Millons to Receive Solar Energy

Half of the world's population lacks reliable access to modern energy. Over 20 percent, that is 1.4 billion people, lack access to electricity. Furthermore, due to a dependency on biomass fuel, household air pollution will cause more than 1.5 million deaths a year by 2030.

For the following four years, a Mauritus-based company will provide access to low-cost solar energy for 33 million people in Africa and Asia. This is a part of a UN Development Programme (UNDP) backed Business Call to Action (BCtA)  initiative to fight global poverty. Through this initiative, the UNDP is pushing the private sector to create business models that have a positive impact on development.

ToughStuff, the solar energy provider, will provide low income communities in Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, South Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Nepal with low-cost solar panels and solar battery packs. It is estimated, that $520 million will be saved by the switch from kerosene to solar energy. Furthermore, carbon emissions will be reduced up to 1.2 million tons by 2016.

Susan Chaffin, programme manager for BCtA has said this "commitment will help to boost development and improve social equity in a sustainable way that is good for the environment and good for business."

-Akshika Patel


SOURCE:UN News Centre

The Impact Of Sun On Global Warming

People who believe that global warming is mostly occuring because of human activity, it is possible that they are not completely right. The sun may have some influence on the emergence of this global environmental issue. New research presented at a recent conference of the American Geophysical Union suggested that, improvements in the instruments that are used to measure the solar impact on environment can now be used to determine how the sun itself is influencing the global warming incident. Researchers are hopeful that by measuring the sun's actual role, we can determine the role that human activity is playing. If the sun is brightening, human activity can be considered as partially guilty. This research in turn will help us to decide how much human activity will need to be controlled in order to reduce the hazardous impact of global warming.

-Nisha Noor

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES