Environmental, Social Justice & Governance Initiatives
The Supreme Court’s decision restoring ESG’s PIL comes at a time when the world is preparing to address grave biodiversity losses due to trade, biopiracy, over extraction and also due to climate change as part of the 15th Conference of Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity being held in Montreal 7th to 19th, December, 2022.
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When: 20 December 2022, 4pm to 6pm
This workshop will explain how to:
Legally Protect Lakes and Raja Kaluves from encroachment and pollution.
Build a Lake and Raja Kaluve Protection Committee.
Rehabilitate Lakes and Raja Kaluves in ecologically sensitive and socially inclusive ways.
Where : Via Zoom
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27th COP of United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change at the seaside resort city of Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt during 6th – 20th November 2022. The main gain, it appears, is the decision to establish and operationalize a ‘loss and damage fund’ which most vulnerable countries have been demanding for decades now
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Join this moderated panel discussion organized by the Transformations to Sustainability Programme of the Belmont Forum, NORFACE and International Science Council.
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The unanimous conclusion of legal scholars, environmental and social justice activists, researchers, etc. is that all of the proposed Bills must be withdrawn immediately.
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This 2-day webinar will focus on generating informative maps using remote sensing and other freely available data to enhance the narratives that would be relevant to your work.
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Over the past several weeks, Bengaluru has witnessed unprecedented rainfall and severe flooding in several parts of the city, especially the ill-planned newly developed areas such as Bellandur Varthur corridor
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With Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitching 500 GW as a target for energy production from renewable sources, mainly solar and wind, there has been a substantial increase in mega solar park installations across the country in various landscapes.
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How did the city manage such flooding, being the epicentre of India’s science & technology prowess? Were the software giants located along the city’s Outer Ring Road aware of the risks? Could they have worked on mitigating and managing it better?
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The IT Capital of India which was well on the path of becoming the second Silicon Valley of the world couldn’t wait for carefully and inclusively planned Bengaluru.
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At a time when the United Nations General Assembly has finally passed a resolution making Right to Clean and Healthy Environment a Human Right, Indian Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change is doing everything to destroy India’s progressive environmental jurisprudence.
We invite you to endorse a statement demanding Indian Government must step back from its proposals to comprehensively dilute India’s and devastate India’s environmental laws. And it must stop yielding to corporate pressures and instead defend our Constitutional rights over our health, environment and our futures.
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ESG has worked with street communities to reclaim streets as public commons, to protect street vendor rights, to promote pedestrian and cycling rights, to secure urban greenery – especially tree lines and heritage spaces, all to promote the idea of a city that would ensure inclusivity is central to such public spaces and infrastructure. The argument has been and continues to be that there must be deep democratisation of decision making relating to mobility and infrastructure development so that the promise of Article 39 B – that ownership and employment of material resources best serve the common good – is actually an argument for protecting commons, ensuring good health, promoting environmentally viable and equitable livelihoods, and ensuring the city is a construct that is socially responsible, economically viable and ecologically wise.
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To assess the implications of the proposed changes, and also to propose a pathway for progressive reforms of India’s environmental laws, Environment Support Group in collaboration with the Institute of Public Policy at National Law School of India University is organising a half day consultation on 18th July 2022 (Monday) from 2 pm – 6 pm. We invite you to this consultation and sincerely hope you will be able to participate despite this short notice
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India’s environmental jurisprudence has been torn between the competing demands of prioritising environmental protection and securing economic progress. While there are several judgements that speak to the need for balancing development with environmental priorities, it is not necessarily an exercise that can be easily rationalised. There is overwhelming evidence in the pollution flowing in every river and lake across the country, in the extensive degradation across the Western Ghats and the Himalayas – resulting in catastrophic impacts on human settlements, in the breakdown of our cities every time it rains or when there is an unrelenting heat wave, and in commons that are extensively encroached, diverted and polluted, that the state of India’s environment is precariously hinged. The damaging consequences of such extensive degradation are irreversible and will seriously impede the country’s socio-economic progress.
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The current proposed amendments to four major environmental laws, are effectively a big step away from India’s long held statutory tradition of protecting environmental and natural resources and is a clear indicator of prevailing priority: putting business and commercial interest over environmental protection and safeguarding human rights. The draft Bills were put out on 1st July 2022 by the Ministry in English, not any of the other Scheduled languages, and the commenting period ends on 21st July 2022. Never in the history of India has there ever been such a rush to put interests of international and national business empires over that of peoples of India and its biodiversity.
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The most important aspect of a sustainable house or infrastructure is to create one that consumes less energy in both its production and operation. As human civilization settles down comfortably into a lifestyle of energy and product consumption, we lead ourselves to believe that we can become green by just shifting the source of energy generation, unwilling to fathom that unnecessary product and process creation is the underlying issue. Energy reduction and lifestyle changes can pave the way for true sustainability.
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The Yale Centre for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University’s Earth Institute issued the 2022 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) report recently. It is projected as a “data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world” and uses “40 performance indicators across 11 issue categories” to rank “180 countries on climate change performance, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality”. India has been ranked at the bottom of this list, scoring merely 18.9 points of a possible 100.
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At Environment Support Group(ESG), every day is Environment Day. And it has been the case for us ever since the organisation was founded, 25 years ago. Yes, it is the 25th year of this initiative and we hope we are doing our bit to be grateful for the incredible opportunity of being a part of this living planet.
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ESG, along with Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, organized a seminar on Decentralised, Socially Inclusive & Ecologically Wise protection &Rehabilitation of lakes, kaluves and Water Commons of Karnataka.
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2022 ರ ಮೇ 17 ರಂದು ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ರಾಜ್ಯ ಕಾನೂನು ಸೇವೆಗಳ ಪ್ರಾಧಿಕಾರದ ಸಹಯೋಗದೊಂದಿಗೆ ಎನ್ವಿರಾನ್ಮೆಂಟ್ ಸಪೋರ್ಟ್ ಗ್ರೂಪ್ (ESG) ಆಯೋಜಿಸಿದ “ಕರ್ನಾಟಕದ ಕೆರೆಗಳು, ಕಾಲುವೆಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ನೀರಿನ ಕಾಮನ್ಸ್ ಗಳ ವಿಕೇಂದ್ರೀಕೃತ, ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕವಾಗಿ ಒಳಗೊಳ್ಳುವ ಮತ್ತು ಪರಿಸರ ವಿವೇಕದ ರಕ್ಷಣೆ ಮತ್ತು ಪುನರ್ವಸತಿ” ಕುರಿತು ವಿಚಾರ ಸಂಕಿರಣವು ಎಷ್ಟು ದೂರವನ್ನು ನಿರ್ಣಯಿಸಲು ಒಂದು ಅವಕಾಶವಾಗಿದೆ. ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಉಚ್ಚ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಲಯದ 2012 ರ ನಿರ್ದೇಶನದ ಬೆಳಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ನಾವು ರಾಜ್ಯಾದ್ಯಂತ ಸಮುದಾಯಗಳಿಗೆ ನೀರು, ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ-ಆರ್ಥಿಕ ಮತ್ತು ಪರಿಸರ ಭದ್ರತೆಗಳನ್ನು ವಿಸ್ತರಿಸುವಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಯಾಣಿಸಿದ್ದೇವೆ. ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ಹೈಕೋರ್ಟ್ ಮತ್ತು ಕಾನೂನು ಸೇವಾ ಪ್ರಾಧಿಕಾರದ ನ್ಯಾಯಾಧೀಶರು, ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಹಿರಿಯ ಪ್ರತಿನಿಧಿಗಳು, ತಜ್ಞರು ಮತ್ತು ಸಮುದಾಯದ ಮುಖಂಡರು ವಿಚಾರ ಸಂಕಿರಣವನ್ನು ಉದ್ದೇಶಿಸಿ ಮಾತನಾಡಲಿದ್ದಾರೆ.
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An unprecedented and prolonged heatwave is sweeping across the Indian subcontinent. As we thoughtlessly reach out to our fans and air conditioners to keep ourselves cool, it is essential that we remember coal miners who are slogging through impossible, even inhumane, conditions to keep the energy supplied to us.
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The memorial and birth anniversary of Late Fr. Francis Guntipilly S.J., a committed social activist and loving soul, was conducted on 5th May 2022. His friends, colleagues and associates arranged a ceremony to relive their fond memories of him and offer prayers for his soul.
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The IPCC sixth assessment report released early April notes that climate misinformation can jeopardise climate action and weaken public demand for mitigation and adaptation measures. The report acknowledges the role of misinformation in fuelling polarisation, saying, “Together with the proliferation of suspicions of “fake news” and “post-truth”, some traditional and social media contents have fuelled polarisation and partisan divides on climate change in many countries.”
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While the effort in consulting the public priorly is appreciated, several concerns have emerged about the process.
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Karbi and Adivasi farmers belonging to Mikir Bamuni Grant village in Nagaon district of Assam reported that about 93 acres of the land they were cultivating was taken over forcibly during 2020 by Azure Power Forty Private Limited, a subsidiary of international power corporation Azure Power Global Ltd. The farmers reported that their land was taken for establishing a 15 MW solar power plant by the company. In the process, ripened paddy crop raised on over 200 bighas of land was razed to the ground on 8th October, 2020 by the company. Villagers report that the local police and district authorities backed this forced dislocation of the farmers and forcible takeover of their lands.
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