New Delhi, July 17: Russia today signed a protocol granting India soft loans to cover more than half the cost of two more nuclear power plants at Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, where two 1000MW Russian reactors are now nearing completion.
Under the protocol, the Russian Federation will extend state credit of Rs 17,000 crore for the two additional reactors which the Indian atomic energy department has estimated will cost about Rs 32,000 crore.
The loans will come with an interest rate of 4 per cent per year, India’s department of atomic energy said today, after the protocol was signed by a senior DAE official and Russia’s deputy finance minister Sergei Sorchak. The finance conditions for units 3 and 4 at Kudankulam are similar to those for units 1 and 2 now nearing completion, a DAE official said.
Opposition by local communities over the past year has contributed to delays in activities on units 1 and 2. But the DAE has said it expects the first of these to deliver electricity to the grid by September this year and the second one about seven months after that.
The reactors at Kudankulam will significantly add to India’s existing installed nuclear power capacity of 4780MW, generated through 20 reactors, and are expected to be key milestones towards DAE’s goal of achieving 20,000MW of energy from the atom by the year 2022.
Under the pact signed today, Russia will provide a loan of up to US$3400 million to finance 85 per cent of the equipment, supplies, and services provided by Russian organisations for the construction of the two new plants.
The money will have to be paid back over 14 years, repayment starting one year after the commissioning of the reactors. Russia will also provide a loan of US$800 million, or 85 per cent, of the cost of fuel for the two reactors.
India’s Nuclear Power Corporation had four years ago identified Haripur in Bengal as a candidate site for another nuclear power park suitable for imported Russian reactors, but opposition by local communities has stalled the proposal.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120718/jsp/nation/story_15741369.jsp#.UAZW51bixkg
The Assam Tribune
House to table resolution on flood, erosion
Staff reporter
GUWAHATI, July 17 – The State Government is going to move a resolution tomorrow for the sake of a consensus in the State Assembly on the issue of declaring the State’s problems of flood and erosion as the national ones.
Disclosing this, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka told the House today that the official resolution on the issue would be an elaborate one and it would do away with all the shortcomings that the private members’ resolution on the issue had had. The private members’ resolution was moved by Asom Gana Parishad’s (AGP’s) Phani Bhusan Choudhury, Keshav Mahanta, Padma Hazarika and Bhupen Roy and All India United Democratic Front’s (AIUDF’s) Monowar Hussain.
The Minister, therefore, urged the Opposition members to withdraw their resolution. The Opposition members withdrew their resolution after this announcement of the Minister.
Earlier, moving the resolution, Phani Bhusan Choudhury resented the failure of the Central Government to translate into a reality the May 5, 2005 assurance of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh at the tripartite meeting on the implementation of the Assam Accord, to treat Assam’s flood as a national problem.
He pointed out to the fact that the Congress-led State Government boastfully claimed, through newspaper advertisements that it was because of its insistence the Prime Minister had made such an announcement.
Monowar Hussain said that an all party delegation should be sent to Delhi under the leadership of Speaker Pranab Gogoi, to take up the issue with the Central Government..
Padma Hazarika argued that since the financial condition of Assam is not sound, hence it needs to raise this demand vociferously. He also wondered as to what had prevented the Prime Minister from translating his May 5, 2005 announcement into a reality.
Keshav Mahanta argued that if the Central Government could claim its authority over the resources of the State there should not be any reason as to why it should not declare the problems of flood and erosion faced by Assam as the national ones.
He further pointed to the fact that the erosion caused by the sea is regarded to be a national problem, while the erosion caused by the rivers are not treated as the national one.
AIUDF member Abdur Rahim Khan tried to add some lines on erosion in the resolution but his plea was rejected by the Chair following an argument made by Planning and Development Minister Tanka Bahadur Rai that the AIUDF member had not moved his amendment yesterday nor he had supplied a copy of his proposed amendment to the mover of the resolution.
Dr Bhumidhar Barman (Congress) suggested that the Opposition members should withdraw their resolution to facilitate an all embracing resolution on the issue, incorporation the aspect of erosion also.
http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=jul1812/at07
Floods a boon for Kaziranga National Park
Mobaraque Hussain
MIRZA, July 17 – Despite widespread concern about death of a large number of wild animals during the annual deluge, floods are a boon for survival of the flora and fauna in Kaziranga National Park.
According to environmental experts, unless there are floods in Kaziranga National Park, the eco system will stop regenerating and die in the near future .
“Flooding and waning of the Brahmaputra river has helped to maintain the ecological process in the park. Floods contribute to maintain a variety of habitats which are suitable for many rare and threatened species,” said DFO, DD Gogoi in a telephonic interview with this Correspondent and added that floods clean and recharge waterbodies of the world heritage site and are also helpful in eradicating harmful weeds from the park.
The DFO said that mimosa is a highly invasive herb which prevents the growth of tall grass and that annual floods, including this year, has been killing a large number of mimosa, thereby helping growth of tall grasses, including tora, which is a fovourite fodder of elephants along with ikora, which are most preferred grass of wild water buffalo and other herbivores.
In an interview with this correspondent in 2004-2005 , the then Director of the park N K Vasu opined that floods help in cleaning up the waterbodies or beels by removing the most harmful weeds - water hyacinth (panimeteka) - from the waterbodies and thus helps in preventing the growth of big trees in the grassland areas. Unless there is flood, the entire park would have been converted into a woodland by the growth of big trees in the grassland areas, which is not suitable for many herbivore species .
“Floods help in depositing a layer of silt which help in growth of trees, shrubs, herb and grass that is much needed for survival of the wildlife in the park ,”said an official of Man & Wild, an NGO, on the condition of anonymity, adding that entire Kaziranga National Park has a flat terrain and flood of the Brahmaputra river enters from the eastern side of the park (through Agaratoli Wildlife Range) and quickly flows through the western corner (through the Bagori Wildlife Range) into the Brahmaputra river.
“A calamity like flood is a natural process and it recedes in 3-4 days. This phenomenon is takes place year after year. This year flood waters entered the park on June 29 and started receding on June 30. As there is no embankment in Kaziranga National Park, flood waters do not stagnate in the park, informed the DFO of the Park, which is also a Tiger Reserve. The DFO said that flood is an integral part of the Kaziranga ecosystem and without flood, Kaziranga National Park would not be a Natural Heritage Site. We should never try to alter the natural flood or natural ecosystem which would have far-reaching negative consequences .
The DFO said that animals in the park , like human beings, can sense the advent of flood much earlier and they take care to migrate to safer place in the month of June, i.e., before floods. All of the animal species are good swimmers.
“In all, 28 percent area of the park is woodland, which is elevated. Animals took shelter in these woodlands during floods this year and some animals migrated to the hills by crossing the NH-37. Even tigers were spotted to have taken shelter in the termite mounds in the woodlands,” Gogoi, who has experience of working more than 5 years in KNP as ACF and DFO, said .
He said that besides animals the staff of the park are highly adapted to flooding and are therefore not stressed. “All of the 152 anti-poaching camps (APC) are built over raised platforms and equipped with boats , raised sanitary facilities raised hand tubewells etc. At the peak of floods this year, only 16 APCs were abandoned temporally for only 3 days and restored soon after,” the DFO said.
Expressing concern and sorrow over the killing of 611 animals from 10 species, he said that the killing of animals due to floods would not have adverse affect on the population of the animals as the Park has a very good population of each species.
“For example, in the flood of June this year, 517 hog deer were killed, but there are still 35,000 hog deer surviving in the park. It killed 16 rhinos, which were old, including 2-3 calf , but still there are over 2,274 rhinos living in the park (out of 2290 as per recent census in 2012) ,besides killing of 2 elephants out of 1165 , 10 swamp deer out of 1169 in the park . Only 260 animals have been rescued by forest staff and people living in the fringe villages and the rest survived on their own,” he maintained. He said that the park had witnessed the highest flood ever in 1988 when only 10,203 casualties had been reported.
When pointed out that some of the critically endangered species like porcupine
(5 nos) and hog badgers (2 nos) were also killed by the floods, which have only a small population in the world, and that the two species might be extinct if such a trend continues, he said that as not a single census has been carried out for these two species, it could not be said whether they would be extinct or not due to floods.
He pointed out apprehensions of the nature lover, that the animals which have already migrated to nearby Karbi Anglong hills are now highly vulnerable to poachers, he said that 10 additional anti-poaching camps from the neighboring forest divisions have been set up since the past several years during floods in order to ensure round the clock vigil on the animals, so that they are not victimised. On erosion threatening the park, including the famous Arimora bungalow , he said that so far he was not aware of erosion taking place at any part of the park as it is difficult to identify eroded areas during flood, but said that erosion is a special characteristic of KNP .
“Erosion also means creation. It erodes one place to create some other (called saporis ) in the Brahmaputra river, which also become ideal habitat for species of the park,” clarified the DFO.
http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=jul1812/state05
The Sentinel
Proposals on water logging and drainage
By our Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, July 17: In order to deal with the artificial floods and water logging problems in the city, the Government has earmarked a sum of Rs 27. 6 crore rupees. Till date, a total of seven proposals of the tune of Rs 104 crore rupees have also been submitted to the Guwahati Development Department for sanctioning. However, none of the proposals have been sanctioned till now. The seven proposals are: Construction of flood wall along both banks of river Mora-Bharalu (estimated to be Rs 3335.69 lakh) , construction of flood wall along both banks of Bharalu river (Rs 2671.90 lakh), construction of flood wall along both banks of River Bahani (Rs 3404.21 lakh), improvement of drainage of Greater Guwahati (construction of sluice over river Khanajan) of Rs 458.55 lakh, desiltation and cleaning of Sarusola beel to improve drainage facilities of Guwahati and to protect the beel ( Rs 231.00 lakh), procurement of trolley mounted pump sets and portable pumps for dewatering of storm water from water logged area of Guwahati city (Rs 203.28 lakh), renovation of old pumping station at Bharalumukh (GMC’s pump house) by laying one additional pipe line along with one extra electrical connection and fitting of new sluice valve for better performance of the pumps (Rs 95.57 lakh).
http://www.sentinelassam.com/ghy_city/story.php?sec=1&subsec=0&id=124911&dtP=2012-07-18&ppr=1#124911
The Guardian
Investors warn against delaying wind energy subsidy cut decision
Delays in deciding whether to cut subsidies by 10% or 25% could damage investor confidence and the green jobs market
A decision on whether onshore wind energy subsidies should be cut by 10%, as the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has proposed, or by 25%, as the Treasury wants, was expected this week. Photograph: Graeme Robertson
Investors have warned that government delays in deciding the future of onshore wind energy subsidies could jeopardise billions of pounds of investment and damage the prospects for new green jobs in the UK.
A decision on whether onshore wind energy subsidies should be cut by 10%, as the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has proposed, or by 25%, as the Treasury wants, was expected this week. However, the two departments and senior cabinet members are still at war over the changes and the decision has been deferred – potentially for months, though the government refused to estimate how long the delay would be.
Investors and renewable companies told the Guardian the delay – and the perception that is being created of a government at war with itself over the policy – would severely damage investor confidence and jeopardise the planned flow of billions of pounds into the UK's economy.
Luca Concone, founding partner of the Real Asset Energy Fund, said his company was actively looking to invest more than €400m in renewable energy assets in one of several countries, including the UK, Poland and Turkey, but would only make such investment in stable conditions. He said the UK was becoming a much less attractive place to invest because of policy uncertainty and the seeming reluctance of the government to back renewables.
He told the Guardian: "I don't think cutting back on renewable energy support is the right way to go. The level of subsidy in the UK is already far below that of other major European economies, such as Germany and Italy, and cutting that still further is the wrong message to send out to investors. Like most big investors, we look for stability and just talking about policy uncertainty is really bad for us."
Concone said the impression of a government at war with itself over environmental policies would discourage investors. "The coalition does not speak with one voice on this. We as investors don't understand why the government is looking to make savings on this policy, when the savings involved are peanuts and what will happen if you do this is that you will lose out on huge opportunities for boosting the economy, creating jobs and generating more revenue for the future."
Investors looking around Europe for renewable energy opportunities would weigh up the attractions and risks on offer, Concone said, and the UK was falling behind as Germany offered about €8bn a year to boost renewable investment, with Italy at about €6bn, compared with about £1bn in the UK.
The amount the chancellor is likely to save from slashing the onshore wind subsidy is likely to amount to about £20m a year by some estimates. But green experts said that saving would be far outweighed by the lost opportunities from overseas investment in the UK's energy infrastructure.
Maria McCaffery, chief executive of RenewableUK, the trade body for the wind industry, said: "We are urgently calling for the government to reach an agreement [on the subsidy] as quickly as possible. The economic evidence is crystal clear – it shows that there is no case for cutting support for onshore wind beyond the 10% originally proposed and consulted upon in the government's own review. Any further delay in an announcement could have a devastating impact on investor confidence, job creation and the deployment of clean energy."
She added: "It would be unacceptable if the decision were to be delayed until September – especially as the new banding levels are due to come into force just seven months later, in April 2013. It is imperative that investment and job creation are not harmed in one of our key growth sectors. The industry is demanding clarity at the earliest possible opportunity as a matter of urgency."
Decc told the Guardian that "theoretically" a decision on the cuts could be made within a few weeks, even though parliament is in recess. However, the department admitted that in reality it could take much longer, though the spokeswoman refused to speculate on how long it could take. "We want it to be as soon as possible," she said.
Dale Vince, founder of green energy supplier Ecotricity, said the government must reject the Treasury's proposals to cut onshore wind subsidies by a quarter. He said: "[That] could be devastating for the renewables industry. First, the government made large solar projects untenable by dramatically cutting support, then they slashed support for small solar, which led to legal challenges and a big hole in the renewables industry – now onshore wind is in the firing line. Cuts must be proportionate to the rate that costs are falling in the sector. A cut of 25% would be a declaration of war by the government on the renewable energy industry – a sign it wants to flatten the industry in order to pave the way for a new round of nuclear and gas – just what Britain really doesn't need."
He pointed out that onshore wind showed the highest absolute increase in electricity generation in the first quarter of 2012 – as a result of an increase of 51% in capacity, from 2.4 terawatt hours (TWh) in the first quarter of 2011 to 3.6TWh, according to Decc figures from June.
Green campaigners also warned that the Treasury's attempts to slash the renewable subsidy by more than the 10% that had been agreed last year would backfire on job creation and the economic recovery.
Jenny Banks, energy policy officer at WWF UK, said: "It appears that Treasury are actively seeking to undermine the renewables industry. It's ironic given this sector is the one shining beacon of potential growth and job creation. Osborne appears to be digging his heels in on an argument about £20m a year on the level of support for onshore wind. This is dwarfed by the £2.8bn a year reported to be required by EDF to support new nuclear power which, it has emerged, is more costly than any form of wind generation. Yet we hear nothing from the Treasury about this cost."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/17/investors-wind-energy-subsidy-cut
Live discussion: are councils doing enough to go green?
Local government is lagging behind on climate change and sustainability, so what more could be done to tackle it? Join our expert panel live from midday on Wednesday
Climate change is about more than carbon emissions, so what can councils do to help tackle it? Photograph: Jason Alden/BLOOMBERG NEWS
Councils are losing momentum on protecting vulnerable citizens from the effects of climate change, according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
This latest damning research on local government and environmental sustainability found that though some councils had prepared plans to tackle climate change and help communities adapt, the focus of this work was on place rather than people. The JRF said government spending cuts and the removal of national performance indicators on climate had led councils to reduce the amount of time and effort they spent thinking about it.
Recycling and green waste schemes may have become the norm across the UK, but far more could be done to encourage residents to think sustainably about resources including water and energy. So what more should local government be doing to lead communities along the route to sustainability?
Have budget cuts forced councils to forget about being green? Or has there always been little appetite for sustainability within local government? Join our panel of experts from midday on Wednesday 18 July to discuss the problem of councils and climate change or post your thoughts in the comment thread now.
