India

It came to nobody’s surprise when the Chinese government slammed a US anti-dumping ruling against Chinese solar power equipment as “unfair” and “unreasonable” amid warnings of a trade war that would end up only harming efforts to promote clean energy. The ruling, which came down on Thursday in the US, imposes heavy tariffs on Chinese solar companies ranging from about 31 percent to 250 percent on charges of dumping. Shen Danyang, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce (MoC), has condemned the US anti-dumping tariffs as trade protectionism.

Moser Baer India (MBI), the nation’s biggest solar manufacturer, plans to restructure USD738 million of loans and bonds as it jostles to survive a supply glut that has claimed at least 10 US, German and French panel makers, according to Bloomberg.

A total of 10 Chinese and Indian airlines failed to submit carbon-dioxide emissions data for 2011, rebuffing European rules that seek to expand the region’s emissions trading system to include aviation, according to news agencies. There has been “systematic non-reporting” of emissions to and from Europe from 10 airlines based in India and China, according to a statement on the European Commission’s website yesterday. All other international carriers flying to or from Europe have complied, the European Union's climate chief told reporters on Tuesday.

Citing a government report released recently, the Times of India reported that climate change will be an additional stress on Indian forests, especially in upper Himalayan stretches, which are already subjected to multiple challenges including over-extraction, livestock grazing and human impact.

The Government of India has taken umbrage over perceived “biases” in the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP's) Asia Pacific Human Development report, One Planet To Share – Sustaining human progress in a changing climate, which was released on Thursday. The report argues that in the face of climate change, countries in Asia and the Pacific “will need to change the way they manufacture goods, raise crops and livestock, and generate energy.” This will mean “moving to greener, more resilient, lower-emission options that not only sustain the environment but also offer opportunities to the poor for employment and income.”