Soils under road or rail embankment are subjected to millions of low amplitude cyclic loads. Similar large number of load cycles are seen in wind and wave loaded storage structures and below machine foundations. These load levels are not high enough to cause soil liquefaction or particle breakage, but the significantly large number of cycles can alter the soil fabric and cause significant volumetric strain accumulation over time. Under the best case scenario, this can cause the embankment’s strength to increase, thus permitting even greater axle load over them.

Ecosystem management has become critical in present times with rapidly shrinking forests, pollution in water bodies and increasing green house gas levels. The role of corporate assumes importance in this context as they are responsible for the environmental degradation on one hand and have access to resources (financial and technological) that can provide solutions, being economic engines of growth and employment. Firms’ practices towards ecosystem management are usually based on their sector, stakeholder interests, products or services and business models.

Indian policymakers are confronted with commitments to decarbonise the electricity sector to achieve climate change mitigation targets. In this context, it is important to find cost effective policies to create suitable conditions for penetration of green technologies. Many model-based studies have been previously performed to study carbon emission trajectories for future scenarios. Previously performed studies analyse the effectiveness of carbon prices in achieving mitigation targets and none of them focuses on existing policies under implementation. 

India is one of the fastest growing major economies of the world. It imports three quarters of its oil demand, making transport sector major contributor of green house gas (GHG) emissions. Around 40% of oil consumption in India comes from transport sector and over 90% of energy demand is from road transport sector. This has led to serious increase in CO 2 emission and concentration of air pollutants in India. According to Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), transport can play a crucial role for mitigation of global greenhouse gas emissions.

This study was commissioned by the Group of Eight + Five (G8+5), hosted by United Nations Environment Programme and launched in 2007 by Germany and the EU Commission. It builds on the analysis of the millennium ecosystem assessment and takes the analysis further by demonstrating the economic significance of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation in terms of negative effects on human well-being’. So far, nature’s benefits have played a minor role in policy. Why is this the case?

Recognising the importance of valuing the ecosystem services, the TEEB-India initiative (TII) has been launched by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate change for the forests, wetlands, coastal and marine ecosystems. This study, funded by The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and Ministry of Environment and Forests, GoI, is part of the TII initiative on forest ecosystems for which Western Ghats has been considered as study region as it is the most

A scoping study to build forests accounts in Himachal Pradesh was carried out in 2013 as part of the Development Policy Loan. The World Bank has initiated the Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) in various countries. WAVES is a global partnership that aims to provide technical support to countries within the World Bank Group, through related programs and funding instruments to bring natural capital into economic decision-making and promote sustainable development. The HP exercise is useful and there are several interesting initiatives to share.

In parallel to the national efforts to address climate change, all Indian States have embarked on a process to individually develop action plans aligned with the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) to plan for low carbon and climate resilient development in their respective States. This has assumed the shape of formulation of the State Action Plans on Climate Change (SAPCC). It is clear that meeting the plans requires enormous funds and can be a major stumbling block in realising sub-national climate change goals.

This project examines the feasibility of implementing a congestion tax for the city of Chennai in the State of Tamil Nadu. Based on secondary data, it calculates the time cost, fuel cost and cost of emissions due to congestion and makes recommendations regarding the effective design and application of such a tax. Chennai ranks one of the highest among all South Asian cities in terms of GHG emissions as well emissions of other criteria pollutants, especially NOx and PM10. The city also suffers from heavy volumes of traffic and congestion, particularly on the arterial roads.

The study, funded by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), aims at exploring the feasibility of using the payment of ecosystem services to restore Lake Sevan in Armenia. This report provides the preliminary findings of the pre-feasibility study on Payment for ecological services, which is a relatively younger instrument, for the water purification and waste treatment services of Lake Sevan in Armenia.