That E Word
By CSE Down To Earth
The Road to 500 GW of Clean Energy
India aims to ramp up its installed non-fossil fuel energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030. This will mean that by 2030, 50 per cent of India’s installed capacity would be ‘clean’ energy. At a time when energy demand is set to soar and millions still don’t have access to power, there is a three-fold challenge facing the country: to augment the power infrastructure, make it clean, and supply reliable electricity at affordable rates. Will the ambitious steps that India is taking on building up its renewable and non-fossil fuel energy systems help it surmount this challenge?The season 2 of the Sunita Narain Show begins to reaffirm the need to focus on actions that will reduce climate risks while improving livelihoods and economies in our world. The challenge she believes is to achieve the co-benefits of inclusive development with sustainability, while staying on the decarbonisation pathways that work for us, the countries of the South.Watch the first episode where Sunita Narain breaksdown the potential and the challenges that lies ahead for India in it's pathway to to 500 GW of Clean Energy.
Wayanad's Wake-Up Call
Lessons from the landslides
Climate Catastrophes
Unraveling the link between Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change
Air Pollution | What are we doing about it?
We already know is that air pollution is deadly for our health; The question is what are we doing about this?
Planetery health | How does extreme weather affect our health?
We do not understand the health impact of this heat that we saw. Unless we understand the relationships of the changing climate to our own bodies, to our health, we will not also understand the need to make the change in our world so that we can combat emissions. We've moved from the time when we had no water to a time when we have too much water, and we now have floods across our cities, across our country. There are two major changes that we are beginning to see. More and more are mosquito related diseases like malari, dengue and even cholera. The disease that we thought was a disease that we had eradicated is back again with a vengeance. Cholera! A bacterial disease which is just because of dirty water and dirty environment. Between January 2023 and March 2020, the world has reported almost 0.65 million cases of cholera. It is not climate change that that is bringing malaria to our midst. It is not climate change that is bringing cholera. The fact is, it is the mismanagement of the environment.
Rainwater harvesting | How India can be self sufficient?
Monsoon is here; almost. This is the moment, that binds us all Indians; we watch expectantly its movement from when it hits the coast of Kerala and its journey to the rest of the country. It is when we can exhale. Rain brings relief from heat; water for crops; the smell of rain on hot earth is the best perfume. Monsoon is our true finance minister. But this is also the time for us to think water; think of the value of each raindrop. Sunita Narain talks about her journey to learn the extraordinary ways in which traditional societies had evolved to live with rain.
Waterwords
On the why’s and wherefore’s of the crisis of water and its
management that Indian cities are reeling under
That E Word | Sunita Narain explains Heatwaves and it's Impact
Agenda for the New Old Government by Sunita Narain
In this age of climate change; there is also the fact that the list of priority action areas remains the same. We have unfinished business when it comes to virtually everything—from energy to water and sanitation to food and nutrition to, of course, health and education. We know that the last government had schemes in place and budgets allocated for all these issues.
For long, governments have been caught between the welfare approach—which is often dismissed as the handout—and the capitalistic minimum government approach. In my view, this age of climate risk needs a new narrative. The government needs to rework and re-engineer development so that it is inclusive, affordable and, so, sustainable. This means reimagining the way we work in almost every sphere—from the supply of clean water, so that it is not resource- or capital-intensive, to the access to energy so that it is clean but, most importantly, affordable. This will require changes in design and then in delivery. We need a new development paradigm that can work for the Planet, but for this, it needs to work for every last person. This, then, is where we need the focus and attention of the new or old-new government. This is our common agenda.
Loss on the ongoing Extinction of Species
International Day for Biological Diversity Special Earth is losing species at an unprecedented rate; thousands are likely to go extinct within decades. This marks the dawn of the Anthropocene Epoch, which underscores our disproportionate and irreversible impacts on environment. Join us for the inaugural edition of That ‘E’ Word, a podcast from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), with Rajat Ghai, Associate Editor, own To Earth Web. Rajat brings a wealth of knowledge and interests to his work as a journalist, from subjects as widely varied as wildlife, history, culture, cuisine, theology and indigenous communities. Here, he dwells on an environmental catastrophe that is making us and our world infinitely poorer.