Cement, Energy and Environment

of geoengineering most frequently suggested involves reflecting some of the sun's rays away from the planet, such as by shooting phosphorous into the atmosphere to mimic the cooling effects of a volcano. Both geoengineering alternatives build on natural processes that already affect the climate, but humans would intervene in new ways to amplify and direct these effects. India should study the solutions that geoengineering proposals promise seriously. India is, after all, under current projections, likely to be amongst the countries worst hit by climate change. It is also of concern , though, that were geoengineering to go wrong, the consequences could potentially be worse than climate change itself. For example, the monsoon could inadvertently be affected, causing wide-spread crop failure on the sub-continent. Equally, we should be mindful that some recommending it might be interested merely in maintaining the status quo. Even if humans successfully controlled the effects of geoengineering, it would produce a thicket of governance challenges. Countries like Russia might be agriculturally more prouuctive with an earth two degrees warmer, while India might be better off with an earth two degrees cooler than today. Who would decide the earth's temperature? The question could cause open conflict between countries, or citizens and their governments. India needs to ensure that it has both the technical and political expertise to respond to geoengineering proposals. Proposals come in various forms: for example, simply planting more trees to soak up carbon to decrease the world's temperature, technically counts as geoengineering. But that is intervention of a different degree from putting an aerosol into the atmosphere to reflect the sun to cool the planet. India, like other countries needs to be able to independently study the merits of these proposals, while at the same time encouraging that any decisions about geoengineering take place in as global and democratic a forum as possible. The status quo on climate change is becoming more and more unviable. Increased discussion of geoengineering alternatives, and even reported small-scale testing, including by a German-Indian expedition near Antarctica last year, signal that the debate is shifting. Seriously limiting carbon emissions should still be the first goal as the world meets in Cancun later this month, but if this fails or proves inadequate, large-scale adaptation or geoengineering may be the only other options left. Adaptation-moving vulnerable populations, changing farming practices, building dikes against the sea, and so on - may ultimately prove preferable to the risks of geoengineering, but geoengineering can no longer be ignored. To this, India and the rest of the world will have to adjust. Courtesy: The Indian Express, November 13, P14. HOLCIM AHEAD OF C02 REDUCTION TARGETS At a conference Corporate Development recent press to present its Sustainable Report 2009, Holcim CEO Markus Akermann confirmed that the group has "met its targets on schedule and in the case of the reduction in C0 2 emissions even earlier than planned". Taking 1990 as reference year, Holcim's original target was a 20 per cent reduction in net C0 2 emissions per tonne of cement by the end of 2010. As presented in the Corporate Sustainable Development Report, these em1ss1ons were already reduced by 21 per cent by the end of 2009 (excluding the Group's own power generation). The Group has set itself the new target of reducing C0 2 emissions by 2015 to a level of 25 per cent below the 1990 baseline. As part of its contribution to the current UN Year of Biodiversity, Holcim is making a major effort to promote biodiversity in the vicinity of its raw material quarries. It also works in close cooperation with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Holcim's commitment to environmental and social responsibility has also been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability index. Courtesy: International Cement Review, July 2010, P10. CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTING NORTH EAST MONSOON PATTERN In what seems to be the first scientific confirmation from a valid authority of the impact of climate change on India, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Director Prof. B N Goswami has said that the number of heavy monsoon rainfall incidents in the north East has reduced . This, he said , has happened due to 52