EU Aviation Directive will be binding; airlines' operations cost to increase. Starting January 1 in the new year, all flights operating in the European Union will be subjected to carbon emission limits. The regulations will also apply to aircraft flying in and out of the 27-nation bloc. This follows the European Court of Justice, the highest court of the European Union, ruling in the affirmative that the aviation industry shall be subjected to a cap on its carbon emissions.

The 17th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Durban in December 2011. Negotiations were heated and acrimonious, as the world desperately searched for new ways to avoid the toughest of questions—how to drastically reduce emissions to keep the world somewhat within safe levels and how to do this while ensuring equity. With uneasy answers, the easy solution was to push the world to another round of messy negotiations for a new treaty, protocol or legal instrument or something like that.

Forest conservation effort in Meghalaya can claim carbon benefits. India’s first pilot project to be recognized under the UN’s mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) could be in the East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya.