Major energy savings in the steel re-rolling sector and in the small tea processing enterprise, initiated by the UNDP, has seen a substantive increase in energy efficiency in these industries.

UNDP, India, country director Caitlin Wiesen, told this newspaper, “Intervention in the steel re-rolling industry has seen efficiency levels go up between 30-40 per cent.”

In an interaction with BW’s Rajeev Dubey, Professor S. Mahendra Dev argues why our inclusive growth is far from ‘inclusive’

Both UPA I and UPA II have had identical social objectives: enormously expensive subsidy-laden programmes that began with job guarantee through MGNREGA and have since expanded to free education, food security and now universal healthcare.

The government has got a commitment of $8.3 million (around Rs 720.93 million) grant under the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

"Nepal has received a commitment of $2.7 million grant for biodiversity, $4 grant for climate change and $1.6 million grant for land degradation," chief of foreign assistance division

under the finance ministry Lal Shankar Ghimire briefed the Global Environment Facility's sixth constituency meeting of South Asia held in Maldives.

KOLKATA, 17 MAY: Manas Bangla ~ a network of 13 community-based organisations engaged in the distribution of medical and social support to approximately 10,000 homosexual men, transgenders and Hijras in West Bengal ~ has not received funds from the West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society (WBSAPCS) since 31 March, and there has been no official statement regarding the continuation of Manas Bangla, according to its representatives.

The 6th South Asia Constituency Meeting of Global Environmental Facility (GEF) was conducted in Maldives. The meeting was inaugurated by Dr. Mohamed Ali, Chief of staff of president’s office in a ceremony held in Nasandhura Palace Hotel on 15 May 2012.. Abdullahi Majeed, Deputy Minister for Housing and Environment welcomed the participants to the meeting and wished them a pleasant stay in Maldives. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony Dr.

Pakistan is among the most vulnerable countries facing climate-related risks revealed an Asia-Pacific Human Development report launched here on Wednesday.

The report further suggested the Asia-Pacific region must continue to grow economically to lift millions out of poverty but it must also respond to changes in climate to survive.

“Growing first and cleaning up later is no longer an option”, advised the report titled ‘One Planet to Share: Sustaining Human
Progress in a Changing Climate.’

Tiny Pacific nations which are most at threat from rising seas have vowed to dump diesel and other dirty expensive fuels blamed for causing global warming and replace them with clean sources.

Using coconut biofuel and solar panels, Tokelau — which consists of three island dots half way between New Zealand and Hawaii — plans to become self-sufficient in energy this year.

The leaders of other so-called small island states around the world made commitments at a meeting this week organised by the UN Development Programme and the Barbados government.

Irked By Comments On Inclusive Growth
The government has taken exception to the ‘biases’ in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Asia Pacific Human Development report, titled, One Planet, which was released on Thursday.

UNDP, required to play a neutral role in international governance, has recommended that India and other countries in the Asia Pacific region take greater responsibility to reduce emissions and warned that ‘inclusive growth’ would increase emissions, a trade-off that India cannot afford.

UN report rates Mumbai, Kolkata as below average

Three big cities — Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore — have been rated below average compared to other mega cities in Asia-Pacific in terms of keeping pollution levels in check, said a report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Delhi is the only Indian city featured in the average category. The Asia-Pacific Human Development Report 2012 titled One Planet to Share: Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate today came out with a green ranking of 22 cities in the Asia-Pacific

Is the Asia-Pacific region set to bear the onerous title of having become the disaster centre of the globe? So it would seem if one went by UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Development Report “One Planet to Share — Sustaining Human Progress in a Changing Climate”.

Climate-related disasters are on the rise and during the last two decades, 45 per cent of the world’s natural disasters, whether it be floods in Pakistan in 2010 or Cyclone Nargis which hit Burma in 2008, have occurred here, resulting in numerous deaths, massive human dislocations and severe economic losses.