Friday, October 21, 2016

UN rights chief calls for war crimes probe into Aleppo assault

Head of Human Rights Council describes city as 'gruesome locus of pain and fear' as UN postpones medical evacuations from rebel-held areas

Man and child fleeing destruction in Aleppo (AFP)

Friday 21 October 2016

The head of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday accused pro-Syrian government forces of committing war crimes in their assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo, as UN-organised medical evacuations due to take place on Friday morning were delayed because of insecurity.

In an impassioned speech, Zeid Raad al-Hussein said the bombardment of eastern Aleppo by the Syrian and Russian air forces had turned rebel-held areas into a "gruesome locus of pain and fear".

"The ancient city of Aleppo, a place of millennial civility and beauty, is today a slaughterhouse – a gruesome locus of pain and fear, where the lifeless bodies of small children are trapped under streets of rubble and pregnant women deliberately bombed," said the Jordanian diplomat.

Calling for the situation in Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes to be investigated, he said: "As we speak, hundreds of thousands of people are trapped in 17 other besieged locations, and face life-threatening shortages of food, medicine and basic supplies."

"Armed opposition groups continue to fire mortars and other projectiles into civilian neighbourhoods of western Aleppo, but indiscriminate air strikes across the eastern part of the city by government forces and their allies are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties," Zeid said.

Medical evacuations had been planned by the UN and the Red Cross on Friday to take advantage of a Russian ceasefire in which it also said it had opened up humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave rebel-held areas.

The Syrian government also dropped leaflets over east Aleppo to inform residents about the corridors.

But Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian office, said: "Medical evacuations of sick and injured could unfortunately not begin this morning as planned because the necessary conditions were not in place."

"This is an astronomically difficult operation," he added.

The hour-long session at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, was called by the US and the UK to put pressure on Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's key ally, over its role in the Syrian war.

Speaking via video link, Tobias Elwood, the UK's minister for North Africa and the Middle East, said: “Russia, you are making the situation worse, not solving.”

Deputy US ambassador Ted Allegra said that the recent Russian and Syrian assault on rebel-held areas had killed 400 people, including 100 children.

"These shocking acts in Aleppo beg for an appropriate investigation and those who commit them must be held accountable," he said.

Ukraine's ambassador Yurii Klymenko also criticised Russia, which in 2014 annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine amid clashes between pro-Kiev and pro-Moscow forces east of the former Soviet country.

"We are witnessing Aleppo turning into another Grozny," said Klymenko, referring to the Chechen capital levelled by Russia in the 1990s.

The Guardian this week also revealed that Iran had personally requested Egypt to be in attendance at the Syria talks, a move commentators fear signifies Cairo veering from its pro-western stance in the region.

Both Russia and Syria hit back at the criticism directed towards them at the UN special session.

'The ancient city of Aleppo, a place of millennial civility and beauty, is today a slaughterhouse – a gruesome locus of pain and fear, where the lifeless bodies of small children are trapped under streets of rubble and pregnant women deliberately bombed'
Zeid Raad al-Hussein, UN Human Rights Council

Syria's ambassador Hussam Aala accused Western and Gulf countries of launching a "propaganda campaign" against his country.

Russian Ambassador Alexey Borodavkin accused Britain and its allies of "trying to save terrorists from being the target of strikes, allowing them to regroup and continue their barbaric acts".

An 11-hour unilateral ceasefire in Aleppo was "allowing civilians and those fighters who lay down their weapons to leave" the city, Moscow's envoy said.

Paulo Pinheiro, chairman of the UN commission of inquiry on Syria, said that the panel would continue to document war crimes in Aleppo and urged the Syrian government to provide information on violations.

"Hospitals, markets, bakeries and water stations have all been targeted by aeroplanes flying overhead; many have been destroyed, amplifying the effect of the siege," Pinheiro said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday said that he suspected the West intended to protect Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, al-Qaeda's former Syrian affiliate, in a bid to ensure Assad is toppled.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday also summoned the Belgian ambassador in Moscow over allegations that Belgian jets killed civilians in air strikes near Aleppo.

Russia's Defence Ministry and its Foreign Ministry said that two Belgian F-16 jets killed six civilians after it bombed a settlement in Aleppo province on 18 October.

Belgium has denied the claims and said Russia had fabricated the evidence to falsely accuse its air force.

Belgian Defence Minister Steven Vandeput demanded Russia retract its statement in what he described as “a groundless and unsubstantiated allegation”.

Hill Staffer Floats Solution to Syria War: Assassinate Assad

BY JOHN HUDSON-OCTOBER 21, 2016 - 2:42 PM

Hawks in Congress have long pushed the White House to consider more aggressive options in Syria from cruise missile strikes to no fly zones to humanitarian corridors. But during an off-the-record briefing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, a staffer for Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) floated a distinctly bolder approach.
“What about assassinating Assad?” the aide said, according to three individuals in the room.

The question raised eyebrows at the event, a briefing of about 75 staffers hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. The expert receiving the question was Philip Gordon, the former White House Middle East coordinator, who dismissed the idea as both illegal and ineffective, according to a congressional aide at the event who spoke to FP on condition of anonymity.

“His response was basically: ‘That’s against the law and it wouldn’t make a difference anyway, because the Russians still have an interest in Syria and the Iranians still have an interest in Syria,” said the staffer.

The aide who asked the question was not identified, and the people who heard the exchange did not name the staffer when asked by FP.

A 1976 executive order explicitly prohibited assassinations; it was issued by President Gerald Ford following revelations that the CIA attempted to kill Cuban President Fidel Castro on multiple occasions.

Every U.S. president since has upheld the ban, a section of which states “no employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.”

An aide to Lamborn, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity when contacted for this story, said “any discussion that happened at that meeting didn’t reflect what Congressman Lamborn thinks.”

When asked about the assassination question, that Lamborn aide acknowledged “it’s against U.S. policy.”

“Obviously there would have to be a really big change to do anything different,” the aide added. “I haven’t heard that discussed in any serious way.”

It’s highly unlikely that the next U.S. president is going to approve a new policy to assassinate Assad, but Washington’s foreign policy establishment is increasingly looking for more aggressive military solutions to the nearly six-year crisis. A series of new or upcoming reports by American think tanks, including the liberal Center for American Progress, call for stepped-up military action to pressure the Assad regime and Russian forces in the hopes of advancing a political transition.

But even if Assad’s assassination were approved, experts said it would carry numerous risks and potential pitfalls.

“I think Assad’s assassination would certainly cause chaos in Damascus,” mused Andrew Bowen, a Syria expert at the Wilson Center. “But it wouldn’t necessarily lead to the regime’s collapse, and both Russia and Iran are providing a ton of personal protection to Assad and his family. So it might not even work.”

“I also don’t know if we want to set the precedent of decapitating leaders, Cold War-style,” Bowen added.

A representative from the Council on Foreign Relations said Gordon sought to answer the aide’s question by making a case that assassinating Assad — besides being against longstanding U.S. policy — might not have a real impact on the war.

“Even if somehow Assad died or were killed, the essence of the conflict — a regime backed by Russia and Iran versus opposition — might not fundamentally change,” said the representative.

'No more Mr. Nice Guy': EU gets tough on African migrants

Migrants crossing the Sahara desert into Libya ride on the back of a pickup truck outside Agadez, Niger, May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Joe Penney

Migrants crossing the Sahara desert into Libya ride on the back of a pickup truck outside Agadez, Niger, May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Joe Penney

By Gabriela Baczynska and Alastair Macdonald-Wed Oct 19, 2016

Encouraged by their success in halting a mass influx of refugees by closing Greek borders and cutting a controversial deal with Turkey, EU leaders are getting tough on African migrants too.

A Brussels summit on Thursday will endorse pilot projects to pressure African governments via aid budgets to slow an exodus of people north across the Sahara and Mediterranean. It also wants swift results from an EU campaign to deport large numbers who reach Italy.

"By the end of the year, we need to see results," one senior EU diplomat said on Wednesday.

Arrivals in Italy so far this year are nearly six percent higher than the same period of 2015. Italy received 154,000 migrants last year and this year's figure will be similar or slightly higher.

Italy is sheltering 165,000 asylum seekers, almost three times as many as in 2014. The buildup has accelerated since Italy's northern neighbors clamped down on border controls.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has told EU allies that Rome can cope for now but is worried about the future.

EU officials want to put in place tougher measures to identify illegal migrants and fly them back to Africa before next year's migration season, when thousands are expected to take to precarious boats from Libya.

"We need to clean this up and have migration compacts with African countries in place before next spring," a senior EU official said.

That will depend on persuading African states - initially a group of five - to take back their own citizens. The EU is already bringing African officials to Italy to identify citizens who may try to conceal their identity to avoid being sent home.

At their summit, European Union leaders will agree to use money and trade to force African countries to curb emigration, in a shift towards a more hard-nosed joint foreign policy.

African leaders may be persuaded to agree with the new policy by the fact that the EU is the continent's biggest aid donor.

UNCONTROLLED INFLUX

The EU has turned a wary eye on Africa, a young continent where millions live in poverty, after last year's uncontrolled influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East thrust the bloc into a deep political crisis.

It wants fewer to come and it wants to deport more.

EU leaders will therefore decide on Thursday that they want to get "measurable results in terms of preventing illegal migration and returning irregular migrants", according to a draft summit statement seen by Reuters.

It said they would also agree to "create and apply the necessary leverage, by using all relevant EU policies, instruments and tools, including development and trade".

Behind the diplomatic language lies a threat of cutting development aid and restricting trade with those African countries that do not cooperate before the next migration season starts in the spring.

Apart from the stick, there is also the carrot, which comes in the form of promises of more aid and preferential trade treatment under what Brussels calls migration "compacts".

The new approach - aimed at keeping people away from Europe - was first proposed by Italy, the main disembarkation point for Africa migrants. It is initially aimed at Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Ethiopia and Mali.

"We need to clean this up and have migration compacts with African countries in place before next spring," a senior EU official said.

The bloc is determined to send back everyone whose life is not under immediate threat at home.

But the new strategy of making aid to third countries conditional on their cooperation on migration is controversial.

Aid agency Oxfam has urged EU leaders to abandon their drive to build a "Fortress Europe" and instead help those in need.

"The need for development aid and Europe's obligation to alleviate poverty should not be about reducing mobility," said Raphael Shilhav, Oxfam's migration policy adviser in Brussels.

"The reasons of displacement should be addressed through understanding the situation on the ground, seeking solutions to the conflicts that are driving displacement of people," he said.

POLITICAL PRESSURE

But increasingly EU aid projects in Africa are accompanied by more political pressure on migration.

In an example of the new approach, German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised assistance to Ethiopia just days after Addis Ababa took in 50 people deported from Europe even though it had been reluctant to do that earlier.

In Niger, an EU-funded information point in Agadez, a transit point for migrants crossing the Sahara to board boats for Europe, tries talking people out of continuing on their way by warning about the perils of the journey.

"It is very much about sending a message to would-be migrants. The political impetus is about sending this discouraging message," said Elizabeth Collett, director at the Migration Policy Institute, a Brussels think-tank.

With Afghanistan, whose people make up the second largest group arriving in Europe after Syrians, the EU has leveraged its political and financial support to get a deal on boosting the number of people returned.

The EU also gives aid to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan for hosting about three million Syrian refugees. With Ankara, Brussels struck a broader deal also encompassing visa liberalization and swifter EU accession talks if Turkey ensures fewer people leave its shores for Greece.

Despite much criticism from rights groups, the deal has cut arrivals in Greek islands to a trickle and Brussels sees it as a success.

But that model is no help for Italy as Libya does not have a stable government capable of controlling the migration route through the central Mediterranean.

That has forced the EU to seek solutions further back along the migration trail, making more aggressive use of its chief foreign policy instruments - money and trade.

"There is something inherently distasteful in this new approach for the EU foreign policy because historically they have always been the good guys," Collett said. "It's the first time they are being asked not to just be the good guys anymore."

(Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Giles Elgood)

At least 53 dead, nearly 300 injured in Cameroon train derailment – official

At least 53 people have been killed and nearly 300 others injured after a passenger train traveling between Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, and the city of Douala was derailed, the country's transport minister confirmed.

21 Oct, 2016

Scores injured and some killed in derailment at Eseka pic.twitter.com/PmncHhxcAt
— CRTV web (@CRTV_web) October 21, 2016

#Cameroun : Déraillement il y a quelques minutes sur les lignes de la #Camrail au niveau de #Eseka. Plusieurs morts signalés. pic.twitter.com/1Jk9Xm243C
— TAPHIS OFFISHAL (@taphisonline) October 21, 2016

The crash occurred close to the central town of Eseka, around 120 km west of Yaounde, Transport Minister Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o told Cameroon’s state broadcaster.

#UPDATE: #Train derailment in #Cameroun has killed at least 53, wounded 300+ - officials@BreakingNLive pic.twitter.com/7O5GD2wfht
— Global News (@ofirzarfatinews) October 21, 2016

An investigation team has been sent to the site. The crash occurred shortly after 1000 GMT. The busy train was reportedly full of passengers, state television reported.

Angry crowds have blocked journalists from approaching the scene.

The route between the two cities is one of the busiest in Cameroon, and has a poor safety record.

Thailand: Yingluck vows to fight $1b fine, assets seizure over failed rice scheme

Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Pic: AP.

21st October 2016

FORMER Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra says she will pull out all the stops to fight the junta government’s hefty BHT35 billion (US$996.87 million) fine and assets seizure order against her as penalty for the failure of her administration’s flagship rice subsidy program.

The ousted leader confirmed Friday that she was served a notice on the assets seizure two days ago, and labelled the punishment unfair.

“In terms of the order, it is not right and it is not just. I will use every channel available to fight this,” Yingluck was quoted saying in Reuters.

The former Thai leader has 45 days to appeal the order.

SEE ALSO: Thailand: Military to sue former PM Yingluck over rice subsidy scheme losses

The controversial scheme that paid farmers above market rates for their rice was a key policy of Yingluck’s government, and has been credited for her ascension to the office of prime minister in the 2011 federal polls. The scheme was launched in October that year to fulfill the Pheu Thai Party’s election pledge to farmers, who formed a large segment of the party’s voting base.

The BHT35 billion fine was fixed by a state-appointed committee that decided last month the quantum was fitting due to her role in the scheme that led to massive losses for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 rice crop.

According to Bangkok Post, the panel did not find Yingluck guilty for the losses incurred from 2011 to 2012 as the National Anti-Corruption Commission as the office of Thailand’s Auditor-General had not informed her about the alleged corruption at the time.

The report added that the two rice crops from 2012 to 2014 racked up losses worth BHT178 billion UUS$5 billion) and Yingluck is seen as liable for at least 20 percent of this. The government, meanwhile, is expected to seek compensation for the remaining 80 percent from others allegedly responsible for the losses.

SEE ALSO: Former Thai PM Yingluck in court on corruption charges

In its Oct 19 report, the daily said Deputy Finance Minister Wisudhi Srisuphan and finance permanent secretary Somchai Sujjapongse signed the administrative order on the fine that accuses Yingluck of dereliction of duty in the failed scheme.

Yingluck, who was ousted in 2014 by the military junta, and her supporters have cried foul over the punishment, claiming it was part of the government’s plan to wipe out any last vestiges of the Shinawatra family.

Reuters, quoting government spokesman General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, apart from the fine and assets seizure against Yingluck as well as other cases against some senior members of her former Cabinet, the junta is also conducting graft probes on 850 other cases related to the rice scheme.

These involve numerous lower ranking public officials and members of the private sector.

Cyber attacks disrupt PayPal, Twitter, other sites

An attendee looks at a monitor at the Parsons booth during the 2016 Black Hat cyber-security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. August 3, 2016. REUTERS/David Becker

By Jim Finkle, Dustin Volz and Joseph Menn-Fri Oct 21, 2016

Cyber attacks targeting a little known internet infrastructure company, Dyn, disrupted access to dozens of websites on Friday, preventing some users from accessing PayPal, Twitter and Spotify.

Dyn, whose customers include some of the world's most widely visited websites, said it did not know who was responsible for the outages that began in the Eastern United States, and then spread to other parts of the country and overseas.

The outages were intermittent, making it difficult to identify all the victims. But technology news site Gizmodo named some five dozen sites that were affected by the attack. They included CNN, HBO Now, Mashable, the New York Times, People.com, the Wall Street Journal and Yelp.

Dyn said attacks were coming from tens of millions of Internet-connected devices -- such as web cams, printers and thermostats -- infected with malicious software that turns them into "bots" that can be used in massive distributed denial of service attacks.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week issued a warning about this powerful new approach, noting it was concerned about the potential for new attacks after code for malware used in these attacks was published on the internet.

Dyn said late on Friday that it was fighting the third major wave of attacks, which were being launched from locations spread across the globe, making them harder to fight.

"The complexity of the attacks is what’s making it very challenging for us," said Dyn’s chief strategy officer, Kyle York.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they were investigating.

The disruptions come at a time of unprecedented fears about the cyber threat in the United States, where hackers have breached political organizations and election agencies.

Dyn said it had resolved one morning attack, which disrupted operations for about two hours, but disclosed a second a few hours later that was causing further disruptions.

Dyn said early on Friday that the outage was limited to the Eastern United States. Amazon later reported that the issue was affecting users in Western Europe. Twitter and some news sites could not be accessed by some users in London late on Friday evening.

PayPal Holdings Inc said that the outage prevented some customers in "certain regions" from making payments. It apologized to customers for the inconvenience and said that its networks had not been hacked.

Amazon.com Inc's web services division, one of the world's biggest cloud computing companies, also reported a related outage, which it said was resolved early Friday afternoon.

Dyn is a Manchester, New Hampshire-based provider of services for managing domain name servers (DNS), which act as switchboards connecting internet traffic. Requests to access sites are transmitted through DNS servers that direct them to computers that host websites.

Dyn said it was still trying to determine how the attack led to the outage but that its first priority was restoring service.

Attacking a large DNS provider can create massive disruptions because such firms are responsible for forwarding large volumes of internet traffic.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston, Dustin Volz in Washington, Joseph Menn in San Francisco. Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in Frankurt, Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Malathi Nayak in New York, Jeff Mason and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Adrian Croft and Frances Kerry in London; Editing by Bill Trott and Lisa Shumaker)

India’s Fossil Fuel Policy Contradicts It’s Climate Policy

Ships including aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov expected to leave British waters later on Friday en route to Syria

by N.S.Venkataraman

India’s promises to COP 21

( October 20, 2016, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) INDC report submitted by India to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change during the Paris Climate Conference contained the following promises

Emission reduction – To reduce the emissions intensity of India’s GDP by 33 to 35% by 2030 from 2005 level.

Renewable energy – To achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non fossil fuel based energy resources by 2030.

Carbon sink – To create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion metric tonne of CO₂ equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.

After having made such promises, it is surprising that Government of India is now committing itself to the increased use of fossil fuel such as natural gas and coal , even as it is pursuing renewable energy. Is this approach appropriate to its pledge to combat global warming ?

Government’s LNG policy

While globally natural gas makes up for 24 per cent of the energy basket, it is 6.5 to 7 per cent in India.

Government of India says that it would like to raise the share of natural gas in the energy basket to 15 per cent in the next 5 years.

In Eastern India, the government is laying 2,500 km long pipeline, which will provide natural gas to industry and help in gas distribution in seven cities of Eastern India.

Government of India wants to promote LNG as a fuel for vehicles. Efforts are being made to have LNG-driven bus in Kerala soon. Long-haul driven vehicles and trains will also be encouraged to use LNG as fuel.

India’s natural gas production

Year	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
	In billion cubic metre
Production	47.5	52.2	47.6	40.7	35.4	33.7

As the Indian production of natural gas is nearly stagnant , India has to steadily increase the import of

LNG, as the government of India wants to increase the share of natural gas in the energy basket.

Plans for LNG terminals to increase LNG import

India currently has LNG import and regassification capacity of 21 million metric tonne and the Government of India plans to more than double its annual LNG import capacity to 50 million metric tonne in the next few years.

Petronet LNG Ltd operates a 10 million metric tonne a year LNG import terminal at Dahej in Gujarat and has another 5 million metric tonne facility at Kochi, which is lying mostly idle because of lack of pipeline to take the gas to consumers.

Dahej terminal is being expanded to 15 million metric tonne this year and is proposed to be further expanded to 18 million metric tonne in future.

Royal Dutch Shell operates a 5 million metric tonne a year LNG terminal at Hazira in Gujarat, while a 1.2 million metric tonne capacity operational terminal is there at Dabhol in Maharashtra.

Government’s coal policy :

Thermal power continues to lead the power sector in India: For the 12^th Five Year Plan, a total of 88,400 MW of power capacity addition is targeted, of which 72,300 MW constitutes thermal power based on fossil fuel, 10,800 MW hydro power and 5300 MW nuclear power.

Government of India appears to have no intention of significantly decreasing the usage of coal in the new thermal power projects.

This is evident from the fact that the government plans to bid out more than 8 ultra mega power projects of generation capacity 4000 MW each in two and a half years, based on coal as fuel. It is reported that Government of India will shortly auction three ultra mega power projects (UMPP s) including Tilaiya and Cheyyur of total capacity of 12,000 MW, entailing investments of Rs. 80,000 crore.

India’s Coal production:

Year	FY11	FY12	FY13	FY14	FY17E	CAGR
	Million metric tonne
CIL	431.3	435.8	452.2	474.5	563.8	5.7%
SCCL	51.3	52.2	53.1	54.3	57.4	2%
Captive + Others	50	52	52.4	55.1	68.7	7%
Total production	532.6	540	557.7	583.9	689.9	5.5%

In 2015-16, Coal India (CIL) achieved a record production of 536million metric tonne, which was 42 million metric tonne more than the previous fiscal. Its production grew 8.5% year-on-year. CIL’s output target is fixed at 598 million metric tonne for 2016-17.

Government of India wants to eliminate thermal coal imports by 2017 by doubling production of Coal India, which already has 80 % market share.

Government’s fossil fuel policy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed with oil and gas experts on 5th Jan, 2015, focussing on subjects such as increasing the share of gas in India’s energy mix, fresh investment in oil and gas exploration in India, regulatory frameworks, international acquisition of oil and gas assets, emerging areas such as shale gas and coal bed methane, and the oil and gas sector related possibilities of ‘Make in India’.

Source: Statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, 5th Jan, 2015

Obviously, Government of India has no plans for reducing the consumption of fossil fuel. Similar to natural gas and coal, the consumption of crude oil is also likely to increase steadily.

Renewable energy

While the government continues to rely on fossil fuel to sustain the economic and industrial growth of the country, it has set the following target for renewable energy

Source	Target for 2022	Present capacity as on end 2016	Additional capacity to be built between 2016 and 2022
Solar	100 GW	8 GW	92 GW
Wind	60 GW	27 GW	33 GW
Small hydro	5 GW	4.2 GW	0.8 GW
Biomass and others including waste to power	10 GW	4.68 GW	5.32 GW
Total	175 GW	43.88 GW	131.1 GW

Additional requirement for fossil fuel

As per the government’s scheme to use more coal and natural gas in the Indian energy basket to sustain Indian industrial and economic growth, additional requirement of fossil resources would be the following

Additional requirement of coal for all applications by 2022 will be 645 million metric tonne for power generation and other purposes.

Additional requirement of natural gas for all applications by 2022 70 billion cubic meter per annum for power generation and other purposes.

Is increasing use of LNG / coal appropriate policy ?

Given India’s promise to combat climate change, one wonders whether burning of more natural gas and coal in power plants and elsewhere as fuel would be the appropriate strategy.

Burning fossil fuels create carbon emission and consequent global warming. It does not matter if it is coal, oil, propane, kerosene, gasoline or natural gas—it all contains carbon, which gets released as a greenhouse gas.

It is a fact that compared with coal, burning natural gas results in roughly half the amount of CO₂ per megawatt-hour of electricity. The most advanced natural gas burning power plants can still emit around 385 kgs of CO₂ per megawatt-hour of electricity produced. All those power plants that burn natural gas will still spew CO₂, albeit less than the equivalent coal-fired power plant. This would make it hard to achieve the goals of CO₂-emission reduction, if India were to use more coal ,natural gas and diesel as fuel.

Further, it is possible that natural gas can leak. Leaks occur when the well is drilled, during transport in pipelines, at storage sites, or when methane is pumped into the natural gas(methane) powered buses. This will add methane to the atmosphere, which would increase global warming, when methane gradually converts to carbon dioxide.

It can be seen that continued and increased usage of fossil fuel is contrary to the objective of positive approach to tackle climate change issues.

It is critical that India should focus not just on growth but also on cleaner growth.

What action plan ?

Now that India has not significantly reduced its greenhouse gas emissions , government of India should be gravely concerned about the push for the use of more natural gas and coal, which are potent greenhouse fuel.

Considering the fact that there are twin challenges facing India due to the climate change issues and impending energy needs and the fact that both the issues are inter related, the strategic approach of the Government should be oriented to find elegant and integrated solution for both the issues in one stroke.

Obviously, the focus of the strategic approach should be to utilize eco friendly feedstocks for generation of energy to the maximum extent possible, keeping in view that the economic and GDP growth target and climate issues can not be sacrificed.

The most important action needed is to reduce all fossil fuel use and markedly increase efficiencies and take up appropriate renewable energy projects like wind (both onshore and off shore) , solar , nuclear , algae bio fuel and similar other eco friendly fuel source in a bigger way, where there are huge opportunities.

Given the fact that India plans to build renewable energy projects to the level of around 137 MW in the next 10 years, there is strong case to re examine as whether so many new power projects based on coal or natural gas are necessary With more than 2,70,000 MW of power generation capacity already in India, the capacity utilization of the power projects in India are only in the region of 50 percent at present. Why not improve the capacity utilization of existing power projects and reduce transmission loss, instead of building up more fossil fuel based power projects.?

Obviously, Government of India has to re work the energy strategy in tune with its commitment to COP 21, instead of marching on the beaten path.