The Indian Railways have come with a unique business model which will enable it to generate some revenues from development of clean technologies (CDM - clean development mechanism) of the Kyoto protocol through building Carbon credits by installing over 26 lakh compact flourescent lamps in the houses of it's 6.5 lakh employees around the country.
The Railways have invited companies to bid to supply 4 CFLs each in each household and to maintain them for the next four years through 2012. In turn the companies through the CDM can earn Carbon credits, the revenue of which they share with the railways. Presently each carbon credit ( equivalent to reducing polluting the enviromnment upto 1 ton of CO2) sells at euro 22, or roughly Rs.1200/=
Due to the unceratyin nature of the savings and the high initial costs involved, dometic companies have not bit the bait but some MNCs , including OSRAM from Germany have shown interest and will help the Railways not only reduce it's pollution and at the same time earn some revenues too. Clear smart thinking and followup !!
It also made interesting reading yesterday to note that India is the fastest country in the world to accept and implement non-polluting technologies, solar and wind based. Maybe one can read between the lines too !! The future holds terrific potential..
george..
dear rajan,salim,
ReplyDeleteLED is much efficient than CFLs, true .. It'a acceptance is yet to catch up in India..
a very valid point, with 300 americans and 700 europeans already polluting the world left and right, the prospect of having another 1000 million from India and another 1200 million from China joning them is just horrendous !! Given that, if all of these people were to live like a very average american, all of us would require FIVE PLANET EARTHS to sustain that lifestyle, is a very worrying factor.
One option would be to allow the Americans to continue polluting the world, given their less than averge intelligence levels to understand the implications of their actions on the rest of the world, and ask the rest of the world, to work to preserve the planet.
The other option would be to educate the average american, so that the whole world could work in unison for preserving it for posterity.
The choice rests on us and the average dumbo ........., to make the informed choice to make this world a better place to live.
geoge..
--- On Wed, 7/16/08, Salim Nair wrote:
From: Salim Nair
Subject: RE: [cet86] Indian Railways... LED lighting
Date: Wednesday, July 16, 2008, 9:26 PM
And they work wonderfully. Ambient lighting in my kitchen and living room is just LED rope lights. With 0.7 Watts per feet, it gives perfect lighting for most tasks at 15W total. Additional work light is optionally provided using 3 15W halogens in the Kitchen. The living room (no picture, sorry) has a dimmer, and uses from 5 (when we feel very romantic) to 30W.
They are, of course, very beautiful and dramatic as well.
Salim Nair
Blog: Digitally Toned
Music : Bamboodreams
[mailto: On Behalf Of Rajan Karunakaran
Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 9:39 AM
Subject: RE: [cet86] Indian Railways comes up with a unique business model in environment protection ..
Sorry, that was meant to be LEDs. Verbal incontinence.....
Rajan Karunakaran
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:24:38 +0000
Subject: RE: [cet86] Indian Railways comes up with a unique business model in environment protection ..
It would have been better to adopt LCD lamps, as opposed to CFLs. CFLs tackle only the energy consumption part of the problem. But it causes another problem. Disposal of toxic mercury. Because of the mercury content in these bulbs, you cannot dispose of them in the normal fashion (tossing them into the garbage bin) since you run the risk groundwater pollution.
India, as a nation that is on the verge of being a major player in the world economic stage and due to being in the rather early stages of industrialisation required to serve its entire population, is poised in the very advantageous position of being able to choose what green technologies it needs to adopt to build sustainable development. And I hope she makes the right choices in that respect. However, for that to happen, there must be an educated and informed population that has spending power. The stories I hear, however, do not seem encouraging, especially when you hear that the Hummer or similar environmentally unfriendly vehicles are the favourite cars of the nouveau riche who are in a race to see who can beat the West in opulence. The new Ambani residence is an excellent case in point.
And the problem is not necessarily the Hummers or SUVs of the world alone, while they are also a large part. Adopting the buy and dispose cultures and mentalities of the West is a far bigger threat to global stability. The raw materials needed to create the disposable goods are very often mined and created under extremely exploitative conditions in some of the poorest nations in the world that are controlled by brutal and/or dishonest leaders and rulers (the entire African continent, which is rich in a lot of minerals and raw materials, is a very good example). Buy buying into the purchase, use and dispose mantra we are all setting up the stage for continuing the exploitation of peoples far removed from us.
That is my biggest worry with the current trend I see in India's expansion. We have all seen the havoc wrought by the lifestyles of 300 million Americans and 700 million Europeans. Just imagine what happens when you add another billion Indians and an equal number of Chinese to that mix. The planet will simply not be able to sustain that kind of growth unless we adopt more sustainable life choices. While it is good to have government do its bit, it is equally important that each of us do our bit, especially those of us who can afford it and won't necessarily break the bank by paying a little extra to make these choices.
Rajan Karunakaran