On the eve of the ministerial round of discussions next week, Japan stunned the rest of the countries on Friday at the climate talks here by announcing that it was ditching its earlier emission reduction targets of 25 per cent reduction below 1990 levels. Instead, it pledged to reduce emissions, by 2020, by 3.8 per cent from their 2005 level.
The new target represents a 3.1 per cent increase over the 1990 emission levels.
The 1990 levels are accepted as a basic benchmark against which developed countries have so far pledge to reduce their targets. The European Union has planned to and almost achieved a 20 per cent reduction against the benchmark year by 2020.
Transiting out of the nuclear-heavy energy mix after the Fukishima disaster, Japan, which has already ditched the Kyoto Protocol, is expected to be more heavily dependent on fossil fuels in future. The decision came in for all around criticism, giving the EU the chance to express disappointment even as it defended its own relatively easy target for 2020.
The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change requires developed countries to take the lead in emission reductions and the earlier agreements had demanded that the rich countries take emission reduction targets for the short term period — between now and 2020 — before the long-term agreement is signed in 2020. Data shows that instead it is the emerging economies, along with other poor countries, which have taken higher emission reduction pledges than the developed countries.
The irony in the fact that Kyoto had hosted the first concrete global decision to cut emissions was not lost. “Once upon a time, Japan and Kyoto were synonymous for climate action, but now Japan will be a byword for bad faith,” said Mohamed Adow, senior climate change advisor at Christian Aid.
The lesser targets the developed countries take between now and 2020 the more they are able to shift the burden of reducing emissions to the period after 2020, when it would get more onerously distributed across the developing countries.
In comparison with the Japanese decision, the developed countries are obliged to increase their emission reduction pledges after a review in 2014.
For the developed countries it was a devil buried at the climate negotiations last year at Doha. At the Warsaw talks, the developing countries, including India, brought the devil — easing the costs of intellectual property rights (IPR) on clean technologies — back to life, by demanding that a funding mechanism be set up to buy licenses of clean-but-costly technologies.
The topic of intellectual property rights has been such a hot potato for the developed countries that at the climate talks last year, developing countries had to agree to back-burner it in order to build consensus.
“Address IPRs”
Bringing the topic right back to the centre-stage again at Warsaw, the Egyptian lead negotiator, speaking for the Like Minded Developing Countries, said: “Like the Harry Potter series character, in Doha, IPR was the ‘word which should not be named’. But we live in the real world not in a fictional world. In this real world we live in, we need to address this issue of IPRs in a pragmatic manner, not run away from this issue.”
While the analogy elicited smiles and some laughter from all quarters, the real content of the proposalagain brought to the fore the deep divisions. The LMDC countries said: “To begin with, we can use the financial mechanisms under the Convention to fund the IPR costs to ensure that climate-friendly technology is available to developing countries easily. A dedicated window under the Green Climate Fund for technology transfer and IPR issues should be established.”
India’s negotiator in the room, T.S. Tirumurti, intervened to add: “‘The word that should not be named’ was one on which Parties have serious differences. There is need to be pragmatic and not run way from the issue. The delegate called for the ‘word’ to be named.”
Egypt, speaking for the LMDC — which includes Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Dominica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mali, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria and Venezuela — said the group wanted a chapter on technology development and transfer as an integral part of the 2015 outcome.
The EU delegation opposed the move a day later, claiming that it saw the protection of IPRs as essential to dissemination of technologies and not as a barrier.
A source in the LMDC group told The Hindu : “It is important for us to keep this issue on the table. It is going to generate a lot of heat and perhaps not get as much traction but it’s important to not let this fall off.”
As the U.N. climate negotiations require consensus and not majority for decisions to be taken, the chances of a mechanism to buy out IPRs remains low and progress on the issue is bound to be hampered. But the intervention by the group, of which India and China are important members, has ensured that it will not get knocked off the decisions taken in Warsaw drawing elements for the 2015 agreement.
Pranab inaugurates Waste Immobilisation Plant in Kalpakkam
The plant is designed to process radioactive liquid waste
A Waste Immobilisation Plant (WIP), a crucial component of the closed fuel cycle technology embraced by India for nuclear power generation, was inaugurated on Friday at the Kalpakkam facility of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) here.
President Pranab Mukherjee opened this and a few other facilities of BARC elsewhere, through video conferencing, at a function organised in Mumbai.
BARC Facility Director Amitava Roy told journalists here that hot commissioning of the WIP was an important step towards realisation of the country’s nuclear energy programme. The reprocessing plant facilitates generation of fuel for the next stage of nuclear power generation from the spent fuel from the first stage — pressurised heavy water reactor (PHWR). The WIP is designed to process the radioactive liquid waste after the reprocessing. Under the closed fuel cycle technology, there are three stages of generation — PHWR; Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) and Advanced Heavy Water Reactor. The objective is to recycle and reuse the valuable nuclear material to sustain the three stage nuclear energy programme.
According to a release, the WIP is designed to process the radioactive liquid waste generated by reprocessing spent fuel of 250 tonnes a year from the PHWR. At Kalpakkam, one reprocessing plant is under operation and presently handling spent fuel from the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS), and another is under construction.
The waste is processed to immobilise the radioactivity for storage and disposal in solid form. The liquid wastes from reprocessing plants are classified as high, intermediate and low level based on the concentration of radioactivity.
The facility consists of the high-level waste vitrification plant, the uranium separation plant, intermediate level and organic waste treatment plant. Besides uranium, plutonium is also recovered in the reprocessing of the spent fuel and the quantum of waste leftover for immobilisation is three per cent of the spent fuel.
With regard to the immobilisation process for high level waste, Mr. Roy said that it involved storage of vitrified products for about 40 years, before final disposal in deep geological depository. The intermediate level waste (ILW) is first pre-treated to recover traces of heavy metals and thereafter subject to ion exchange treatment for removal of Cesium and Strontium, using indigenously developed selective ion exchange resins.
Largest melter
By removing the predominant fission products contributing to radio activity, the ILW gets converted into low level liquid waste, which is treated in centralised waste management facility. The Joule Heated Ceramic Melter used for vitrifiction of high-level liquid waste at Kalpakkam, he added, was the largest such melter in the country. This is the third WIP in the country, after those in Tarapore and Trombay. Mr..Roy said the process performance of the new facility was encouraging.
Court makes exceptions for preliminary enquiry before FIR
This is to find out truth in the context of a serious allegation
While ordering compulsory registration of the First Information Report on receipt of complaints of cognisable offences, the Supreme Court has made exceptions for preliminary enquiries to find out the truth of the facts alleged.
Such a preliminary probe is essential to find out the truth in the context of a serious allegation, made in a complaint by a former dean of a law college, against a retired Supreme Court judge of sexual harassment of a woman law intern.
A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam, said in its recent judgment: “If the police officer has a doubt about the veracity of the accusation, he has to conduct a preliminary inquiry. If the information received does not disclose a cognisable offence but indicates the necessity for an inquiry, a preliminary inquiry may be conducted only to ascertain whether a cognisable offence is disclosed or not.”
The court said: “If the inquiry discloses the commission of a cognisable offence, the FIR must be registered. In the cases wherein the preliminary inquiry ends in closure of the complaint, a copy of the entry of such closure must be supplied to the first informant forthwith and not later than one week. It must disclose reasons in brief for closing the complaint and not proceeding further.”
Giving illustrations, the court said the category of cases in which a preliminary inquiry might be made included matrimonial/family disputes; commercial offences; medical negligence and corruption cases; and cases wherein there was an abnormal delay in criminal prosecution, for example, a delay of more than three months in reporting the matter without the reasons for delay being explained satisfactorily.
The court said: “Besides, the Cr. PC gives power to the police to close a matter before and after investigation. A police officer can foreclose an FIR before an investigation under Section 157 of the Code, if it appears to him that there is no sufficient ground to investigate it.”
The court, while ordering a preliminary enquiry in certain cases, took into consideration the arguments that every citizen “has a right not to be subjected to malicious prosecution and every police officer has an in-built duty under Section 154 of the Cr.PC to ensure that an innocent person is not falsely implicated in a criminal case. If despite the fact that the police officer is not prima facie satisfied as regards commission of a cognisable offence and proceeds to register an FIR and carries out an investigation, it will result in putting the liberty of a citizen in jeopardy.”
Governor commends return of peace in Darjeeling
Commending the efforts of the State government for ushering development in the Darjeeling hills, Governor M.K. Narayanan said here on Friday that the situation in the hills was more peaceful than it was in the past 10 to 15 years.
‘Enough steps taken’
“Peace has returned to the hills. The State government has taken enough steps for development there,” he told journalists at the sidelines of an event in the city.
The major economic activities in the hills are tourism, education and tea industry and the State government has taken measures for development in these areas, he said.
Mr. Narayanan had supported the stand taken by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the situation in the hills when she had ruled out any division of the State.
One State
He had said the State was one from the hills to the ocean.
After nearly a month-long period of strikes and agitations in the hills, following the creation of the separate State of Telangana in July last week, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) that was spearheading the pro-Gorkhaland agitation in the Darjeelng hills decided to withdraw it in September.
No more strikes
During a meeting with Ms. Banerjee, the GJM leadership had agreed that it would not resort to strikes and agitation and would work with the government for the development of the region through the existing regional autonomous council.
CBI sends Ishrat case request to Pakistan
The CBI has sent a judicial request to Pakistan to establish the identity of Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar, who were killed in the Ahmedabad encounter, along with the 19-year-old Ishrat Jahan and Javed Pillai, nine years ago.
Developing countries call for easing IPR costs of clean technologies
The issue of easing the costs of intellectual property resources on clean technologies takes centre stage
For the developed countries it was a devil buried at the climate negotiations last year at Doha. At the Warsaw talks, the developing countries, including India, resuscitated the devil — easing the costs of intellectual property rights (IPR) on clean technologies — back to life, by demanding that a funding mechanism be set up to buy licenses on clean but costly technologies to provide to the poor countries.
The topic of intellectual property rights has been such a hot potato for the developed countries that at the climate talks last year, developing countries had to agree to back-burner it in order to build consensus.
Bringing the topic right back to the centre-stage again at Warsaw, the Egyptian lead negotiator, speaking for the Like Minded Developing Countries, said: “Like the Harry Potter series character, in Doha, IPR was the ‘word which should not be named’. But we live in the real world not in a fictional world. In this real world we live in, we need to address this issue of IPRs in a pragmatic manner, not run away from this issue.”
While the analogy elicited smiles and some laughter from all quarters, the real content of the proposalagain brought to the fore the deep divisions. The LMDC countries said: “To begin with, we can use the financial mechanisms under the Convention to fund the IPR costs to ensure that climate-friendly technology is available to developing countries easily. A dedicated window under the Green Climate Fund for technology transfer and IPR issues should be established.”
India’s negotiator in the room, T.S. Tirumurti, intervened to add: “‘The word that should not be named’ was one on which Parties have serious differences. There is need to be pragmatic and not run way from the issue. The delegate called for the ‘word’ to be named.”
Egypt, speaking for the LMDC — which includes Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Dominica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mali, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria and Venezuela — said the group wanted a chapter on technology development and transfer as an integral part of the 2015 outcome.
The EU delegation opposed the move a day later, claiming that it saw the protection of IPRs as essential to dissemination of technologies and not as a barrier.
A source in the LMDC group told The Hindu: “It is important for us to keep this issue on the table. It is going to generate a lot of heat and perhaps not get as much traction but it’s important to not let this fall off.”
As the U.N. climate negotiations require consensus and not majority for decisions to be taken, the chances of a mechanism to buy out IPRs remains low and progress on the issue is bound to be hampered. But the intervention by the group, of which India and China are important members, has ensured that it will not get knocked off the decisions taken in Warsaw drawing elements for the 2015 agreement.
Draft text creates flutter at Warsaw climate meet
A draft text of a ministerial decision on the controversial phasing out of refrigerant and global warming gases – hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – circulating in the negotiations stirred debate on late Friday night on how the talks would progress over the week when the ministers from more than 130 countries gather at the National Stadium to thrash out compromises that require political guidance.
The source of the text, which was also accessed by The Hindu, could not be ascertained. The operative part of the on page text said that the countries should agree to adopting “appropriate measures under the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer to progressively reduce the production and consumption of HFCs, based on, inter alia, an examination of economically viable and technically feasible alternatives, and to continue to include HFCs within the scope of the convention and its Kyoto Protocol for accounting and reporting of emissions.”
In other words, it asked the countries to decide at the Warsaw meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that it would agree to let the global warming gas be dealt with under the Montreal Protocol, which deals with ozone-depleting substances so far and does not have the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities enshrined in it.
This is a controversial move that India, China and several other countries had successfully opposed at a recent meeting of the Montreal Protocol. While it’s a proposal that has had the backing of the US, the EU and number of other developing and developed countries, it turned controversial especially this year. First there was a G20 declaration to which India and China – two of the fastest growing markets for refrigerant gases – signed up taking them a step closer to the HFC phase out under Montreal Protocol. Then on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington, the US pulled all stops to get him to sign on the dotted line for a faster decision on the phase out under Montreal Protocol. The diplomatic hard ball back-fired for the US, with India warning that the costs of transition and issues of control of alternative technology by few US-based companies had not been resolved. India stepped back and soon when the Montreal Protocol meeting happened in October it was able to block any hasty decision on this along with China, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Indonesia and about 10 other countries.
They warned that the technology was untested, extremely costly and in the hands of the few and the proposal would make India and China jump to costlier alternatives in time even as the developed world did a slow phase down of the gas.
Failed at the Montreal Protocol, the developed countries and their other allies promised to reopen the subject at the Warsaw climate convention talks. The EU pushed from the early days at the negotiations without finding traction at the negotiators level. The five days of negotiations did not see any give in from the developing countries.
Now this text has emerged on Friday night sending the developing countries that are opposed to the move as well as about how contentious issues would be dealt with in the high-level segment scurrying for consultations.
A negotiator from the Like-Minded Developing Country Group, who had seen the draft ministerial decision, told The Hindu, “While the origins of the text cannot be ascertained we know which parties are insistent on a decision on HFCs at Warsaw. It would be unfortunate if such drafts will emerge out of nowhere on contentious issues and suddenly find their way on to the tables before the ministers.”
He added, “So far we have seen Poland act as a presidency (head and hosts of the negotiations) should. We hope that no one resorts to non-transparent measures in the second week of negotiations either or the lack of trust in the process would only deepen.”
There have been incidents in the previous years too when the hosts tried to either clobber an agreement despite lack of consensus or by springing up draft agreements at the ministers on short notice. The attempts have been successful at times and failed on others but usually led to a lack of faith between the large country blocks over the years.
Delegates from three countries in the G77+China countries that The Hindu contacted said they had not seen the draft text but had heard of it and some of their partners had been sounded out about the need for a discussion on the matter later on Friday night or over the weekend to strategise and be prepared for any surprises next week.
ISRO performs last orbit raising manoeuvre on its Mars mission
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday performed the last of the five orbit-raising manoeuvre on its Mars Orbiter in the early hours, raising the apogee (farthest point from Earth) of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.
“The fifth orbit raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27 a.m. (IST) with a burn time of 243.5 seconds has been successfully completed. The observed change in apogee is from 1,18,642 km to 1,92,874 km,” ISRO said.
In the series of five orbit raising manoeuvre with a supplementary operation after the fourth one, the space agency had raised the apogee of the spacecraft to over 1.92 lakh km.
After the successful completion of these operations, the Mars Orbiter mission is expected to take on the “crucial event” of the trans-Mars injection around 12.42 a.m. on December 1. It will reach the orbit of the red planet by September 24, 2014 after taking on a voyage of over 10 months.
ISRO’s PSLV-C25 successfully injected the 1,350-kg ’Mangalyaan’ Orbiter (Mars craft) into the orbit around the earth some 44 minutes after a text book launch at 2.38 PM from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on November 5, marking the successful completion of the first stage of the Rs. 450 crore mission.
Improvement in child nutrition in Maharashtra, reveals study
Survey figures show 23 per cent of children stunted, 16 per cent wasted and 23 per cent underweight
The status of nutrition among children in Maharashtra has improved compared to six years ago, reveals the new Comprehensive Nutrition Survey of Maharashtra (CNSM).
Of the 2,650 children below the age of two surveyed in the State, 23 per cent were found to be stunted, 16 per cent wasted and 23 per cent underweight– all indicators of malnutrition.
Comparatively, estimates of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS 3) of 2005-06 showed that 39 per cent of the children surveyed were stunted, 19.9 per cent wasted and 29.6 per cent underweight.
The study was conducted by the International Institute of Population Sciences, also responsible for NFHS 3.
The survey was a joint initiate of the State government and UNICEF.
“Malnutrition is a difficult battle and we are heartened to see that there has been such a reduction of malnutrition in the State,” said Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who released the report on Friday.
‘Sample size is small’
However, experts say the results require further scrutiny.
“The sample size is small especially when subdivided into tribal-non-tribal, rural-urban and by gender. This makes for a larger margin of error,” said Dr. Abhay Bang, who is on the State’s Child Mortality Evaluation Committee.
“It’s also a concern that for such a developed State, the child mortality rates are higher than they should be. Maharashtra reports 60-70,000 child deaths a year,” Dr. Bang added.
The survey found that the proportion of malnourished children was almost three times higher in households without food security. It also found that the nutritional status of children from scheduled tribes was relatively worse, followed by scheduled castes and other backward classes. Access to the public distribution system and to agricultural land improved the chances of a household being food secure, it pointed out.
