Environment : Current Affairs – October 2018
1. The first Assembly of the International Solar Alliance inaugurated
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first Assembly of the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was present at the occasion. International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an India-led alliance of one hundred twenty-one solar resource-rich countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The primary objective of the alliance is to work for the efficient exploitation of solar energy to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. Through the coalition, India aims to eventually replace the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, which pumps around a third of the world’s oil, as the major global energy supplier. ISA is headquartered in Gwal Pahari, Gurugram, Haryana, India.
For more information: https://www.aljazeera.com
2. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestle are the worst plastic polluters: Break Free From Plastic Movement
The ‘Break Free From Plastic’ movement, a global movement consisting of nearly 1,300 groups from across the world including Greenpeace, revealed that Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle are among the companies that contribute the most to ocean pollution with single-use plastics. The member organisations of the movement collected nearly 200,000 pieces of plastic from shores around the world. Out of these, plastic wastes from these three companies amounted to nearly half of the plastic in Europe. Among these, Coca-Cola was the top polluter. Their Coke-branded plastic was found in forty of the forty-two participating countries.
The exercise provides the best picture of the brand causing most pollution and the Break Free From Plastic movement hopes to encourage leaders across the world to pay attention to these plastic footprints.
For more information visit: https://www.independent.co.uk
3. Alarming pollution level in Delhi: National lab certifies air purifying technology
As air pollution in the national capital reaches alarming levels, a national laboratory certified an air-purifying technology that can purify the air in public places. Pollution caused by traffic, dust particles and pollutants accompanying winter and the crop burning by farmers in the neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh intensify the air pollution in Delhi. The technology developed by Evergen Systems has an in-built system for removing 97-99 per cent fine dust particles and gases such as NOx, SOx, CO2 and ozone from the surroundings. The organisation is in consultation with various government bodies to plan the installation of the technology in various public places.
For more information visit: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com
4. Rising air pollution could affect monsoon in India: UN Report
A UN report titled ‘Air Pollution in Asia and the Pacific: Science-based Solutions’ finds that the rising air pollution in India is likely to affect the monsoon patterns and decrease the amount of rainfall in the long run. The presence of a tiny pollutant, particulate matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), is found to be the major factor that could cause the said alteration in monsoon. Unlike the majority of the other forty countries in Asia and the Pacific, India’s air quality worsened over the years, the report finds. The report was released in the first global conference of the World Health Organization on air pollution and health in Geneva.
For more information visit: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
