New Delhi As part of its submissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), India has sought an increase in the level of ambition by the developed or Annex-I countries, in line with the principles of equity and common – but differentiated – responsibility. The environment ministry has also categorically stated that the increase in the ambition level can be achieved only if the Annex-I countries clarify that their commitments and targets between 2012-2020 are without any conditions.

New Delhi Applying for environment and forest clearances could become easier with the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) saying it would now entertain online applications. Allowing companies to submit project proposals online would also make the process for clearances transparent. Smaller projects that get screened, appraised and cleared by the states will be able to get clearances faster due to the new process.

New Delhi The Indian forest cover has shrunk. And there is no one to announce the data, as environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has not found time to release it.

The silence is in tune with the way the ministry of environment and forests has worked in the last five months after the new minister took over. The release of the India State of Forest Report-2011 was deferred in December. Natarajan is yet to set a date for the release of the report, a key component of macro-economic policy-making for the government and the industry. Natarajan has maintained her silence even after returning from the ministerial level climate change conference at Durban in early December.

New Delhi With India Inc and various government departments blaming the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) for delaying clearances for developmental projects, the ministry has said that the delay is not on its part but on the part of the industry in starting and completing the projects on time.

The ministry has now decided that it will withdraw environmental and forest clearances to the projects that do not commence work within five years of being accorded the approvals.

New Delhi With more than 1,800 projects awaiting forest clearance in the country, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has cited non-submission of essential information and documents by the respective state governments for the delay.

While Punjab and Haryana lead the pack with the former waiting for the forest nod for 516 projects while the latter is waiting for 453 projects to be cleared, heavily forested states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have fewer projects pending the clearance.

New Delhi India has said it is open to negotiate on mitigation issues at the Durban climate talks but said developed countries have to show clear commitment to reduce their carbon footprints. The Indian response makes the chances of the global ministerial level talks on climate change yielding clear solutions as China too said it favoured legally binding carbon emissions cuts on Monday.

New Delhi Environmental clearance delays are rising again, pushing up the number of pending infrastructure projects. There are now 400 projects in mining, hydro and thermal power, and building and construction pending signatures at different levels in the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). The figure had eased to 245 in August this year.

Among pending projects, the maximum (209) are in building and construction, followed by mining ((143). The share of thermal power projects comes next at 32 followed by 13 hydro-power projects.

New Delhi With only 30 members, India's delegation to the Durban climate talks is the smallest among all key negotiating nations. China is taking a 150-strong delegation while Australia has 40-plus. Further, several key climate negotiators like Chandrashekhar Dasgupta and Prodipto Ghosh are absent in the delegation led by environment ministry

New Delhi Claiming that the Land Acquisition and Relief & Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill introduced in Parliament is quite different from what was agreed upon by the Jairam Ramesh-headed rural development ministry, National Advisory Council (NAC) member NC Saxena has said that several new clauses have been added under pressure, which dilutes the benefits that were originally intended for the affected people.

New Delhi After a short period of lenience in allowing coal mining in “no-go” forest areas, the environment ministry has decided to impose stringent penalties on violators. In a significant move, the ministry has categorised non-compliance with the environment clearance (EC) conditions as ‘serious’ and ‘not-so-serious’ across 27 sectors and said that violators of the serious ones would be issued closure orders.