India’s 1st emissions drop in 40 years - Climate Weekly
Hi again,
Welcome to Climate Weekly!
Each week we ask one guest writer from our network to give you a selection of the best climate news from their region, opening a little window onto stories you probably didn’t see in your NewsFeed.
This week, we have recent CUNY grad and former NDTV reporter, Lakshmi Sivadas, with some of the most interesting news from India.
Namaskaram!
That’s me, from Kerala, India.
This week we learnt the country’s CO2 emissions fell for the first time in four decades. It fell by approximately 15% in March, and 30% in April.
The shutdown has affected industrial power demand, but this also highlights the continuing decline in demand for coal based power, and the Government is now talking about propping up renewable energy even further, as it plots out our post-virus recovery.
On the other hand, a report published this week says that India may become “near unliveable” in the next 50 years if greenhouse gas emissions are not kept under check.
This could have a massive impact on the way we produce our food; an occupation which currently supports just over 50% of India’s population. With the COVID-19 lockdowns, farmers and labourers have been facing huge financial losses, leading to a crisis across the country.
These farmers are also fearing an onset of new pests from across the ocean, as swarms of locusts have been reported in the food bowl regions of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. The Government is currently trying to control these pests that are here earlier than usual. Normally, they arrive between July and October.
Indians are still protesting though, at least online.
Residents of the lush Northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh organized a Twitter protest against the country’s largest hydropower project and a government plan to cut down over 200,000 trees.
The 3097 MW Etalin hydro project plans to flood the Dibang Valley, home to 25 globally threatened animal species.
Hopefully we’ll have good news soon, as our government is due to lift the lockdown we’ve been under for over 2 months. Honestly, it’s going to be strange trying to get back to normalcy.
Here’s hoping everyone stays safe!
From Climate Tracker
Mo Salah is the new poster-boy for Exxon! The Egyptian football giant has thrown his support into good causes in the past, but this new Ramadan-timed ad campaign was just too much for Lina Yassin to let slide.
As the US Oil barons are looking for their handouts, Katherine Cheng took us on a virtual tour of Hong Kong’s biggest Fossil Fuel financiers. What do you think?
What else we’re reading
The US government is considering what I’m calling a “BOBO” - a Big-Oil Bail-Out - but Mining companies won BIG in Indonesia this week as well. A new “omnibus” law makes it way easier to expand mining operations, fishing and Big Palm Oil across the country. Especially, I fear in Papua.
We’ll have some original coverage on the fallout next week.
600,000 Renewables jobs have been lost in the US with COVID lockdowns. Does anyone have similar data anywhere else in the world?
Good News from Australia? YES! The small state of Tasmania now has a plan to become 200% Renewable, using deep-sea cables to transfer power to Sydney and Melbourne.
(*fyi Tasmania is about the same size as the Netherlands and Belgium combined)
Image of the week
This lovely graphic is from Brenna Quinlan
Up Next Week
Next week, we cross to Lyanne Togiba in from Papua New Guinea’s National Broadcaster to hear about how the Pacific is dealing with the aftermath of cyclone Harold, and much more.
Climate Weekly is created by Climate Tracker.
If you have any questions, comments or want to get involved, email me at chris@climatetracker.org. I’d love to hear from you.