As part of the Faculty Seminar Series at the Institute Prof. Neeraj Sharma and Prof. Swati Mawandiya, delivered the talk on their respective themes on January 15, 2021.
Prof. Neeraj Sharma spoke on the topic “Climate Change and Tax Policy” He stated that in the modern times, Climate Change is one of the major challenges faced by the humanity. The rise in global temperature due to greenhouse gas effect has been the cause for the erratic weather conditions like floods, wildfires, frequent cyclones, rising sea levels etc. The global community realized the impending danger of the climate change and under the United Nations framework, agreed for Kyoto Protocol and then entered into the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature to 2 degree and preferably to 1.5 degree as compared to the pre-industrial levels. He analyzed various fiscal measures to arrest the climate change. The imposition of Carbon Tax on the emissions and Cap and Trade Mechanism were discussed. He further deliberated upon the Canadian and U.S. legislations to impose the Carbon tax.
Prof. Swati Mawandiya presented on the topic “Abatement and legal control of light pollution- A comparative study of position in U.K., U.S.A. and India” She examined that development and urbanisation has led to many environmental issues but there are many uprising concerns which do not seem grave for now but might have butterfly effect. The presentation centered around one such uprising environmental concern called light pollution. It is characterized by the presence of unwanted and excessive artificial light at night which impacts human beings and the ecosystem. She dealt with understanding of the concept of light pollution, the steps taken to legally tackle light pollution in the UK and USA and the possibility of legal action in India in the light of Indian environmental jurisprudence.