India’s green cover grew to 25.17% of geographical area: Report

India’s forest and tree cover now stands at 25.17%, with initiatives driving growth despite concerns over degradation and methodology flaws, HT reported citing the environment ministry.

The newspaper had earlier reported that despite headline growth in green cover, the ISFR 2023 highlights concerning trends, including the degradation of large forest tracts, increased plantations, and ambiguity regarding “unclassed forests.” Experts warned these developments could seriously impact biodiversity, forest-dependent communities, and ecosystem services provided by old-growth forests, said the report.

India offers to cut tariff gap by two-thirds in trade pact with Trump

India offered to slash its tariff gap with the US to less than 4% from nearly 13% now, in exchange for an exemption from President Donald Trump’s “current and potential” tariff hikes, two sources said, as both nations move fast to clinch a deal, reported Reuters.

The newswire added that this would mean that the average tariff differential between India and the US, calculated across all products without weighting for trade volume, would be reduced by 9 percentage points, in one of the most sweeping changes to bring down trade barriers in the world’s fifth largest economy.

The report said the United States is India’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade totalling some $129 billion in 2024. The trade balance is currently in favour of India, which runs a $45.7 billion surplus with the U.S.

Concern over government plans to reduce paddy area by 5 million hectares

Farmers and traders are worried over the government’s intention to reduce the area on which paddy is sown by 5 million hectares (mha), DTE reported. The Centre wants to promote pulses and oilseeds through the move. However, critics said that if farmers are not given safe seeds, support and training in modern farming, then not only will paddy production suffer but there may also be a major reduction in pulses and oilseeds, the report said.

The Centre plans to increase the yield of paddy in a limited area with the help of two new varieties, DRR Dhan 100 (Kamala) and Pusa DST Rice 1, of paddy developed with genome editing technology (CRISPR-Cas). In this, changes are made in the original genes of the plants and no external genes are added. The varieties developed using SDN1 and SDN2 methods are exempt from the bio-security rules of the Government of India and are not classified as genetically modified crops, the outlet continued. .

The report added that contrary to this claim, scientists have said that concerns still remain about the biosafety of gene editing varieties, especially because the CRISPR-Cas technology has not been fully optimised yet. The outlet explained that the technique uses the enzyme ‘Cas’, which goes to a specific part of a gene and cuts and changes the DNA sequence. Scientists believe that this can lead to uncontrolled or unwanted genetic disorders.

US farm agency restores some climate-related webpages after farmer lawsuit

The US Department of Agriculture on Tuesday restored some of its webpages on climate change that had been deleted after US president Donald Trump entered office, following a lawsuit by farmers and environmental groups, Reuters reported.

The newswire also reported that Democratic Senator Adam Schiff on Tuesday urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting secretary to restore a database that tracked billion-dollar U.S. disasters.

He said its removal prevented lawmakers, insurance companies and taxpayers from seeing the growing cost of more frequent natural disasters and from planning for future extreme weather events.

US: White House bars agencies from using social cost of carbon

The White House “directed federal agencies to stop monetising climate damages when crafting regulations and making other decisions – ” E&E News reported  adding  “The memo by Jeffrey Clark, President Donald Trump’s acting regulatory chief, directs agencies not to use a social cost of greenhouse gas emissions metric when weighing costs and benefits of federal actions like permits and rules.”

 The New York Times reported that the directive “effectively shelves a powerful tool that has been used for more than two decades by the federal government to weigh the costs and benefits of a particular policy or regulation”. It continues: “During the Obama administration, White House economists calculated the social cost of carbon at $42 a tonne. The first Trump administration lowered it to less than $5 a tonne. Under the Biden administration, the cost was adjusted for inflation and jumped to $190 per tonne.”

The new pope, Leo XIV, has spoken out about urgent need for climate change action

The newly elected Pope Leo XIV – formerly known as cardinal Robert Francis Prevost – “seems to have similar views on the environment as his predecessor”, according to Fast Company. Leo has been “outspoken about the need for urgent climate action”. 

Washington Post reported that Prevost once urged that society move “from words to action” to address climate change and has warned that “dominion over nature” should not become “tyrannical”.

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