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5th August 2022

  • Published
    05 August 2022

Carbon market

Context

A Bill to amend a 20-year law, the Energy Conservation Act, was introduced in Parliament recently.

About

About The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022:

  • The Bill seeks to amend the Energy Conservation Act, 2001.  
  • The Act promotes energy efficiency and conservation.  It provides for the regulation of energy consumption by equipment, appliances, buildings, and industries.  
  • Need: to facilitate the achievement of more ambitious climate change targets and ensures a faster transition to a low-carbon economy
  • Main objectives:
  • It seeks to make it compulsory for a select group of industrial, commercial and even residential consumers to use green energy. A prescribed minimum proportion of the energy they use must come from renewable or non-fossil fuel sources.
  • It seeks to establish a domestic carbon market and facilitate trade in carbon credits.

Key provisions of the Bill:

Key proposals under the Bill are:

  • Obligation to use non-fossil sources of energy
  • Carbon trading: The Bill empowers the central government to specify a carbon credit trading scheme.
  • Carbon credit implies a tradable permit to produce a specified amount of carbon emissions.
  • Energy conservation code for buildings: The Act empowers the central government to specify energy conservation code for buildings.
  • Standards for vehicles and vessels:  Under the Act, the energy consumption standards may be specified for equipment and appliances which consume, generate, transmit, or supply energy.  
  • The Bill expands the scope to include vehicles (as defined under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988), and vessels (includes ships and boats).  
  • Regulatory powers of SERCs:The Act empowers the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) to adjudge penalties under the Act.  

Energy conservation and efficiency in India:

  • The 2001 law defined standards for energy conservation and efficiency to be followed by a select group of industries and commercial complexes.
  • Efficiency standards were also prescribed for equipment and appliances like air conditioners or refrigerators.
  • This law set up the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) to promote the use of more efficient processes and equipment in order to save energy.
  • The star ratings on various household appliances and the large scale shift to LED bulbs were some of the successful initiatives of BEE that have resulted in massive energy savings over a period of time.

Carbon Markets:

  • The creation of a domestic carbon market is one of the most significant provisions of the proposed amendment Bill.
  • Carbon markets allow the trade of carbon credits with the overall objective of bringing down emissions.
  • These markets create incentives to reduce emissions or improve energy efficiency.
  • For example, an industrial unit which outperforms the emission standards stands to gain credits.
  • Another unit which is struggling to attain the prescribed standards can buy these credits and show compliance to these standards.
  • The unit that did better on the standards earns money by selling credits, while the buying unit is able to fulfil its operating obligations.

Concept of Carbon Trading globally:

  • Under the Kyoto Protocol, the predecessor to the Paris Agreement, carbon markets have worked at the international level as well. 
  • Europe: Domestic or regional carbon markets are already functioning in several places, most notably in Europe, where an emission trading scheme (ETS) works on similar principles.
  • Industrial units in Europe have prescribed emission standards to adhere to, and they buy and sell credits based on their performance.
  • China, too, has a domestic carbon market.
  • India: A similar scheme for incentivising energy efficiency has been running in India for over a decade now.
  • This BEE scheme, called PAT, (or perform, achieve and trade) allows units to earn efficiency certificates if they outperform the prescribed efficiency standards.

The Earth has recorded its shortest day since the 1960s

Context

On June 29, the Earth completed one full spin, a day, in 1.59 milliseconds less than its routine 24 hours.

About
  • The Earth is spinning faster, and recently recorded its shortest day ever.
  • June 29, 2022 was 1.59 millisecond less than the average day.
  • The record was almost broken again this month when Earth completed its rotation in 1.47 milliseconds less than 24 hours on July 26.

Some of the explanations regarding faster spinning Earth:

There are no conclusive proofs at the moment to decipher why Earth has been spinning fast. But there are some leading theories that are doing the rounds.

  • Changes to the climate or climate systems, such as melting and freezing of glaciers or winds, whose shifting weight pulls on the Earth.
  • Earthquakes and other seismic activity which move mass toward the center of the Earth, like a spinning person pulling their arms in.
  • Movement within the Earth's molten core that shifts mass on the planet, Forbes reported.
  • Ocean circulation and pressure on the seabed that pulls on the Earth's axis.
  • The "Chandler Wobble"—a natural shifting of the Earth's axis due to the planet not being perfectly spherical—could be linked to the spinning speeds

What can happen if the Earth continues to spin faster on a sustained basis?

  • To ensure that the time on clocks matches the speed of the Earth’s rotation, a system of leap seconds has been used since the 1970s.
  • They involve one-second adjustments to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the time standard used to synchronize clocks around the world.
  • Due to the long-term slowing in the planet’s spin, 27 leap seconds have been added to UTC.
  • However, if the Earth continues to spin faster and days subsequently become shorter, scientists may have to introduce the first ever ‘negative leap second,’ which involves a subtraction of a second from clocks.
  • According to a report by Forbes, a faster spin would mean Earth gets the same position a little earlier than the previous day.
  • A half-a-millisecond equates to 10-inches or 26 centimetres at the equator. In short, GPS satellites—which already have to be corrected for the effect of Einstein’s general relativity theory (the curve of space and time)—are quickly going to become useless.

Rare earth elements

Context

New Delhi is working through diplomatic channels to fetch an entry into a new US-led partnership initiative called the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP).

About

Minerals Security Partnership (MSP):

  • It will focus on the supply chains of minerals such as Cobalt, Nickel, Lithium and also the 17 ‘rare earth’ minerals.
  • The alliance is seen as primarily focused on evolving an alternative to China, which has created processing infrastructure in rare earth minerals and has acquired mines in Africa for elements such as Cobalt.
  • Goal: The goal of the MSP is to ensure that critical minerals are produced, processed, and recycled in a manner that supports the ability of countries to realize the full economic development benefit of their geological endowments.
  • Partners: The US and 10 partners — Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the European Commission — have come together to form the MSP.
  • The new grouping is aimed at catalysing investment from governments and the private sector to develop strategic opportunities.
  • Need: Demand for critical minerals, which are essential for clean energy and other technologies, is projected to expand significantly in the coming decades.
  • The MSP will help catalyse investment from governments and the private sector for strategic opportunities — across the full value chain — that adhere to the highest environmental, social, and governance standards.

What are rare earth elements?

  • Rare earth elements include wind turbine magnets, solar cells, smart phone components, cells used in electric vehicles, among others.
  • The 17 Rare Earths are cerium (Ce), dysprosium (Dy), erbium (Er), europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), holmium (Ho), lanthanum (La), lutetium (Lu), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), promethium (Pm), samarium (Sm), scandium (Sc), terbium (Tb), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and yttrium (Y).
  • REEs are classified as light RE elements (LREE) and heavy RE elements (HREE).
  • Some REEs are available in India — such as Lanthanum, Cerium, Neodymium, Praseodymium and Samarium, etc.
  • Others such as Dysprosium, Terbium, and Europium, which are classified as HREEs, are not available in Indian deposits in extractable quantities. 

Usage:

  • Electronic technologies: These elements are important in technologies of consumer electronics, computers and networks, communications, clean energy, advanced transportation, healthcare, environmental mitigation, and national defence, among others.
  • Scandium is used in televisions and fluorescent lamps, and yttrium is used in drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.
  • Defence equipments: While Rare Earth elements are used in building consumer electronics, in healthcare and transportation, they are especially important for governments because of their use in manufacturing defence equipment.
  • Space: Rare Earth elements are used in space shuttle components, jet engine turbines, and drones.
  • Cerium, the most abundant Rare Earth element, is essential to NASA’s Space Shuttle Programme.

What is India’s major concern at this moment?

  • If India is not able to explore and produce these minerals, it will have to depend on a handful of countries, including China, to power its energy transition plans to electric vehicles. That will be similar to our dependence on a few countries for oil.

How scientists fixed the Lucy probe’s solar array while it was in space

Context

Data from the probe indicated that one of the solar arrays powering it, designed to unfurl like a hand fan, had not fully opened. A recent NASA press statement reveals how mission engineers were able to diagnose and solve the problem.

About

Lucy Probe:

  • Lucy will be the first space mission to study the Trojans.
  • The mission takes its name from the fossilized human ancestor (called “Lucy” by her discoverers) whose skeleton provided unique insight into humanity's evolution.
  • Likewise, the Lucy mission will revolutionize our knowledge of planetary origins and the formation of the solar system.
  • Currently on a 12-year-old journey, Lucy will become the first man-made object to fly past one of the trojan asteroids in 2027.
  • However, Lucy's first encounter with the asteroids will occur in 2024 when it comes across the Donaldjohanson asteroid into the main asteroid belt.
  • According to NASA, all of the spacecraft's flyby will occur between 2027 and 2033 after it will arrive at its main target in 2025.
  • The reason for choosing the trojan asteroids is the possibility of these primitive objects hiding new discoveries about the early solar system. 

What happened?

  • One of Lucy's solar arrays, which was supposed to open 360 degrees in order to power the spacecraft, got stuck and failed to fully unfurl.
  • After constant efforts of powering the motor and forcing the array outward, NASA confirmed that it is now between 353 degrees and 357 degrees open.
  • While the array is not fully latched, it is under substantially more tension, making it stable enough for the spacecraft to operate as needed for mission operations

ISRO to launch its smallest rocket to unfurl Tricolour in Space

Context

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch its smallest commercial rocket ‘Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV)’ recently.

About
  • It will be launched to unfurl the Tricolour in space, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
  • ISRO chairman S Somanath has called the new satellite a “game changer” that will drive India’s dreams of breaking into the lucrative and booming small satellite launch market.
  • To mark the country’s celebrations of ‘Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, the SSLV will have a co-passenger satellite called ‘AzaadiSAT’ comprising 75 payloads built by 750 young girls students from 75 rural government schools across India.
  • The mission will conduct femto-experiments.
  • AzadiSAT also comprise of a solid-state PIN diode-based radiation counter, that will measure the ionising radiation in its orbit, as well as a long-range transponder. ISRO will use ground system developed by Space Kidz India, to establish telemetry and communication with AzadiSAT in orbit.
  • This project was specially conceptualized for the 75th Independence Day year celebrations to encourage scientific temper and create opportunities for young girls to choose space research as their career.

ThinkQ

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QUIZ - 5th August 2022

Mains Question:

Q1. What do you understand by carbon market? Do you think carbon credits can meet ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions? (150 words)

Approach 

  • Introduction- define carbon market
  • Need behind the idea
  • Benefits of carbon market 
  • Challenges/Issues
  • Required collaboration 
  • Conclude accordingly 
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