Saturday 21 March 2020

The Carbon Market


Global Warming is the biggest threat to humanity. Melting glaciers, freak storms, Australian bushfire, rising temperature shows how quickly and drastically green house emissions (GHG) are changing our planet. Besides the rising price of energy, compel people to reduce the consumption and lower their personal shares of global emissions. But there is a developing framework of economic solutions to the problem. The world leaders have accepted carbon trading over its rival, carbon tax as a novel way to reduce the GHG emissions.
Carbon trading often referred as emissions trading. It is a market based tool to limit the greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon market mainly trades emissions under cap-and-trade schemes or with credits that pay for or offset GHG reductions. Under cap-and-trade schemes the governing body fixes a cap on allowable emissions and then distributes or auctions off emissions allowances that total the cap. Member firms that do not have enough allowances to cover their emissions must either make reductions or buy another firm’s spare. Members with extra allowances can sell them or bank them for future use. A successful cap-and-trade scheme relies on a strict but feasible cap that decreases emissions over time. A too high or low cap will not serve the purpose. The governing body stabilizes the high price of allowances by releasing additional credits. The price of allowances is usually a function of supply and demand. 
Credits are similar to carbon offsets and they are used in conjunction with cap-and-trade schemes. Firms that wishes to reduce below target may fund pre approved emissions reduction projects at other sites and also in other countries. Following points to be noted in this context:
         A carbon market allows countries or industries to earn carbon credits for emission reductions they make in excess of what are required of them.
         These credits can be traded to the highest bidder in exchange for money.
         The buyers of carbon credits can show the emission reductions as their own and use them to meet their own emission reduction targets.
         A carbon market already existed under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol but several countries walked out of the Kyoto Protocol and thus the demand for carbon credits had waned.
         As a result, developing countries like India, China and Brazil had accumulated huge amounts of carbon credits. These credits are now in danger of getting redundant.
Thus carbon market can be a way for the reduction of green house emission to the atmosphere. It is thereby a feasible method for the protection of environment. But a plan is as good as its implementation. Therefore this should be taken into consideration by the environmentalist, scientist and other such person working for the protection and preservation of environment.

Dr. Sumitra Mohanty,
Coordinator, Research Documentation and Communication, PECUC

Tuesday 17 March 2020

Showing my gear off


Travelling & working in children issues is something which I love the MOST and it is one of my favourite hobbies. But just a few days before through travelling I got a chance to experience something even more interesting. Life is full of various events and experiences. But not all are memorable, enjoyable and important. In my opinion everyone has their occasion which is special to them, mine was when I attended the Asian Children’s Summit. And it was one of those incidents that happened in my life, which was so memorable that it almost kept on lingering in my mind.
This summit took place in the mid November. I was excited but at the same time my heart was throbbing. This was my first time I ever attended a summit. I was a bit scared as I already knew there would be many talented representatives representing their own nation. I felt honoured to represent my country too in such a tender age and my joy knew no bounds. After a short journey we reached Bangkak, Thailand. There were 4 child delegates including me from India along with Anuradha Mohanty, PECUC accompanied us as our adult facilitator. I was nominated by PECUC to represent National Action and Coordination Group for Ending Violence Against Children NACG EVAC India, through a national level nomination process. I am from PECUC, Priti from Open Learning System & Other two children from IJM Kolkata are in children from India. There were approx 46 children from 23 countries of Asia. I had decided to actively participate in each and every activity assigned and was successful too. Every country had their own market booths showing off their culture and values. We got to learn so many things and more ever to add the staffs and the elders over there were so cooperative friendly that certainly one couldn’t be uncomfortable sharing any types of problems with them. By this time I had made a number of friends of various countries and each one was too loveable. We had 4 groups/sessions and I was a part of digital era. We had our own group presentations. We got a chance to be heard by national and international leaders like Dr. Rinchen Chophel, Grace Ageaoili, Mr. Rajeev Kumar and many more. And at the last day the closing session or the cultural night was held. We got a chance to show off our talent & everyone was mesmerized. I too had performed an Odishi classical dance, everyone liked and it was praiseworthy. This Summit was so impressive that it offered me lessons that cannot be erased by any other experience. This was really admirable as this was a platform, which took a step for children’s voices to be heard. Hear our suggestions were taken, our questions were answered and our feedbacks were listened. At last I would thank everyone who helped me to be a part of such a beautiful event. I would be honored to be part of it again. 

Miloni Mishra
Sisusava ,Children Group Representative ,PECUC
Delegate to Asia Children Summit

Saturday 7 March 2020

GENDER GAP INDEX- 2019


The Global Gender Gap Index benchmarks 153 countries on their progress towards gender parity in 4 dimensions:
·  Economic Participation And Opportunity
·  Educational Attainment
·  Health And Survival
·  Political Empowerment
Over the index, the highest possible score is 1(equality) and the lowest possible score is 0(inequality).
India Specific Findings:
·         India has been ranked 112th among 153 countries in the annual Global Gender Gap Index for 2020.
·         India has slipped to the 112th spot from the 108th position in the last edition.
·         India has been ranked below countries like China (106th), Sri Lanka (102nd), Nepal (101st), Brazil (92nd), Indonesia (85th) and Bangladesh (50th).
·         India has improved to 18th place on political empowerment but it has slipped to 150th on health and survival, to 149th in terms of economic participation and opportunity and to 112th place for educational attainment.
·         Among the 153 countries studied, India is the only country where the economic gender gap (0.354) is larger than the political gender gap (0.411).
·         India is among the countries with very low women representation on company boards (13.8%).
·         On health & survival, four large countries (Pakistan, India, Vietnam and China) fare badly with millions of women there not getting the same access to health as men.
 Mr Agni Dash
Content Writer, PECUC

INDIA STATE OF FOREST REPORT 2019 (ISFR 2019)


ISFR is a biennial publication of Forest Survey Of India ( FSI ), an organization under the Ministry Of Environment, Forest & Climate Change. The ISFR assesses the forest and tree cover, carbon stock, bamboo resources and forest fires. The 2019 report for the first time has assessed the qualitative nature of the forest cover and created a national forest inventory for the first time on produce from forests.
According to this report, the forest area in the country has increased by 5188 square km in the last 2 years. This green area covers about 25% of the total geographic area of the country.
The top 5 states to have shown an increase in forest cover include-
1.    Karnataka (1025 sq. Km)
2.    Andhra Pradesh (990 sq. Km)
3.    Kerala  (823 sq. Km)
4.    J & K (371 sq. Km)
5.    Himachal Pradesh (334 sq. Km)
The report has also recorded the total mangrove area in the country to be 4975 square kilometres. Finally it has recorded the total carbon stock of the country to be equivalent to 71.24 million tonnes.

Agni Dash
Content Writer, PECUC

INTENSIFIED MISSION INDRADHANUSH 2.0


The Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 aims to immunize children less than 2 years of age and pregnant women against 8 vaccine-preventable diseases. The immunization drive covers vaccines for Tuberculosis, Meningitis, Measles, Hepatitis B, Tetanus, Whooping Cough, Poliomyelitis and Diphtheria. The vaccines for 2 other diseases- Hemophilus Influenza and Japanese Encephalitis will also be provided under the programme in certain select areas.
Key Highlights
·         The IMI 2.0 has been launched to focus on 272 districts of 27 states and 652 blocks of Uttar Pradesh & Bihar among hard-to-reach and tribal populations.
·         The program aims to escalate efforts to achieve the goal of attaining 90% national immunization coverage across India.
·         The IMI 2.0 immunization drive will consist of 4 rounds of immunization. The program will be completed by March 2020.
·         IMI 2.0 will be an enhanced immunization session with flexible timing, mobile sessions & will be mobilized by other government departments.
·         IMI 2.0 will have enhanced focus on left-outs, dropouts, resistant families and hard to reach areas.
·         It will have focus on urban, underserved population and tribal areas.
·         It will be conducted till March 2020.

 
Agni Dash
Content Writer, Pecuc

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDGs) INDEX 2019


NITI Aayog has recently released the 2nd edition of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Index for the year 2019-20. The index aims to measure India and its states’ progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030.
The SDGs of the UN have 17 goals and 169 related targets to be achieved by 2030. The SDG India Index 2019 has been constructed spanning across 16 out of 17 SDGs with a qualitative assessment on SDG17. It ranks states and UTs based on 54 targets spread over 100 indicators out of 306 outlined by the UN. It measures their progress on the outcomes of the interventions and schemes of the Government Of India.
Key Highlights
·         States/ UTs are classified based on the SDG India Index Score as follows-
1.    Aspirant: 0-49
2.    Performer: 50-64
3.    Front-Runner: 65-99
4.    Achiever: 100
·         Kerala topped the list followed by Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa.
·         Chandigarh has topped the list among the UTs with the score of 70 followed by Puducherry with 66.
·         Jammu and Kashmir& Ladakh are ranked at the bottom of the index.
·         Uttar Pradesh has shown maximum improvement followed by Odisha and Sikkim.
·         With regard to poverty reduction, states which have done well include Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram & Sikkim.
·         Bihar has emerged as the worst performing state with the lowest score of 50.
·         On ‘Zero Hunger’ parameters Goa, Mizoram, Kerala, Nagaland and Manipur were the front runners.

Agni Dash
Content Writer, PECUC