - agriculture, water, natural ecosystem and biodiversity and health - and four regions - North East, the Indian Himalayan Region, the Western Ghats and the Coastal Areas. Besides, a group comprising scientists from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, the Indian space Research Association and the Environment Ministry has been set up under INCCA to assess the impact and reduce 39