Op-ed

Clean up Indian Railways: It must match its climate credentials with sound pollution and waste management

This article was originally published in The Times of India Railways fascinate me. Professionally, I advocate for a massive expansion of rail networks to address the air pollution and climate crisis. Rail transport is not only highly energy efficient compared to road and air transport, it can also completely shift to renewable energy. It will, …

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India’s Arctic policy must push Western countries to give up double standards

This article originally appeared in The Times of India ‘We need to act for the Amazon and act for our planet,’ said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau when fires ravaged the Amazon rainforest in August 2019. He was joined by many Western countries in preaching the virtues of protecting the ‘global common’ for combating climate …

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Paris agreement isn’t enough: Climate crisis is too important to be left to governments alone. Private sector too must pitch in

This article originally appeared in The Times of India The world is not only suffering because of Covid and economic distress. It’s also reeling due to climate disasters. The year 2020 is likely to be one of the three warmest years on record, and 2011-20 will be the warmest decade on record. 2020 has witnessed …

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Energy transition and Just Transition must go hand in hand – as coal mines become rapidly unprofitable

This article originally appeared in The Times of India The writing is on the wall. A few days back, Coal India Limited (CIL), the world’s biggest coal producer and India’s largest CO2 emitter, announced its plans to become a ‘net-zero energy company’ by 2023-24. The company plans to install 3,000 MW of solar power to …

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How to control air pollution from stubble burning

This article originally appeared in Times of India This is a straightforward article to discuss the real issues concerning stubble burning, including its contribution to pollution in Delhi-NCR, and why the solutions promoted by the government are not working. Let’s start with the contribution of stubble burning to air pollution in Delhi-NCR. While we can …

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We have been barking up the wrong tree on air pollution

This article originally appeared in Times of India On its 46th foundation day, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) released two reports that should force us to re-examine our approach towards controlling air pollution. The first report is the ‘National Ambient Air Quality Status & Trends 2019’, which contains air quality data for 344 cities/ …

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India needs a new EIA law

This article originally appeared on Times of India. The Draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 has become a hot potato for the ministry of environment, forest & climate change (MoEF&CC). First, the Delhi high court overruled the ministry’s decision on the time limit for public comments and increased it till August 11. Then, in …

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Over regulation will not solve plastic waste problems

This article originally appeared on The Times of India. An oft-repeated saying in India is that our environmental laws are good, but their implementation is poor. I have always disagreed with this simply because the primary reason for a law’s poor implementation lies in its flawed design. Most environmental laws in India are designed using …

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