SunCorp

Until very recently, man-made climate change was believed to be a crisis of the distant future. We’ve learned, painfully, that we are already in the midst of manmade climate change, with worse to come. Rich and poor countries alike have already been hard hit: killer heat waves in Europe, extreme droughts in the US and Australia, major floods and tropical cyclones in Asia and the Gulf of Mexico, extreme floods and droughts in Africa. Part of our response, of course, must be to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases causing these changes. Another part, however, should be to adapt skilfully to the changes already underway.
    Climate change was once simply described as global warming, but we now appreciate that the changes ahead go far beyond temperature alone. Climate changes affect crop productivity through changes in temperature, rainfall, river flows, and pest abundance. Droughts and floods are becoming more frequent. Tropical diseases such as malaria are experiencing a wider range of transmission. Extreme weather events such as high-intensity hurricanes in the Caribbean and typhoons in the Pacific are becoming more likely. Changes in river flow already threaten hydroelectric power, biodiversity and large-scale irrigation. Rising sea levels in the coming decades may inundate coastal communities and drastically worsen storm surges.
    No region, not even the richest, is yet ready for these changes. All parts of the world will have to increase their scientific understanding, public awareness and investments to reduce climate risks and to adjust to climate shocks as they occur. Yet the poorest, as usual, are most in the line of fire. The tropics, home to a large proportion of the world’s poor, stand to bear the greatest adverse hits to agricultural productivity. The impoverished dry-land regions — especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia — are already fighting the multiple disasters of drought, degraded pasturelands and rapidly rising populations. These dry lands are now likely to become drier still, adding further potentially explosive pressures in places like Darfur, Sudan, the Horn of Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
    Yet there are many things that the new adaptation science can allow us to do, to adjust more skilfully to the coming shocks. New sustainable engineering techniques can teach poor farmers new ways to harvest and store rainwater, in order to protect them from the rising risks of drought. Improved seed varieties can add drought-resistant traits to vital food crops. Improved weather and climate forecasting can give a region the advanced warning of seasonal and multi-year climate trends.
    Financial innovations can create novel market instruments such as rainfall-linked bonds that enable regions to insure against climate risks. There is talk about a new global fund to help poor countries to stop deforestation, and thereby to help them build up greater ecological resilience as well as to protect biodiversity and reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
    Many of these changes are already being put into place. The International Research Institute of Climate and Society (IRI), part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, is working in many parts of the developing world to hone the new tools of adaptation science. The Millennium Villages led by the UN Development Programme and the Earth Institute, are empowering poor farmers to diversify crops, improve small-scale water management, insure against droughts and build a financial buffer against climate shocks. Countless other successes, at small scale, are also being demonstrated.
    It is now time to take the adaptation challenge, and the emerging adaptation science, to a much larger scale. Less than two months from now, when the world’s governments convene in Bali, Indonesia, to negotiate a new climate protocol to follow the Kyoto Protocol (which expires in 2012), adaptation should be high on the policy agenda. We are moving into a new era, when we must not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions sharply, but learn to live wisely with the changes we have wrought.

The corporate sector is designing innovative products and programmes to improve energy efficiency, cut costs and counter global warming.

One of the most frequently used key combinations to log off a PC is ‘Ctrl+Alt+Del’. But every time we do this and walk away, the computer remains on and consumes energy, resulting in wastage of both money and power.
    Not just that, the power consumed by your PC also adds to global warming! A 65 watt power processor in a computer consumes about 234 KW power if it works for 12 hours a day for 300 days. If there are an estimated 15 million PCs in India, then it could result in consumption of 35.25 terra watts of power a year— which means a whopping 4,92,748,000 barrels of oil to produce that amount of energy.
    This is just one aspect of the energy crunch facing India. According to the Central Electricity Authority, at the current annual generation capacity of 1,35,000 MW, there’s a shortage of nearly 10% and it will only get worse. No wonder that the corporate sector is opting for intelligent power usage. Companies are designing innovative products and programmes to increase energy efficiency and cut costs.

INDIA INC STEPS IN
For example, IBM has integrated energy conservation into its environmental management system since 1974. Between 2000-2005, it reduced PFC emissions by 58% and made the technology available to others in the industry. In India, they launched Intelligent Energy Campaign last year and Project Big Green in June 2007. ‘‘The initiative includes new products and services for clients to sharply reduce data centre energy consumption, transforming the world’s business and public technology infrastructure into ‘green’ data centres,’’ says Reji Kumar Pillai, head, energy and utilities, IBM India.
    Statistics show IT data centres consume 15 times more energy per sq ft than a typical office building and, in some cases, may be 100 times more energy intensive. According to IDC, expenditure on power and cooling in data centres is growing at eight times the rate of expenditure on hardware. So ‘‘green teams’’ of energy efficiency specialists, as set up by IBM, is a step forward. Similarly, AMD India makes sure the PCs in its offices are switched off, screen savers are not used and ACs are fitted with thermostats that modulate temperatures. ‘‘The company also uses PowerNow in its server processors that helps reduce energy consumption of the server,’’ says Deepanshu Sharma, GM Marketing, AMD India.
GREEN GRID
In another initiative, a consortium of IT giants like AMD, Microsoft, Dell, Sun, IBM et al, have set up The Green Grid — a platform for IT professionals who aim to cut power consumption in data centres. It offers solutions and suggestions on the best practices available.
    ‘Green’ buildings is another concept fast gaining popularity. Commercial buildings are responsible for at least 40% of energy use in most countries. Industry estimates say ‘green’ buildings can save up to 50% energy, 35% of water usage and improve employee productivity by up to 10%. Adds Manoj Mathur, regional head, Trane India Ltd which helps make ‘green’ buildings, ‘‘Better usage of heat from the building can also be done. For example, in the process of cooling buildings, a lot of heat is wasted. This heat can be captured and used for a wide range of applications, like water heating etc.’’ The commonly-used incandescent bulb too wastes up to 95% of its energy on generating heat — only 5% goes into producing light. This at a time when the global demand for energy is expected to grow 53% by 2030 — 70% of this demand will come from China and India alone.
    S Venkataramani, head, lighting division, Philips Electronics India, says, ‘‘In India, 18,000 MW power is used for lighting purposes alone annually. A study done by MAIT-Emerson Network Power (India) on network power downtime reveals... India Inc could be losing over Rs 22,000 crore in direct losses due to poor power quality and operating environment related downtime. This is estimated to be around 2.2% of the gross output of the total industrial and service sectors.’’ Now, Philips India is in the process of creating an ‘‘ecosystem’’ comprising industry bodies, governments and NGOs and education institutes to break down the barriers against adoption of energy efficient lighting. It’s promoting compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) that save energy by 80%. ‘‘That’s a saving of Rs 500 and 84 kg of CO2 per lamp per year,’’ says Venkataramani.
    None of these initiatives will work unless there is collaboration by all concerned. As Pillai says, ‘‘For intelligent energy solutions to succeed, there must be a concerted and collaborative effort by industry, government and consumers; no company or organisation can do this alone.’’ Recognising this, the corporate world seems to have taken up the challenge of balancing both market needs and environmental priorities.

A Devon town that sparked off a national movement to ban plastic bags from its shops is making the initiative a permanent one.

All 43 shops in Modbury joined the town-wide ban on 1 May and after a six-month trial it is becoming a permanent plastic bag-free zone.

Instead shoppers are asked to buy 100% biodegradable alternatives made from corn starch, canvas, paper or cotton.

A number of towns around the country have followed suit.

The Modbury initiative was started after a local resident saw the damage plastic can cause marine life.

Rebecca Hosking, who works as a wildlife camerawoman, said she had been inundated with calls from around the world including Australia, Russia and America following Modbury's ban.

Modbury's bags are offered at cost price of £1.50 for a small bag and £3.95 for a large bag.

The reusable bags are imported from a small factory in Mumbai and printed in the UK using water-based organic ink.

The town also has "amnesty" points for people to recycle their old plastic bags.