'Trends in Sustainable Development, is a colorful compilation of maps and graphs devoted to the discussion of interrelated challenges being addressed at the 14th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (May 1-12, 2006). The four areas are: energy for sustainable development, industrial development, atmosphere and air pollution, and climate change.'

The 85th meeting of the Genetically Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) was held on 28.5.2008 in Room No. 623 in the Ministry of Environment and Forests under the Chairmanship of Shri B. S. Parsheera, Additional Secretary, MoEF and Chairman, GEAC.

This briefing paper, issued by the European Environment Agency (EEA), analyzes how better management of municipal waste can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While predicting a significant decrease in net GHG emissions from municipal waste by 2020, mainly due to increased recycling and waste recovery, in addition to incineration combined with energy production and diverting waste away from landfills, the paper also warns that unsustainable consumption and production patterns more...

The UN estimates that some 20 to 50m tonnes of e-waste are generated worldwide each year, comprising more than 5% of all municipal solid waste. The fate of large quantities of this so-called e-waste is unknown. Much is exported, often illegally, for dumping in Africa or for rudimentary recovery in Asia, where workers at scrapyards are exposed to toxic chemicals when the products are broken apart and as water, soil and air are polluted.

A new report published by a team of international energy and economic experts which conclusively proves that nuclear power is neither a practical nor economically viable solution to tackling climate change.

The report, “The Economics of Nuclear Power”, commissioned by Greenpeace International, concludes that nuclear power station construction can run up to 300% over budget and, on average, take four years longer to build than planned.

Once plastics have been built into a car, they are rarely recycled. Compressed into granulate material, the shredded plastic parts are usually too indiscriminately mixed to permit any further use. Researchers have now found a way of separating the different types of plastic.

This report looks at case studies in Benin, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, as well as trends elsewhere in Africa. The report indicates that big companies are seeking to convert large areas of Africa’s best land over to biofuel production, even if this means privatising customary land, evicting farmers, raising food prices, competing for water resources, and cutting down forests and conservation areas

Greenpeace International commissioned this report to test how the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for waste from electronics equipment (e-waste), embodied in EU, Japanese, South Korean and other OECD (Organisation for Economic and Co-operation Development) legislation could be applied effectively in countries outside of the OECD. Greenpeace believes that laws requiring producers to take responsibility for their products, once discarded by their customers, are urgently needed more...

Although the oil companies will continue to pump oil for a long time to come, a growing consensus is emerging that it is high time to start reducing the amount of oil that we burn, as it is one of the main
causes of climate change, air pollution and other environmental disasters. The way to do this, it is claimed, is by using biological material to produce energy for fuel: crops such as maize and sugar cane distilled into ethanol, and crops such as oil palm, soya and canola transformed into bio more...

We are in the midst of a sustainable energy and climate change revolution, directly linked to the other major transformational trends of our time-the rise of the world's emerging economies, the world's rapid urbanization and the revolution in biotechnology. While not a panacea, biofuels represent one important choice in an increasing array of energy options. They have a significant role to play in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from transport, developing rural economies, and attractin more...