Sustainability Insider

The world is producing a record amount of single-use plastic waste, mostly made from polymers created from fossil fuels, despite global efforts to reduce plastic pollution and carbon emissions, according to a new report released on Monday.

Certain "Green Projects" contribute exceptionally towards the 15 Sustainable Developmental Goals laid down by the United Nations, and are, therefore, eligible for financing by green bonds, which provide handsome tax incentives.

NTDs are a diverse group of 20 conditions that are mainly prevalent in tropical areas. Globally, they affect more than 1 billion people, cost low- and middle-income countries billions of dollars every year, and perpetuate a cycle of poor educational outcomes and limited professional opportunities, mostly for impoverished communities, where they disproportionately affect women and children.

The 10 water-focused entrepreneurs, or "aquapreneurs", were chosen from 227 solutions submitted to the challenge, and will now each receive CHF 175,000 ($190,000) in vital funding from the HCL Group. Two of these innovators were selected to present their solutions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos.

It noted that these risks would be amplified by aspects like unsustainable levels of debt, a new era of low growth, low global investment and de-globalisation, a decline in human development after decades of progress, rapid and unconstrained development of dual-use (civilian and military) technologies.

Most of these places are severely threatened by rising ocean levels that stand to erase large swaths of land from the map. At the same time, widespread habitat destruction erodes other places of their magnificent centrepieces.

A month-long campaign for the collection of e-waste from 120 cities across the country was launched here on Tuesday. The 'Dump and Donate' campaign also involves reaching out to the masses through various schools, institutions and other mediums to create awareness about E-waste and its harmful impact on health and the environment.

The conference will have five thematic sessions -- Water Security in Water Deficit, Water Surplus and Hilly Regions; Water Use Efficiency including Reuse of Waste Water/Grey Water; Water Governance; Climate Change Resilient Water Infrastructure; and Water Quality.

According to the study, batteries, prosumers and utility scale solar meet most of the demand in Delhi by 2050 as fossil fuels are phased out by then. The energy system taken into consideration includes the power, heat, transport and desalination sectors.

In this experiment, while a generous 9.9% of participants tended to pick healthier options when they were highlighted with a green low-impact label, a whopping 23.5% were persuaded into a sustainable choice when the environmentally unfriendly items (such as red meats) were instead tagged with a glaring red high-impact label.

Here are some of the species endemic to our country that India stands to lose to climate change and severe weather, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List. They have all been listed as 'Critically Endangered'. Failing to save them would directly set us back on the 15th SDG, which seeks to protect the planet’s biodiversity.

The CAQM said that the flying squad of the commission are under instructions to conduct incognito visits to ensure compliance of directions regarding use of approved fuels in the entire NCR. The violations and non-compliance of the directions issued by the Commission including use of unapproved fuels will straight away lead to closure.

It may be noted that mangroves play a major role as feeding and breeding areas for a large variety of marine life including shrimps, and crabs, and also helps protect shorelines. The district administration and the forest department are also planning to raise 1 lakh mangrove saplings to be planted in the district in due course, and NABARD will be supporting the project.

The new Thirty-Metre-Telescope will be an international collaboration between India and four of the world's most astronomically advanced nations, whose scale puts even the James Webb Telescope to shame. However, since the TMT will be a ground-based observatory, new studies have revealed several factors that could threaten its and similar telescopes' functioning.

Apple leads the smartphone market in the overall approach towards sustainability, followed by Samsung, across the three major stages of the smartphone circular economy - production, usage and end of life, a report mentioned on Tuesday. However, a lot has to be done when it comes to the used stock or mobile e-waste.

The economic benefits of India stepping up its transition to climate neutrality by 2070 are immense — boost of up to 4.7 per cent to the annual GDP by 2036 and creating some 15 million new jobs by 2047, according to a report by the High-Level Policy Commission on Getting Asia to Net Zero.

Watergen, the atmospheric drinking water devices (AWG), on Tuesday announced its partnership with Hockey India as a sustainability partner for providing 'drinking water from air' for FIH Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup 2023 Bhubaneswar - Rourkela from January 13-29, 2023.

Polyethylene was the major substance detected, followed by polycarbonate and polyethylene terephthalate. Polycarbonate is used in electrical and electronic applications, while the other two are used in packaging material. All three of them are also used in the construction industry. Given just how tiny these particles are, it raises concerns regarding how much of it people might be inhaling and accumulating in their bodies.

In Infosys' recent report, they state that 90% of global business executives mentioned that their ESG spending led to at least moderate or significant returns. In addition, two-thirds of them reaped these benefits within just three years; not the most immediate results, but definitely not an unimaginably high figure either.

Just a few months back, Ethereum made a ground-shaking move called 'The Merge', which fundamentally changed how block rewards were handed out. This change from a 'Proof-of-work' system to a 'Proof-of-stake' system eliminated the incentives of having warehouses of computers to make you crypto-richer by simply making the process non-competitive.

We saw eight times as many heatwaves this year than usual and five times as many thunderstorms. So far, these have resulted in 2,183 deaths, almost the highest the toll has ever gotten in the past half a decade. Shockingly, lightning and floods accounted for 78% of the total deaths this year.

Honeywell, an Indian company, has managed to invent an ethanol-to-jet fuel processing technology that converts corn-based, cellulosic, or sugar-based ethanol into SAFs. The company claims this fuel will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80%, and its modular property can enable rapid installation to speed up the transition process even more.

To get on track this decade, there needs to be $3 invested in low-carbon supply for every $1 in fossil-fuel supply. There are also critical enabling factors to consider: electrification and economic growth will quadruple the planet’s power demand by 2050. We need to see a massive acceleration in the build-out of power grids, manufacturing capacity for low carbon technologies, and supply of critical metals and materials.

According to a report by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the University of California, Mumbai and Delhi have been awarded some of the lowest ranks regarding urban mobility in cities. Among 60 cities in the world, Mumbai and Delhi ranked 52nd and 50th in the 2022 Urban Mobility Readiness Index.

The Vodafone Business report define Fit for the Future (FFTF) businesses as those that understand the power of technology to solve their business challenges and have technology roadmaps in place to transform their working methods. Their strategies are specific, documented, adequately funded, and well-measured.