Editorial Team

Gujarat recorded both the largest decline in fossil-fuel generation and the largest increase in clean-power generation between the first halves of 2024 and 2026

India’s power plants are exhausting coal stocks as generators ramp up production to offset weak hydro and the evening drop-off in solar output, prompting the government to invoke an emergency rule to boost electricity supplies, reported Bloomberg.

China aims to achieve initial large-scale application of all-solid-state batteries by 2030, with long-life lithium batteries reaching a life cycle of 15,000 times, according to the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–30) for the development of the new battery industry, reported China Daily.

To build a major source of energy storage to back its renewables India will need over ₹4 lakh crore of storage-related investment estimated to be needed by FY32, according to CareEdge Ratings, reported ET.

Ahead of winter pollution in Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region) the Commission for Air Quality Management prepared  an ‘action plan’, the Hindu reported. Delhi will restrict the entry of vehicles registered outside the capital that do not meet BS-VI emission standards from November 1, while government and private offices will be required to have 50% of their staff work from home during the winter pollution season, the plan announced on September 28, stated. These measures were implemented in 2024 and 2025, too.

Amid drought and rain deficit caused by El Niño, the central government has set a foodgrain production target of 373.93 million tonnes for 2026-27, which is 2.63 million tonnes lower than the estimated output in 2025-26, reported the Indian Express. The Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “Against the target of 362.60 million tonnes, the production reached 376.56 million tonnes during 2025-26. In view of the situation created by El Niño, the production target has been fixed at 373.93 million tonnes for the year 2026-27, which includes the Rabi production target of 177.72 million tonnes.” He said the aim is to replace water-intensive crops with pulses and oil seeds in areas that have received low rainfall and where reservoir levels and soil moisture are low.

At least 27 people have been killed after heavy rainfall in Nepal, Press Trust of India reported adding that heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides that have “destroyed” more than 200 houses and “damaged” 31 bridges. The newswire said that an avalanche also struck the base camp of the 7,126 m Himlung Himal peak, leaving 22 missing. A BBC News video shows a government building in a flood-hit district in western Nepal shaking on the edge,  before collapsing into the Daram river. Four days of rain and flooding “have left a school in Bharatpur buried under mud, forcing classes to stop”, reported the Kathmandu Post.

MIDC is planning nearly 180 km of water infrastructure to serve four data-centre clusters in the Mumbai region, using treated sewage where possible and seawater where it is not

The US house of representatives has moved a bill imposing 100% tariffs on India and four other countries to punish Russia and major buyers of its petroleum products, Mint reported.  The bill also aims to “extend the expiration date” of sanctions on companies that invest in the Iranian energy sector until 2031, the newspaper said. India has maintained the country’s energy cooperation with Russia was an "important pillar" of their bilateral partnership, the report said. While US senate aides “identified China, India, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan as the five largest purchasers of Russian crude when the revised bill was unveiled in July”, India is “not named in the operative” senate text, according to  Moneycontrol. If approved, the bill will go to US president Trump who backs it, the report said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed setting up a BRICS open-source artificial intelligence (AI) community, offering to help member countries develop and deploy large language models, AI training and a common digital cloud platform, Indian Express reported.

BRICS leaders at the New Delhi Summit adopted a photovoltaic industry action plan and broader clean-tech agenda, linking solar manufacturing, hydrogen, smart grids and energy storage with industrial development, reported DTE. The Delhi Declaration also “called for greater cooperation on smart grids, energy storage and critical minerals”, reported the Times of India.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a total fine of Rs 70,000 on seven govt officials for failing to comply with repeated directions to file replies in a case related to alleged environmental violations by a stone crusher unit in Jajpur district’s Dharmasala tehsil.

The Hindu reported that the government should be commended for ensuring that Iran and the UAE, two rivals in the West Asian conflict, used the occasion for their highest-level bilateral meeting since the war began.

Flood-hit Nepal is asking rich ​countries and global agencies to contribute to the $5 billion needed for initial rebuilding as the disaster ‌ shows how climate change has hit poor countries that did little to cause it, Reuters reported quoting the country’s disaster management chief.

Ulka Kelkar on the capacity of the new Loss and Damage Fund, the gaps in international climate finance and what is needed to respond to growing climate disasters

The United States has imposed sanctions on four Indian companies and three Indian nationals over  the import of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products. The sanctions are part of  'Operation Economic Outcast', a new campaign of tougher-than-ever sanctions against Iran, the Wire reported.

The Supreme Court agreed to confront the Centre and the Delhi Police Commissioner with questions raised by Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament A.A. Rahim who had moved the Supreme Court on the deployment of facial recognition technology and mass-surveillance measures against students and persons who participated in the Cockroach Janta Party-linked protests over the NEET-UG exam paper leaks, reported the Hindu.

The Centre has deactivated 66 registered vendors under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana for one month for not clearing a large backlog of pending rooftop solar applications. The vendors have 30 days to clear the backlog, Mercom reported.

Supreme Court set aside a 2017 order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and directed the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to refund the Rs 5 crore environmental compensation which was deposited by self-styled spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living (AoL) Foundation, reported New Indian Express. The organisation had deposited the fine after the green court heard that the Foundation damaged the Yamuna floodplain during its World Culture Festival in 2016.

India and China issued a “rare joint text” of eight-points that committed an expert group to discuss an "Early and Substantial Harvest" of boundary delimitation, a formulation that had been absent from the separate readouts each side put out on the day of the talks, the Wire reported.

Authorities said the death toll rose past 900, with more than 4,000 ‌people missing on both sides of the Nepal-China border after a torrent of ice, rock, mud and debris swept through mountain valleys and rivers on Wednesday, causing widespread devastation

Ship movements through the Strait of Hormuz remain below the monthly average amid fluctuating tensions between the United States and Iran over control of the waterway, Reuters reported.

The Supreme Court will examine a plea against Delhi Police’s use of biometric data and facial recognition technology —a unit called Ikshana and AI-enabled smart glasses — to identify and monitor protesters, reported Business Standard. There are claims that this information was shared with two private companies, and may be used to target and harass the protestors.

India crossed 300 GW of installed non-fossil electricity capacity, that’s over 60% of the 500 GW by 2030 capacity target the government set, reported HT.

Around 1,300 tonnes of unprocessed cattle waste goes into Yamuna everyday, according to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the HT reported.The MCD has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Dairy Development Board to develop processing plants across Delhi to stop the waste from polluting  the river.

As the 60-day MoU between Iran and the U.S. expires and Iran declares victory against the U.S. and Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, a new trilateral mutual-defense pact on August 7, 2026. Unlike NATO's rigid operational structures, this pact does not specify fixed, automated offensive obligations, reported Al Jazeera.

Extreme weather is disrupting lives, food systems and infrastructure. Heavy rain, floods and lightning have killed more than 100 people across India even as the monsoon remains 11% below normal, raising concerns over rice supplies and prices. In Europe, extreme heat is driving up power prices and disrupting nuclear generation, while global ocean temperatures hit a record high for July. A strengthening El Niño could push 50 million more people into acute hunger by 2027, as shrinking glaciers threaten Africa's iconic snow peaks.

India's rapid expansion of data centres is raising concerns over groundwater depletion, power consumption and limited employment generation even as states continue to offer generous incentives to attract investment, according to The Indian Express.

Geopolitical risks are now being factored into India's crude procurement. For the first time, state-owned Mangalore Refinery issued a crude purchase tender explicitly asking suppliers to avoid using the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported. The clause effectively requires suppliers to continue using longer and costlier shipping routes regardless of how tensions between the U.S. and Iran evolve.

Grid operators curtailed 8.13 TWh of solar power during April-June to maintain grid stability, even as India's peak electricity demand touched a record 270 GW, The Indian Express reported, citing the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's briefing to Parliament.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Delhi government and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to respond to media reports suggesting that around 15% of groundwater samples collected across the capital are contaminated with uranium, The Economic Times reported.

Oman, backed by Gulf states, proposed to Iran a plan to manage the Strait of Hormuz by collecting voluntary transit fees, but Iran rejected it, reported Al Jazeera.

At least 75 people have died in floods across Assam, with the toll continuing to climb. Seven districts remain severely affected, with over 3,00,000 people across 622 villages impacted and over 45,000 hectares of crop area submerged, The Indian Express reported.

The IEA says rapid growth in solar generation is helping meet rising power demand, while renewables are set to become the world’s largest source of electricity

Through this process, steelmakers can eliminate a substantial portion of direct and indirect emissions, and reduce reliance on imported natural gas

The report recommends that adaptation strategies must be designed alongside vulnerable communities, particularly women in the informal sector

Simon Stiell, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at a press conference in Delhi on Tuesday.

The report says residents in southern India and parts of Southeast Asia lost 78 to 91 hours of sleep annually due to warmer nights

Amid a huge backlash over E20 rollout and its impact on vehicles and their mileage, the government admitted that E20 blended fuel could result in a 3-5% reduction in the fuel economy of “some vehicles”.

The Supreme Court AI Committee on the use of the technology in courts released draft regulations that include: a complete ban on using artificial intelligence (AI) to decide judicial outcomes; restrictions on AI tools that predict or profile parties and witnesses; and a prohibition on undisclosed or unexplainable AI systems in court processes

The Centre has allowed four Chinese power equipment manufacturers with factories in India to participate in government tenders ‌ for critical power projects, according to a government order.

An analysis of 37 coal plant units within a radius of 300 km of Delhi-NCR has found that 20 of them are emitting sulfur dioxide above the safe limits set by the government and the biggest polluters are plants the Centre has explicitly exempted from installing flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems, IE reported citing study by the Finland‑based nonprofit Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

The interim peace deal between US and Iran came apart as the US launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iran, and Iran retaliated with attacks on American allies and ships trying to cross strait of Hormuz.

Kharif sowing (rice, pulses, millets and oilseeds) took a hit with over half of the country’s 741 districts experiencing a rainfall deficit in the current monsoon season amid a looming El Niño threat.

The report says that plants are largely working, but fall short on key safety benchmarks

There is an active push for grid expansion, energy storage mandates, and fast-tracking policies for big green projects, the report said

Experts say not just rainfall but also poor urban planning is turning heavy rainfall into devastating floods

The experts say that clean energy has met 45% of India’s total electricity demand for more than 50 days since May this year.

64% of all global dangerous humid heat days recorded since 1970 are directly attributable to human-caused climate change

Emergency restrictions on the sale of petrol and diesel to commercial and industrial consumers will be lifted starting July 1, Deccan Herald reported.