Context: At the Climate and Clean Air Coalition's (CCAC) annual Climate and Clean Air Conference launched the Clean Air Flagship Initiative to mobilise the partnership and 'move the needle' on achieving clean air across the world by boosting cooperation and reducing pollutant emissions.
Clean Air Flagship
Clean Air Flagship aims to provide a platform to boost regional coordination and private sector engagement, data led policy action, financing, science & advocacy.
It is an initiative under Climate and Clean Air Coalition, convened by UNEP.
Aims of Clean Air Flagship Initiative are:
Saving Lives: Supporting governments to achieve cleaner air as quicky as possible, consistent with improved air quality interim targets.
Slowing climate change: Taking full advantage of win-win opportunities to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants simultaneously with other harmful pollutants.
Maximizing co-benefits: Improving agricultural productivity, economic development and overall quality of life.
Activities under Clean Air Flagship Initiative
Amplify and strengthen regional and multi-level governance, cooperation and capacity on integrated climate and air quality management.
Strengthen science communication to support policy action and fill critical information gaps, especially on economic cost and benefits of climate and clean air action and through integrated inventories, monitoring and air pollution modelling.
Elevate air quality agenda through advocacy, by highlighting readily available solutions, providing capacity support for data and implementation and reinvigorating BreatheLife Network.
Promote transparency to encourage private sector action on integrated climate and air quality management.
Mobilise finance for air quality agenda by raising US$ 30-40 million through a Clean Air Sprint.
Actions under Clean Air Flagship in 2024
Convene a Clean Air Task Team of all interested partners to guide the Flagship.
Launch a knowledge platform for air quality managers and host national and sub-regional technical and advocacy workshops.
Support country-driven projects on air quality including on National Clean Air and SLCP plans.
Re-invest in BreatheLife and engage with key partners in a new campaign to be launched on Clean Air Day in 2024.
Convene a series of Ministerials including a Joint Climate and Health Ministerial on the margins of WHO Global Conference on Air Pollution and Health.
Context:Ministry of Electronics & IT has launched ERSO Pilot initiative to validate transformational policy & process changes to make India the repair capital of the world. The pilot will run for a period of three months in Bengaluru. Five companies namely, Flex, Lenovo, CTDI, R-Logic & Aforeserve have volunteered for the pilot.
Electronics Repair Services Outsourcing
Currently, India lacks a robust electronics repair outsourcing industry.
Globally, outsourced electronics repair services outsourcing industry is estimated to be worth more than $100 bn.
China & Malaysia are major players in this industry.
Flex, Lenovo & Cisco are currently major players of Electronics Repair Services Outsourcing Industry.
Significance of Electronics Repair Service Outsourcing Industry for India
High repair costs in advanced countries like Europe and USA forces companies to send goods overseas to countries like India with cheaper labour costs like China, Malaysia and potentially in India.
Revenue potential: The policy changes are expected to create a robust domestic ERSO industry in India and create an annual revenue of $20 bn and generate millions of jobs.
Extension of device life: ERSO initiative will enable extension of electronics device life globally by providing cheap and reliable repair of ICT products for the globe. According to Ministry of Electronics & IT, India generated more than 16 lakh tonnes (Third largest in the world) of e-Waste of which only 33% was processed. Thus, 67% of E-waste goes into landfills and remains unprocessed. Even majority of e-waste processing takes place in the informal sector.
Promote circularity: A robust ERSO industry will support Mission LIFE and will be gamechanger for Global environmental sustainability and circular economy.
Employment intensity: A repair based economic system has higher employment intensity as compared to a manufacturing-based ecosystem as product manufacturing is increasingly being mechanised due to technologies like additive manufacturing, robotics etc.
Boosting domestic manufacturing: Repair outsourcing will incentivise electronic manufacturers to expand production capabilities in India. It has potential to boost manufacturing of components of spare parts and ensuring resilience to supply chain shocks.
Bottlenecks in developing Electronics Repair Services Hub
E-Waste rules: E-waste rules dealing with electronics goods bans companies from disposing of non-repairable products locally. This adds to the logistics costs as these electronic goods need to be sent back to countries from where they brought.
Import-Export rules: Currently, permissions for imports & exports of faulty electronics products takes a long time. There is a need to ease the approval process for timely clearances so that devices can easily enter India for repairs and then be shipped back quickly.
Policy changes required to establish India as an Electronics Repair Services Hub
Increasing consumerism and difficulty in accessing repair of devices have pushed consumers to give priority to replacement over repair whenever products become defective.
Current legislative framework makes it difficult for consumers to repair their goods when legal guarantee for their products expires.
Relaxing import-export rules for making it easy for companies to import-export repaired products.
Grant permission for re-export of imported electronics goods to countries different from the one it was imported.
Relaxing E-waste rules: Government should allow recycling of 5% of imported goods domestically.
Right to Repair Framework
Right to repair refers to the right of end users to repair devices they own or service without any manufacturer or technical restrictions. The idea is promote repair as an alternative to replacement of devices.
Department of Consumer Affairs has set up a committee for developing Right to Repair framework under Nidhi Khare (Additional Secretary of Department of Consumer Affairs).
Right to Repair will give consumers a chance to repair their products at an optimal cost instead of buying new products altogether.
Forbid manufacturers from impose barriers that deny consumers the ability to repair consumer products like monopolisation and difficulty in access to components, difficulty access to product manuals and prohibition of third-party repairs.
Department of Consumer Affairs has launched Right to Repair portal where companies will provide information on self-repair manuals, authorised & third-party repairers for companies and products.
Challenges for operationalising Right to Repair
Concerns of manufacturers: Manufacturers have raised concerns over data security & intellectual property and safety issues arising out of unauthorised repairs.
Monopolistic policies of OEMs:
Companies avoid publication of manuals which makes it difficult for customers to repair the products.
Companies have proprietary control over spare parts (regarding design for screws & other components)
Companies have monopoly on repair processes which infringes customer’s right to choose. For ex. Digital Warranty cards ensure that by getting a product repaired from a ‘non-recognised’ outfit, a customer loses the right to claim warranty.
Culture of planned obsolescence: Products are designed in such a way that any gadget lasts a particular time only and after that period it has to be mandatorily replaced.
Making products repair friendly will pose technical & practical challenges for manufacturers.
Mandating right to repair can raise products of electronics products.
Global Initiatives toward Right to Repair
Europe: EU has passed legislation mandating manufacturers to supply parts of products to professional repair professionals for a period of 10 years.
UK: A legislation which mandates all electronic appliance manufacturers to provide consumers with spare parts for getting repair done either by themselves or by local repair shops.
Australia: Australia has repair cafes that are free meeting places where volunteer repairmen gather to share their repairing skills.
USA: President Biden has passed a presidential directive encouraging Federal Trade Commission to introduce right to repair. Some US states like New York & Colorado have already introduced legislation mandating Right to Repair.
Similar laws have been passed in many other countries like South Africa, France, Canada etc.
Salient features of Right to Repair framework
Framework for right to repair will break monopoly of manufacturers on repair and spare parts and benefit consumers.
Mandatory for manufacturers of equipments to share product details with customers so that they can either repair them by self or by third parties, rather than only depending on original manufacturers.
Harmonize trade between original equipment manufacturers, third party buyers and sellers.
Manufacturers of end products to provide access to complete documentation, manuals, schematic and software updates to consumers.
Focus sectors of Right to Repair framework: Farming equipment, mobile phones & tablets, consumer durables, automobiles & automobile equipment.
Boost local business and create employment for small repair shops & businesses.
Reducing electronic waste generation.
Potential for India to emerge as a global electronics repair outsourcing hub.
Way Forward
Enacting Right to Repair Legislation: Department of Consumer Affairs has set up Nidhi Khare Committee to develop a comprehensive right to repair legislation in India. This law should be enacted to provide rights of consumers to access cheap, affordable
Taking manufacturers on board: Right to repair cannot materialise on ground if government fails to win confidence of manufacturers. Thus, constant dialogue and engagement needs to be done on this issue between government & industry. Companies should realise the ease of repair will increase demand for their products among consumers.
Adopt a phased approach: All products cannot be repaired with equal ease. For ex. It is difficult to repair complex products like earphones as compared to tablet & PC.
Context: India is “very actively" considering joining the Global Offshore Wind Alliance in an attempt to improve its energy transition standing, said Gauri Singh, deputy director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which played a key role in forming the alliance.
What is global offshore wind alliance (GOWA)?
The alliance was initiated by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Denmark and the Global Wind Energy Council.
It will bring together governments, the private sector, international organisations and other stakeholders to accelerate the deployment of offshore wind power.
It has the aim of reaching global offshore wind capacity of at least 380 GW by 2030.
Countries joining GOWA have agreed to work together to drive national, regional, and global ambitions and remove barriers to the deployment of offshore wind in new and existing markets.
Offshore wind can be deployed at large scale, in short timeframes and at competitive cost.
What is Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC)?
The Global Wind Energy Council is the international trade association for the wind power industry.
GWEC is a member-based organisation that represents the entire wind energy sector.
The members of GWEC represent over 1,500 companies, organisations and institutions in more than 80 countries, including manufacturers, developers, component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies.
GWEC India – a single advocacy and research body representing the entire value chain of India’s wind industry, from IPPs to OEMs to end-users to service-providers – will work closely with central and state governments to improve the enabling environment for sector growth, creating the conditions for inward investment in the tens of billions of dollars.
What is offshore wind energy?
Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the energy taken from the force of the winds out at sea, transformed into electricity and supplied into the electricity network onshore. It is the clean and renewable energy that is produced on the high seas, where it reaches a higher and more constant speed than on land due to the absence of barriers. In order to make the most of this resource, mega-structures are installed that are seated on the seabed and equipped with the latest technical innovations.
Benefits: 1. Renewable, unlimited and non-polluting.
2. Reduces pressure on land resource.
3. Barrier free regions thus higher wind speed and efficiency
4. Visual and acoustic impact is small5. No issues of land acquisition. 6. The ease of maritime transport, which has few limitations with regard to cargo and dimensions in comparison with land transportation, has made it possible for offshore wind turbines to reach much larger unit capacities and sizes than onshore wind turbines.
India and offshore wind energy:
India is blessed with a coastline of about 7600 km surrounded by water on three sides and has good prospects of harnessing offshore wind energy. Considering this, the Government had notified the “National offshore wind energy policy” as per the Gazette Notification dated 6th October 2015. As per the policy, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will act as the nodal Ministry for development of Offshore Wind Energy in India and work in close coordination with other government entities for Development and Use of Maritime Space within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the country and shall be responsible for overall monitoring of offshore wind energy development in the country. National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), Chennai will be the nodal agency to carryout resource assessment; surveys and studies in EEZ demarcate blocks and facilitate developers for setting up offshore wind energy farms.
Context: Over the past 10 months, the Delhi government has banned plastic products twice. While 19 Single Use Plastic (SUP) items, including spoons and cups, were prohibited on July 1, 2022, a ban on plastic bags thinner than 120 microns came into force in January this year. However, many of these prohibited items are still used openly across the Capital.
About Single-use plastics
They are goods that are made primarily from fossil fuel–based chemicals (petrochemicals) and are meant to be disposed of right after use—often, in mere minutes.
They are most used for packaging and service-ware, such as bottles, wrappers, straws, and bags.
Pollution due to single use plastic items has become an important environmental challenge confronting all countries.
India imposed a nationwide ban on plastic bags, cups and straws on Oct 2nd, 2019 in its most sweeping measure yet to stamp out single-use plastics from cities and villages that rank among the world's most polluted.
In this background let us understand various aspects of the single use plastics issue.
Consequences of using single use plastic
• Non-renewable: Only 1-13% of the plastic items are recyclable, the rest ends up either buried in the land or water bodies, eventually reaching the oceans, leading to polluting of water bodies and killing of marine life.
• Pollution: One of the biggest threats about plastic bags is that they threaten the environment. Plastic bags pollute the land and water, since they are lightweight, plastic materials can travel long distances by wind and water.
• Energy intensive: Production of plastic material are very energy intensive. They require a lot of water for their production. Thus, using plastic bags is not advisable.
• Threat to aquatic life: Being non-recyclable, plastic bags end up in the oceans. While they reach, they break up into tiny little pieces and are consumed by wildlife. Thereby leading to health issues or even death. Many animals also get entangled or trapped in plastic bags.
• Harmful to human health: Toxic chemicals from plastic bags can damage the blood and tissues. Frequent exposures can lead to cancers, birth defects, impaired immunity, hormone changes, endocrine disruption and other serious ailments.
Hence, with climate and environment becoming a rising global concern, plastic pollution and plastic waste management have become the point of worry.
Challenges to Phase out Single-use Plastic
• Effective waste collection: India lacks systems for effective waste separation, collection, and recycling.
• National Policy for recycling plastics: There is no policy in place for recycling plastics. There are also difficulties in establishing a recycling plant due to environmental concerns voiced by various state Pollution Control Boards.
• Attitudinal change: Changing one's behavior to avoid using single-use plastic is difficult.
Plastic Waste Management Rules Amendment, 2021
• Prohibition: The manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of following single-use plastic, including polystyrene and expanded polystyrene, commodities shall be prohibited with effect from the 1st of July 2022.
• Compostable plastic: The provisions will not apply to commodities made of compostable plastic.• Timeline: The government has given industry ten years from the date of notification to comply with any future bans on plastic commodities other than those included in this notification.
• Thickness of plastic bags: The allowable thickness of plastic bags will be increased from 50 mm to 75 microns on September 30, 2021, and to 120 microns on December 31, 2022.
• Monitoring agency: The Central Pollution Control Board, along with state pollution bodies, will monitor the ban, identify violations, and impose penalties already prescribed under the Environmental Protection Act, 1986.
• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR): According to the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, the plastic packaging waste that is not covered under the phase out of identified single-use plastic items must be collected and managed in an environmentally sustainable manner through the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) of the Producer, Importer, andBrand Owner (PIBO).
Government And Global Initiatives:
India has announced its commitment to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022 at Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) Sustainability Summit in New Delhi.
India piloted a resolution on combating pollution caused by single-use plastic products at the fourth United Nations Environment Assembly in 2019.
India has received international praise for its “Beat Plastic Pollution” resolution, which was announced on World Environment Day last year and committed to eliminate single-use plastic by 2022.
Project REPLAN (stands for REducing PLastic in Nature) launched by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) aims to reduce consumption of plastic bags by providing a more sustainable alternative.
The Group of 20 (G20) environment ministers, agreed to adopt a new implementation framework for actions to tackle the issue of marine plastic
waste on a global scale.
Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 state that every local body has to be responsible for setting up infrastructure for segregation, collection, processing, and disposal of plastic waste.
Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules 2018 introduced the concept of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
Way Forward
• Effective waste management: India lacks a well- organized system for managing plastic trash, resulting in widespread littering. To strengthen processing, there is a need to invest extensively in increasing waste source segregation and supporting end-to-end waste segregation.
• Sustainable products: The government should put money into fostering the formation of businesses that supply sustainable products as an alternative to non- recyclable ones.
• Need for a new international legally binding agreement that addresses the entire life cycle of plastics, from extraction of raw materials to legacy plastic pollution.
• Chemical recycling and upcycling of polymers: Hitherto management of plastic waste was focused on mechanical recycling of plastic waste.
However, strategies have been developed for chemical recycling of plastics into its constituent monomers and subsequently restructured into new polymers used for new plastic production. This will lead to circularity of the plastic ecosystem.
• Promoting use of waste plastics: Waste plastics are useful as a structural material and can be utilized as a binder for laying roads, making of blocks, table-tops etc. For example, Plastone is a structural material developed which is synthetic granite.
• Promoting biodegradable bioplastics: Bioplastics are a broad category of materials encompassing bio-based plastics that can be both biodegradable and non- biodegradable. They are manufactured from diverse sources such as crops and crop waste, wood pulp, fungi etc. with the help of algae or microbes. Examples of biodegradable bioplastics are polylactic acid (PLA) or polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs).
Context: National Thermal Power Corporation, the largest power-generating utility in India, and Chempolis India, a leading Finnish bio-refining technology provider, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the feasibility of setting up a Bamboo-based Bio-Refinery in Bongaigaon, Assam.
Major Highlights
Chempolis will work with NTPC to conduct the feasibility study for the project which shall utilize bamboo for the production of 2G Ethanol, Bio-Coal for thermal power plant & other value-added products.
The proposed Bio-Refinery is planned as an integration project with NTPC Bongaigaon Power Plant, where all utility requirements such as steam, power, etc., shall be supplied from the power plant and the Bio-Coal produced by the Bio-Refinery shall partly replace coal in the power plant, effectively converting 5% of the generation of the power plant to green.
Significance: The project will support NTPC’s decarbonization efforts, create job opportunities and build a sustainable model by promoting the use of locally available resources.
What is a Bio-Refinery?
Biorefineries are processing facilities that convert biomass to energy and other value-added products such as biofuels, biochemicals, bioenergy/biopower, and other biomaterials.
National Policy on Biofuels
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas published the “National Policy on Biofuels" in 2018, which was further amended in June 2022.
The policy's objective is to reduce the import of petroleum products by fostering domestic biofuel production.
Salient Features of the National Policy on Biofuels
Oil Companies shall sell Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) with a percentage of ethanol up to 20% throughout the country from 01st April 2023.
A target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol is proposed by Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2025-26.
An indicative target of 5% blending of biodiesel in diesel /direct sale of biodiesel is proposed by 2030.
The Policy categorises biofuels as:
"Basic Biofuels" viz. First Generation (1G) bioethanol & biodiesel
"Advanced Biofuels" - Second Generation (2G) ethanol, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to drop-in fuels
“Third Generation’’ (3G) biofuels, bio-CNG etc. to enable the extension of appropriate financial and fiscal incentives under each category.
It expands the scope of raw materials for ethanol production by allowing the use of Sugarcane Juice, Sugar containing materials like Sugar Beet, Sweet Sorghum, Starch containing materials like Corn, Cassava, damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice, Rotten Potatoes, unfit for human consumption for ethanol production.
It allows the use of surplus food grains for the production of ethanol for blending with petrol with the approval of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee.
With a thrust on Advanced Biofuels, the Policy indicates a viability gap funding scheme for 2G ethanol Bio refineries of Rs. 5000 crores in 6 years in addition to additional tax incentives, and a higher purchase price as compared to 1G biofuels.
It encourages the setting up of supply chain mechanisms for biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, Used Cooking Oil, and short gestation crops.
Stepping up from its ongoing initiative of providing potable water in six islands of Lakshadweep using Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) technology, the Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) is working at making this process free of emissions.
What is Low Temperature Thermal Desalination (LTTD) technology?
It is based on Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) principle.
It is one process that uses the availability of a temperature gradient between two water bodies or flows to evaporate the warmer water at low pressure and condense the resultant vapour with the colder water to obtain freshwater.
While ocean, with its temperature variation across its depth, presents one such scenario of two water bodies, a coast based thermal power plant discharging huge amounts of condenser reject water into the nearby ocean represents an alternate scenario.
Note: Near Lakshwadeep there is a difference of about 15 - 20 degree Celsius between sea surface water and deep sea water.
Warm surface sea water is flash evaporated at low pressure and the vapour is condensed with cold deep sea water.
LTTD exploits the difference in temperature (nearly 15°C) in ocean water at the surface and at depths of about 600 feet.
This cold water condenses water at the surface, that is warmer but whose pressure has been lowered using vacuum pumps.
Such de-pressurised water can evaporate even at ambient temperatures and this resulting vapour when condensed is free of salts and contaminants and fit to consume.
Note: Sea water is salty. When water evaporates, it leaves the salts behind. Those vapours when get condensed, are transformed into pure fresh water.
The LTTD technology does not require any chemical pre and post-treatment of seawater and thus the pollution problems are minimal and suitable for island territories.
Since no effluent treatment is required, it gives less operational maintenance problems compared to other desalination processes.
The cost per liter of desalination would depend on the technology used and cost of electricity which varies from place to place.
Existing issue: Currently the desalination plants, each of which provides at least 100,000 litres of potable water everyday, are powered by diesel generator sets — there being no other source of power in the islands. However, the need for diesel power to reduce the water pressure means that the process is not fossil-fuel free and also consumes diesel, a precious commodity in the islands that has to be shipped from the mainland critical for powering the electric grid.
