News In Shorts

United Nations announced the approval of the first carbon credits under global market involving a project in Myanmar coordinated with the Republic of Korea.  

About Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism (Article 6.4)

• It is a carbon crediting mechanism under Article 6 of Paris Agreement.
• It encourages verifiable emission reductions; attracts funding and allows cooperation among countries. 
• E.g., company in one country can reduce emission in that country and have those reductions credited to sell them to another company in another country. 
• Apart from article 6.4, other two components of Article 6 are:
  • Article 6.2: Provides accounting and reporting guidance for Parties 
  • Article 6.8: Provides opportunities for non-market-based cooperation. 

NGT while noting the “strategic importance of the project” upheld its environmental clearance and compliance with ICRZ (Island Coastal Regulation Zone) and CRZ norms.

About the Great Nicobar Project 

• Location: Great Nicobar Island (southernmost island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands) including parts of Galathea Bay, Campbell Bay and the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve.
• Objective: Project envisions transforming the remote outpost into a major transshipment and defence hub with integrated township, 450 MVA Gas and Solar-based power plant, dual-use civil-military airport, etc.
• Implementing Agency: Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation along with the NITI Aayog.

Concerns associated with the Project

• Regulatory Lapses: 
  • Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) relied on single-season data instead of comprehensive multi-season assessment.
    • Proposed compensatory afforestation in Haryana is inadequate to offset loss of a tropical rainforest ecosystem.
  • Forest Rights Act (FRA): Government has proceeded with project even after Tribal council withdrew its consent. 
• Threat to Biodiversity: The project involves diverting approximately 130 sq. km of tropical rainforest (felling one million trees), home to the Nicobar megapode, Nicobar tree shrew, Giant leatherback turtles, corals, etc.
• Social Impact: Project might negatively impact tribal population, e.g. Shompen (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) and Nicobarese.
• Natural Disaster Vulnerability: The Island falls in the highest seismic-risk zone (Zone VI). 

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO released Integrated Ocean Carbon Research (IOC-R), 2026 report.

About IOC

• Objective: To promote international cooperation and to coordinate programmes in research, services and capacity-building in order to learn more about Oceans.
• Members: 152 (India is a member).
• Secretariat: Paris, France.

Key Highlights of Report

• Carbon Sink: Oceans absorb excess atmospheric CO₂, reducing greenhouse gas concentration.
• Solubility Pump: Cold ocean waters dissolve CO₂ and transport it to deep ocean layers for long-term storage.
• Land–Ocean–Ice Exchange: Oceans exchange carbon with rivers and melting ice, influencing global carbon distribution.

Illegal Rat-hole mining has claimed more than 20 lives in Meghalaya.

What is Rat-hole mining?

• Rat Hole’ mining is a primitive and unscientific form of mining.
• In this process, Land is first cleared by cutting and removing the ground vegetation and then digging pits into the ground to reach the coal seam.
  • Coal seams are reached by excavating the hill slopes and then coal is extracted through a horizontal tunnel,where workers enter and extract coal.
• Rat-hole mining is prone to collapsing because they lack engineered roofs and side-wall protections.
• Methods of extraction: Side-cutting, Box-cutting

Reasons for Illegal Mining Continuation

• Natural Factors: E.g.,Coal seams in Meghalaya are very thin which makes rat-hole mining more economically viable than opencast mining.
• Lack of Alternatives: Without viable economic substitutes in sectors like horticulture, construction, manufacturing, the population reverts to mining for survival.
• Complex Ownership Structures: The specific ecosystem in Meghalaya involves small, privately or community-owned landholdings with fragmented ownership.

5.3.5. Fishing Cat 

The first scientific assessment has established Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve as a stronghold of the fishing cat.

About Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus)

• It is a powerful feline, about twice the size of a house cat.
• Habitat: Inhabits wetlands and mangroves in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Gulf of Thailand, etc.
  • In India, found mainly in Sundarbans, Himalayan foothills along Ganga & Brahmaputra valleys, and Western Ghats.
• Diet & Behavior: Nocturnal hunters that prey on fish, frogs, crustaceans, snakes, birds, and scavenged carcasses.
• Conservation Status: IUCN Red List (Vulnerable); WPA, 1972 (Schedule I); CITES (Appendix II).
• Recognition: State animal of West Bengal.

NHAI has announced to develop First of its Kind ‘BeeCorridors’ Along the National Highways.

About Beecorridors

• Beecorridors are a continuous linear stretch of bee-friendly vegetation comprising flowering trees and plants.
•  It will ensure the availability of nectar and pollen throughout the year. 
• Significance:  The initiative will help reduce the increasing ecological stress faced by honeybees and other pollinators.

Bees & their Significance: 

• Characteristics
  • Only female bees have stingers (which are modified ovipositors, organs originally used to lay eggs).
  • Feed exclusively on sugary nectar and protein-rich pollen from flowering plants.       
• Significance: : A third of the world’s food production depends on bees.

Lake Mai Ndombe and Tumba of Democratic Republic of Congo are releasing carbon that has been locked away for thousands of years in surrounding peatlands.

• The swamps and peatlands of the Congo Basin cover only 0.3% of the earth’s land surface, yet hold one-third of the carbon stored in its tropical peatlands.

About Peatland

• A peatland is an area of land with layers of accumulated organic surface material in a state of decay (known as peat).
  • Peat develops in waterlogged conditions.
• Peatland drainage and fires are estimated to contribute at least 5 % of global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change.