The main challenge facing India's energy sector is to increase and improve the delivery of energy services to various sections of the citizenry and the economy in an environmentally and socially acceptable manner.

Policy instruments such as tradable permit systems and carbon taxes ignore the fact that various groups have very different views on the likelihood of climate change.  Risk-based instruments may help bridge the gap.

Notions of justice and equity, although enshrined in the Framework Convention on Climate Change, have not shaped the outcome of the subsequent negotiations to any substantial extent.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that concluded late last month in Bonn resulted in what is being described as "a historic agreement" and "a major victory for the environment". The so-called landmark deal reached by Environment Ministers from 178 nations agreed on the operational outline for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that had set specific objectives for reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of industrialised countries.

Substantial innovation in the energy sector will be required for meeting the various challenges it may face, but achieving this needs a focus on the larger picture rather than primarily on energy R&D budgets.

The need to develop a framework for allocating national GHG emissions based on ‘rights to the atmosphere’ is increasingly pressing since a resolution of the issues surrounding these rights are likely to be a precondition not only for moving beyond the Kyoto Protocol, but even for effective implementation of its Articles. This paper explores some possible variations of a framework that is derived from the principles of the Climate Convention.

The Biotechnology Industry Association is holding its annual meeting, BIO 2000, in the Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston today through Thursday. Prominent among the scheduled events are displays of new technologies and discussions of scientific and technical issues facing the industry.

The United Nations Development Programme's concept of human development, first presented in the 1990 Human Development Report (HDR), distilled the essence of the evolution in development thinking and effectively reoriented the debate by bringing people back into the centre of development. There has been much discussion of the HDRs in the literature and the reports have also evolved somewhat over the years. But the basic concept of human development seems to have become stagnant and the reports have not lived up to their own initial promises. We feel that if the reports are to maintain their position as frontrunners of the development debate, then they must explore further the relationship between the widening of human choices and the framework within which these choices are exercised, as alluded to in the first report itself. Furthermore, the reports should choose to focus explicitly on the role of the richest people and countries in promoting human development, the plight of the poorest people and countries, and on the growing disparities in today's world. The global perspective afforded by such a focus could be coupled to an exploration of the norms and values on which human development should be based. This should lead to an evolving and improved conception of human development that better reflects current global realities and future global aspirations.

This paper analyzes how climate change research and analysis is performed in India, a major lesser-industrialized country.