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Business Standard
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Business Standard
Tata Elxsi showcases Battery Aadhaar at the Battery Summit 2025
Tata Elxsi showcased the technology demonstrator of Battery Aadhaar at the Battery Summit 2025, organised by the World Resources Institute (WRI) India. This demonstration formed part of a consortium-led initiative aligned with India's ambitions for sustainable mobility and circular energy systems. The initiative was supported under the UNEP-led programme Electrifying Mobility in Cities', coordinated by NITI Aayog and the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. Tata Elxsi, along with leading consortium partnersincluding Tata Motors, Tata AutoComp Systems (TACO), IIT Kharagpur, WRI, LOHUM Cleantech, NUNAM Technologies, and Oorja Energypresented the Battery Aadhaar concept to Hon'ble Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and Technology and key government stakeholders as an end-to end Indian battery ecosystem enabler. Battery Aadhaar represents a national effort to provide batteries with secure, digital identities, enabling traceability, regulatory alignment, and lifecycle transparencyfrom raw material sourcing to second-life usage and recycling. By capturing key lifecycle data such as manufacturer identity, usage history, and material composition, Battery Aadhaar helps prevent unsafe reuse, non compliance, and environmental risk. Built on Tata Elxsi's MOBIUS+ platform, the solution integrates blockchain-backed traceability, dynamic data flows, and automated compliance reporting. Through MOBIUS+, Tata Elxsi is enabling the foundation for a trusted, digital, and transparent battery ecosystem in India.
RTÉ News
21-05-2025
- Science
- RTÉ News
'Red alert': Fires drive tropical forest loss to record high
Eighteen football pitches every minute of every hour of every day: that is the record extent of tropical rainforest destroyed last year due in large measure to fires fuelled by climate change, researchers reported. Tally it all up and the world lost 67,000 square kilometres of precious primary tropical forest, an area double the size of Belgium or Taiwan. The loss was 80% higher than in 2023, according to the Global Forest Watch think-tank. "This level of forest destruction is completely unprecedented in more than 20 years of data," its co-director Elizabeth Goldman said in a briefing. "This is a global red alert." Fires are responsible for nearly half of these losses, surpassing for the first time agriculture as the main driver of destruction. Loss of tree cover in 2024 - from deforestation and fires, deliberate or accidental - generated more than three billion tonnes of CO2 pollution, exceeding India's emissions from fossil fuel use over the same period. Tropical forests, which harbour the highest concentrations of biodiversity, are the most threatened of any forest biomes on the planet. They are also sponges for CO2, helping to prevent global temperatures from rising even faster than they have. Forest fires are both a cause and effect of climate change, injecting billions of tonnes of CO2 in the atmosphere that in turn accelerate warming and the conditions leading to more destructive fires. 'Extreme conditions' The exceptional fires last year were fuelled by "extreme conditions" that made them more intense and difficult to control, the authors said. Climate change driven by the massive burning of fossil fuels and boosted by natural El Nino weather phenomenon made 2024 the hottest year on record, with temperatures averaging more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Historically, most fires in tropical forests are set to clear land for agriculture and livestock, especially the so-called "big four" commodities: palm oil, soy, beef and timber. Brazil saw 2.8 million hectares of primary forest destroyed last year, two-thirds to fires typically started to make way for soybeans and cattle. In 2023, Brazil made measurable progress in reducing forest loss during President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's first year after returning to office. "But this progress is threatened by the expansion of agriculture," said Sarah Carter, a researcher at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Washington. The Brazilian Amazon was most affected, with destruction at its highest level since 2016. Global Forest Watch reports on forest destruction from all causes, deliberate or accidental. This stands in contrast to the Brazilian government's monitoring network MapBiomas, which published figures last week showing a sharp decline in deforestation in 2024 - but based on narrower criteria and not including many areas ravaged by fire. New phenomenon Forest protection is high on the agenda of the COP30 UN climate conference that Brazil will host in November in the tropical city of Belem. Neighbouring Bolivia's forest loss 1.5 million hectares - skyrocketed by 200% last year, with a record 3.6% of primary forests destroyed in a single year, mostly due to fires set to clear land for industrial-scale farms, according to the report. The picture is mixed elsewhere, with improvements in Indonesia and Malaysia but a sharp deterioration in Congo-Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo. While policies have resulted in a slowdown of the extent of forests lost to palm oil plantations, notably in Asia, the destructive footprint of other commodities has expanded, including avocados, coffee and cocoa. "We shouldn't assume that the drivers are always going to be the same," said Rod Taylor, director of the WRI's forest programme. "One new driver we are seeing, for example, is linked to mining and critical minerals."
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Business Standard
21-05-2025
- Science
- Business Standard
Global forest loss hits record highs fueled by extreme heat, wildfires
Global loss of tropical and boreal forests surged to a record high last year as unprecedented temperatures fueled fires, releasing more than four times the emissions of all air travel in 2023. That's according to the latest annual assessment by Global Forest Watch, a platform run by the nonprofit World Resources Institute, which drew on data from the University of Maryland. 'It's a global red alert,' Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of Global Forest Watch, said in a statement. 'This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years.' Tropical primary forests, defined as those that have experienced little to no human disturbance, store billions of tons of carbon. They also help regulate weather, recycle water and offer a home to millions of species of plants and animals. At the 2021 United Nations climate conference, COP26, more than 140 nations pledged to halt the loss of all types of forest by the end of the decade. However, the latest data shows that many of the countries that signed the deforestation pledge are falling woefully short on their commitment. The loss of tropical primary forests reached 6.7 million hectares last year. That's almost double the loss in 2023 and roughly equivalent to 18 soccer fields disappearing every minute. Fifteen of the 20 countries with the largest area of primary forests that signed the 2021 forest pledge are now losing trees faster than they were at that time, according to the World Resources Institute. All of this is occurring after the hottest year on record, with Earth's warming exceeding 1.5C over pre-industrial levels on an annual basis for the first time. The United Nations has warned that temperatures will continue to rise unless drastic action is taken to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, fires emitted 4.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions last year, adding to planetary heating. Outside of the tropics, fires in Canada and Russia also contributed to the loss of tree cover last year equal to the size of Italy, WRI reported. Tree-cover loss refers to the removal of tree canopy, which is the branches and leaves at the top of a tree. 'We are in a new phase where it's not just clearing for agriculture that's the main driver,' said Rod Taylor, director of forests and nature conservation at WRI. 'Now we have this new amplifying effect, which is the real climate change feedback loop where fires are just much more intense and much more ferocious than they've ever been.' Brazil, host of this year's COP30 climate summit, accounted for 42% of all tropical primary-forest loss last year, according to WRI. That's more than any other nation. WRI cited fires, fueled by the worst drought on record, as well as industrial soy and cattle farming, as the main causes of destruction in the country. Cutting deforestation and raising funds to do so are among the top priorities for COP30, which is scheduled for November in the Amazonian city of Belém. Brazil aims to launch a $125 billion fund at the summit that would provide financing to nations to protect their forests. Bolivia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo are other countries experiencing dramatic forest loss, according to WRI. By contrast, Indonesia and Malaysia reduced their rates of forest loss, mainly because of land-restoration programs and fire-control efforts. Globally, fires overtook agriculture as the leading cause of forest loss, accounting for almost half of the damage, up from an average of about 20% in previous years, according to WRI. Other contributors include illegal mining and coca production in Colombia, and conflict and poverty in DRC.
Euronews
21-05-2025
- Science
- Euronews
World forest loss last year ‘unlike anything we've seen', data shows
The world lost a record amount of forest in 2024, driven by a catastrophic rise in fires. New data from the University of Maryland's GLAD Lab, made available on World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Watch platform, shows that loss of tropical primary forests alone reached 6.7 million hectares last year - twice as much as in 2023 and an area nearly the size of Panama. That is around 18 football pitches lost every 18 minutes. For the first time on record, fires, not agriculture, were the leading cause of this loss, accounting for nearly half of all destruction. They burned five times more tropical primary forest in 2024 than in 2023. Latin America was particularly hard hit. In total, these fires emitted 4.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions - more than four times the emissions of all air travel in 2023. 'This level of forest loss is unlike anything we've seen in over 20 years of data,' says Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of WRI's Global Forest Watch. 'It's a global red alert - a collective call to action for every country, every business and every person who cares about a livable planet. Our economies, our communities, our health - none of it can survive without forests.' Though forest fires are natural in some ecosystems, they are mostly human-caused in tropical regions. Fires are often started for agricultural reasons or to prepare new areas for farming. Last year was the hottest year on record, with extreme conditions including severe widespread drought fuelled by climate change and the El Nino climate phenomenon. Some countries, especially those in Latin America, experienced their worst drought on record in 2024. The report says these conditions made fires more intense and harder to control in many parts of the world. While some forests can recover from these blazes, the combined pressure of land conversion and a changing climate hinders that recovery. It also creates a feedback loop that raises the likelihood of future fires. Brazil, set to host the COP30 climate conference later this year, lost the largest areas of tropical forest in 2024, according to the data. In total, it accounted for 42 per cent of all tropical primary forest loss last year. Fires were fuelled by the worst drought on record for the country, causing 66 per cent of that loss. Other causes, such as farming for soy and cattle, rose by 13 per cent - still much lower than the peaks seen in the early 2000s. 'Brazil has made progress under President Lula - but the threat to forests remains,' says Mariana Oliveira, director of the forests and land use programme at WRI Brasil. 'Without sustained investment in community fire prevention, stronger state-level enforcement and a focus on sustainable land use, hard-won gains risk being undone. As Brazil prepares to host COP30, it has a powerful opportunity to put forest protection front and centre on the global stage.' Forest loss also skyrocketed by 200 per cent in Bolivia last year to a total of 1.5 million hectares. For the first time ever, it ranked in second place behind Brazil, overtaking the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) - despite having less than half the forest area. Stasiek Czaplicki Cabezas, Bolivian researcher and data journalist for Revista Nomadas, says fires in 2024 'left deep scars', not just on the land but for those who depend on it. 'The damage could take centuries to undo.' Despite shifting down in the rankings, DRC saw the highest levels of primary forest loss on record, surging by 150 per cent compared to 2023. Fires, made worse by unusually hot and dry conditions, caused 45 per cent of the damage. Just like the Amazon, the Congo basin acts as a crucial carbon sink, but increasing fires and forest loss now threaten its vital function. Columbia too saw an almost 50 per cent increase in primary forest loss but fires weren't the primary cause. Instability from the breakdown of peace talks led to the growth of activities like illegal mining and coca production (the main ingredient in cocaine). The rise in forest loss extended well beyond the tropics in 2024, with a 5 per cent increase in the total loss of tree cover around the world compared to 2023. That is an additional 30 million hectares lost last year, an area roughly the size of Italy. An intense fire season in Russia and Canada was partially responsible for driving this increase. While forest fires are a part of the natural dynamics in these regions, they have been more intense and longer-lasting in recent years, giving tree cover less time to recover. Research has shown that these boreal forests are increasingly susceptible to drought and fires due to climate change, creating a feedback loop of worsening fires and carbon emissions. Last year was also the first time since Global Forest Watch began keeping records when fires raged across both the tropics and boreal forests. The report isn't all bad news, with some countries racking up wins in the face of a challenging year. In Indonesia, for example, primary forest loss fell by 11 per cent. Efforts under former President Joko Widodo to restore land and curb fires helped keep fire rates low, even amid widespread droughts. Arief Wijaya, managing director of WRI Indonesia, says that while deforestation remains a concern, they are proud that it was one of the few countries to reduce primary forest loss in 2024. 'We hope the current administration can keep the momentum going.' Malaysia too saw a 13 per cent decline and fell out of the top 10 countries for tropical primary forest loss for the first time. Leaders of over 140 countries signed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration in 2021, promising to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. To do this, the world needs to cut deforestation by 20 per cent every year starting immediately. But we are alarmingly off track to meet this commitment: Of the 20 countries with the largest area of primary forest, 17 have higher primary forest loss today than when the agreement was signed. Stronger fire prevention, provision for deforestation-free supply chains, enforcement of trade regulations and increased funding for forest protection are urgently needed, the report's authors say - especially through Indigenous-led initiatives. Mapping shows that one such initiative, Bolivia's newly established Charagua Lyambae protected area, kept fires at bay in 2024. Their investments in early warning systems and enforcement of land use policies helped prevent the spread while the forest burned around it for the second year in a row. A testament to what Indigenous-led fire prevention can do. 'Countries have repeatedly pledged to halt deforestation and forest degradation,' says Kelly Levin, chief scientist for data and systems change at the Bezos Earth Fund. 'Yet the data reveal a stark gap between promises made and progress delivered - alongside the growing impacts of a warming world. That should jolt us out of complacency.' Five Dutch companies form 'an extremely powerful oligopoly' that dominates European fishing, according to a new investigation into their use of marine resources and public funds. Nicknamed the 'Big Five' - Parlevliet & Van der Plas (P&P), Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family - generated €2.4 billion in revenue in 2023, according to the report from France-based NGO BLOOM. For the first time, the 'sprawling and opaque empire' of these fishing supermajors has been mapped. It claims that they have all been involved in major scandals - from illegal fishing in Peru to corruption in Namibia. "Thanks to a network of opaque subsidiaries, a fleet of technologically over-equipped vessels, and an aggressive takeover strategy, these multinationals reign over global fishing,' says Laetitia Bisiaux, head of the industrial fishing campaign at BLOOM. 'Behind a façade of competition, these companies cooperate closely: they join forces to crush the other players in the sector.' Through their network of 400 subsidiaries, BLOOM's report says the Big Five control nearly 230 vessels - including the world's largest fishing vessel, the 145-metre-long Annelies Ilena. It estimates their combined capacity at 260,000 tonnes, a sixth of the entire EU fishing fleet's gross tonnage. If you lined them all up, they would span 10 kilometres - a two-hour walking distance. The investigation, conducted with the Dutch consortium of investigative journalists Spit, reveals that most of the companies are vertically integrated. This means they control the entire production chain - from catch to plate, trawler to fish-and-chip shop - on a global scale. This enables them, it alleges, to buy fish from their own subsidiaries at artificially low prices to reduce the wages paid to crews (who are often paid a share of the catch) and to transfer profits to tax havens. And, BLOOM says, their outsized presence is giving them undue lobbying sway. Through international subsidiaries, the Big Five are members of at least fifteen lobbying organisations in the EU. The report adds that this 'poses serious problems to the smooth running of democracies through their influence over public decision-making.' First, a quick explainer. The EU sets fishing catch limits, which are then shared among countries through national fishing quotas. Fishing companies purchase these rights in the form of individual transferable fishing quotas (ITQs); they are their most significant assets, and can be sold among each other, used as collateral for loans, leased out to smaller companies, and used to speculate on the market. The Dutch, BLOOM says, were quick to understand and exploit these dynamics in the 1980s, buying up fishing rights and fleets in other countries when prices were low. Being first on the scene with large freezer-trawlers also enabled them to capitalise on the fact that fishing rights are often distributed on the basis of historical catches, creating a feedback loop of fish and wealth. The new report details how the Big Five work together in order to pool or exchange fishing quotas so they can operate more efficiently. They also jointly own subsidiaries and have shared ownership in some ships. After the Netherlands, these companies have invested the most capital in France. 24 industrial vessels holding a large proportion of French quotas operate under the French flag via their subsidiaries. The UK ranks third in terms of vessels owned by the Big Five (18), enabling them to maintain control of fishing areas and quotas despite Brexit. In terms of tonnage, Germany ranks second despite having only seven vessels, given their large size. A second BLOOM investigation, also released today, delves into the public subsidies granted to Dutch shipowners in the aftermath of Brexit. It finds that the Big Five received €53.2 million of the €135 million package intended to compensate struggling fishers for a loss of access to British waters. Furthermore, the main beneficiaries of these subsidiaries were trawlers equipped with electrodes for destructive electric fishing, and some trawlers which haven't actually been blocked by Brexit. The Annelies Ilena, co-owned by P&P and Alda Seafood while flying a Polish flag, catches 400 tonnes of fish a day, as much as 1,000 small-scale fishing boats bring in. It might be the biggest factory ship, but for BLOOM experts, it is emblematic of the wholesale industrialisation of the fishing sector. All but one of the Big Five's 230-strong fleet engages in the most destructive types of fishing: pelagic trawling, bottom trawling and demersal seining (pulling a net across the sea floor). These techniques are deployed in the English Channel, North Sea, West Africa, Indian Ocean, Pacific, and the Arctic. According to BLOOM, 'their industrial logic is based on gigantic vessels and massive extraction capacity, which is incompatible with the preservation of healthy marine ecosystems.' The report also claims the profit from this 'extractivist approach to wild resources' is now being transferred into real estate, including high-rise residential buildings. Fisheries economists fear that this could be a warning signal that, as a result of overfishing, the return on investments in the fishing industry is declining. Parlevliet & Van der Plas, Cornelis Vrolijk, Van der Zwan, Alda Seafood and the De Boer family have been contacted for comment.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Tropical forests destroyed at fastest recorded rate last year
The world's tropical forests, which provide a crucial buffer against climate change, disappeared faster than ever recorded last year, new satellite analysis suggests. Researchers estimate that 67,000 sq km (26,000 sq mi) of these pristine, old-growth forests were lost in 2024 – an area nearly as large as the Republic of Ireland, or 18 football pitches a minute. Fires were the main cause, overtaking land clearances from agriculture for the first time on record, with the Amazon faring particularly badly amid record drought. There was more positive news in South East Asia, however, with government policies helping to reduce forest loss. Tropical rainforests store hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon in soils and woody trunks. But this new global record raises further questions about their resilience on a warming planet. Many researchers are concerned some forests, such as parts of the Amazon, may be approaching a "tipping point", beyond which they could fall into irreversible decline. "The tipping point idea is, I think, increasingly the right one," said Prof Matthew Hansen, co-director of GLAD laboratory at the University of Maryland, which produces the data. Prof Hansen described the new results as "frightening", and warned of the possible "savannisation" of the rainforest, where old-growth tropical forests die back and permanently switch to savanna. "It's still a theory, but I think that that's more and more plausible looking at the data." A separate study, published last week, made a similar warning of possible significant dieback of the Amazon if global warming exceeds the international target of 1.5C. This would not only threaten the vibrant array of wildlife living in these most biodiverse habitats, but would also have serious ramifications for the global climate. Until recently, the Amazon had been doing humanity a favour, absorbing more planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) than it released. But the burning of these forests emits huge amounts of CO2 – adding to warming rather than limiting it. In 2023-24, the Amazon experienced its worst drought on record, fuelled by climate change and the natural warming El Niño weather pattern. Many fires are started deliberately to clear land for agriculture, making it difficult to disentangle the two. But the drought provided ideal conditions for fires to spread out of control, with Brazil and Bolivia most badly affected. While only a single year, it fits the expected pattern of more intense tropical fires in a warming world. "I think we are in a new phase, where it's not just the clearing for agriculture that's the main driver," said Rod Taylor of the World Resources Institute (WRI), which is also behind the latest report. "Now we have this new amplifying effect, which is a real climate change feedback loop, where fires are just much more intense and much more ferocious than they've ever been." In total, the record loss of the world's old-growth (primary) tropical forests released 3.1 billion tonnes of planet-warming gases, the researchers estimate. That's roughly the same as the emissions of the European Union. Countries in South East Asia, however, bucked the global trend. The area of primary forest loss in Indonesia fell by 11% compared to 2023, for example, despite drought conditions. This was the result of a concerted effort by governments and communities working together to enforce "no burning" laws, according to Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of the Global Forest Watch project at WRI. "Indonesia serves as a bright spot in the 2024 data," she said. "Political will is a key factor of success - it's impossible otherwise," agreed Gabriel Labbate, head of climate change mitigation at the United Nations forests programme UNREDD, which was not involved in today's report. Other countries, including Brazil, have seen success in the past with similar approaches, but started to see losses increase again in 2014 following a change in government policies. Prof Hansen said that although the progress in South East Asia was positive, the fluctuations in forest loss in Brazil show that protection policies have to be consistent. "The key we haven't seen yet is sustained success in reducing and maintaining low levels of conversion of these ecosystems and if you were interested in conserving the environment you have to win always and forever," he told BBC News. The researchers agree that this year's UN climate summit COP30 - which is being hosted in the Amazon - will be critical for sharing and promoting forest protection schemes. One proposal is to reward countries which maintain tropical forests through payments. The detail is still to be worked out but has promise, according to Rod Taylor. "I think it's an example of an innovation that addresses one of the fundamental issues that at the moment there's more money to be made by chopping forests down than keeping them standing," he said. Graphics by Erwan Rivault A simple guide to climate change Planet-warming gas levels rose more than ever in 2024 Tree loss drops after political change in Brazil and Colombia Deforestation surges in 2022 despite pledges Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.
