Wolfgang Kerler

AN aggressive shift towards renewable power generation and energy effiency could save the world from the most devastating impacts of climate change, and at the same time create a multi-billion-dollar industry and save trillions of dollars in future fuel costs, experts say.

A report released Monday by the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace International entitled "Energy [R]Evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook", estimates that investments meant to create a low carbon society would carry an annual 360-billion-dollar industry.

"A renewable energy future is possible," Meg Boyle, global warming policy specialist at Greenpeace USA, told IPS. "The Energy Revolution provides a blueprint to get from where we are to where we need to be, and demonstrates that investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency is good for energy security, the economy, and the climate."

The blueprint is based on the assumption that in order to prevent catastrophic climate change, global CO2 emissions must have peaked by 2015 and must have returned to current levels by 2020. The authors argue that carbon emissions will be cut by 50 percent in 2050 if the suggested measures are adopted.

According to the report, there are some major steps needed to tackle climate change. First of all, the technical potential to increase energy efficiency must be exploited -- for instance, by improving the insulation of buildings or by replacing conventional heaters and hot water systems with systems fueled by renewable energy.

Furthermore, there needs to be a shift from "road to railroad" -- meaning the expansion of public transportation systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the extensive use of private vehicles.

The most fundamental changes are needed in the sector of power production: Today's centralised large-scale power stations -- which are consuming mostly non-renewable sources of energy like coal, gas and oil -- must be replaced by small and decentralised power plants based on renewable energies like solar, wind or geothermal.

To achieve this goal, "the power industry and utilities will need to take more responsibility for reducing emissions, as investment decisions decide what sources of energy we use for the next generation," Boyle said.

Oliver Schäfer, EREC policy director, stressed that the adaption of the Energy Revolution scenario would pay off financially, too, because "the global market for renewable energy can grow at a double digit rate until 2050, and overtake the size of today's fossil fuel industry. Currently, the renewable energy market is worth 70 billion dollars and doubling in size every three years."

As fossil fuels are growing scarce, their prices are very likely to increase in the future -- making continued reliance on non-renewable energy sources more and more expensive.

The report estimates that without changing the system, total electricity supply costs will rise from 1.75 trillion today to 3.8 trillion dollars in 2020. According to Greenpeace and EREC, their Energy Revolution scenario would save 18.7 trillion dollars until 2030 -- 750 billion a year from now.

Following the blueprint, the world could cover 32.5 percent of its electricity needs with renewable energy by 2020. While established technologies like solar and wind may take the lead, new technologies will be a part of the energy mix -- for example solar thermal, geothermal or ocean energy.

Another result of the scenario's adoption would be greater equity in the use of resources between industrialised and developing countries.

Since the developed countries have a far higher per capita use of energy -- and therefore produce most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions -- they would have to reduce their emissions earlier than developing economies, peaking no later than 2015.

Developing countries will have to stabilise their emissions by 2020 and reduce them beyond 2030 -- a timeframe that would allow them to further grow economically. "They need to learn from the mistakes of the developed world and invest in renewable energy instead of coal and nuclear," Boyle said.

Asked about how realistic the adoption of the Energy Revolution scenario is for global policy-makers,

Boyle lamented that "so far the international community's overall speed of progress toward a new climate agreement has fallen far short of the rapid pace needed to avoid climate catastrophe."

Greenpeace is now calling upon world leaders to agree on strong new global caps on emissions in developed countries -- without major loopholes -- as well as on massive funding for renewable energy, energy effiency and climate change adaptation in developing countries.

"Politicians in the developed world -- where, as our scenario proves, the barriers to change are political, not technical -- need to take the lead and act swiftly to enact a strong global climate greement," Boyle said. [Courtesy IPS]

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Water privatisation: 'no need for costly consultants'

Keya Acharya

THE Indian corporate conglomerate, Tata, says it is ready to provide water services in this vast country and also prove that privatisation does not have to involve expensive foreign consultants and providers.

The Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (JUSCO), a Tata subsidiary based in this 104-year-old steel town in eastern India, is India’s only private municipal operator supplying utility services, including drinking-water, to a population of 700,000 people that extends beyond the 64 sq.km compound of the Tata Iron and Steel Company.

Water supply services fall under government control by Indian law, but facing donor pressure in the last two decades for reform in various sectors, the Indian government brought forward a radical water policy in 2002 that allows private sector participation.

Various state governments are now eager to garner both international loans and bring in foreign consultants and technical firms to undertake a service that they have failed to provide adequately.

Though India’s statistics show that 94 percent of rural populations and 91 percent of urban areas have been given access to drinking water by the government, the actual supply of potable water remains very poor.

A 2006 World Bank report notes that piped, treated water is available only for short periods daily, leaving poor populations to resort to polluted sources, while blocked sewers and dysfunctional pumping-stations are a familiar sight in the urban areas.

Additionally, India’s potable water quality is so poor that the country was ranked 120th out of 122 countries in a 2003 UN report.

Around 37.7 million people are affected by waterborne diseases annually while 1.5 million children die from diarrhoea alone every year.

10 million people are vulnerable to cancers from excessive arsenic and an additional 66 million people are facing risk of fluorosis.

In this scenario JUSCO, which has earned Jamshedpur the honour of being the only city in India where citizens can safely drink water directly from the tap, is now seeking to supply quality water to various urban centres countrywide.

"We wanted to show India that it is possible, without having to pay expensive, foreign companies, to provide safe drinking water straight from the tap at lower cost," says Sanjiv Paul, managing director of JUSCO.

Consultancies became a sensitive issue in India after the Bank earmarked 2.5 million dollars as consultancy fees for a water and sanitation project in the national capital and then insisted on awarding it to a consultant, Price Waterhouse Coopers, which had failed to be short-listed.

The deal was exposed by ‘Parivartan’ (change), a voluntary organisation based in the capital, which obtained and publicised several official documents of the ‘Delhi Water Supply and Sewerage Project’ that records deals between the state utility and the Bank.

While the project's stated aim was to make available reliable, 24-hour water supply, documents obtained by Parivartan revealed that this did not include removing existing inequitites in water supply but offered plenty of scope for super-profits by a few water companies.

At Jamshedpur JUSCO already sources water daily from the river Subarnarekha, treats, stores an distributes d and stored 58 feet below ground and distributed through a 500 km network to over 40,000 water connections. Also some 65 million litres of sewage and wastewater are treated and supplied to industries, both steel and non-steel.

JUSCO says its best management tool is a geographical information system (GIS) which has comprehensively mapped the township’s entire network of underground pipes, cables, telephone lines and overland roads and allows it to detect any activity, including leaks through ground- penetrating radar.

The information is shared online and accessible to other agencies, such as roads and telephone departments for their work.

The company’s efficient and quality water-supply has even enthused consumers from low-income groups who are readily paying the Rs 6 per kilolitre (roughly 11 US cents) tariffs.

In the Bagaan area, a low-income zone outside Tata’s 64-sq. km township, 44-year-old Sagar, a ‘dhobi’ or traditional washerman, says he shifted into the area nine months ago because of its ready availability of water supply.

"I pay Rs 240 per month, (4.8 dollars) but I don’t mind. They (JUSCO) have given us a very good facility", he says.

Anguri Devi, 38, who runs a small hardware shop nearby also says he has no complaints even though he had to pay Rs. 10,000 (200 dollars) for the initial connection.

But JUSCO faces a controversial and contentious debate on the privatisation of water supply services in India with civil and NGO protests about the high rates that the poor may have to pay for what is considered a free resource.

JUSCO’s managing director however thinks that low-income groups are willing to pay for good service.

"The poor are readily paying nearly Rs 300 (six dollars) per month for a cable TV connection, but paying for water needs a mindset change,’’ said Pronita Chakrabarti Agrawal, the Bank’s economist at its Water and Sanitation programme. [Courtesy IPS]

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A billion hungry people need rescue plan too

Wolfgang Kerler

TO eradicate hunger in India, actions are needed: strengthening of agriculture, social protection, poverty reduction and the distribution of essential nutrition and health interventions to women and children in the period of pregnancy and the first two years of life.

Relief for the world's hungry remains a distant prospect, with this year's "Global Hunger Index" (GHI) attesting that even before the ongoing food crisis, 33 countries had "alarming" or "extremely alarming" levels of hunger.

India, home to the world's largest food insecure population, launched its own India State Hunger Index.

"Although we found several success stories, there was no across-the-board success," Marion Aberle, a spokesperson for Welthungerhilfe (formerly known as German Agro-Action), told IPS about the recent GHI.

She added that "it is simply a scandal that almost one billion people worldwide are still suffering from hunger."

Together with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Concern Worldwide, on Tuesday Welthungerhilfe launched GHI 2008, an index ranking 88 developing and transitional countries using the most recent available data from 2001 to 2006.

"The rankings do not reflect the current crisis of rising food prices, but they do highlight which countries could be most vulnerable to the crisis," IFPRI said in a statement released simultaneously with the GHI.

The dramatic rise of food prices since 2006 has marked a major setback in the fight against malnutrition, as the countries most severely affected by hunger overwhelmingly are net-importers of cereals and other food.

"Although their agricultural sectors have the potential to feed their population," Aberle added.

She stressed that "the only way to effectively eradicate hunger is to boost agricultural production in developing countries". Additionally, an increase in food aid was needed for those who are currently hungry.

Three leading indicators -- the proportion of undernourished, the prevalence of underweight children under five, and the under-five mortality rate -- are combined into the GHI with a 100-point scale, 0 and 100 being best and worse, respectively.

Overall, the GHI fell by almost a fifth from 18.7 in 1990 to 15.2 in 2008, mostly due to progress in children's nutrition. Improvement was scant in under-five mortality and the proportion of undernourished.

"The world has made only slow progress in reducing hunger in past decades, with dramatic differences among countries and regions," said Joachim von Braun, IFPRI director general.

While the GHI decreased by almost 40 percent in Latin America, by about 30 percent in Southeast Asia and about 25 percent in South Asia, it shrunk by only 11 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa.

"Deterioration has been most dramatic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)," Aberle said. With a GHI of 42.7 -- up from 25.5 in 1990 -- the country is now scoring worst.

In DRC, all common characteristics for states heavily affected by hunger can be found: war, violent conflict and political instability, high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, inequality and a lack of general freedom.

Other countries with "extremely alarming" levels of hunger (a GHI over 30 points) are Eritrea, Burundi, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ethiopia.

With the exception of Haiti, the 26 countries with an "alarming" level of hunger -- described as a GHI between 20 and 29.9 -- are all located in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia.

As regions, Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are scoring worst on the 2008 GHI, with 23.3 and 23.0 respectively.

The most success could be seen in Kuwait and Peru: Both countries have managed to decrease their GHI by about 70 percent -- "examples showing that progress is possible", said Aberle.

Since 1990, only a handful of countries made significant progress. About a third of the countries made modest progress -- defined as a reduction of GHI between 25 and 50 percent.

Among those countries is India, whose GHI declined from 32.5 in 1990 to 23.7 in 2008 -- ranking 66 on the GHI. With more than 200 million people, India is home to over one-fifth of the world's hungry -- hence, IFPRI decided to produce an India State Hunger Index (ISHI).

"We felt it was time to develop an India-specific index, but also one that would be comparable with the GHI," Purnima Menon, a research fellow at IFPRI, told IPS.

The ISHI 2008 scores for the 17 major states in India whose hunger levels were calculated range from 13.6 for Punjab to 30.9 for Madhya Pradesh -- showing that not a single state falls in the "low hunger" or "moderate hunger" categories, and representing the substantial differences between the regions.

In almost all the states, underweight children contribute most to the ISHI -- but there are some where calorie deficiency has the largest contribution.

"The other interesting comparisons are the links between economic indicators and the hunger index," Menon said. "Not all states that have high economic growth are doing well on hunger."

Referring to the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent to solve the current financial crisis, Aberle from Welthungerhilfe said: "We would love to see similarly strong-willed action to fight the world food crisis." [Courtesy IPS]

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Fazilka: upcoming energy hub of Punjab

Navdeep Asija

MANY might not have even thought about this, but this small town confronted with political ignorance from the state government would now be able to regain its lost glory, all thanks to the new addition to its geography named, Energy. In future this town would be known as "Energy hub of Punjab".

Something wittingly or unwittingly which has happened over the past five years is going to make this possible.

The border city of Fazilka first shot into prominence form a period of oblivion when it was selected as the first Asian town for adopting the best energy saving practices to fight against global warming by Czech Republic Magazine “Carbuster" in its 32nd issue. The focus of the magazine centering on 'faith and environment' mentioned how in order to curb the effect of global warming, religious messages quoted in Sri Guru Granth Sahib were installed at various places.

On the occasion of Fazilka heritage festival 2007, another feather was added in the cap of this city when Fazilka pioneered and promoted the use of CFL lamps in the city. The entire CFL electric dealer decided to sell CFL on no profit and no loss basis.

Within a year of this biggest international recognition the U.S.-backed $3.5 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project deal signed in Pakistan got a fillip too. In fact it was on this historic day that the 10th steering committee of oil ministers from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India agreed to start construction work on the much-delayed TAPI pipeline project in 2010. The pipeline which will be 1,420 mm in diameter will have a capacity of 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually to fulfill the energy needs of the country.

However, this is not where it ended all. After adopting best energy saving practices in all spheres of life, how could agriculture be ignored? And the answers to this speculation were put to rest with the setting up of first agriculture call centre by a group of wise farmers of Fazilka where farmers could discuss their agriculture related problems to increase their profitability. To improve the condition of farmers further, another son of the soil, Mr Vikram Ahuja is credited with establishing the first agricultural equipment bank facility here. The bank provides state of the art international facility in the form of agriculture equipment like laser leveler, soil tensiometer especially for small farmers, who cannot afford to buy all these equipments. Malwa Water Management System developed by Mr Ahuja is going to save 7.5 billion liter of fresh water in agriculture.

Indian Defense forces have also played an important role in the prosperity of this town. Indian Army last year planted more than 10,000 trees along with the progressive farmers of this region, who also gifted more than 3000 'sheesham' samplings.

After agriculture, it was time to dare something new with the painstaking Transportation system. Fazilka showcased to the world a unique public transport system through the erstwhile cycle rickshaw. This system was designed to promote the use of rickshaw as mode of public transport system, where the average trip length in the city is less than 3 km. Call centers were installed across the city to make rickshaw phone call away named ECOCABS. This concept was perfect amalgamation of tradition and digital empowerment which was indeed well taken by the rest of the world.

Within couple of years, citizen of this small town made their importance on international map. This further attracted some global players when Moser Baer Photovoltaic Ltd who in association with The Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) made an announcement to install 5 MW solar energy plant in Fazilka.

Couple of years and India's smallest big town made its appearance in all the areas of energy saving like transportation, religion, agriculture, electric and solar energy. Indeed "where there is a will, there is way' can be at best suited to Fazilka and its people. While the government was busy developing a few cities of Punjab like Mohali, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Amritsar, this small township of backward region was being empowered by its residents setting new trends for many Indian cities who are still looking forward for help after independence from their state governments.
[Courtesy Navdeep Asija http://navdeepasija.blogspot.com]

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