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DECEMBER 2011 Indian Proposal on Neglected Issues for Durban Discussions The Indian Government has submitted a proposal to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to include three contentious but very important issues on ‘unilateral trade measures‘, ‘intellectual property rights‘ and ‘equitable access to sustainable development‘ for inclusion in the provisional agenda of the 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 17) to be held in Durban, South Africa in late November this year. These issues have been neglected and not properly addressed in the 2010 Cancun decision on the outcome of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (decision 1/CP 16) despite being raised by India and a large number of developing countries prior to and in Cancun. India requested that the 3 issues be included in the COP 17 provisional agenda and developing countries in the Bonn talks that ended on 17 June objected to attempts to have these items addressed by the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) that has no mandate to provide guidance (thereby influencing) the COP agenda. The Indian proposal is for the inclusion of these issues as follows: (i) under the agenda item ‘Development and transfer of technologies‘, a sub-item on ‘Mitigation and adaptation actions and technology related Intellectual Property Rights‘; (ii) under the agenda item ‘Review of implementation of commitments and other provisions of the Convention‘, to include ‘Equitable access to sustainable development‘ and ‘Unilateral trade measures‘. The Indian submission provided the explanatory notes in respect of each additional agenda item as proposed. On the intellectual property rights (IPRs) issue, the Indian explanatory note states that “at Cancun, Parties to UNFCCC agreed to set up a Technology Mechanism and Networks of Climate Technology Centres with a view to promote cooperation amongst Parties for development and transfer of technologies. While the Technology Mechanism will help build capacity for deployment of existing technologies and dissemination of environmentally sound technologies, there is a need to augment this arrangement in form of removal of constraints at the global level on the development and availability of climate friendly technologies. An effective and efficient global regime for management of (IPRs) of climate friendly technologies is critical to the global efforts for development, deployment, dissemination and transfer of such technologies. In the absence of such an arrangement, the objective of advancing the nationally appropriate mitigation and adaptation actions at the scale and speed warranted by the Convention cannot be met effectively and adequately. Such a regime should promote access to (IPRs) as global public good while rewarding the innovator and enhance the capacity of developing countries to take effective mitigation and adaptation actions at the national level. Conference of Parties should urgently decide on addressing the issue of treating and delivering climate technologies and their IPRs as public good in the interest of the global goal of early stabilization of climate and advancing developing country efforts aimed at social and economic development and poverty eradication.” On the issue of “equitable access to sustainable development”, the explanatory note states that ‘at Cancun, Parties agreed to a global goal for climate stabilization with a view to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 degree C above pre-industrial levels and decided that urgent actions be taken to meet this long term goal consistent with science and on the basis of equity. Parties also decided to work towards identifying a time frame for global peaking of green house gas emissions based on the best available scientific knowledge and equitable access to sustainable development. The decisions at Cancun imply that the global goal of climate stabilization in terms of limiting the temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels should be preceded by a paradigm for equitable access to sustainable development. The achievement of the global goal must not compromise the sustainable development imperatives of developing countries and must fully take into account the overriding priority of social and economic development and poverty eradication in such countries. Keeping in mind the objective of identifying the suitable timeframe for reducing the global emissions on the basis of equitable access to sustainable development, the principle of equity must be defined so as to recognize that the global atmospheric resource is the common property of all mankind and each human being has equal entitlement to use of this resource in the interest of meeting the overriding priorities of developing countries.‘ On the issue of “unilateral trade measures”, the note states that, “at Cancun, Parties agreed to promote a supportive and open international economic system. Parties decided, inter-alia, that measures taken to combat climate change including unilateral ones should not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination or a disguised restriction on international trade. Unilateral Trade Measures (UTMs) include tariff, non-tariff, and other fiscal and non-fiscal border trade measures that may be taken by developed country Parties, against goods and services from developing country Parties. Recourse to UTMs on any grounds related to climate change, including protection and stabilization of climate, emissions leakage and/or cost of environment compliance would be tantamount to passing mitigation burden onto developing countries, and would clearly contravene the fundamental principles and provisions of equity, common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities, and the principle enshrined in Article 3 of the Convention. Parties should expressly prohibit use of unilateral trade measures on such grounds, as they will have negative environmental, social and economic consequences for developing countries and compromise the principles and provisions of the Convention.” Attempts were made to negotiate and amend the elements of the provisional agenda for COP 17 that included the new issues proposed by India, under the discussions on ‘arrangements for intergovernmental meetings‘ (AIMs) in a contact group of the SBI. Developed countries, especially the United States, are of the view that these issues have been settled in Cancun. However, most developing countries are of the view that not all the issues were addressed in Cancun and are still unresolved. Arctic Ice Shelf Might have Broken up Before Researchers think a Canadian ice shelf had broken up 1,400 years ago, long before industrialisation impacted the planet. A study of sedimentary material on the bottom of Disraeli Fjord in Canada turned up proof of what the team from Universite Laval in Canada described as a major fracturing event 1,400 years ago. They believe at least an ice shelf, Ward Hunt north of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada, the largest remaining ice shelf in the Arctic at 170 square miles, broke up and then re-froze 800 years ago, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports. Ice shelves are thick ice crusts which have been pushed out to sea by the pressure from glaciers. They act as dams in fjords and result in sediment building up at the boundary between fresh water from the ice and salt water from the ocean, according to the Daily Mail. Researchers used carbon dating and other techniques to examine the sediment and were able to create a timeline of events. They found the ice shelf appeared 4,000 years ago staying whole for several thousand years before fracturing 1,400 years ago. They said it didn’t fully re-freeze until 800 years ago. It began to shrink again almost 100 years ago and is getting smaller every year. Dermot Antoniadesa from Universite Laval said: ‘At this point, it doesn’t appear that the shelf ice around Ellesmere Island is any smaller now than it was during the previous period of warming, but because it’s still shrinking, it’s possible it could become, an unprecedented event.’ Ice shelves in the Arctic lost more than 90 percent of their total surface area during the 20th century and are continuing to disintegrate rapidly. FRAMEBOXX ANIMATION | VFX BASIC Countries Meet in China for Climate Talks With barely a month left for the global climate change negotiations in Durban, ministers from BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) will hold a crucial meeting in Beijing to discuss their perspectives on key issues. China will host the ninth BASIC ministerial meet Oct 31-Nov 1. A meeting of experts will be held alongside this meeting to carve out a strategy for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of Parties 17 (COP 17) to be held in Durban, South Africa, Nov 28-Dec 9. Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan will be representing India in the China talks. She said that BASIC countries are likely to carry forward their discussions on the issues raised during the last meeting in Brazil. India will raise the issue of South Africa linking extension of Kyoto Protocol (only legally binding agreement that calls for mandatory emission cuts by rich countries and voluntary cuts by developing nations) with a legal pact that covers all countries. India is also likely to discuss its recent Scientists worldwide are looking for evidence that the ozone layer is beginning to heal, but this year’s data from Antarctica does not hint at a turnaround. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA use balloon-borne instruments, ground instruments and satellites to monitor the annual South Pole ozone hole, global levels of ozone and the manmade chemicals that contribute to ozone depletion. The ozone layer helps protect the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation, but environmental factors punch a hole through it every year, for India will engage 100,000 educated youths to execute an ambitious Green India Mission (GIM) which seeks to increase the country’s forest cover to 33 percent from 20 percent within 10 years. The Rs.46,000 crore ($9 billion) plan is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change announced by the prime minister in June 2008. The GIM document was prepared in June last year and the countrywide consultation is now on. With 2011-12 being the preparatory year, GIM would be implemented by the Twelfth and Thirteenth Five Year Plans (2012-13 to 2016-2017 and 2017-18 to 2021-22). GIM also targets improvement of forest-based livelihood for about three million households living in and around forests. According to the Washing machines are becoming a major source of harmful microplastic pollution – bits of polyester and acrylic smaller than a pinhead – which is littering sea shores worldwide. Mark Browne at Ireland’s University College Dublin and colleagues explained that the accumulation of microplastic debris in marine environments has raised health and safety concerns. ‘Designers of clothing and washing machines should consider the need to reduce the release of fibres into wastewater and research is needed to develop methods for removing microplastic from sewage,’ said Browne, according to a university statement. The plastic bits contain harmful ingredients which go into the bodies of animals and could be transferred to people who consume fish, the journal Environmental Science and Technology reported. Ozone not Healing proposal to the UNFCCC calling for including three contentious issues that have been left out during the Cancun, Mexico, talks last year. The issues are unilateral trade measures, intellectual property rights (IPR) and equitable access to sustainable development. The Joint Statement of Ministers issued at the end of the Brazil meeting in August 2011 reiterated the importance of achieving ‘a comprehensive, balanced and ambitious result in Durban in the context of sustainable development and in accordance with the provisions and principles of the UNFCCC, in particular the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities’. Industrialised or developed countries have a historical responsibility to cut emissions, since they have been emitting greenhouse gases for several years. The developing world, on the other hand, insists on its right to industrialise, and resists emission cuts. This is the key point of disagreement between the two blocs. several weeks. The Antarctic ozone hole, which yawns wide every spring, reached its annual peak on Sep 12, stretching 10.05 million square miles, the ninth largest on record. Other key ingredients are ozone-depleting chemicals that remain in the atmosphere and ice crystals on which ozone-depleting chemical reactions take place. Levels of most ozone-depleting chemicals are slowly declining due to international action, but many have long lifetimes, remaining in the atmosphere for decades. 100,000 Community Foresters to help Green India GIM document, on account of management of shifting cultivation areas under different agrisystems, the area under age-old ‘jhum’ or shifting cultivation had come down from 1.87 million hectares in 2003 to 1.2 million hectares in 2005-06. Tribals in the hilly terrain of northeast and other areas have for generations been carrying out the traditional slash-and-burn method of cultivation, which has resulted in degradation of forest land and badly affected soil quality. GIM aims at enhancing carbon sinks in sustainably managed forests and other ecosystems, adaptation of vulnerable species and eco-systems to the changing climate and adaptation of forest-dependent locals in the face of climate variability. Washing Machines Polluting Sea Shores Ingested microplastic can transfer and persist in their cells for months. How big is the problem of microplastic contamination? Where are these materials coming from? To answer the questions, the scientists looked for microplastic contamination along 18 coasts around the world and did some detective work to track down a likely source of this contamination, the statement said. They found more microplastic on shores in densely populated areas, and identified an important source — wastewater from household washing machines. They point out that more than 1,900 fibres can rinse off of a single garment during a wash cycle, and these fibres look just like the microplastic debris on shorelines. Sea Levels will Rise by 60 cm by 2100 Sea levels will rise by 60 cm by the end of the century and by another 180 cm over the next four centuries, submerging many low-lying and coastal areas worldwide, researchers have said. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and others arrived at these figures based on rates of emission from greenhouse gases and pollution using climate models, the journal Global and Planetary Change reports. ‘Based on the current situation, we have projected changes in sea level 500 years into the future,’ explains Aslak Grinsted, researcher at the Centre for Ice and Climate, University of Copenhagen. Cutting edge advances and strong international cooperation to stop emission of greenhouse gases would not reverse the rise of the sea, according to a statement from the university. 26 - A/UA, 1ST FLOOR, BUNGLOW ROAD (OPP. HANSRAJ COLLEGE HOSTEL) KAMLA NAGAR, DELHI - 110007 www.frameboxx.in|info@frameboxx.intel.: 011 – 23857465 | 66, 32904611 CHANGE THE ONLY CONSTANT THING : We Bring You More Informative And Detailed Coverage Every Month 12
DECEMBER 2011 Scientists Make Discovery About Spread Of Viruses Scientists gained fresh knowledge about how viruses such as flu and HIV jumped between species, a finding that is expected to help predict the appearance of new diseases. The research carried out by Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities sought to understand how viruses such as bird flu infected distant species like humans. The scientists found that the viruses were better able to infect species closely related to their typical target species than species that were distantly related. However, the research also suggested that when diseases make a big leap they may then spread easily in species closely related to the new victim, regardless of how closely related these are to the original target species. By infecting more than 50 species of flies with three different viruses, the researchers showed that species closely related to a virus’ usual target species were more susceptible than distantly related flies. They also showed that groups of flies that were closely related were similarly susceptible to the same viruses. China’s Supercomputer Surprises U.S. Experts China has made its first supercomputer based on Chinese microprocessor chips, an advance that surprised highperformance U.S. computing specialists. The announcement was made at a technical meeting held in Jinan, China, organised by industry and government organisations. The new machine, the Sunway BlueLight MPP, was installed in September at the National Supercomputer Center in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province in eastern China. The Sunway system, which can perform about 1,000 trillion calculations per second a petaflop will probably rank among the 20 fastest computers in the world. More significantly, it is composed of 8,700 ShenWei SW1600 microprocessors, designed at a Chinese computer institute and manufactured in Shanghai. Currently, the Chinese are about three generations behind the state-of-art chip making technologies used by world leaders such as the United States, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan. “This is a bit of a surprise,” said Jack Dongarra, a computer scientist at the University of Tennessee and a leader of the Top500 project, a list of the world’s fastest computers. Last fall, another Chinese based supercomputer, the Tianhe-1A, created an international sensation when it was briefly ranked as the world’s fastest, before it was displaced in the spring by a rival Japanese machine, the K Computer, designed by Fujitsu. INSIGHT SCIENCE & TECH COVERAGE Establishment of a Regional Centre for Biotechnology The Union Cabinet approved the enactment of the requisite legislation for establishment of the Regional Centre for Biotechnology Training and Education under the auspices of UNESCO. Taking into consideration the fact that modern biotechnology has been recognised globally as a rapidly advancing science wherein molecular techniques and process are employed to develop health care solutions for human and animal sector, for agriculture and environment technologies, the Centre proposes to engage students in research by integrating science, engineering and medicine with a view to create high quality human resource in disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas. Further the Centre would also create physical infrastructure in critical platform technologies to support interdisciplinary education training and research in biotechnology for providing interface between agriculture or veterinary sciences and engineers and environmental biologists, ecologists and engineers for agricultural and environmental technologies in order to help molecular breeding, bio-energy and green technologies. Thus the Centre would be able to produce human resources tailored to drive innovation in biotechnology, particularly in areas of new opportunities and also to fill talent gap in deficient areas. The Centre would also cater to designing novel programmes for education and training which could then be assimilated by the Universities in India and in the region. The Centre will work in collaboration with other Centres of UNESCO and carry out is programmes through grants provided by the Government. The Bill provides for laying the annual report and annual accounts together with the audit report in both Houses of the Parliament. Genome Of Neem Analysed By Ganit For the first time in India, the genome and coding parts of multiutility neem plant, Azadirachta indica, was sequenced and analyzed. The process was disclosed in Bangalore on 29 September 2011by Ganit Labs. The project funded jointly by Government of India and Government of Karnataka, has helped bare most useful biological information of Indian neem varieties that has received prominence in our traditional medicines. Scientists informed that understanding the molecular architecture of neem genome and its various coding parts, will enhance the knowledge of this wonder species further. They further noted that they are currently building an information knowledge portal to store, retrieve and share neem data. Scientists felt that open information portal is key to sharing knowledge openly and empowering young people to utilize the information and come up with newer innovation. India to Double Expenditure in Research and Develpoment Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State for Planning, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences said that India has decided to double the expenditure in Research and Develpoment (R&D) and major initiatives were being taken by India in super computing, material sciences, genomics, nano sciences and plant breeding techniques and synthetic biology etc. Addressing the Opening Plenary Session of the 8th Annual Meeting of STS Forum on “Science & Technology for the future of Humankind” at Tokyo on 2nd Oct. during his Japan visit, Dr Kumar further said that India is inspired by the vision of Jawaharlal Nehru who had said that the future belongs to Science and those who are friends of science. Talking to the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology, Mr Masaharu Nakagawa, Shri Kumar assured the Japanese minister that the Government of India would favorably consider the proposal dedicated to the idea of regional and global endeavor to solve common problems. Japan is to begin the East Asia Science and Innovation initiative which will be a dedicated fund sought to be established under this initiative to enable cooperation between East Asia, ASEAN and South Asian countries to focus on solving the common challenges faced by the region through the instrumentality of science, technology and innovation.Dr. Kumar also expressed the hope that India and Japan would further strengthen their engagement so as to achieve the joint objectives of Global and Strategic partnerships between the two countries. During his meeting with the German Minister of Education and Research, Ms. Annette Schavan , Dr. Kumar proposed a major Indo – German programme for vocational skills up gradation. He expressed the hope that German expertise and collaboration with German industries and business would enable India to achieve its ambitious programme of skilling 500 million Indians by 2022. The German minister assured that the German industry would give concrete proposals in this regard by early next year. Dr. Kumar expressed the view that such a venture would be mutually beneficial to both countries and would ensure employability of lakhs of Indians in hi-tech manufacturing companies in India and abroad particularly in Indian companies collaborating with their German counterparts. This is an International Conference dedicated to the theme of ‘Science & Technology in the Service of Human kind’. The conference is hosted by STS Forum; a major NGO supported by the Government of Japan and Chaired by Mr. Koji Omi, former Finance Minister of Japan. The conference is attended at the ministerial level by over 20 countries including Germany, Brazil, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden, Mongolia, the Czech Republic, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan etc. CHANGE THE ONLY CONSTANT THING : We Bring You More Informative And Detailed Coverage Every Month 13
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