Skip to main content

Western, Indian NGOs lobby against power project, wonder if trading MNC has snapped ties with Adanis

In an open letter to Laurent Michel, director-general for climate and energy, Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, French government, 29 non-government organizations from western countries and India have come together wondering if EDF Trading, top MNC player into the international energy markets, has at all delinked its contractual agreements with the Adani Power project at Mundra, Gujarat, about which it had declared it on August 13. In a newspaper statement, the EDF Trading had said that it would not be associated with Adanis’ “supercritical coal power project in India”, and would “never purchase carbon credits from it”.
The western NGOs that signed the letter included Climate Action Network, France; Climate Action Network Europe, Belgium; the Climate Concept Foundation, Germany; Ethical Markets Media, USA; and the Kosovo Civil Society Consortium for Sustainable Development from Europe. As for India, important NGOs were International Rivers, Delhi; Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development, Delhi; Paryavaran Mitra, Ahmedabad; Gujarat Forum on Clean Development Management, Ahmedabad; Laya, Visakhapattanam; and Regional Centre for Development Cooperation, Odisha.
The letter admits, except the EDF Trading, the France-based MNC has not made any information public about its decision to distance itself from this Adani Power project, categorized as a clean development mechanism (CDM) project which could earn carbon credit. Regretting that the Adani Power has been issued “more than 600.000 carbon offset credits“, because of a “flawed” decision to declare it as CDM, the letter wonders whether the EDF decision to distance itself from Adani Power was “formal”, asking, “when was the decision taken, how the involvement was ended and whether the contract was sold to another entity who might have purchased the carbon offsets.”
Taking a serious view of lack of clarity on this score, the letter says, “The situation of the Mundra project in India is very concerning. According to the Kyoto Protocol, a CDM project activity must contribute to the sustainable development of the host country. As no general criteria are defined on an international level, it is for the Indian government to determine these criteria.”
In fact, “on September27, 25 Indian NGOs sent a letter to the Indian National CDM Authority demanding to withdraw the letter of approval for the CDM project 2716 in question. This demand is based on the Ministry of Environment and Forest’s (MoEF) own report that finds non-compliance with national legislation and evidence that the project is not meeting the criteria of sustainable development set up by National CDM Authority”.
The letter stresses, “The report reveals that the Project Design Document (PDD) was conducted on the basis of an erroneous social and environmental impact assessment that failed to recognize fishing communities, salt-pan workers and pastoralists as potentially affected stakeholders. These communities have not been consulted before the implementation of the project and no relevant information has been made accessible in the local languages.”
The letter points out, “Due to the depletion of groundwater and the destruction of mangroves as a result of the constructions for the project, the availability and accessibility of fish is negatively influenced, constituting a threat to the livelihood of the local population”. It also suggests how the report has suggested that “there is a large amount of air pollution due to fugitive emissions in form of flying ash. The flying ash makes the fish unmarketable and is a threat to the environment, the climate in general as well as the health of the population”.
The letter questions the eligibility of coal power under the CDM, saying it has “not only been criticized for its negative environmental and human health impacts”, several studies have also shown that “the construction of coal power plants in the CDM is business as usual and does not depend on the additional CDM revenue… The threat that coal power poses to ecosystems has already been recognized by the British and Norwegian government as well as the World Bank that have announced to stop endorsing investments in coal power under the CDM.”
Insisting that “the Mundra CDM project does not contribute to India’s sustainable development and has negative consequences for the fragile environment and living conditions of the local population”, the letter adds, “Evidence exists that the project is not additional, even worse, that offset credits from the project are based on a flawed methodology.”
Demanding to exclude coal power projects from the CDM at the upcoming UN-sponsored Climate Change Conference in Warsaw on November 11-22, 2013, the letter says, “Because coal is inherently climate damaging and also causes numerous other environmental and human health impacts, NGOs have long been calling for the exclusion of coal power projects from the CDM”. It adds, “Following the announcement from the British government to stop endorsing investments in coal power, we call on the French government to withdraw the approval letters for the project and to support the exclusion of coal power projects from the CDM.”

Comments

TRENDING

World Hijab Day? Ex-Muslim women observe Feb 1 as No Hijab Day, insist: 'Put it on a Man'

I didn't know that there could ever be a thing as World Hijab Day until I received an email alert from Maryam Namazie of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), stating that several ex-Muslim women's groups had observed the same day—February 1—as No Hijab Day! According to Namazie, the day "was created on February 1 as a direct response to World Hijab Day" to "illuminate the coercive and oppressive realities of the hijab as a pillar of sex apartheid and a war on women."

Why predictions of an imminent collapse of the Russian economy may be wrong

A veteran Canadian journalist, settled in Russia, stated in a Facebook post that President Donald Trump "is apparently listening to experts who tell him that Russia's economy is on the verge of 'imploding,' and if he just squeezes a bit harder," his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "will fall into line."

Talking of increased corporate control over news, Rajdeep Sardesai 'evades' alternative media

When I received an intimation that well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai was to speak at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on February 2, my instant reaction was: I know what he is going to say—his views are quite well known; he wouldn’t be saying anything new. Yet, I decided to go and listen to him to catch his mood at a time when the media, as he (and I) knew it, is changing fast due to the availability of new technological tools that were not accessible even a decade ago.

Google powered AI refuses to correct grammar of a 'balanced' piece on Trump sending chained immigrants to India!

This is a continuation of my blog on how, while the start-up-developed AI app DeepSeek is being criticized for consistently rejecting content related to China or Maoism, there appears to be no mention in Western media about why another app, developed by the powerful Google, Gemini, remains silent on Indian political issues.  

Gujarat a police state? How top High Court advocate stunned a senior-most journalist

Rajdeep Sardesai, Anand Yagnik This is a continuation of my earlier blog on well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's lecture in memory of the late Achyut Yagnik at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA). I was a little surprised when I received the intimation about the venue for the lecture.

5% poor in India? Union govt claim debunked, '26.4% of population below poverty line'

A recent paper, referring to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 of the Government of India (GoI), has debunked the official claim that poverty has substantially declined. Titled "Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey", the paper —authored by scholars CA Sethu, LT Abhinav Surya, and CA Ruthu—states that "more than a quarter of India’s population falls below the poverty line."

DeepSeek censors uncomfortable queries on China, but why's Gemini so touchy on India?

The powerful Chinese AI app DeepSeek, which has taken the Silicon Valley by surprise, as it has capacities matching Google’s Gemini and Open AI's ChatGPT, is being criticised for restricting free speech, and rightly so. It is being said that those signing up for the chatbot and its open-source technology "are being confronted with the Chinese Communist Party’s brand of censorship and information control."

Gujarat's water anarchy? 16.7% of Narmada water going to industry, 33% of targeted area irrigated: Govt insider

The Narmada project is something that has always excited me, including how much water will be distributed and to which sector. A few days ago, when I was talking to a top Gujarat government insider, I was a little surprised when I was told that it is up to the “respective states to decide how much Narmada water they would distribute among various sectors” out of the total quota allocated to the four states—Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan—as per the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal award of 1979.

Russians at a Bali yoga camp to avoid drafting for war? Things aren't any different in Ukraine

Are people in Russia becoming frustrated with the prolonged war in Ukraine? And is the war having a similar impact on the people of Ukraine? I have no firsthand information about this, but it is well known how nationalist hysteria often seeks to conceal such frustration, particularly among the youth.