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JSW-The Times of India 8th edition calls out green warriors to apply for Earth Care Awards

JSW-The Times of India 8th edition calls out green warriors to apply for Earth Care Awards


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NEW DELHI: While recent developments like the US abandoning the Paris accord have caused a major setback to the fight against the devastating impact of climate change, scientists are warning that time is running out. Communities around the world are experiencing climate change through extreme weather events.

The least that can be done is to ensure that businesses, communities and individuals act in whatever way possible.

The JSW-The Times of India 8th edition of Earth Care Awards (ECA) is calling on organisations, industries and individuals to apply for ECA awards by September 5, 2017.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC's) fifth assessment report had highlighted that India's agriculture sector will face the maximum impact of climate change.

The report had also suggested that India will face an increase in both mean and extreme rainfall in monsoon, floods and droughts are likely to increase and temperature variations could make disease outbreaks more frequent. In fact the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) recently said, "It is very likely that the number of cold days and nights has decreased and the number of warm days and nights has increased on the global scale. In large parts of Europe, Asia and Australia, it is likely that the frequency of heat waves has increased."

This is why this time ECA is emphasizing on climate change mitigation and adaptation across sectors.

The awards will be in four categories: Community based mitigation and adaptation in water resources, agriculture, forestry and other land use, Innovations for climate protection, GHG Mitigation in large enterprises and Leadership in Urban Climate Action.

The Earth Care Awards (ECAs) were launched in 2007-08 and are jointly sponsored by JSW and The Times of India. The ECA aims to address mitigation and adaptation complexities at a larger level, and from 2012 the awards started reaching out to the SAARC region. Centre for Environment Education (CEE) has been the knowledge partner.

The process is supported with a well-defined technical and methodological framework for assessment of GHG mitigation and adaptation parameters to define the evaluation process.

CEE assists the Earth Care Jury in determining the criteria and evaluating the proposals through desk based review and field verification.

From 2012, TERRE Policy Centre has also joined the ECA group as an outreach partner. For the 8th edition of the awards there is an eminent jury including RA Mashelkar, president, International Research Alliance; Kartikeya V Sarabhai, founder director, CEE; RajendraShende, chairperson, Terre; AneetaBenninger, executive director, CDSA; Rajat Gupta, director, McKinsey; Chandra Bhushan, deputy director general, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and SuhasWani, director, ICRISAT Development Centre.

The ECA award includes a citation and a trophy. In the "community" and "innovation" categories, recipients of the awards are also given cash rewards, as decided by the jury. Those interested in applying can get more information at www.earthcareawards.com and download the ECA guidebook from the website. ECA is also on twitter @EarthCareAwards.

Last year the Cochin International Airport and the Panaji City Corporation had won under "Leadership in urban climate action" category, Saguna Rural Foundation had won under "Innovations for climate protection," Nature Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS) and Bangladesh-based PracticalAction had won under "Community based mitigation and adaptation in water resource, agriculture, forestry and other land use" category.