India Likely to Miss Olympic Qualifier World Relays in Poland
Star sprinters Hima Das and Dutee Chand might miss the Olympic qualifying World Athletics Relays in Poland in the first week of May as the Indian team's connecting flight to Amsterdam has been suspended following the record-shattering spike in the country's COVID-19 case load.
The women's 4x100m and the men's 4x400m relay teams were to board a KLM flight to Amsterdam but the Dutch government has suspended flights from India effective Monday evening.
The Athletics Federation of India is trying to book an alternate flight available to any European city en route to Silesia in Poland where the event will be held. There is no direct flight to Poland from India.
Apr 28, 2021
Area in Andaman & Nicobar Becomes First Large Territory to Get Organic Certification
About 14,491 hectare (ha) area in Andaman and Nicobar has been certified as organic, the first large contiguous territory to be done under a government scheme.
After Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Islands, Lakshadweep and Ladakh are proactively taking steps for the transformation of their traditional organic areas to certified organic.
There are traditional areas in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, north-eastern states and tribal belts of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and desert districts of Rajasthan which can be transformed to certified organic.
The organic certification has been given under the Large Area Certification (LAC) Scheme of the PGS-India (Participatory Guarantee System) certification programme.
Under LAC, each village in the area is considered as one cluster/group. All farmers with their farmland and livestock need to adhere to the standard requirements and on being verified get certified enmass without the need to go under conversion period. Certification is renewed on annual basis through verification by a process of peer appraisals as per the process of PGS-India.
Apr 27, 2021
Global Carbon Emissions Set for Second-biggest Increase
According to a new International Energy Agency (IEA) report, global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are on course to surge by 1.5 billion tonnes in 2021 - the second-largest increase in history - reversing most of last year's decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This will be the biggest annual rise in emissions since 2010 during the carbon-intensive recovery from the global financial crisis.
The IEA's Global Energy Review 2021 estimates that CO2 emissions will increase by almost 5 per cent this year to 33 billion tonnes, based on the latest national data from around the world as well as real-time analysis of economic growth trends and new energy projects that are set to come online.
Apr 26, 2021
Saudi Arabia to Join 'Net Zero Producers Forum' on Climate Change
Saudi Arabia will join the United States, Canada, Norway, and Qatar in forming 'Net Zero Producers Forum' for oil and gas producers to discuss how they can support the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, will be part of the new platform, which will discuss ways to achieve net zero carbon emission targets to limit global warming.
In the past, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said the kingdom aims to reduce its carbon emissions by generating 50% of the country's energy from renewables by 2030.
Apr 25, 2021
2020 was Europe's Hottest Year on Record
According to the European Union's observation service, Europe experienced its hottest year on record last year, while the Arctic suffered a summer of extreme wildfires partly due to low snow cover as climate change impacts intensified.
As world leaders prepared to brandish their plans to fight climate change at a U.S.-led summit, EU scientists issued a stark reminder that the impacts of a warmer world are already here.
Europe's average annual temperature in 2020 was the highest on record and at least 0.4 degrees Celsius above the next five warmest years -- all of which took place in the last decade.