annual report 2013-2014 - centre for science and environment · centre for science and environment...

Centre for Science and Environment41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110062

ANNUAL REPORT 2013-2014

OVERVIEW … … … … … … … … … … … … … …1-2

RESEARCH AND ADVOCACY … … … … … … … …1-36

Sustainable Urban Mobility and Air Quality … … … …3

Sustainable Building Programme … … … … … … …8

Green Rating Project … … … … … … … … … …10

Training and South Asia Consultancy Team … … …12

Policy Research and Community Support … … … …15

Climate Change … … … … … … … … … … … …18

Food Safety and Toxins … … … … … … … … … …23

Water Advocacy and Research … … … … … … …26

Renewable Energy … … … … … … … … … … …30

PUBLIC AWARENESS … … … … … … … … … …37-40

Science and Environment Reportage … … … … …37

EDUCATION AND TRAINING … … … … … … …41-42

Media Resource Centre … … … … … … … … … …41

ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES … … … … … …42-45

ANIL AGARWAL ENVIRONMENT TRAINING INSTITUTE … … … … … … … … …46-48

CONTENTS

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CENTRE FOR SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT

Annual Report 2013–14 49



In 2013-2014, CSE has continued tomaintain its stature as an influentialenvironmental policy advocacy

institution. It has been able to evolve andbuild on the lineage of its long-standingcampaigns and programmes. For instance,the air pollution programme hastransformed and broadened its ambit, froman earlier focus on clean fuels to now alsomobility management and public transport.Similarly, the water managementprogramme’s scope has broadened fromcommunity-led rainwater harvesting to nowalso decentralised wastewater treatment anda clearer alignment on supporting thegovernment’s push on sustainable water andwaste management in rural and urban India.

The institution was able to respond toemerging challenges by strengthening newerprogrammes, such as the ones on GreenBuildings and on Renewable Energy. CSE’swatchdog role continue to brings results,

with targeted, action research leading tooutsized impacts.

Meanwhile, programme leadership at CSEhas matured, with many teams now headedby a young cadre of managers, withconsiderable autonomy. During the last 5years, about 60% of CSE staff recruited wasless than 30 years old — 33% are betweenthe ages of 31 and 40 years, while 6% wereabove 40. CSE maintains a gender ratio of46% women to 54% men. The contribution

Overview

Anil Agarwal Dialogue in progress

Evaluation by Thomas Alveteg andSanjukta Sarkar, SIPU (February 2014): CSE is… a unique organisation — a watchdogand green think-tank with a clear potential tocontinue expand and play a crucial role inproviding a constructive South perspective tothe international environment and climatedebate — a role which mostly is played byorganisations from the North.

Annual Report 2013–142

(in days) of the 430 interns and volunteershired by CSE is equivalent to 75 regular staffmembers. As many as 10 were recruited asfull time/part time staff and internscontributed actively to all programmes.Many individual staff members are pluggedinto important policy bodies to directly drivechange at the national, regional as well as atthe global process level.

CSE’s approach of privileging strategy overscale has been validated – it continues todiscover and invest in catalysts – fromregulators, the media community and theyouth, among others. In this context, onemarked change has been the phenomenalincrease in sector capacity building andtraining efforts. In the last two years alone,CSE has trained more than 4500 people inIndia and south Asia. Most programme teamshave broadened their strategy to includetraining key stakeholders in their respectivefields — this underscores the urgent need andthe un-satiated demand to capacitate frontlinemanagers, implementers and decision makersto drive change. Last year alone, CSE trained2384 people with a total of 68 trainings. Partlyto meet this demand, CSE is constructing aseparate, state-of-art training facility, AnilAgarwal Environment Training Institute(AAETI) close to Delhi, with green campusfeatures and residential quarters.

Of particular note in this period was theinstitutional-level support CSE secured tocarry out its work at the global level, whichwill help establish perhaps the South’s firstglobal NGO. This will demand not only amassive expansion in scope of existingprogrammes, but also institutional-widechanges and routines in order to successfullytake on this huge but exciting challenge. Thefirst year of the five-year support will be usedto scope for potential in-country partners inAfrica, Asia and elsewhere, and to explore thepotential for CSE perspectives and knowledgeto inform global networks and processes.

CSE also remains a very visible organisation– generating hundreds of news articles andlarge number of TV/broadcast episodes everyyear, which serves as clear evidence of the

public interest in its research findings andmessaging. Institutional visibility hasincreased because of the emphasis oninformation outreach, which is increasinglydigital – CSE websites have attracted morethan a million visitors each year during thelast 5 years.

During this period, there was a rapidexpansion of the geographical reach ofprogrammes and interventions to cover thesouth Asian region. Many importantpartnerships and Memorandum ofUnderstandings (MoUs) were signed withleading regulatory bodies, environmentagencies, ministries and civil society groupsacross south Asia – on training, research andimplementation projects.

Programmes were able to on averageachieve close to 80% of targeted activitiesand planned events. CSE has alsostrengthened its internal systems ofplanning, monitoring and evaluation tosupport its programmatic work – part of thiswas only natural, given the increasingdemands of donors, while a part of it was driven by the need to see clearlyarticulated results.




SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY AND AIR QUALITY

Vehicular air pollution in urban India hasbeen one of our key areas of work. CSE’sClean Air and Sustainable Mobility

programme had originated in the realisationthat there was a crisis brewing on urban airquality and public health in Indian cities due torapid motorisation. Over 50 per cent of citieshave particulate pollution level that is officiallyclassified as critical. This has compounded theproblem of energy insecurity and climateimpact. The transport sector uses up more than40 per cent of the petroleum products. Massiveuse of diesel in vehicles is further aggravatingthe local toxic risk as well as climate riskbecause of high black carbon emissions.

Motorisation and dieselisation arehappening based on outdated vehicletechnologies and fuel quality—seven to 12years behind Europe. On the other hand, the

daily travel length and duration is increasingrapidly in cities with growing dependence onpersonal vehicles, traffic congestion becauseof increasing numbers of vehicles, andsprawl-based urban design. Indian citiescannot fight this battle of dirty air, car bulgeand fuel guzzling alone. Small steps arebeing taken across cities, but these are toolittle and too late—they need to gather pacebacked by good science, technical andregulatory capacity, and an aware andinvolved public.

Between 1996 and 2014, CSE workedconcertedly to introduce clean fuel(compressed natural gas or CNG) and pushedpublic transport as the option for breakingthe mobility gridlock in cities. One of themost significant success stories that emergedout of these efforts was the transformation ofthe travel mode in Delhi, the nation’s capital:The city now has the biggest CNG-run publictransport system in the world.

CSE director general Sunita Narain addressing the audience at the workshop on transport and climate

Research and advocacy



However, it is time to move on literally - andCSE is looking towards expanding the scopeof this programme to a global scale based onco-benefit principles of public health, climatechange and energy security. By 2030, CSEaims to propel the key regions in theSouthern world towards meeting the WorldHealth Organization (WHO) guidelines forambient air quality. While about 25 per centworldwide CO2 emissions are attributed totransport, nearly one-fifth of global blackcarbon emissions come from thetransportation sector, with a relatively largeshare coming from diesel vehicles.Worldwide, as per the 2010 Global Burden ofDisease assessment, outdoor air pollutioncontributes annually to over 3.2 millionpremature deaths and over 74 million yearsof healthy life lost.

Evidently, clean air action in the Southernregions would require significant reductionin vehicular emissions through technologyimprovement as well as mobilitymanagement. This programme is expected tocatalyse change in the targeted countries;these countries are currently working withdifferentiated targets based on their unique

imperatives to set emissions standardsroadmaps to get clean vehicles and fuels. Oneof the key clean air strategies will be toeliminate dirty diesel from the region toprovide climate co-benefit. By 2030, thetargeted regions should also reduce vehiclemiles travelled and achieve an 80 per centpublic transport ridership with scaled upwalking and cycling, and accessible andcompact city designs to reduce traveldistances. This will contribute to the newglobal transport agenda of doubling theshare of public transport, walking andcycling by 2030.

India needs to tap into the emerging bestpractices in the Southern world as well as indeveloped countries to understand theprinciples for good regulatory practices,planning and public awareness to accelerateaction locally. At the same time, India canshare its own learning with these nations. Ona global scale, reducing emissions from long-range transportation systems - such asrailways, aviation and marine—will alsorequire more effective and guidedparticipation of the southern world. TheSouthern world needs to engage effectively to

Participants attending a workshop on transport and mobility



ensure a fair deal in which even as emissionstargets are improved, unilateral marketrestrictions are avoided and Southerncountries with growing aviation industriesand a large marine presence can refine theirnational strategies to address this emergingchallenge.

KEY ACTIVITIES

Air pollution campaign in cities: As part ofthe ongoing campaign on air pollution andpublic health we extensively raised the issueof smog, rising air pollution in cities andweak action to protect public health. This ledto extensive reportage in Delhi and otherscities. Media also highlighted the Delhi airquality in comparison with our Beijing andother cities. Throughout the year CSE raisedthe issue of rising air pollution and result ofstudies which were released during the year.

The issue of air pollution raised by CSE led toformation of a committee by the Departmentof Health on Air Quality Index, involving CSEand Medical community and regulators.Further several parliament questions wereraised and the received extensive mediareportage.

Intervention at the Supreme Court: CSEplayed a key role in filing a report throughthe Supreme Court appointed committee —Environment Pollution (Prevention andControl) Authority (EPCA) on ‘Prioritymeasures to reduce air pollution and protectpublic health’ as an interlocutory application(IA). The report was presented by amicuscuriae Harish Salve. The bench has takencognizance of the fact that Delhi has not beenable to sustain its air quality gains and airpollution levels are rising again. The bench,headed by Justice Patnaik, acknowledged thegravity of the air pollution problem andissued notices to the Union of India and thestate governments of Delhi, Haryana,Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh to respond tothe recommendations of the report. Courtalso asked the Central Government on whyenvironmental compensation charges cannotbe imposed on diesel cars which are growingat faster rate.

Campaign against CNG price hike:Indraprastha Gas Limited announced a steephike of Rs 4.50 paise per kg in the price ofCNG in December 2013 making it expensiveat Rs 50.1 per kg, the second successive hikein three months. As a result of our campaignand ongoing developments which alsochallenged the price hike, government finallyreduced the price of compressed natural gas(CNG) by Rs 15 per kg in Delhi in February.We welcomed the government’s decision.

Campaign for fuel efficiency norms forvehicles: We carried forward our campaignto demand fuel efficiency norms for vehiclesin India led to declaration of fuel efficiencynorms for passenger cars. However, this wasnot easy, CSE remained in discussion anddirectly engaged with the BEE, MORTH, andOther concerned agencies to push for thestandards. During this process, CSE alsoslammed reported efforts by industry todilute car fuel economy standards alreadyapproved by PMO after public consultations.Our advocacy prevented the industry-leddilution and BEE retracted from theiroriginal proposal and revised and notifiedthe new & tightened fuel efficiency norms.

Campaign for car restrain measures: Ourcampaign agenda of parking policy reformsto initiate process to restrain cars and shiftdemand towards public transport giveninputs for the Master Plan revision. This hasled to several proposals on parking pricingreforms. Our recommendations have beenincluded in the official parking policy draft.Based on NMT assessment we engaged withconcerned departments and UTTIPEC.

Public transport promotion: While the bustransport services have improved in the city,we continued to raise the demand forincreasing ridership of buses. Also, buses areessential public transport mode as theyconnect all the areas of cities and along withthe mass transit network can result in overallincrease in modal share of public transport.During the month of October minister ofenvironment declared a symbolic measurethat he will reach to his office by using publictransport on every Wednesday, while we



welcomed the decision we said that insteadof making it a gimmick the governmentshould try to improve the services in such away that all people use the public transportirrespective of any working day.

Countrywide assessment of clean air andmobility action: CSE conducted a rapidassessment of air quality and identification ofwide spectra of actions in cities whichprovide a direction of change, and a learningcurve. Based on our research we published abook “Good News & Bad News: Clearing theAir in Indian Cities” This book brings to theresults of our extensive effort to assess theemerging good practices in air quality andmobility practices in our cities to cutpollution, congestion and energy guzzling.This puts a spot light on the positive policyaction – the ‘Good News’ in cities - mega, bigand small, in the areas of urban air qualityand health, public transport, walking andcycling, intermediate public transport andintegration, restraint on vehicle usagethrough parking policy and fiscal strategyand unique efforts in our hill towns.

CSE organised a unique event on 26thSeptember 2013 in New Delhi to celebratepositive action on sustainable mobility inIndian cities. The event engaged in dialoguewith change makers from different cities ofIndia who made a difference to mobility andair quality related concerns. This occasionwas to acknowledge positive action to createpolicy stake in change and deepen publicunderstanding of what is needed to moveforward. This event also culminated ongoingefforts to identify and assess the emerginggood practices in different cities of India. Onthis occasion, the community of changemakers including policy makers, civil societyactors, experts, political and industry actors,among others came together from across thecountry to share `good news` as well as thechallenges.

City dialogues in selected cities to buildsupport for action to improve mobility andair quality: CSE along with Tamil NaduPollution Control Board and Chennai localbodies, Bhubaneswar developmentAuthority, and Chandigarh Administration,

Releasing the book on ‘Good News & Bad News: Clearing the air in Indian cities



organised citizens’ dialogue on air qualityand mobility challenges to build policysupport for reforms and city action planningto achieve sustainable mobility plan for thecities. During the dialogues we presented ourfindings of consultations with citystakeholders, our assessment of air qualityand mobility challenges of the cities, and on-ground assessment of city action on NMT toimprove access. These programmes wereattended and participated by a large numberof stakeholders and received extensivecoverage in media.

CAPACITY BUILDING ACTIVITIES

The city based action has demonstrated thatthe growing pressure of transportationreforms is making enormous demand onregulatory capacity to design and implementmobility related regulations. This is a verynew area of governance and demandsdeepening of understanding of the emergingissues and strategies; exposure to policy tools,and rigorous capacity creation in the relevantagencies to carry forward the reform process.In addition to the orientation programmes

and workshops in Delhi, we have expandedthe scope of our capacity building programmeand moved out of Delhi to organiseorientation workshops in other cities tosensitize and discuss the clean air andsustainable mobility agenda with the multistakeholder group including regulators,academia, civil society groups and mediapersons in a city or at regional level.

Regional orientation workshops: Tworegional orientation workshops wereorganised in Guwahati (targeted at thenortheast region) and Lucknow (targeted atnorthern region including select UttarPradesh cities, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjaband Chandigarh).

Orientation workshop on Parking policy: AsCSE has been advocating for formulation andimplementation of a Parking policy as atravel demand management measure incities to reduce usage of personal vehicles, aspecial interaction orientation workshop onParking policy was organised in Delhi on July26, 2013 to discuss the emerging bestpractices in parking policy and how cities can

Panelists of the workshop on air quality and transportation challenges held in Kathmandu



craft a parking policy focusing on TDMprinciples with the concerned stakeholders.CSE along with international expert, PaulBarter and Manfred Breithaupt of GIZ werethe key resource persons. Around 50participants including regulators from Indiaand South Asia, international experts,planners, consultants, students, media etcparticipated in the orientation workshop.

Training programme on Policy, Planningand Design for Sustainable Mobility, March25 – 27, 2014: We expanded our target groupsand conducted a specialised trainingprogramme for students and academics onMarch 25 - 27, 2014. Masters students inUrban and Regional Planning; Geography;Architecture and Planning; Faculty,department of Architecture; M.Phil and PhDResearch scholars from Delhi, Gujarat andUttar Pradesh participated in the programme.The participants found the trainingprogramme very useful. According to them, itenriched their understanding and changedtheir perspective on sustainable mobility,which has been missing in their curriculum.

CSE Workshop Series on Transport andClimate: CSE organised a two-day workshopseries on the theme of ‘Transport andClimate’ on July 24 - 25, 2013 in New Delhi.Globally cities are following divergentstrategies including vehicles emissions andefficiency regulations, urban designinterventions, direct measures to restrainpersonal vehicle numbers and usage toreduce auto-mobility and secureenvironment and public health. Experts fromthe US, Europe, China, Singapore, HongKong, and Brazil shared their learning curveand experts from India captured the lessonsand case studies from Indian cities.

SOUTH ASIA: Achieving clean airsustainable mobility in cities: In addition toIndia, CSE expanded the scope of our workand initiated our work at the regional level inSouth Asia. We have conducted stakeholderworkshops in Dhaka, Colombo andKathmandu to build a forum for city dialogueon air quality and sustainable mobility inSouth Asia and to find solutions to the

daunting air pollution and mobilitychallenges facing our cities.

These workshops brought together a widespectrum of stakeholders including policy makers from concerned Ministries,departments/agencies, experts,academicians, civil society groups and otherswho are involved with the implementation ofthe clean air, transportation and mobilityrelated policies in the respectivecities/countries to discuss the air pollutionand transportation challenges and futureaction. These are experience sharingworkshops, learning from each other andleveraging our work. As a follow up of theworkshops, Kathmandu Metropolitan Cityoffice in Kathmandu to engage with us onparking policy. Sri Lanka has involved us inpreparation of the cabinet note on fuelsroadmap. Also engaged with fuel economystandards roadmap. Bangladesh RoadTransport Authority has shown interest towork on a transport plan for Dhaka.

SUSTAINABLE BUILDING PROGRAMME

There is no doubt that greener buildings arekey to sustainable development—buildingscontribute to resource extraction for building,energy and water use and discharge ofeffluents. Therefore, ensuring that existingbuildings are retrofitted for resourceefficiency and that future buildingssubstantially reduce their resource footprintis critical. Countries like India can get it righttoday as over 80 per cent of the building stockwill only now be built. But they can also get ithorribly wrong if they do not have the rightregulations for stipulating and measuring thegreen performance of buildings. A few yearsago, we asked why CSE should work in thisarea, which is dominated by large numbers ofcertification agencies and consultants. Wefound that there were no institutions workingin the public policy space, which wouldcritique developments and push for reforms.So, while there is a buzz about ‘greenbuildings’, there is still little understanding ofwhat we mean by green buildings that areboth sustainable and affordable. CSE believes



that green is not about first buildingstructures, which use lots of materials andenergy, and then fixing it so that it becomes alittle more efficient. Building green is aboutbuildings, which optimise on the localecology, use local materials as far as possibleand most importantly, build to cut the power,water and material requirements. This is theonly way that we will be able to substantiallyreduce the footprints of the building sector onthe environment.

KEY ACTIVITIES:

International conference on designingcompact and accessible cities: CSE carriedout an exhaustive study of urban design ofold and new cities and effect of it on thecities’ mobility access and carbon footprint.The findings were deliberated and releasedat a conference held on July 25, 2013. Therole of urban design interventions and carrestraint measures to reduce auto-mobilityand environmental impacts weredeliberated. The discussion focused onemerging approaches in urban design andplanning interventions for sustainablemobility and evaluated transit orienteddevelopment models emerging in differentcities of the world (Curitiba, Hong Kong,Singapore and European cities) includingIndia (Delhi, Naya Raipur) to integrate land-use policies with transportation strategies forsustainable mobility.

Energy and sustainable buildings: Anassessment of status of adoption andimplementation of energy efficiencymeasures in the east and northeasternregion of the country was undertaken duringthe year. The findings were published andreleased at Regional Dialogue on SustainableBuilding, Bhubaneswar on December 13,2013 in association with the BhubaneswarDevelopment Authority (BDA). Thisworkshop was continuation of four city-leveldialogues started last year.

Construction and demolition waste incities: A briefing paper on the issue ofconstruction and demolition waste waspublished to push for expediting Indian

Standard update to include recycled C&Dwaste so as to increase the uptake of theproduct and reduce the ecological impact ofthe waste and demand for naturally sourcedbuilding material. The findings werediscussed at the daylong Conference: “Wasteto resource: Addressing construction anddemolition waste in cities” jointly organisedwith the Environment Pollution (Preventionand Control) Authority (EPCA) and in NewDelhi on December 23, 2013.

Analysis of building sector of India: Thegreen building team has compiled a threeyear research in the form a book “BuildingSense: Towards a sustainable future.” Thebook will be published shortly.

Classroom Series in Down To Earth: Theteam carried a 20 issue long classroom seriesin the Down To Earth magazine to demystifyjargons of the green building industry andshowcase good practice from across thecountry. Also consolidated all the greenbuilding related information on a specializedweb-page on DTE website to improve accessto the teams research and documentationwork.

AC Calculator: An online calculator wasintroduced to help public to access theefficiency of their AC and calculate possiblesavings by shifting to more sensibletemperature settings. This initiative got verypopular on the website attracting heavy traffic.

Orientation programme for Regulators: Atraining programme titled ‘SustainableBuildings for Sustainable Cities: Policies andPractices’ for the engineers and architects ofCPWD – Ghaziabad was organised. It wasattended by 25 participants belonging tovaried professionals fields such as civilengineering, architecture and electricalengineering. The course was conducted from6th -8th August at the Anil Aggarwal GreenCollege. The participants indicated in theirfeedback that they had benefitted from thecourse and would endeavor to utilise theknowledge that they had gained during thetraining in their work in order to design andconstruct sustainable buildings.

SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIALISATION

We see inter-related environmentalchallenges of industrial growth. First, thereis the reform and strengthening of planning,monitoring and regulatory procedures,especially in the design and application ofthe environmental impact assessment (EIA)tools. Second, we find that regulatorysystems in India and the global South arestruggling to catch up with dealing withnewer pollutants, even as the old pollutantshave continued to grow. There are key issuesof affordability of developing societies as thecost of pollution control grows. Third, thereis the need to mitigate emissions and to worktowards low-carbon growth strategies. Allthis, we believe, is not possible unlessindustrialisation is much more resource-efficient and works in the interests of all.

The capacity of regulatory institutions toimplement environmental regulations andmonitor environmental performance ofindustries effectively is weak in most regionsof the developing world. As in India, thework of pollution control boards, includingdecision-making and rules for complianceand enforcement, often occur in anaccountability and information vacuum. Thelesson from India’s environment clearanceprocess combined with global best practicescould provide a valuable Southernperspective on environmental governance inemerging economies. This will strengthenpolicy and implementation regimes.

Our sustainable industrialisationprogramme seeks to prevent lock-in ofgreenhouse gas emissions and local airpollution, promote optimal resource use, andreduce environmental damage fromextractive and manufacturing industrieseven as the emerging economies grow toreduce poverty and improve standard ofliving. The long-term goal of this programmeis to push for changes in the clean technologyroadmap for energy and resource-intensiveindustries and strengthen the environmentalgovernance and regulatory capacity in theSouthern regions for low carbon growth andless resource-intensive pathways.

KEY ACTIVITIES:

GREEN RATING PROJECT

Thermal Power Sector: Scoping andFramework development: Under Scopingand Framework Development objective GRPintended to develop analytical framework toassess the environmental and socialperformance of the sector. The initiativeincluded activities to create representativesample of industries, ensure maximumparticipation and subsequent data collection.Under the objective following activities wereperformed:

Selection of representative sample &maximum participation: For the purpose ofrating of coal and lignite based thermalpower sector a representative sample of 46plants (1 plant recently commission wasexcluded) were selected across the country.The methodology adopted in selection ofplants included following factors: region-wise power generation capacity distribution,company-wise regional power generationcapacity, inclusion of one plant across everycompany across all 250MW capacity plants.Shortlisted companies were sent invitationletters for voluntary participation in theproject. The companies were communicatedand followed up through email, phone,letters, fax, etc. Only 50 per centparticipation was arrived, as major PSUssuch as NTPC and state owned units declinedto come forward.

Technical Advisory Panel (TAP): Anexternal panel of experts was constitutedintended to ensure independency,consistency and quality of GRP result.Presently 4 expert members were selectedwho have expertise in thermal power sectorand regulation. The 1st meeting with TAPwas held in the month of April 2013 toshortlist study sample and finalizing thequestionnaire. The second meeting was heldin March 2014 for development of indicatorsfor rating.

Information collection throughQuestionnaire: An extensive technical


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questionnaire was finalized in consultationwith TAP. The questionnaire was sharedwith shortlisted plants in order to collectrequired information for the study. Out of 23 participating plants, only 13 have so far availed the information in therequired format.

Survey guideline preparation and sharingwith GRN: To carryout site survey andinformation collection, GRN personnel areidentified who have expertise and ability toperceive the information during site surveyand collate the same. To keep the GRNsurvey reporting uniform, a guideline andinformation collection was finalized andshared with the identified GRNs.

Plants short-listing and invitation ensureswide and voluntary representation of plantsin study sample. GRP selected a sample of 46coal and lignite based thermal power plantsrepresenting eastern, western, southern andnorthern region of country with diverserange capacity. Performance of the sampleplant will represent nearly 50% coal basedthermal power generation capacity in thecountry. This will also reflect theperformance of diverse thermal powerplants across the country. Only 50 per centof the sample plants have come forward forthe rating.

Through TAP meeting GRP collected expertideas from external expert to finalize thequestionnaire to collect information fromplants. This represents the initiation ofvoluntary disclosure of data from targetedcompanies/plants. It drives industry tobecome more transparent.

Research (administering survey, analysisand report compilation): Frameworkdevelopment activity is followed by survey ofthe plants. The process includes thoroughplant survey including interaction withcommunity, media, regulatory agencies andcivil societies. Coal and effluent samples arecollected to verify real time pollution controlperformance of the plant. Based oninformation submitted, cite survey and sampletest an environmental profile of the plant is

prepared. Company profiles includesperformance assessment of the plant vis-a- visbenchmark along with documentary evidence.

Site survey and data entry: GRP team hascarried 25 plants surveys whereas GRN hascompleted 8 plants surveys. The remainingplants surveys are expected to finish by June2014. Every plant survey is followed by dataentry and draft environmental profilepreparation to document the performance ofthe plants in the rating. Site survey for non-participating plants include all except withinplant survey. 14 plants’ information hasbeen incorporated in a common data entrysheet which serves the purpose ofcomparatively analyze the plants data at oneplatform. Information from all the plants,surveyed and un-surveyed has to beintegrated in this sheet.

Draft BAT document: Best AvailableTechnology document comprises the updatedtechnology and techniques to achieve higherefficiency in the particular industry. Thedocument covers global best practices aswell as Indian best practices in comparison.The Indian industries performance isincluded once the rating is finalized.Therefore, global best figures are, till now,included in the document.

Draft Environment profile: Based oncollected information, site surveys andsecondary source information, anenvironment profile is prepared for everyplant. The draft profile is shared with theplant for their feedback. It also becomes averified information source for final rating.Till now 24 environment profiles have beendrafted. 6 final profiles have been sharedwith the plants for heir feedback.

Research phase of the project represents on-ground verified of information on operationsand sustainable business practices of plants,including their interaction with communitiesand stakeholders. The research phaseintegrates a unique feature of rating that isverification of data already submitted byplants. Those plants that are notparticipating voluntarily, external plant



survey and secondary source of informationare used for them.

Rating Impact summary– Pulp & Papersector: GRP initiated a brief assessment ofimprovement in pulp & paper sector sincelast two GRP ratings (in 1999 and 2004) for the sector. The exercise is intended totake a note of the sector’s performancesince 1995 till 2013. 16 plants have been selected those were alreadyparticipating in earlier ratings for thepurpose. A brief questionnaire wasprepared and shared with the plants forinformation collection on specificparameters. The analysis of the informationhas been done to come out with a factoidkind of report and subsequent publicoutreach through release and DTE coverstory. The report has been ready and DTEstory is being prepared for release.

Tracing of improvement in paper sector shallcome out with the impact of GRP is impact inthe sector- how GRP, through its 2 ratings in1999 and 2004, have successfully pushed thesector towards global level. Being a waterguzzler and highly energy intensive sector,the improvement in sector would assist inenergy, water and other natural resourceconservation.

Briefing paper for water use in industriesin India: This is a small project intended toassess the water efficiency of major watersectors: pulp & paper, thermal Power,cement and iron and steel. The paperassesses the current business as usualscenario and water efficient scenario ofwater consumption in these sector. Thedraft format of the report is ready and beingfinalized.

Assessment of water efficiency of waterguzzling sectors in India, will presents futurewater requirement in the sectors. Businessas usual scenario is expected to exertextreme pressure on limited natural freshwater resources we have. The water efficientscenario, based on the global best practices,would be left only option to continuesustainable business.

TRAINING AND SOUTH ASIA CONSULTANCY TEAM

Collaboration with GIZ: CSE worked withGIZ on training programme on e-waste forregulators and also developed a Facilitator’smanual on the same. The programme wasvery successful and signed an MoU withthem for doing research and quality trainingprogrammes.

Collaboration with World Bank for capacitybuilding of BSPCB officers: CSE collaboratedwith The World Bank for conducting capacitybuilding programmes for Bihar StatePollution Control Board (BSPCB). Therewere 4 training programmes for BSPCBwhich received very good feedback from theBoard Officials.

Collaboration with Geological Survey ofMines Bureau, Sri Lanka: During the yearCSE signed a MoU with the Geological Surveyof Mines Bureau (GSMB), Sri Lanka to worktogether. Soon after MoU was signed, 10GSMB officials came to CSE to undergotraining on Mining in March.

Training programmes were also conducted inSouth Asia. There were 3 trainingprogrammes in Bangladesh, 3 trainingprogrammes in Sri Lanka and 2 programmesin Bhutan. Also published guidelines on EIAof wind power projects and conducted twoworkshops in Pune and Bangalore whichwere attended by 80 stakeholders from thewind power sector. Overall 33 trainingprogrammes were conducted in India andSouth Asia. The team trained over 826 peopleand devoted as many as 250 days for training.

Training programmes in India: Trainings onIndia focused on a range of environmentalissues such as Environmental ImpactAssessment, Social Impact Assessment-general and sector specific (mining), Urbanand Industrial Waste water Treatment andHazardous Waste Management. The teamupscaled the SIA programme from 3 day tofive days and it received a good response. Allthe trainings that were conducted received agood feedback.



The EIA/SIA training programmes havereceived a good feedback and there is aconstant demand to conduct suchprogrammes. A very positive feedback wasobtained for updating programmes ofhazardous waste management and socialimpact assessment to five days. The twoweek EIA mining training programme wasattended by 10 participants from GeologicalSurvey of Mines Bureau (Sri Lanka). CSEwould be training more of their officials inthe future on mining.

Regulators Training Programme: The aimof this programme was to bridge the capacityconstraints that challenge the abilities ofIndian regulatory bodies, especially inensuring adequate compliance andenforcement of regulations, to address theenvironmental impacts of such rapidindustrialisation. The team conductedprogrammes on E-waste, Wastemanagement, Compliance, monitoring andEnforcement, Wastewater Treatment forIndian and South Asian Regulators.

The regulators training programmes sawgood participation in all the programmesconducted during this period. Theprogrammes had regular participation fromStates such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, AndhraPradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu andKashmir and Odisha. Other States whichparticipated in our programmes includeHimachal Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala,Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal andMeghalaya. We also received a participantfrom Nagaland Pollution Control Board for thefirst time in our August (2013) programme.Overall the training programmes havereceived good responses from different StatePollution Control Boards (SPCBs) in terms ofparticipation and feedback.

Training Programmes in South Asia: Theteam conducted programmes in Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on wastewatertreatment, enforcement, monitoring andcompliance and environmental management.The team trained over 281 regulators inSouth Asia.

Participants of the EIA training programme



The South Asia programmes have beenwidely appreciated by the concernedenvironmental regulators of Bhutan,Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. CEA, Sri Lankahas requested CSE to conduct trainingprogramme on waste management in thenext financial year 2014-15. Also, CSEprovides technical support to Bhutan fromtime to time.

EIA Training Programme on wind powerprojects: The team conducted two daytraining workshops on the EIA of wind powerprojects in Pune (29-30 August, 2013) andBangalore (17-18 September, 2013). Thestakeholders involved were from Suzlon, CLPwind farms, Ela foundation, Bombay NaturalHistory Society, Ferguson College, Centre forScience and Technology, Tata ConsultancyServices, Tata Power, Gamesa Windfarms ,ILFS, TERI Bangalore, CEMC, NTPCRenewables, Sahara India, IIT- Bombay,Thiagarajar College of Engineering- Chennai,CSTEP, KSJ Technocrats, Nature ConservationFoundaton, Renewable Logen Asia Pvt. Ltd,Anekal Read Centre, IEDCL, TamilnaduAgricultural University, Shakti SustainableEnergy Foundation amongst others. Theprogramme receive an overwhelmingresponse with a request to conduct it in other

states where wind power projects are comingup for sensitizing the various stakeholdersinvolved. The programme received anoverwhelming response with a request toconduct it in other states where wind powerprojects are coming up for sensitizing thevarious stakeholders involved.

The stakeholders involved were from Suzlon,CLP wind farms, Ela foundation, BombayNatural History Society, Ferguson College,Centre for Science and Technology, TataConsultancy Services, Tata Power, GamesaWindfarms , ILFS, TERI Bangalore, CEMC,NTPC Renewables, Sahara India, IIT- Mumbai,Thiagarajar College of Engineering- Chennai,CSTEP, KSJ Technocrats, Nature ConservationFoundaton, Renewable Logen Asia Pvt. Ltd,Anekal Read Centre, IEDCL, TamilnaduAgricultural University, Shakti SustainableEnergy Foundation amongst others.

Capacity Building of Bihar Pollution ControlBoard: This year, the team collaborated withWorld Bank to strengthen the capacity ofBSPCB officials. Under this, the teamconducted three programmes and trained 77officials this financial year. In the followingyear, two exposure visits would be conductedby the team.

Participants of the EIA training programme



Environmental Governance in South Asia inCollaboration with Ministry of ExternalAffairs: The team in collaboration withMinistry of External Affairs conducted twoweek programme on EnvironmentalGovernance in South Asia from 3-14 March,2014. This programme was attended by 14 participants from Bangladesh, Sri Lankaand Myanmar.

The Director of Ministry of External Affairs,Mr. HK Sharma, interacted with theparticipants who gave a very encouragingfeedback of the programme. The participantsrequested for more such trainingprogrammes to enhance their skill andcapacity. The Director is looking forward tocollaborate with CSE for variousprogrammes in the future.

EIA guidelines on wind power projects: Theteam prepared EIA guidelines on wind powerprojects with an aim to convince thegovernment of the need for an EIA law in thissector, and two, to assist project developerswho want to undertake EIA studies, even ifthere is no formal EIA law in place.

The team conducted two programmes,mentioned in section 1.4, in Pune andBangalore, which received an overwhelmingresponse. The guidelines have beenappreciated by the concerned stakeholders.

Facilitator’s Manual on E-waste Trainingfor Policymakers and Regulators: The teamin collaboration with GIZ developed thefacilitators manual on E-waste Training forPolicymakers and Regulators. The manualwould be used as training material forconducting E-waste training programmes forregulators.

POLICY RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT

Green Clearance Watch: The team involvedin the continued analysis of environmentaland forest clearances granted by the Ministryof Environment and Forests (MoEF) since2007. A portal called the “Green ClearanceWatch” (GCW) has been developed as a one-stop resource base that contains informationand statistics on environment and forestclearances granted by the MoEF. The team

Training participants on a field visit



is also now in the process of incorporatinginformation of coastal regulation zone (CRZ)clearance in the portal. The portal alsoincludes video recordings of public hearingsof selected projects that are considered tohave significant impact on the surroundingenvironment and the community, review andanalysis of administrative and judiciarydecisions influencing the process ofenvironmental governance and decisionmaking, and any such relevant informationthat involves and influences the process ofgreen decision making.

The Green Clearance Watch (GCW) bolstersCSE’s sustained effort towards ensuring anenvironmentally sustainable and equitabledevelopment and helping communities be apart of the decision making process. Theeffort is aimed at increasing transparency inthe environmental /forest/coastal zoneclearance regime in India.

Policy research and advocacy forimproving the forest clearance process: Areport on forest clearance has beenprepared that attempts to analyze the majorproblems associated with the process offorest clearance in India and what can bedone to improve it balancing ecological andeconomic needs, and making the processmore transparent. The report suggestscertain measures that can be helpful instreamlining the clearance process and alsoaddressing the loopholes in forestmanagement that has lead to the undueexploitation of this valuable resource andalso communities dependent on it.

Coastal zone management in South Asia:Country fact sheets on coastal zoneregulation and policy in South Asia.Factsheets prepared for India, Bangladesh,Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Maldives. Also afactsheet was prepared consideringimplications of integrated coastal zonemanagement for addressing climate changeconcerns of the coastal areas in South Asia.

Meeting/Event: South Asia Convention onCoastal Management: Puducherry, India;January 19-21, 2014. To discuss the matter

of coastal zone management in depth asobserved for south asian countries, a SouthAsia Convention on Coastal Managementfrom January 19–21, 2014 at Puducherry.Senior government officials, researchers andcivil society organisations from Bangladesh,India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lankacame together for the event to deliberate onlimits to the coast and its management andregulatory issues.

In a one of its kind convention, governmentrepresentatives, researchers and NGOs fromacross South Asia — India, Pakistan,Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka — cametogether to discuss coastal managementissues in their respective countries. Itemerged at the Convention that regulatorysystems need strengthening both in terms ofdecision making and enforcement. Systemsfor monitoring post-clearance are anotherweak area that needs to be looked into.There was general consensus at theConvention that there is a need to shareexperiences and knowledge in the region oncoastal management strategies.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT As various projects of different capacities areproposed from time to time, a number ofpublic hearings are held in each state everymonth across the country. Though the EIANotification clearly outlines the procedurefor ensuring a democratic participation inthe process, many a times the way publichearings are conducted merely remain aneye-wash for undertaking a bureaucraticexercise, while actually maneuvered to servespecial interests with little deference for thecommunity concerns. To bring transparencyin the process and ensure that communityconcerns are taken into account whiledecision making, the team has been involvedin covering public hearings of selectiveprojects considered to have significantecological and social costs and/or are fraughtwith controversies.

As much as we would like to cover themaximum number possible, covering publichearings from all around the country is alarge-scale project. It is not possible for CSE

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alone to shoulder the task. Therefore theteam seeks co-ordination of partnersincluding non-profit groups, environmentalorganizations and activist in this regard.

Video recording of the public hearingscovered are incorporated in the GreenClearance Watch (GCW) and thus shared inthe public domain. Occasionally the coverageof public hearings are also accompanied byreportage from the ground which the teamtakes forward through Down to Earth.

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)Review: An Environmental ImpactAssessment (EIA) was made mandatory inIndia in 1996 under the Environment(Protection) Act, 1986. If properly executed,it is an important tool for ensuring optimaluse of natural resources for sustainableindustrialization. However in severaloccasions the EIAs are not donecomprehensively taking into account allmatters of environmental and socialconcerns pertaining to a developmentactivity. Also being a technical document, itcreates complexity for the community to

understand the impacts of a proposedactivity as identified in the EIA reports.

The team has remained involved in reviewingEIA reports for communities to provide thembetter understanding of the impacts of aproposed project and also the issues orconcerns that the EIA may have not takeninto account. The EIA reviews are undertakenas a response to requests received fromcommunities following their concern aboutproposed activities. The following EIAreviews were done by the team:

Fathepur East Coal Mine: On the request ofEkta Parishad, CSE carried out an analysis ofthe EIA report of a coal mining project(Fathepur East Coal Mine), a 10 MTPA coalmine coming up in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.The proposed project belongs to theFathepur East Coal Pvt. Ltd. – a joint venturefive different power companies, Visa PowerLtd., Green Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., (nowknown as Athena Infra projects Pvt. Ltd.),R.K.M. Powergen Pvt. Ltd., Vandana VidhyutLtd. and JLD Yavatmal Energy Ltd. The mainissues concerning the project were: impact of

CSE director Sunita Narain at the South Asia Conference on Coastal Management held in Puducherry



forest land diversion, cumulative impact ofthe project, impact of road transportation onair quality, etc.

CSE technically evaluated the EnvironmentImpact Assessment (EIA) and Wildlifeconservation and management plan reportsof the project and helped the community tounderstand the environmental and socialimplications linked with the project.

Gare Palma Coal Sub Block IV/6: On therequest of Raghubeer Pradhan of EktaParishad, CSE carried out an analysis of theEIA report of a coal mining project Gare PalmaCoal Sub Block IV/6. It’s a 4 MTPA project ofJindal Steel & Power Ltd. and Nalwa SpongeIron Ltd., whose environmental clearance wassuspended by the National Green Tribunal(NGT). The clearance was suspended becausethe NGT observed that the clearance was givenwithout conducting a proper public hearing.While the EIA notification clearly states thatthe location for a public hearing should be theproject site itself or in close proximity, thevenue for the public hearing was fixed asKhamariya village, which was not close to theproject site. Khamariya was a remote village,which ensured that the affected people werenot able to participate in the hearing. Hencethe project proponents had to reapply for theclearance, and had to go through a new publichearing process. CSE did an analysis of thenew EIA report submitted by the projectproponents for the fresh clearance and foundthat the present EIA is not a fresh report, butan updated version of the previous one. CSEalso did a live coverage and update of thesecond public hearing.

Chilhati Cement Plant – ACC: ACC‘s ChilhatiCement Plant‘s public hearing was proposedto be conducted in Bilaspur district,Chhattisgarh. However the EIA report of thedocument was not made available public bythe company. The aggrieved NGO – EktaParishad approached CSE. The matter wastaken forth by CSE involving communicationwith concerned administrative officials,which finally led to the cancellation of thepublic hearing as a consequence of nonavailability of the EIA report.

Dholera Special Investment Region, DelhiMumbai Industrial Corridor: The DelhiMumbai Industrial Corridor project is IndoJapanese funded project which is proposedto increase the freight movement betweenDelhi and Mumbai. The entire project isdivided into three phase. Each phase isproposed to be completed in 10 years. Alongthe industrial corridor special investmentregions are identified and they are developedinto industrial cluster. Dholera is one of theindustrial cluster identified along thisdedicated freight corridor.

Following the request of Mahesh Pandyafrom Paryavaran Mitra of Gujarat, CSE didan EIA review of the project.

Nalwa integrated steel plant: NalwaIntegrated steel plant (0.198 MTPA spongeiron) located near village Taraimal, Raigarhdistrict, Chhattisgarh proposed to expand itsplant by another 0.726 MTPA sponge ironcapacity. The expansion proposal by thecompany included iron and steel making,steel rolling sinter plant, coke oven, oxygenplant and producer gas plant, waste heat andchar using power plant, etc.

On the request of Raghubeer Pradhan of EktaParishad, Chhattisgarh, CSE did an EIAreview of Nalwa integrated steel plant. Themain issues concerning the project were:cumulative impact of the project, impact ofroad transportation on air quality, waterimpacts etc. The NGOs used CSE’s analysis toraise relevant concerns at the public hearing.

CLIMATE CHANGE

CSE has played a major role in shapinginternational climate negotiations. Ourpublication Global warming in an unequalworld: A case of environmental colonialism wasinstrumental in advocating the idea of equity inclimate change negotiations. Today, equity and‘common but differentiated responsibility andrespective capability’ are the foundations of theUN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC). CSE has always believed that it is inthe interest of the developing countries to get



an ambitious and equitable climate mitigationdeal, as they will be the worst sufferers of theimpacts of changing climate. A warming worldmeans that the poorest in the developingcountries are going to bear the brunt—fromfailing monsoons to sea level rise and fromincrease in extreme weather events to waterscarcity. Climate change will make povertyalleviation even more difficult. CSE, therefore,has on one hand advocated an ambitious andequitable global deal in which the developedworld takes the lead in cutting its emissions andsupports developing countries to move towardsa low carbon growth path; on the other hand,we have pushed low carbon growth andclimate co-benefit agenda in India. We havepushed for tighter fuel efficiency norms inautomobiles. We are demanding tighteremission norms for diesel vehicles to reduceblack carbon emissions.

Climate change is among CSE’s oldestprogrammes, and runs like a crosscuttingtheme across several programme areas. CSEhas on one hand advocated an ambitious andequitable global deal in which the developedworld takes the lead in cutting its emissions

and supports developing countries to movetowards a low carbon growth path; on theother hand, it has pushed the low carbongrowth and climate co-benefit agenda inIndia – from pushing for public transport andcleaner fuels in urban transport to pushingfor ambitious renewable energy targets, tobenchmarking industries on energy andemissions and demanding a low carbongrowth strategy for them.

CSE’s contribution to India’s position onclimate change and the equity principle ininternational negotiations at Conference ofParties (CoP) is well recognized. For instanceat a side event organised by CSE and theministry of environment (MoEF) at the Dohameeting, India’s lead negotiator, RR Rashmi,reiterated the imperative for any globalagreement to be based on principles ofequity, this reaffirming the foundation ofIndia’s position in climate negotiations. CSEcontinues to play an important watchdog roleat the talks, and was among the first NGOs tocriticize the ‘Copenhagen Accord’ andinsisted on Indian government not officiallyaccepting it.

Warsaw CoP


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CSE recognises that in a warming world,mitigation is not going to be sufficient – poorcountries will need to mainstream climateadaptation in all development plans andpolicies. CSE works with the government tomainstream decentralised watermanagement as an adaptation tool in theworld’s biggest employment guaranteescheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Programme(MNREGA). Following the research andpublication of CSE’s study on the adaptationchallenges in an eco-sensitive region such asthe Sundarbans, the Minister of State,Department of Sundarban Affairs, Irrigationand Waterways of the government of WestBengal sought CSE’s cooperation to work outappropriate policies and plans for theaffected communities.

KEY ACTIVITIES

Climate Portal: The Climate Change portalcontinued to make available up to date andrelevant information on climate changerelated issues. News on various aspects ofclimate and development from 80 Indian and

29 South Asian newspapers andnewsmagazines covering 28 states and allthe South Asian nations were regularlytracked by the team to provide a unique andwider media perspective on this subject. Thisalso enhanced our understanding of thecapacity amongst the media to research andreport, which has been very significant indeveloping capacity-building workshops forthe South Asian reporters CSE. Researchreports, studies and research papers alongwith the state-level and national-levelpolicies and action plans were alsodocumented and contributed to developing arich knowledge-base on this portal. But thefocus during the year was on documentingresearch, practices and studies on climatemitigation and adaptation with specialreference to India and South Asian countries.Besides this, the team also captured opinionsof leading climate experts by documentingpresentations and blogs of leading climateexperts from India and the South Asia.During later part of the year, the team madean effort to document and presentinformation and data through interactiveinfographics and maps.

Public protesting at the Warsaw CoP



Reportage at Warsaw COP: CSE took a groupof Indian journalists to the COP in Warsaw.The group comprised senior journalists witha distinguished record of having coveredclimate change issues, for leading nationaland regional news media, including Times ofIndia (Delhi); Press Trust of India (Delhi) andThe Hindu (Delhi). About 50 stories werepublished by the journalists supported byCSE while at Warsaw. This was in large partdue to the comprehensive day-to-day updatesand guidance on their story ideas during thedaily morning briefings led by the CSEclimate team.

The climate change team covered climatechange negotiations held at Warsaw using liveupdates, videos, blogs, news stories, regularmedia updates and social media. The liveupdates were a big hit among the media andcaptured the essence of negotiations as theyprogressed on important issues. Blogs werewritten and circulated widely through thewebsite to climate change networksworldwide. CSE engaged actively withnetworks to ensure equity remains at the heartof negotiations. Equity has been a central issuefor CSE in climate negotiations. Ensuring thatany outcome under the climate negotiations isembedded in an equitable framework requiresthat CSE not only engage with national actorsbut also reach out to as many internationalactors as possible, including civil society.Climate Action Network (CAN) is one of thelargest environmental networks focused onclimate change and active on the issue ofequity. CSE, a member of CAN, took part in thediscussions within CAN and coordinated theequity working group. A team member of theclimate change unit co-chaired this groupalong with representatives from northernconstituencies. During the climate talks, CSE’sprimary engagement with CAN was in shapingthe emerging discussions on equity. CSE wrotetwo detailed articles analyzing the outcome ofWarsaw after their return.

Climate change exhibition: In 1992, the UNFramework Convention on Climate Changewas signed. Equity and justice were thecornerstone. Carbon dioxide concentration inthe atmosphere then was 356 ppm (parts per

million). There was hope - we wouldstabilize “greenhouse gas concentrations inthe atmosphere at a level that would preventdangerous anthropogenic interference withthe climate system”. But since then: Promiseswere made. Meetings happened. Sciencerang the warning bells. Debates raged.Action plans emerged—Kyoto Protocol, BaliAction Plan, Copenhagen Accord, CancunAgreement, Durban Platform, Doha Gateway.

Differences emerged alongside action plans.Promises were broken. Trust lost. Renegingon past commitments became the norm.Hope suffered. Meanwhile, carbon dioxideconcentrations consistently increased. Theworld is at 400 ppm now. The world hasadvanced since, but not as it should have.Developed countries have not moved to lowcarbon growth path and developingcountries’ demand to grow has beenmisinterpreted as the right to pollute. The UNFramework Convention itself has becomeinconvenient. But the Convention can stilldeliver. A new global deal to avert dangerousclimate change based on equity and justice ispossible. The idea of Climate Talkies, acinematic depiction of two decades of climatechange negotiations, was to drive home thepoint on how climate change negotiationshave progressed, or not, since 1992, andwhat should not happen in the future.

CSE hosted the Climate Talkies Exhibition onthree separate occasions in 2013, andpresented it to a range of different audiences.On September 18-19, CSE presented ClimateTalkies for the first time at its annual SouthAsian Media Briefing on Climate Change,where a team of nearly 125 journalists fromall over South Asia—India, Bangladesh, SriLanka, Bhutan, Myanmar, Maldives, Nepal,Pakistan, Afghanistan—had gathered. As the6/4-sized posters pasted on vinyl boards werebeing arranged before the inauguration ofthe exhibition, one could see, from adistance, names of different Hollywoodmovies—Sound of Music, Men in Black, GreatExpectations and so on.

The exhibition attracted huge crowd the nextday as word on it spread—and this trend



continued through the five days that theexhibition was there, until November 22. Thepost card versions of the posters were allover, with people taking sets of twos andthrees to send to their friends and relatives.Some of them took the post cards andpresented them to climate changenegotiators at the conference venue, whichbecame alive with discussions of Full Monty,Apocalypse Now and Waiting for Godot.Here, the poster depicting the Warsawclimate talks became the talk of the town. Itwas very interesting to see varied reactionsto Climate Talkies. Some said they could notstop laughing because the posters were soentertaining, some admitted that the postersmake them sit and think about what will bethe future of climate talks, some wonderedwhy climate talks had not progressed in thepast 20 years, but it was clear that theunderlying message of the exhibition hadgone out, loud and clear.

Training on climate change: A trainingprogramme on climate politics andnegotiations for probationary Indian ForeignServices (IFS) officers took place from July15-17, 2013. In all, there were 36participants for the training titled “Wherewords mean the world: Climate Changenegotiations.” This was a short, intensecourse that introduced participants to howmultilateral environmental agreements orMEAs are negotiated, real-time.

The idea behind conducting such a coursewas to provide an engaging context to itsparticipants to be able to answer questionssuch as ‘Will the world manage to preventrun-away climate change? What are MEAs,such as the one on climate change, reallyabout?’ In exploring answers, participantswere expected to experience, among otherthings, the real challenge in diplomacy thatexists. The training took place over a courseof two-and-a-half days with presentationsranging from the science and politics tospecific case studies on how renewableswere faring in India. A mock negotiation wascentral to the training course. It requiredparticipants to be well-versed with differentcountry-groups positions on various issues

and key geo-political developments fordifferent regions which in turn informed thedebate taking place within UNFCCC. Thetwo-and-a-half-day training was divided inthree ways. The first day served as anintroductory session to engage theparticipants on the science and politics ofclimate change. Various presentations weremade by different experts, both from withinCSE and outside. Case studies on renewableenergy in India were also presented to linkthe larger international politics to what washappening on the ground. On the second day,the mock negotiations took place. The ideabehind this was to give the aspiringdiplomats a sense of what it was like to be ina negotiating room and to wear the differentgroup hats. They were expected to comeprepared for this and a draft negotiating textwas handed to them, which was to form thebasis of their negotiations and a dealeventually. The participants were excitedand very involved throughout the mocknegotiations. Many of them later respondedthat the whole experience mirrored closelythe real negotiation process that many of uswatch or read about in the news. They saidthey were felt it was a highly enrichingexperience for them and something that theywill remember for a lifetime. The third daywas a wrap-up section with a presentation bythe Director General of CSE on the status ofMEA’s and how developing countries’position have evolved (or not) over time. Itwas time to sit back and think about how weneeded to position ourselves in futurenegotiations. The training was carried outwithout any glitches and judging from whatthe participants had to say, a good learningexperience for them. It can now be said thatnot only was the goal for the trainingprogram met, it also became clear that CSEhas the resources and the expertise neededfor carrying out more such trainings cateredto different stakeholders.

ICRN Conference: The Fourth NationalResearch Conference on Climate Change tookplace at IIT Madras on October 26-27. Theconference was organised jointly by theIndian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras,IIT Delhi, Indian Institute of Science (IISc)



Bangalore and Centre for Science andEnvironment, Delhi. Over 200 participantsfrom India and South Asia attended theconference which comprised of more than 90presentations and posters on differentaspects of climate change. The talks werebroadly classified into climate science andimpacts, mitigation, adaptation and climatepolicy and renewable energy. The openingremarks at the conference were presented byDr M S Swaminathan, father of the GreenRevolution in India. He outlined theimportance of climate change and broadlyclassified the areas of study into temperaturechange, precipitation, rise in sea level andthe difficulties in predicting extreme weatherevents. He added that in India, with theintroduction of the Food Security Bill, foodhas become a legal right of every Indiancitizen. However, one must also keep in mindthe seasonal variations of food and the risksassociated with agriculture and that madeadaptation to climate change a crucialsubject to study. The conference saw about25 presentations on climate changeadaptation, ranging from adaptation in theMahanadi basin to contribution of policiessuch as Mahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act to climatechange adaptation. Presentations from SouthAsia covered topics such as decrease in milkyield and increased incidence of diseasesamong livestock in Nepal, and how farmersof Mustang, Myagdi and Chitwan haveadopted adaptive strategies such asintegrated farming, changing herd size andcomposition, veterinary and livestockservices, improved feeding practices,institutional arrangements, weather warningand water services.

Vulnerable India report: CSE’s report titled“Vulnerable India” is a study that deals withthe impact of climate change on the poor andvulnerable by addressing adaptation fromthe lens of ecological poverty. The studyassessed and reviewed the existing climatepolicy, the finance mechanism and thecurrent levels of engagement of institutionsto tackle social vulnerability resulting out ofexisting climate vulnerability. This studyprovided the climate change team with a

very wide overview by their exposure tovarious players ranging from professionals,including NGOs, scientists, farmerorganisations to nodal ministries in charge ofimplementing climate policy in the country.The study was done to assess the climatechange policies in India and it was aconsultative study—with officials inministries such as water, agriculture, ruraldevelopment, panchayati raj, and institutionssuch as the Planning Commission. The reportgives out recommendations on the wayahead. Some of these include recognizing theserious risk posed by climate change to India,prioritizing the needs of the poor, integraterather than isolate responses to climateimpacts, accelerate decentralization, investin accountability and redress mechanismsand review national institutionalarrangements for climate finance

FOOD SAFETY AND TOXINS

Toxins in our food are the chemicals usedduring the growing and processing of food,which even in miniscule quantities add up toan unacceptable intake of poisons. Exposureto pesticides through our diet leads tochronic diseases. The best way is to managethe food basket—calculate how much andwhat we eat—to ensure that pesticide limitsare set at safe levels. We have no option butto ingest a little poison to get nutrition, buthow do we keep it within acceptable limits?This means setting safe pesticide standardsfor all kinds of food.

Then there are toxins, which should not bepresent in food at all. For instance, a fewyears ago, CSE found antibiotics in the honeysold in Indian markets. It was there becauseindustrial honey farmers fed bees antibioticsas a growth promoter and for diseasecontrol. Ingesting antibiotics makes usresistant to drugs. CSE argued for standardsfor antibiotics in honey produced for thedomestic market, which were set by thegovernment. The question for us remainshow to ensure that this added and necessaryemphasis on food safety protects theinterests of small producers. This is why we



believe that we need policies to change thebusiness of food so that it is safe and itprotects livelihoods.

It is also clear that food has to be not justsafe, but also nutritious. Today, the world’spanic button has been pressed on the matterof food that is junk—high on empty caloriesand bad for health. There is more thanenough evidence that bad food is directlylinked to the explosion of non-communicablediseases in the world. There is enough to saythat enough is enough.

KEY ACTIVITIES:

Expert Round Table on EnvironmentalRemediation in and around Union CarbideFactory, Bhopal: Institutional logjam wasevident on the issue of soil and groundwaterremediation in and around the UnionCarbide Factory site in Bhopal. Even afterabout three decades of the Bhopal gastragedy and several state and centralcommittees, and judicial intervention, thetoxic pesticide and chemical waste is

continually contaminating the nearbygroundwater affecting the health of the localpopulation. Incineration of the 350 MT toxicwaste was perhaps a smaller issue than thebigger needs of groundwater remediation. The team analysed over 15 studiesconducted over the last two and a halfdecades and tracked the developments in thejudiciary and government. In order to breakthe logjam, the way-ahead was discussedover a roundtable for two days withstakeholders including the state and centralgovernments, affected local community andscientific community.

An action plan – Environmental in andaround UCIL, Bhopal – was collectivelydeveloped by experts during the discussions,which was also presented to the JointSecretary MoEF towards the end of the two-day discussions. With a five year action planspread over immediate and medium –andlong-term, the action plan addressed the keyissues of how to manage the 350 MT of toxicwaste; remediate soil and groundwater;decontaminate and decommission the plant

First Food book release



structure and equipment; and fate of theUCIL going forward.

The Action was released over a pressbriefing at Bhopal and got extensive positivemedia coverage locally and nationally. It wasalso covered by few International mediahouses. The Action plan was later sent to parliamentarians and respective policymakers.

Heavy metals in cosmetics available inIndia: CSE’s Pollution Monitoring Laboratory(PML) had found heavy metals such asmercury, chromium and nickel in over 40%of fairness creams and lipsticks tested. Theprogramme team extensively correspondedwith manufacturers/marketers of therespective products to understand thereasons for the same and actions taken so far.

After having collated the responses from theindustry, the programme team released thecosmetics study findings through social

media, press release and followed up bymedia interaction. Information was sharedthrough a separate webpage, DTE story andPML study report. Besides, the lab results,the information package included state ofaffairs in Indian regulatory landscape, globalbest practice standards, and responses bythe industry. The release got extensive mediacoverage in India and was captured inseveral global news pieces.

The analysis of the results along with a set ofrecommendations was sent to respectivepolicymakers at the center and state FDAs.The intervention made by CSE was receivedwell by health ministry, Bureau of IndianStandards (BIS), Drug Controller General ofIndia (DCGA) and CSE was invited to a BISsectional committee meeting on cosmetics.The committee chair (DCGA) agreed to thefindings and the need to set the standards forindividual heavy metals. Based on the CSEstudy, a question was also raised in theparliament and Minster of Health answeredon the state of the affairs.

Media briefing in Bhopal



Campaign against junk foods: Theprogramme team got the opportunity to pushfor its position on junk foods through aExpert Group that was constituted by theFSSAI and was set by the Hon’ble High Courtof Delhi based on a PIL. The prayers of PILincluded a ban on junk foods in schools andnear-by areas, regulations on marketing andpromotions targeted at children, a policy forschool canteens. Sunita Narain, DG, CSE as achair of the working group led the initiativeand the programme team developed aguideline document with inputs from othermembers through a series of meetings.

Though the outcome is subject to the courtjudgment in this case, the documentsubmitted is expected to provide a usefulplatform for a much stronger advocacy andoutreach. The short-comings in the finalreport submitted to the Hon’ble court by theFSSAI were also highlighted.

Others: The programme team was alsoinvolved in several activities that are partcompleted during the year. The outputs andoutcomes of these would be reflected insubsequent years. These activities includepolicy research on mobile radiations;monitoring of mobile tower radiations inDelhi and NCR; research on antibioticresistance and its use in industrial productionof food animals; follow-up advocacy throughwrite-ups, press releases on historicalcampaigns such as pesticides etc.

Finished product standards for individualheavy metals in cosmetics: Based on CSE’sstudy and recommendations, BIS in principalhas agreed to set the standards for individualheavy metals such as mercury, chromium inall cosmetic products and make suitableamendments. As of today there arestandards for total heavy metals in finishedproducts. A process has been formalized,wherein Central Drug testing laboratorywould provide data on historical testing doneon samples. The data would be shared anddiscussed at the cosmetics sectionalcommittee of the BIS to determine limits forindividual metals in cosmetics. CSE has alsorequested to be a part of this exercise.

Standards for Trans-fatty acids: Based onCSE’s junk food study In 2012 and subsequentadvocacy, FSSAI has notified standards forpresence and labelling of trans-fatty acidlimits at 10% by weight in fats, oils,emulsions, hydrogenated vegetable oils etc.Earlier there were no such limits. While thisis far from best practices in internationalstandards, FSSAI is inclined to further taper itdown to 5%. CSE is continually advocating formore stringent standards.

Regulation of erstwhile ‘Energy Drinks’:CSE’s previous campaign on caffeine contentin energy drinks has been instrumental innotification by FSSAI wherein betterlabelling requirements around healthwarnings are set such as not recommendedfor children, pregnant and lactating; amountof caffeine; no health or energy claims etc.The caffeine content is kept at 320 ppmwhich is higher than in the soft drinks, butthe drinks would no longer be called energydrinks, they are caffeinated beverages.

WATER ADVOCACY AND RESEARCH

CSE has been an important thought-leader inthis sector. It has already influenced globalpolicies and strategies to focus on the need fortechnologies to augment water resources in adecentralised manner through rainwaterharvesting and to use that water to optimise onbenefits. In fact, CSE’s massive documentationof the extraordinary wealth and ingenuity ofpeople living across different ecological systemsto manage water (Dying Wisdom: The Rise, Falland Potential of India’s Traditional WaterHarvesting Systems) is a guide on reinventionof solutions for today’s challenges. Today,rainwater harvesting has been mademandatory in many cities in India and severalstates as well as the central government havelaunched schemes to popularise and support it.In addition, the Indian government hasrecognised the need for decentralised watermanagement strategies in its rural employmentgeneration programme (MGNREGA). Thechallenge is to ensure effective implementationof these programmes so that there is wideracceptability and upscaling.



KEY ACTIVITY

Workshop in Colombo Sri Lanka: Towardsconservation of waterbodies: CSEorganised a day long workshop onconservation of waterbodies in Sri Lanka onJune 11, 2013. The workshop was attendedby more than 70 people includingresearchers, activists, city planners,advocates and regulators from Sri Lanka. ShDinesh Gunawardane, Hon’ble Minister ofWater Supply and Drainage also attendedthe meeting. It was an initiative to influencethe policy debate on conservation ofwaterbodies in South Asia and to pushpolicies that encourage participatory andlocale-specific systems for their conservation.

Workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh; Excretadoes matter – A knowledge sharing seminaron water and waste: CSE organised aknowledge sharing seminar in partnershipwith the Bangladesh Institute of Planners(BIP) on September 4th, 2013 to shareknowledge on river conservation, pollutionmonitoring, urban sewage treatment,groundwater and lake management in Indiaand Bangladesh. More than hundred people

participated in the workshop and sharedtheir views and opinions. The participantsincluded regulators, policy makers, municipalengineers, researchers, academicians,students and NGOs of Bangladesh.

Workshop in Khulna, Bangladesh; Excretadoes matter- A knowledge sharing seminaron water and sanitation: A seminar on waterand sanitation in partnership with Centre forCoastal Environmental Conservation, aKhulna based NGO was organised onSeptember, 8, 2013 to share the knowledgeon urban groundwater, lake managementand sanitation in India and Bangladesh. Morethan sixty people participated in the seminarand shared their views and opinions. Theparticipants included regulators, policymakers, municipal engineers, researchers,academicians, students and NGOs ofBangladesh.

CSE’s knowledge sharing seminar ontraditional tank systems in India and SriLanka: CSE, New Delhi, India, organised ahalf day knowledge sharing seminar inCombo, Sri Lanka on November 26, 2013.The meeting focussed on the state of tanks of

Participants of the training programme



both the countries, their restoration schemesand policies. The meeting was attended byresearchers of Peridenya University,representatives from International NGO likeUNESCO and Sri Lanka based NGO likeRainwater Harvesting Forum, Future in ourhands, Movement for Land and AgricultureReforms, scientists from Department ofAgriculture, Sri Lanka, independentconsultants, media and environmentalists.Both Indian and Sri Lankan participantsagreed that the threats to these oldtraditional systems seemed to be similar andthere is a need of strong legal policy forprotection and conservation of these tanks.

Roundtable (consultation) meeting forfinalisation of legal framework for theprotection of inland waterbodies in SouthAsia: A two days roundtable (consultation)meeting was held on December 17-18, 2013in New Delhi for finalization of legalframework for the protection of inlandwaterbodies in South Asia. CSE workedjointly with the Enviro Legal Defence Firm(ELDF) to come up with a draft frameworklegislation which can be presented todifferent law making authorities in the South

Asian countries (including India). Nineteenpeople from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,Pakistan and Nepal that included eminentlawyers, legal advisers, and representativesof prominent NGOs attended the meeting todiscuss the loopholes in the existing lawsand policies related to the protection andconservation of inland waterbodies in SouthAsia. CSE drafted a framework legislationfor protection of inland waterbodies in SouthAsia which has been highly rated by theeminent lawyers, researchers, activists of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladeshand Nepal.

Briefing paper: Legal, institutional andtechnical framework for lake/wetlandprotection: This paper describes the existinglegal, institution and technical frameworkexisting in different countries. It alsomentions the successful case studies onconservation of waterbodies from thedifferent parts of the world. This paper is thefirst step towards development of model lawfor the conservation of waterbodies in Indiaand other parts of South Asia. The paper hasbeen well viewed and received many hits onthe website. There were queries about the

Workshop on ‘Water resources conservation: village ponds and lakes’



technologies and laws of conservation of waterbodies after the publication of the report.

Status paper for River Ganga: Past failuresand current challenges: The paper makes acritique of the existing plans and policies torevive the river. The paper also talks aboutthe future challenges and raises questions onwhat can be done to revive the river. Thepaper has been well viewed and receivedmany hits on the website. After thepublication of the report, National GangaRiver Basin Authority has requested CSE tosubmit a proposal whereby they can worktogether with the institution on the revivalstrategies for the river.

Water wealth: Briefing paper on state ofgroundwater management in Bangladesh:This paper gives an overview of thegroundwater status in different geologicalregions of Bangladesh. The paper also talksabout the groundwater contamination, relatedhealth impacts and role of lakes ingroundwater recharge. There is a detailedreview of the existing laws and policies ongroundwater and lakes in the country. This

paper talks about ways of groundwaterrecharge, lake and stormwater managementin Bangladesh. The paper has been wellviewed and received many hits on the website.

Plan for restoration of cascading tanksystems in Anuradhapura district, SriLanka The paper talks about the reasons ofdeterioration of this system and also suggestsplan for restoration of this cascading system.The paper was well appreciated by theactivists, lawyers and researchers of SriLanka. After the publication of the report, theeminent lawyers and activists recognised aneed of an umbrella law for the protection ofthe tanks and lakes in Sri Lanka.

Draft framework legislation for use,protection and conservation of inlandwetlands in South Asia (December, 2013):CSE worked jointly with the Enviro LegalDefence Firm (ELDF) to come up with a draftframework legislation which may bepresented to different law making authoritiesin the South Asian countries (includingIndia). The framework has taken care of theloopholes of the existing laws and policiesrelated to the protection and conservation of

State level workshop on ‘Mainstreaming rainwater harvesting’



wetlands. The legal framework is the startingpoint for a set of activities that will includerecommendations to the central and state governments about appropriateinstitutional and technical measures forwetland protection.

CSE was invited to a workshop (Wetlandsgovernance in South Asia: Issues andoptions) orgainsed by International Union forConservation of Nature.

Technical consultancies and model projects:CSE provided technical advice to 138 projects:Out of this, more than fifty per cent are forinstitutions, 14 per cent are for colonies/apartments/townships, 22 per cent are forindividual residences and rest are forindustries.

Model project: CSE helped Embassy ofSweden, New Delhi to plan and designrainwater harvesting in their premises. CSEalso provided design for rainwaterharvesting scheme for Bharat HeavyElectricals Limited (BHEL), Sector 17, Noida.

Media interactions: Water team of CSE didregular radio campaigns on waterconservation on Radio One and Akashvani.The team also interacted with the followingmedia on water issues: Press TV, TheThirdpole, Dainik Jagaran, The ShillongTimes, Hindustan Times, PTC, Punjabi, IBNLive, Radio Australia, NDTV profit, ARDGerman Radio.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

CSE programme on renewable energy isdesigned to accelerate the deployment ofrenewable energy and strengthen energyaccess for the poor by designing relevantpolicies and programmes especially fordecentralised, off-grid clean power options.The co-benefits of moving to renewableenergy sources are immense- energysecurity, climate protection, reducedpollution and health benefits. However,challenges to upscale remain. There isurgent need for a long-term plan to move

from subsidy, incentives and taxexemptions and allow renewable energy toreach grid-parity and most importantly toplay a role to provide access to largenumbers of energy poor.

KEY ACTIVITIES

Small Hydro Power (SHP): CSE teamanalysed data of 8 small hydro and 16 bighydro power projects on the upper Gangabasin. This was done for the inter-ministerial group (IMG) which was lookinginto hydro power projects and ecologicalflows on River Ganga. The monthly flow dataof 24 different streams for one year wasanalysed. Based on the flow parameters thetariff and energy calculations were made.Finally recommendations were submittedwhich showed that even after maintainingthe ecological flow, there was not muchreduction in the energy which could be harnessed and its subsequent effect on tariff.

Dissemination: A meeting was conductedbased on the draft report “Green Norms forSmall Hydro Power” in New Delhi on 9th may,2013 to discuss the issues concerningenvironmental impacts of small hydro powerdevelopment in the country. The meeting waswell attended by various stakeholders includingpeople from the government, academics,industry, NGOs etc. The final report wasreleased on June 14, 2013 at Dehradun. Copiesof the report was sent to all concernedstakeholders in the Government especiallyMNRE, MoEF, NGOs, Researchers etc.

Advocacy and outcome: The report was wellreceived by various stakeholders especiallyby the government. As it was first completedocumentation of environment impact ofsmall hydro projects in the country, it was aneye-opener for the policy makers. The effortstaken by CSE to document environmentalimpacts of SHP are well appreciated.

Wind Energy: The use of wind power in Indiahas been gaining importance with rapidinstallation in the last few years. The 12thfive year plan targets to add 15,000 MW.



However, most of the new wind farms arecoming up in forest areas as these areas areeasy to acquire, without the requirement ofany environment impact assessment. Thewind power sector is in urgent need ofeffective environmental norms to make itactually green

Based on the findings on the research onwind power, a draft report was preparedwhich highlighted the need for green normsto regulate wind power development. Thedraft report was discussed with thestakeholders and After incorporating thediscussions and comments received a finalreport on “Green Norms for Wind Power”was made which was released at Pune on 3rdJuly 2013.

RE team also assisted EIA team to researchand develop a manual on “EIA guidelines forwind power sector”. The manual is acomprehensive document which includessteps to carry Environment ImpactAssessment (EIA) of wind power projects aswell as global best practices for wind powerdevelopment. The draft manual was alsoreleased on 9th May in New Delhi. The draftmanual received comments from stakeholderswhich was reviewed and finalised. It wasreleased at Pune during EIA trainingworkshop held between July 29-30, 2013.

Advocacy and outcome: The report on“Green Norms for Wind Power” was wellreceived by various stakeholders especiallyby the government. As it was first completedocumentation of environment impact ofwind power projects in the country, itbrought out many hidden facts such as largescale destruction of forests to set up windmills in the country, impact on flora andfauna with respect to bird deaths etc. Theeffort of CSE to document environmentalimpacts of wind power is well appreciated.Presently MNRE and MoEF are discussing thereport with respect to negative impacts oflarge scale installation of wind farms withoutany regulation. Very soon stricter regulationsare expected for wind power installationswhich would help to make the sector actually green.

The wind industry association has also takendue consideration of the CSE findings. At ameeting held between CSE and wind industryrepresentatives, the wind industry assuredthat it was taking all steps to ensure that environment is not being damaged bywind industry.

Mini-grid development in India: The conceptof mini-grid development was an outcome ofthe research and meetings held around theoff-grid publication, released last year. Fieldvisits were carried out in the state ofMaharashtra in order to get a sense of howmini-grids are actually helping communities.The research focused primarily onunderstanding the economics of the projects.Besides that, three other importantcomponents were studied: funding model,performance of the power plants, and howthe electricity is being used. All fourcomponents varied on a case to case basis.

Dissemination: The findings of the researchon the mini-grids formed the base forconducting the national level meeting inRaipur in August 12 - 14, 2013. As a part ofthe meeting, CSE team took the participantsto remote villages in Chhattisgarh which aresuppose to be entirely dependent on solarmini grids to meet their power needs. Thevisit was very interesting and useful as itbrought out many hard facts such as “poor inthis country have to shell out maximummoney to use power”. The two daydeliberations on mini grid brought out keyissues facing the mini grid development inthis country related to financing,development model, maintenance etc.

Advocacy and outcome: The Ministry of New& Renewable Energy is in the process offinalising the Rural Energy AccessProgramme which will redesign the energyfuture of rural India. This programme willprimarily push for community-based powerplants with the optimized technology for theregion that would provide low cost solutions.As an impact of the Raipur discussions,MNRE has sought CSE suggestions fordesigning their policy. The recommendationsare in progress at the moment.

Citizen’s Report – Renewable Energy: CSEreleased its Citizen’s Report on the State ofRenewable Energy in India in February 2014.The report, first of its kind, takes a holistic view of renewable energydevelopment in the country.

It is based on our research, travel andinteractions with a wide range ofstakeholders. Researchers from CSEtravelled across the country and documentedthe performance of various large and smallscale renewable energy projects. We havelooked at solar, wind, small hydro, biomass,municipal waste-to-energy and decentralisedrenewable energy sectors. We have analyzedthe performance, trend, policy challengesand barriers in developing these sectorsfurther. Based on our research and findings,we recommended many ways for thesustainable growth of the renewable energysector from the need for an integrated energypolicy, reforming Ministry of New andRenewable Energy and incentivising therenewable energy deployment with an aim toachieve grid parity and reach energy access.

Dissemination: A book was released duringthe “Anil Agarwal Dialogue: Energy Accessand Renewable Energy” at India HabitatCentre (IHC) on 27-28th February, 2014 todiscuss the issues concerning renewableenergy development with the aim of energyaccess in the country. The meeting was wellattended by various stakeholders includingpeople from the government, academics,industry, NGOs etc. The book is beingdistributed to all the relevant stakeholders asa part of disseminating knowledge andawareness for the need to mainstreamrenewable energy through citing examples ofhow it is being done in various parts of thecountry and what can be learnt from these instances.

Advocacy and outcome: The report is stillbeing disseminated and the outcome of thereport is not visible as of yet. It was wellreceived at the inauguration and sold a lot ofcopies on the very day.

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP): Researchwork on concentrated solar power in India is

R

Book release of Citizen’s Report on the State of Renewable Energy



in progress. Based on that, an article wasdone in Down to Earth. The research startedwith gathering information from variousdevelopers and conducting interviews withthem. It will be used to publish a report onCSP at the end of the year. The report is infinal draft stage and we aim to publish it atthe earliest.

Green Norms for Green Energy – New Delhi:Renewable Energy team organized a one dayconference on ‘Green Norms for GreenEnergy’ on May 9th, in New Delhi. Themeeting discussed the need for increase inrenewable energy capacity in the countrywhile creating safeguards to avoid negativeenvironmental and social impacts. It wasattended by participants from across thecountry including NGOs, researchers andother stakeholders.

The key focus was on small hydro power andwind power. The discussions centred ondiversion of long stretches of rivers,fragmentation of forests due to linearintrusion, rapid diversion of several hectaresof forest land, and regulatory loopholes. Theparticipants concluded that there is a needfor impact assessment and regulations to

minimise environmental impact. CSE alsoreleased a draft EIA manual for wind powerseeking comments and suggestions from the participants.

Green Norms for Small Hydro Power –Dehradun: Renewable Energy teamorganized a public meeting in Dehradun torelease its report Green Norms for ‘GreenEnergy: Small Hydro Power’. The meetingtalked about the fact that small hydro powersector is not as ‘green’ as it is painted out tobe. It has considerable impacts onenvironment. It was attended by a number ofstakeholders including civil society groups,hydropower experts, industry andgovernment officials. The conference focusedon the rapid hydropower development inspecifically in Uttarakhand. The notion is toutilize the hydro power potential in anecologically sustainable manner. Thereshould be guidelines and norms put in placeso that the there is much needed balancebetween environment and development.

Our report Green Norms for Green Energy:Small Hydro Power provides detailedanalysis of hydropower projects inUttarakhand and Karnataka. CSE has done a

Participants at the Anil Agarwal Dialogue on Renewable Energy



detailed analysis of the ecological impact ofsmall hydro power and global best practicesof environment regulations.

Green norms for Wind Power — Pune:Renewable Energy team organized a publicmeeting in Pune to release and discuss itsreport “Green Norms for Wind Power”. Themeeting talked about the fact that windpower sector is not as ‘green’ as it is paintedout to be and can lead to significantenvironmental damage if left unregulated. Itwas attended by a number of stakeholdersincluding civil society groups, wind powerexperts, industry and government officials.The conference focused on making the windpower development in the countrysustainable and free of any negative impacts.The notion is to utilize the wind powerpotential in an ecologically sustainablemanner. There should be guidelines andnorms put in place so that the there is muchneeded balance between environment and development.

The report Green Norms for wind powerprovides detailed analysis of wind powerprojects in India. CSE has done a detailed

analysis of the ecological impact of windpower and global best practices ofenvironment regulations.

Workshop on Scaling up renewable energybased mini-grids for rural electrification -Raipur: CSE organized a workshop incollaboration with Chhattisgarh RenewableEnergy Development Agency (CREDA), toidentify the business model/ policyframework that would help in rightlyincentivizing this sector. The first part of theworkshop included a field visit to few notableremote villages in the Barnawapara WildlifeSanctuary in Chhattisgarh. The visitsengaged the participants into understandingthe operation model employed by CREDA inorder to sustain their mini-grid performancein the villages. It also gave insight into thefinancial model CREDA uses in developingmini-grids in rural areas.

The deliberations in the workshopincluded the views of several stakeholderswith experience in providing these mini-grid solutions in remote villages. Thediscussed rationale behind the scale up ofmini-grids is that there will be a reliable

Book on Green Norms for Green Energy being released at a function



source of power supply and that theelectrified villages will not have to wait forthe conventional grid power to step up theaspirations of the rural poor.

The consultations insisted on the view thaturgency is required from the governmentin order to scale up the setting up of mini-grid projects in the country especiallywhere it would make economic sense. Theparticipants unanimously agreed thatcorrect financial incentives coupled withgood transmission infrastructure at the tailend of the grid are the need of the hour.

It was concluded in the discussions thatthese programmes need to be efficientlyincentivized from the centre to make themsustainable over the life cycle of the powerplant. Moreover, these mini-grids wouldhave to be technically sound in order toexport surplus power into the grid andimport power whenever demand exceedsthe capacity of the local mini-grid.

Wind EIA training - 29-30 August, Pune:The final version of the manual “EIAGuidelines for Wind Power” was releasedduring Wind Power - EIA training held atYASHADA, Pune during 29-30 August 2013.As Pune is situated near to ecologicallysensitive and fragile western ghat region,the training was important and successfulas it brought together diverse group ofstakeholders ranging from wind industryofficials to NGOs, regulatory bodies etc. Thetraining sensitized them about theenvironmental impacts of wind power, theneed to properly assess the environmentimpact and made them aware of bestpractices being followed in the world.

Wind EIA training - 17-18 September,Bangalore: The training was againconducted at RAMADA, Bangalore during17-18 September, 2013 to enablestakeholders from the southern region ofIndia to get insight into EIA for Wind PowerSector. The state of Karnataka was chosen asit accounts for major share of forestdiversion for wind power projects. Thetraining programme received overwhelming

response from range of stakeholdersespecially the industry, NGOs, students andother regulatory bodies.

The training was very useful especially forthe industry. Gamesa has now approachedCSE to help in giving training to theirinvestors and other staff at various otherlocations in India such as Hyderabad, Indoreand Gujarat.

South Asia Media briefing on ClimateChange with focus on Renewable Energy,18-19 September, New Delhi: Centre forScience and Environment (CSE) organised itsannual two-day briefing for South Asianjournalists in September, before thedeliberations for the 2015 treaty begin at thisyear’s Conference of Parties (CoP) in Poland.The briefing brought to the table the latest innegotiating stances, politics, science andimpacts of climate change from all acrossSouth Asia. Journalists from Afghanistan,Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka,participated in the briefing.

The Future of Solar Energy : 23rdSeptember, Gandhinagar: The conferencewas jointly organised by CSE and d theGujarat Energy Research and ManagementInstitute (GERMI). The objective of theconference was to take stock of the existingstatus of solar energy in India and develop apolicy roadmap for its sustainable growth.The deliberations focused on how importantit is to secure financing for solar projectsand industry to prosper and how to developthe domestic manufacturing sector. Theexperts insisted that commercial lendingshould be encouraged to reduce dependencyon central and state subsidies. Industrywants there should be more enforcement ofrenewable purchase obligations (RPO).Many speakers put forth the idea that solarprojects should be granted ‘priority lending’status for banks to allocate funds specificallyto solar plants.

The conference supported the idea ofdeveloping an indigenous manufacturingsector. CSE recommended a financing



package to reduce the rate of interest for theloan taken by the developers. A lower rate ofinterest could be provided to solar powerdevelopers willing to use Indian solarmodules and cells.

The rooftop solar programmes that arecurrently being drafted in many states werealso discussed in the meeting. Theparticipants expressed the pros and cons ofdifferent ways of financing the programmeseither through net metering or feed-intariffs. The issue still remains the possibilityof connecting the rooftop solar projects to thegrid, which is still not been approved byCERC.

CSE at CAG Stakeholders Workshop on Newand Renewable Energy: CSE was invited bythe Office of Comptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) of India during theirstakeholder’s workshop on New andRenewable Energy on the issues andchallenges being faced by Renewable Energysector in India. The team members wereinvited as panelists for two different sessionson ‘Small Hydro and Biomass’ and ‘Solar andWind Energy’ respectively. The issues andpoints raised by CSE was very well taken andappreciated. As CAG is preparing to auditNew and Renewable energy sector of India, ithas sought cooperation of CSE in assessingthe Renewable Energy Sector of India.Articles published in Down to Earth on REwere being circulated by CAG as part of thedelegate kit.

Anil Agarwal Dialogue on Energy Accessand Renewable Energy: Anil AgarwalDialogue brings together differentstakeholders to discuss issues of nationalimportance. This year, the Anil AgarwalDialogue addressed the issue of energyaccess and the role of renewable energy inproviding energy to all. The two-dayconference was focussed on deliberatingenergy access issues, including electricity

for lighting and clean sources of energy forcooking, and the role of renewable energyto meet the overall unmet energy demand.

AWARENESS CREATION

Research and Reporting: During the period,the CSE RE team published stories in bothDown to Earth magazine and web edition,spanning topics such as advocatingnecessary measures in JNNSM phase IIpolicy document regarding viability gapfunding, potential of the National CleanEnergy Fund and extension of deadlines forsolar thermal developments. The nationalmedia have covered some of the articles andquoted the CSE researchers as listed inAnnexure below.

RE PÍortal: The Renewable Energy portalcontinues to help the team in helping in thework of disseminating information in to thepublic foray. As part of CSE’s ongoing effortto bring about change in the RenewableEnergy sector, the team is working towardscreating a network of different stakeholderswhich will help understand theirperspectives. The website is currently beingrevamped in order to bring more content foraccess to the public. We plan to the portal toact as networking platform for allstakeholders in the renewable energysector. We intend the portal to become a onestop information source for all thingsrenewable. We want to bridge theinformation gap that still exists related torenewable energy.

Newsletter: The newsletter continues to besent to various stakeholders who may or maynot have interacted with CSE but have aninterest in the sector. Currently, theRenewable Energy Newsletter is beingdistributed to more than 1500 contacts. Thishas helped in reaching out to people for theevents conducted by RE team.



SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENT REPORTAGE

Centre for Science and Environmentcovered a motley mix of environmentalissues including the safety of buildings

in India, how and why farmers are switchingfrom food grain crop to vegetable farming,the state of India’s mental health and theraging mining scams. There was a clearattempt to venture into areas that were notregularly covered by the magazine.

The floods in Uttarakhand this year left thestate battered and bruised. Meteorologists,climatologists and geologists scampered tofind a reason behind the freak event. But oneof the take away from the natural disaster isthe lesson that a lot of lives and propertycould have been saved had the state followeda proper environment management plan.CSE was there to report from ground zeroright after the disaster struck. It was the firstpublication to term the catastrophe a ‘man-made disaster’, a term that was picked up byevery media house in country. Themainstream media followed DTE’s stories toreport on the event. The reportage fromUttarakhand culminated in a cover storyentitled Heaven’s Rage published in the July1, 2013 edition of the magazine.

South Asia was also one of the focus areas ofCSE last year. Starting in September 2013, aseries of in-depth analysis and feature pieceswere commissioned and carried by themagazine. The idea was to understand thedifferent environmental and developmentproblems that plague this region, andexplore problems and look at solutionscommon to the region.

AGRICULTURE: Veggies Delight (April 1, 2013) captured agrowing trend among small farmers toswitch to vegetable farming. There is a risingdemand for vegetables in the country andfarmers are enthusiastically turning towards

these short-duration crops. The storyconcluded that farmers opting to growvegetables because they offer greater returnsat a time of low productivity of staple cropsand drought.

WILDLIFETwo cover stories looked at rhino and tigerconservation. Curse of the Horn (April 15,2013) investigated the recent spurt in rhinopoaching in Kaziranga and found that highinternational prices of rhino horns and over-population of rhinos in the national park isthe main reason for the slaughtering of theanimal.

Dark Twist to a Bright Tale (July31, 2013)looked for reasons behind tiger deaths in theJim Corbett National Park and found thatland-grabbing by the rich and powerful inDelhi and the political rivalry between theCongress and the BJP was severely affectingthe management of the park.

Human-elephant conflict is rising across India.Elephants kill every year nearly 400 peopleand about 100 elephants lose their lives.Enigmatically, the conflict is not restricted tothe areas where elephants have traditionallybeen found. In fact, a large number of conflictsare being reported from regions that have hadno elephant population for at least half acentury is the finding from the cover of the Outof the Jungle (February 28, 2014).

SCIENCEIndia’s Mars Mission, the country’s firstinterplanetary mission was captured in thecover story called “Aiming for Mars.” Thestory was reported from ISRO’s commandcentre in Bangalore.

MININGChaos in Iron Age (May 15, 2013) looked athow illegal mining in Bellary and Goa wasforming the basis for mining regulations inthe country. Troubled Beautiful Minds

Public Awareness



(August 1, 2013) looks at India’s 30-year-oldmental health programme and talks aboutthe need to revamp IT in a way that care isavailable to all.

International aid has supported the economyof Afghanistan for 12 years. With aid flowgradually declining; the war-torn countrywill now have to find its own source ofrevenue. The government pins its hope onthe mineral wealth, worth US $1 trillion,underneath the country’s soil. But it hasfaltered in its first mining project. The coverstory Mine Field (October 1, 2013) looked athow, minerals can revive the economy only ifthe government brings transparency into thesystem and puts robust environmentalregulations in place.

RENEWABLE ENERGYOne of the common problems in South Asianis that of energy. For the last few yearsthere has been a growing demand for aSouth Asian Electricity Grid, a commonelectricity transmission and distributionsystem that spans from Afghanistan in thewest to Bangladesh in the east. The idea wasto look whether a common grid could helpmitigate the energy crisis in the region.Area of Darkness (December 31, 2013),explored the possibilities of setting up such agrid and the problems that stop it fromcoming up.

CSE staff members travelled to Germany tostudy its energy transformation. Germany inTransition (September 1, 2013) analysedhow Germany, once addicted to powerderived from nuclear and coal sources, wasmaking a successful transition to renewableenergy. This de-carbonisation model, thestory concludes, could be one that othernations can follow.

GRASSROOTSToilets for All (January 31, 2014), looked athow Bangladesh and Sri Lanka havemanaged to bring down open defecation,while most of India is still struggling with it.But certain states in India like Sikkim,Haryana and Jharkhand are faring muchbetter than the others.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Coastal Mess (January 15, 2014) looked atthe pressures of developmental activities onSouth Asia’s coast. Given that coastal SouthAsia is vulnerable to climate change, properplanning is imperative before developmentalactivities are taken up in such areas.Reporters brought back stories ofunsustainable development from Sri Lanka,Bangladesh and India, which was collatedinto a cover story.

NATURAL CALAMITYAs global warming intensifies, frequency ofextreme weather events will also increase. Inthe 2013 India witnessed a freak hailstormdestroy crops in central and northern Indiaand a super-cyclone that almost threatenedto flatten parts of Orissa and AndhraPradesh. The cover story in the November15, 2013 issue of the magazine entitled 96Hours that Saved the Day, looked at how aprepared Orissa government managed tominimize human causality, even though thedestruction of farmland and livelihood wasimmense.

HEALTHA mystery kidney disease has assumedepidemic proportion in South Asia. Thereason for this disease is not known. CSEstaff travelled to different parts of India andSri Lanka to meet people with this disease and analyze the state of research onthis disease. The story Silent Epidemicappeared in the December 15, 2013 issue ofDown To Earth.

GOVERNANCEIndia is paying a heavy price for the largenumber of bilateral investment treaties, orBITs, it has signed in the hope of attractingforeign investment. This has led to a slew ofglobal investors upset with policy changesmade by the government and are seekinghuge compensation from India ininternational arbitrations. A Treaty TooMany (May 1, 2013) captures how these investors are using provisions of thevarious BITs to seek not just monetarydamages but also revocation of domesticregulatory measures.



Transition Failure (June 15, 2013) analyzedthe Union Government’s efforts to transfercash directly into the beneficiaries’ account.The story found that the target groups werenot receiving their benefits due to lack ofinfrastructure.

OTHER ISSUESCSE published a report, titled StructuralCollapse, on major building collapses inthree metros — Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.It found that a tedious clearance system inthe construction sector has led to corruptionand shortcuts, making most buildings inthese metros unsafe.

CSE also published a special issuecelebrating rivers in India. River, Up Closeand Personal (August 15, 2013) carries acollection of writings on different facets ofrivers in the country.

Other major stories published included Puneand Bangalore’s waste managementproblems entitled Why Waste (March 31,2014); heart diseases among young peopleMatter of Heart (March 15, 2014); anddifferent models of milk cooperativesChurning in Milk (February 15, 2014).

IMPACTS

Is cycling a crime? (July 31, 2013). CSE wasthe first to report on the cycle and NMT banand analyze in detail why such a ban makesno sense for Kolkata. After the report waspublished environmentalists and activists inKolkata took to the streets to protest theban, the regressive notification gotwidespread press coverage in nationalmedia and in international press like BBC,Guardian etc. Now a PIL has been filed at theKolkata high court. The Kolkataadministration partially lifted the ban oncyclists in end of February 2014.

The cover story, Sterile Research (October31, 2013) on the decline of the nationalagriculture research system (NARS) hashad noticeable impact. To start with theMinister for agriculture called a meeting of

the six DDGs to discuss the issues whichCSE had identified as holding back orleading to stultification of research. It alsoled to the research head and joint directorof IARI being replaced. Lab reports, acrucial process for monitoring research,have been introduced. All research labshave been asked to give the citation list andindex of research papers produced bythem. The government has decided tostrengthen the seed sector and is going toinvest more this year.

The former head of the ICAR’s NationalBureau of Agriculturally Important Micro-organism (NBAIM) in Mau (Uttar Pradesh),Dr. Dilip Kumar Arora, who was vice-chancellor of Sher-e-Kashmir University ofAgriculture Science and Technology, Jammuhas been asked to resign three years aheadof completion of his tenure. This followed aspecial focus (box) we had on the corruptionin the institute.The story was widelycirculated among the scientists and wasdistributed to all the laboratories.

Budgeting power, published in the (July 31,2013) issue of the magazine talks about amini-grid model in Rajasthan where paymentmodel was innovated through real-timeprepaid meters. Though the modelempowered people to budget their power, itlimited their aspirations, as they could notuse fans/televisions because of high powercost. The story was picked up by manyresearch institutions researching on mini-grids including Woodrow Wilson Institute ofPublic Policy. The researchers came to Indiaand took services of the reporter inunderstanding the challenges associatedwith mini-grids.

Did Welspun fudge facts for its coal-firedpower plant in Mirzapur? This story publishedon November 20, 2013 on the CSE website, ledto the Expert Appraisal Committee of theMOEF issuing show-cause notice to Welspun.The company after receiving the notice,contacted CSE for advise for their power plant.

Poison in disguise, (May 15, 2013), was astory on fake cinnamon or Cassia being sold



in the market and its health effects. Cassiacan lead to many diseases, including that of the liver. The Kerala governmentimmediately after publication of this storysent notices to traders importing and selling Cassia and imposed a ban on it. TheUnion government also took steps by writingto the Ayurvedic and Unani medicinemanufacturers advising them to use only thegenuine cinnamon in their preparation.

Tigers on the prowl, (February 14, 2014) wasa story that explored the reasons behindincreasing number of tigers straying intohuman settlements. The story was discussedin National Tiger Conservation Authority,held in the third week of February this year.It has also been put up at NTCA’s publicawareness website.

Nicotine Anywhere (March 15, 2014) took onthe multinational ITC on advertising nicotinelaced chewing gums. The company exploitedthe fact that the three pieces of legislationthat govern sale and distribution of drugsand cosmetics in India — the Drugs andCosmetic Act, 1940, the Drug and CosmeticRule, 1945, and the Drugs and MagicRemedies (Objectionable advertisements)Act, 1955 — are silent on whether nicotine-based drugs can be promoted/advertised. The Drug Controller General ofIndia (DGCI) claims that he only came toknow about this infringement by ITC whenDTE contacted him. The DGCI immediatelyissued notices and the company withdrewtheir advertisements.

The web story why 700 liters of free watermay remain a far cry for Delhi analyzedArvind Kejriwal’s promise to supply 20kilolitres a month to city households fromJanuary 1, 2014 was widely appreciated.Some AAP leaders couldn’t help but react onTwitter by accusing the reporter of quotingincorrect data. When the reporter replied,another set of AAP leaders clarified theconfusion and admitted that the figures in

the story were correct. They also admitted ontwitter that the AAP leaders who wererefuting the story were incorrect.

Ground Reports from Niyamgiri- On behalf ofCSE, DTE was the only magazine to attend 9of the 12 village council meetings whichrejected the mining proposal by Vedanta inNiyamgiri hills. This was India’s firstenvironment referendum- media houses,activists and readers looked forward to theDTE reports that were published on the veryday village council meetings were held.Editorials in newspaper houses like TheHindu spoke of the coverage. The groundreports were followed by analysis, profileand blog which got wide readership on the website.

The floods in Uttarakhand left the statebattered and bruised. Meteorologists,climatologists and geologists scampered tofind a reason behind the freak event. Butone of the takeaways from the naturaldisaster is the lesson that a lot of lives andproperty could have been saved had thestate followed a proper environmentmanagement plan. Down to Earth was thereto report from ground zero right after thedisaster struck. It was the first publicationto call the catastrophe a Man-madeDisaster, a term that was picked up by everymedia house in country.

The mainstream media followed DTE’sstories to report on the event. The reportagefrom Uttarakhand culminated in a coverstory entitled Heaven’s Rage published inthe July 1, 2013, issue of the magazine.

Several patent columns focus on IPregulation and article on US trade pressures on India to amend its regulationswere picked and widely circulated. Perhapsfollowing this a number of organisationshave appeared before the US internationaltrade commission in defense of India’s tradepolicies and IP law.



MEDIA RESOURCE CENTRE

KEY ACTIVITIES

Media fellowships on Off-grid renewableenergy - Power beyond the grid: Isrenewable doable?

CSE Media Fellowship Programme invitedjournalists from India writing/reporting inany language to apply for its 16th Media

Fellowships to address, analyse and report onthe issue of off-grid renewable energy.Four jury members shortlisted nine fellows

from 43 complete applications from across thenation. Nine fellows generated 34 mediaclippings at the end of the fellowship. Thefellows represented mainstream papers such asHindustan Times, Jaipur Prabhat Khabar,Bahraich, and Dainik Bhaskar Jaipur as well asregional papers such as AajKaal Tripura,Kashmir Newz Srinagar, Central ChronicleRaipur and Navduniya

Media fellowships on Fragile Ecosystems ofIndia: The fellowship on fragile ecosystemsof India explored, captured and documentedthe events, changes and stories from theregions which are already fragile andextremely vulnerable to these climate-induced events. 8 fellows were shortlistedfrom 38 applicants from across India. Theygenerated 28 media reports looking at theregions mentioned in the fellowshipannouncement. The fellows were frommainstream print media such as HindustanTimes, Dainik Bhaskar, The Statesman,regional print media such as Prajavani andradio Al Jazeera and All India Radio.

BRIEFING AND WORKSHOPSUnderstanding environmental issues forbetter reportage A media briefing for localjournalists, Leh, Ladakh: Furthering ourinitiative to work with pan cities journalists,we were approached by Leh based Ladakh

Arts and Media Organisation (LAMO) to hold aworkshop for the local journalists in Ladakh.They however wanted us to extend our formatto skill building in reporting for hand pickedvillagers who were being trained as waterreporters. We saw this as an opportunity tonot only extend our network, but also increaseour research base into one of the remotest andunder reported part of the country. Weenvisage to have a cadre of researchers andreporters bringing us stories from the ground,and feeding into the programmes such asclimate change and renewable energy. The 2days workshop was attended by 8 waterreporters and 12 journalists from AIR, ReachLadakh, Kashmir Times, Information bulletinand Ladags Sargyur. The journalistspublished articles covering the workshop. Thewater reporters and the journalists requestedfor a longer workshop looking at capacitybuilding activities

Understanding environmental issues forbetter reportage - A media briefing for localjournalists, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu: CSENew Delhi and the PSG College of Arts andScience, Coimbatore, organised a workshopon environment and its reportage. Theworkshop was open to journalists working onlocal environmental issues, and journalismstudents. As the world is becomingincreasingly connected due to globalisation,so are the environmental issues. Local issueswith global impacts and vice versa wasexplored with a bird’s eye view. While issuessuch as climate change, water stress,Western Ghats were be covered in theworkshop, the stress was on understandinghow best to identify, research and report onthem. Journalists from Tamil Nadu, Kerala,and Karnataka participated in the workshop.

South Asia media briefing on climatechange: In May 2013, the Mauna Loarecording station in Hawaii, run by the USNational Oceanic and Atmospheric

Education and Training



Administration, came up with a startlingdiscovery: carbon dioxide had breached the400 ppm mark for the first time ever. As weproceed in the ‘danger zone’, the worldneeds to get its act together and sign a legallybinding climate treaty which will push forpreventive action. The ‘blind’ negotiationscontinue this year in Poland, as urgency ofcollective action and responsibility rests onthe world’s shoulders.

CSE organised its annual two-day briefing forSouth Asian journalists in September, beforethe deliberations for the 2015 treaty begin atthis year’s Conference of Parties (CoP) inPoland. The briefing brought to the table thelatest in negotiating stances, politics, scienceand impacts of climate change from all acrossSouth Asia. Journalists from Afghanistan,Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka,participated in the briefing. A 2 days mediabriefing with journalists from across theSouth Asian region. For the first time, we hada journalist from Myanmar. Media coverage,network of our journalist is continuouslygetting bigger, with representatives fromnational, and state level as well electronicmedia. We have successfully done 5 briefings,and it is coming together as a brand.

CSE initiative CoP-19, Warsaw: Incontinuation to our initiative to understandglobal climate negotiations for better mediareporting about the ongoing discussion at theglobal forum, a group of 5 journalists aretaken to Warsaw this year. The followingjournalists are supported by CSE , wherethey get to attend sessions, events andnegotiations first hand: 1. Nitin Sethi, senior assistant editor, The

Hindu, Delhi2. Vishwa Mohan, assistant editor, The

Times of India, Delhi,3. Jayanta Basu, special correspondent,

The Telegraph, Kolkata,4. T G Biju, senior journalist, PTI, Delhi,5. Hitendra Sharma, principal

correspondent, Dainik Bhaskar, Jaipur

DTE Annual State of India’s environment,2014: The State of India’s environment 2014

¨Down To Earth‘ annual, brings together a setof well-reasoned and crisply-writtenanalyses, reportages, reviews and overviewson some of the most significant developmentsof 2013 in fields ranging from water, miningand agriculture to governance, forests andclimate change.

We are all witnesses in the changing worldfor Climate Alliance: “From overconsumptionto solidarity” is a joint awareness-raisingproject of eight European and eight Southerncivil society organisations, co-financed byEuropeAid. It aims to increase criticalunderstanding and competence amongstEuropean citizens with regard to Europe’sresponsibility for the social and ecologicalimpact of its overconsumption ondevelopment in the Amazon region, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The project aims toencourage behavioural change thatcontributes to a more sustainable use ofresources and to eradicating extreme hungerand poverty (Millennium Development Goals 1and 7). CSE is one of the partners of theproject, and looked at the aspect of climatechange impacts in India. As case studies, the2010 Ladakh cloud burst and 2013Uttarakhand floods were portrayed. Thepanel exhibition and the web-documentarieswhich were put together as part of the project.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES

ACTIVITIESRevamp and redesign of the IndiaEnvironment Portal: A dedicated team ofinformation and web specialists at CSEanalysed the utility and outreach of the IndiaEnvironment and revamped the IndiaEnvironment Portal in 2013-14 to ensurethat this portal continued to remain amongstthe most popular online resource forspecialised and contextual information onenvironment and development subjects withfocus on India and the South Asia.

India Environment Portal with over4,50,000 records on 9000 environment andgeographical subjects: Till date, the portalhas successfully documented and made



available over 4,50,000 most relevant andappropriate records covering more than9600 environment, development andgeographical subjects. Hence, today it isundoubtedly recognised nationally andinternationally as the leading virtual single-stop gateway for specialised studies,research reports, government policies andregulations, opinions, and environmentalnews articles sourced everyday from over120 international, national and regionalprint and electronic news sources.

350 Environment Leads, Specials andDossiers: Over 350 most important reports,events and happenings of the year 2013-14were analysed and presented as specialisedenvironment information packages almost daily.

The India environment portal put-in asubstantial effort to source and analyse thedata and statistics on environment andpresent a selection of this data as interactiveinfographics. In 2013-14, the team sourceddata and created over twelve infographics.These interactives were conceptualised andproduced by the team consciously to simplifyinformation and knowledge on a range ofpopular subjects – climate change, waterpollution, elections, governance, etc. Thesehave been amongst the most-viewed contenton this portal. Over 400 specialisedenvironment data sets available with thegovernment departments - national andstate were sourced and made availablethrough the environment portal.

Content management on India ClimateResources Network website (ICRN): Withlatest national and international research,reports, studies. This site was also regularlymaintained with other useful information –climate events, research/fellowships, jobsand a specialised Climate news bulletin.

Knowledge Services and EnvironmentChannel on Environment Clearances (onyoutube): Sourced, edited and uploadedvideos showing public hearings on variousindustrial projects across India. IEPregularly tracked information, report and

environment/forests clearance meetings atnational and state-level.

Specialised services on enviro-legaldisputes, the court verdicts and the legalframework: Established a work flow toidentify, source and document land markenvironment-related petitions and courtcases from the National Green Tribunal,High Court and the Supreme Court. Over 550court cases and judgements have been cross-tagged and made available in the publicdomain.

A regular alert service on enviro-legalsubjects started in January 2014 is beingutilised by over 120 subscribers.

Vital statistics on India Environment Portal

Geographical reach: 226 countriesVisitors 7,21,500 Pageviews 14,93,505 Mobile + Tablet visitors 100000Documents download per year 50000 Subscribers for weekly newsletter 1800

India Environment Portal: The KnowledgeHub on Sustainable Development News 319557Feature Articles, Research Papers 18702Reports, Studies & Documents 11041Opinions/ Blogs 3250Court Cases/ Orders/ Judgements 550Interactives 357Organisations 404Events/Announcements 393Books 281Multimedia – photos and videos 229Presentations 84Press Releases 54

Environment News Services: A searchablecross-tagged unique comprehensive newsrepository consisting of 319557 newsclipshas been amongst the most popular serviceson the India Environment Portal. This servicecontinued to present an overview on the stateof the environment – international, nationaland regional by capturing the mediaperspective from over 120 newspaperscovering 75 Indian cities & towns, and 26



South Asian newspapers from six countries— Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, SriLanka and Pakistan.

News services provided by the team includesdaily environment news service and climatenews service. The team also published 12issues of India Green Files for about 525subscribers; 12 issues of South Asia GreenFile for about 200 subscribers and 12 issuesof Corporate Environment Inc for 150subscribers. The team also providedspecialised research support on –social andenvironmental impact of 45 major thermalpower projects across India , sector-wisedatabase of waste management companiesin India, etc.

A weekly environment newsletter is sent toover 1900 subscribers which includes –researchers, scholars, industries, media,NGOs, government, etc.

Photo/film documentation: IEP teammembers have prepared a central database

consisting of over 1,50,000 photos. Besidesthis, the team continued to maintain andupdate an online photo gallery with 7000geo-tagged photos. These photos wereutilised by the centre for its communicationand advocacy efforts through use in –fortnightly magazine Down To Earth, GobarTimes and other CSE publications. Photoresearch provided by the team alsobenefitted — newsletters, publications,marketing and various CSE websites.

The team also provided a vital support intracking CSE appearances on television, andserved about 18 specific requests – nationaland international for audio-visual assistancefrom individuals and institutions in the year.For example, Oxfam, Open Magazine, NewYork Times.

Films for awareness, advocacy andcampaigns: Over 2100 films were packagedand distributed for environment awarenessand education amongst NGOs, Industries,Academic/Research Institutions, etc.

Participants of the training programme on information management



Capacity building workshops on digitalliteracy: The team’s hands-on trainingworkshops on information management andsocial media remained popular, and theteam conducted three workshops in India, Sri Lank and Nepal. The team trained98 information and communicationprofessionals from India and six other south Asian countries- Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal,Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Recognition as the leading gateway forinformation on environment: IEP isrecognised by the government of India as aleading gateway for information onenvironment and was invited for apresentation by the national-level SectoralInnovations Councils at New Delhi. IndiaEnvironment Portal was appreciated for thediversity of content and the way it is organised.Officials from Planning Commission, SIDBI andIndia Health Portal showed interest incollaborating with the portal.

National Data Sharing and AccessibilityPolicy — Project Management Unit (NDSAP-PMU) of the National Informatics Centre (NIC)has shown interest in collaboration with theIndia environment portal (IEP). IEP was alsoinvited to participate in a consultationmeeting for effective and wider implemen -tation of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy through the Open Government Data Platform of theIndian government.

India Environment Portal recognised forresearch – national and international:Information available on IEP is regularlyused, referenced and quoted by leadingnational and international authors/publishers in their research reports andpublications (in more than 60 national andinternational publications in 2013-14).

Content Collaboration/ interests shown by Government, Advocacy / Researchorganisat ions/Industries/Investors :Institutions, individual experts andresearchers have shown interest in contentand knowledge collaboration with the Indiaenvironment portal. Some of the contributorshave been – Ministry of New and Renewableenergy, Climate Parliament, Green peace etc.

Industries and banks too have realised thepotential of this portal and have beenregularly updating the portal about theirinitiatives on environment and development.For example – Yes Bank, Adhunik MetaliksLimited, Lanco, etc.

Capacities built on informationdocumentation and communication usingnew media (digital/social media): 98information and communication profes -sionals were trained by the team on variousaspects of information documentation andcommunication using new media (digital/social media), from India and six other southAsian countries- Bhutan, Bangladesh,Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.



The Anil Agarwal EnvironmentTraining Institute (AAETI) aims tostrengthen capacities within the

government, in the civil society, in theprivate sector and practitioners and theacademia, and will be supported by state-of-the art research, information services andwill provide a platform to interact andexchange ideas and best practices.

AAETI conducts short-term and long-termtraining programmes, tailored for differenttarget groups, on a wide array ofenvironment and development issues andtopics. To encourage participation, thecourses offered are linked to the trainingneeds of the specific target groups. Somecourses are synergised with certificate anddiploma courses offered by mainstreamuniversities, so that there is value addition tothe career of the persons taking the courses.

CSE is developing the AAETI campus as amodel green campus which will incorporatethe best environmental practices in buildingdesign and construction, energy efficiency

and renewable energy, water and wastemanagement, etc. The campus will serve asa technology demonstration and technologyincubating centre for the development andpropagation of environmentally soundtechnologies and services.

The construction at the site at Nimli,Rajasthan, about 2 hours by road from Delhi,is in full swing. CSE has obtained most of themandatory land and environment-relatedclearances from the state authorities to startthe construction of the proposed institute.CSE is putting in its best efforts to movethings faster so that the entire trainingfacility can be moved to the new traininginstitute early as possible.

STATUS OF CONSTRUCTIONConstruction will pick up pace as CSE has recently been granted the ‘change inland use’ (CLU) permission, which is considered the most challenging to obtain. Theapproval received for the AAETI buildingplan from the government will also help usmoving ahead with the planned activities.

Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI)

Construction of the swales Temporary shelters at the Nimli site



The following construction related works areundertaken at the site:

500 meters long Boundary wall completedwith Gabion stone wall method. The first twoblocks were completed last year. Since thenthe remaining two blocks have beencompleted till plinth level. The walls of theworker’s community centre and toilet blockhave been completed.

The site will have vegetated swales to allowpercolation of storm water into the ground.The swales that will not be impacted byconstruction have been made at site. Theconstruction of the swales was completed inearly January 2014. The planning in theswales was done in March 2014 once theweather had improved.

Planting works have been initiated at the sitewith the first lot of planting done during theearly months of the year. Some of the nativetrees were sourced from the nursery of theRao Jodha park in Jodhpur since they are nolonger available in the area. Tree guardshave been installed around the saplings toprotect them from animals and the elements.Dedicated staff has been employed to takecare of the plants on the site. Additionalplanting work is being taken-up over the nextfew weeks during the monsoons.• A small team of workers along with a

dedicated site engineer are deployed at site.• A temporary hand-pump has been

installed. • Two small temporary buildings to be

used as a site office and for stores havebeen built using rammed earth walls andthatch roof. The doors and windows wereinstalled in the site office and store roomsand the Toilet for the site office wascompleted in January 2014.

• The tank for treating bamboo to be usedto construct the roof of the AcademicBlock has been built.

• The site boundaries have beendemarcated using pillars and thebuildings for the first phase ofconstruction located on site.

• The sampling of Gabion Wall for the siteboundary is initiated at the site.

TRAININGS UNDERTAKEN IN 2013-14

During the year, AAETI at the existingfacility at Tughlakabad Institutional Area,New Delhi, continued to expand its trainingoutreach. A total of 77 training programmeswere conducted, attracting 2280participants. These numbers represent anincrease of 121 participants from theprevious year, in which 2,175 were trainedby CSE. Almost all CSE programmes havenow mainstreamed trainings and workshopsas part of their strategy of engagement withtheir respective stakeholders — rangingfrom environmental impact assessment(EIA), waste and pollution management tourban mobility, rainwater harvesting,decentralised wastewater treatment toinformation management, to name just a few.

While the majority of those trained in the year were Indians (1727), CSE trainings also attracted more than 536 south Asians —112 Bhutanese, 180 Bangladeshis, 81Nepalese, 163 Sri Lankans, among others. Ofthe 77 trainings conducted over a period of400 days, 64 days of trainings were conductedoutside India (52 in other south Asiancountries). The following trainingprogrammes were conducted during the year:

Environment Impact Assessment (EIA):Builds capacity of environment regulators toassess the possible environment, social andeconomic costs of a proposed project. Itlooks at the tools and thumb rules to conductan EIA.

Social Impact Assessment (SIA): Thiscourse takes participants through the entireSIA process – reconnaissance and baselinesurvey, land acquisition survey and thepreparation of a rehabilitation plan for thosepotentially affected by an individual project.

Urban & Industrial Wastewater Treatment:Covers decentralised approaches towastewater treatment and builds capacity inplanning, designing and monitoringtreatment systems. Includes hands-onexperience in water sampling and analysis.



Decentralised Wastewater Treatment:Helps you solve real-life problems inplanning and designing rainwater harvestingand decentralised water treatment and re-use systems in both rural and urbanscenarios.

Managing Air Quality: Focused on cleanvehicle technology and fuels, management ofin-use transport fleets and transit traffic, thiscourse is designed to enhance understandingon air quality management and governanceissues.

Urban Transport Reforms: Builds capacityin planning strategies to scale up publictransport, designing multi-modalintegration, bus sector reforms, walking andcycling as well as parking.

Hazardous Waste Management: Providesoverview of the legal framework and coversthe design of a landfill site, incineration and composting methods. Exposesparticipants to the status of hazardous wastein India – characterisation, recycling andpossible re-use.

Green Building for Architects: Explores thescope of harmonising eco-friendly andhealthy building concepts with policy-drivenand market-driven approaches to accelerateadoption of resource-efficient practices inthe building industry.

Challenge of the Balanace: Month-longorientation programme to give internationalparticipants first-hand experience of

Southern perspectives concerning theenvironment-development debate.

Agenda for Survival: Interdisciplinarymonth-long summer certificate course onenvironment and development issues thatallows Indian participants to criticallyevaluate the critical issues that dominate theenvironment-development debate.

Bootcamp for young developmentprofessionals: Programme deals withecological rights, natural resourcemanagement, food security, land tenures aswell as environment and health concerns. Thetraining includes a field visit to rural India.

Green Schools Programme (GSP): Aimed atteachers, educators and students to greentheir schools using CSE’s own GSP manual.Includes examples of green change broughtabout by individual schools other than anannual rating of schools.

Empowering Institutions: Targeted atinformation professionals in NGOs,corporates, government and public sectorundertakings, this course is for thoseinterested in quality informationmanagement – sourcing and organisinginformation and building contact databases.

E-Outreach: Designed to equip participantswith tools to deal with the New Media age,this course deals with the how of using socialmedia, pictures and video on the web,blogging, search engine optimisation andlearning about measurement tools.

TRAININGS CONDUCTED IN 2013-14: A SNAPSHOTSl. Programme Total number Total number of

of trainings participants1 Sustainable industrialization 31 8262 Environment education 13 5583 Water management 20 5114 Sustainable mobility and clean air 4 1665 Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute 3 486 Green building 2 377 Information management 3 988 Climate Change 1 36

Total 77 2280

Centre for Science and Environment41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110062Tel: 91-11-40616000, 29955124, 29956110Fax: 91-11-29955879 Email: [email protected]: www.cseindia.org

leaves of important

survival trees of india —

MAHUA, ALDER, OAK,

KHEJDI, PALMYRA

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