Food waste is a global problem with serious environmental and social consequences. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted each year. This wasted food could be used to feed the millions of people who go hungry every day. Food waste also has a significant negative impact on the environment. Food production requires a significant amount of land, water, and energy. When we waste food, we are also wasting these precious resources. Additionally, food waste that ends up in landfills decomposes and produces methane, a greenhouse gas that […]
Category: energy
Environmental Issues of South Asia Region
South Asian countries have been dealing with several issues of social, political, cultural, and economic nature among many others. The environmental issues however are slowly becoming more and more pronounced in the region, with the rise in natural catastrophes, energy crises, and scarcity of resources. Mainly consisting of developing nations of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, this region since the early 20th century, first, most of them as a colony and later as independent states, have been experiencing economic upheavals. Notably, most of the environmental issues surged post-1960s due to high economic activities, industrialization, population […]
Earth Day- Past & Present
The earth day is commemorated on 22nd April world over with several events. Every year, it comes as a reminder of things that have come to be and things that can be with respect to environment, and what can we as earthlings do to protect our earth better. This year’s theme is “protect our species” with the agenda of raising awareness about rate of extinction of species. The earth day celebrations were first initiated in 1970 by a US Senator from Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson. He proposed the initiative after having witnessed the enormous oil spill of Santa Barbara, California in […]
India and its Energy Sovereignty
In recent times, India has been pitted to overtake Japan as the third largest economy by 2030 and yet the India’s macro-economy doesn’t seem to be robust as the rupee has continued to slide against downwards, and can be expected to be cheaper than ever by end of the year. Part of the problem lies in India’s dependency on oil imports. Until now India had a smooth ride owing to the oil price crash from $100 to $40. However, now the prices have climbed back to $75 making India vulnerable to factors such as inflation, increasing current account deficit and […]
Energy & Climate Policy Trends
We are witnessing a dynamic change in the energy sector and the geopolitics around it. With fast stride towards the decarbonizing the economies, to developments such as lowered cost of solar power, electric vehicle era and secured fossil fuel supply— all together are changing demand-supply and production-consumption patterns of energy. Even then, approximately 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity and to clean cooking fuel. While at one end we are preparing for a world of autonomous vehicles, on the other end we are still battling the energy poverty with people lacking basic amenities. Notably, the Agenda 2030 focuses on […]
Africa: Playground for Asian Powers
Importance of Africa has increased manifold in the current geopolitical climate. In particular, the three Asian economies China, Japan and India have adopted a more muscular approach, as the resource rich continent features high on their global agenda. Given the three countries are in competition for influence, both within Asia and beyond, they are keenly investing in Africa’s infrastructure, energy and development sectors, seeking growth as strategic partners and markets. The Asian alignment for Africa comes at a time when the US has adopted a more isolationist approach and the African economies are bearing the brunt of commodity price fluctuations, […]
Energy Policy Making for Optimal Resource Management
The global oil demand is expected to remain healthy for the next few years, especially in the developing countries of Asia and Africa. Though currently suffering from a slowdown due to the US-China trade war and the rise in renewable technological innovation, one cannot simply write-off oil or for that matter any other conventional fuel like coal or gas, as it forms an integral part of the new energy mix of many nations (both developing and the developed) even today, which deploy tools of policy making for the purpose. However, the new energy mix, of the present age, brings the […]
Building an Inclusive Bio-Economy
The global community, in light of increased geopolitical tensions, economic crisis, magnified disparities, global warming and other socio-economic incidents, has realized that the current fossil fuel based-economic model is not a viable one. Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals, then, can be viewed as the global response to this problem. There is now a general consensus regarding the introduction of biomass fuels and renewables as part of the economic model, which will enable nations to progress on the path to an inclusive sustainable development- in other words introduce a bio-economy. What is Bio-Economy? Conspicuously, world’s basic commodities are derivatives […]
India & Green Economy
The last few years have been tough for India, not just in context of economic reforms but also environment— specifically in terms of climate. As per the India Meteorological Department, 2017 was the fourth warmest year of the country, with the last quarter of 2017 being the hottest since 1901. In the beginning of the 20th century, India, a British colony then, suffered from significant climate change marked by severe droughts and famines, which were further fueled by fatal British economic policies. Notably, India’s economic backwardness wasn’t due to any niggardliness of geography, but was rather anthropogenic. There was no […]
Renewables and the Power Dynamics
The past few years in the world history have been marred with geopolitical volatility. A prominent risk to the geopolitical landscape is energy crisis (including the renewables landscape). It is a proven fact that every international regime, old or modern, is based on an energy resource. While coal and steam backed the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, petroleum and natural gas served as the backdrop for American hegemony from the late 19th to early 21st centuries. With sustainable development and climate change having gained momentum in the last few years, the present times will certainly be looked […]