As India takes over the G20 presidency this year, it can work with other G20 countries to propel the LiFE movement forward.
Read More
Banking of energy is a short-term alternative to promote renewable energy generation. While the Electricity (Promoting Renewable Energy Through Green Energy Open Access) Rules, 2022 recognise the importance of energy banking, they fail to provide a coherent framework for it.
Read More
ETS is gaining traction as a market-based instrument to reduce industrial emissions. However, questions around transparency, reproducibility, state capacity, and policy design and clarity threaten the viability of this approach in the Indian context.
Read More
Air pollution is a complex societal problem. We must recognise this and focus our attention on long-term policy pathways with clear goals and timelines
Read More
The recent Working Group 1 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change finds that particulate matter (PM or simply, fine particles) have ‘masked’ the impact of greenhouse gas emissions generated over the last century by about a third. If air pollution mitigation ‘worsens’ global warming, must we rethink pollution controls at all? Not quite.
Read More
The IPCC report indicates that the climate crisis will disrupt India’s developmental future, and undercut the prosperity of its people in the long run.
Read More
In addition to targets and policies, India needs to deepen and enhance systems of governance for the climate crisis, which include dedicated organisations, policy frameworks, capacities, and financing mechanisms. In a new policy brief, we lay out an institutional architecture capable of crafting such low-carbon development pathways.
Read More
Cooling will likely be at the forefront of India’s adaptation to climate change, but if cooling needs are met with inefficient ACs, it could be the bane of India’s mitigation efforts. Indian homes will be an important site where this conundrum between cooling needs and potential emissions will play out.
Read More
The government has taken an important step in prioritising agriculture in the electricity transition. Using the transition as a catalyst for agricultural transformation can address recurring redistributive pressures in electricity, minimise the causes and effects of climate change in agriculture, and secure a resilient rural economy and livelihoods.
Read More
Given the imminent and unavoidable transition away from coal and its likely economic and political consequences, this collective statement by 22 energy experts calls for the government to initiate a deliberative planning process with the participation of concerned interest groups and communities, and based on rigorous and context-specific analysis of economic, social, political and environmental costs and opportunities.
Read More
Forty years ago, India passed the Air Act, 1981- the first central legislation to tackle the air pollution crisis. What has it accomplished over the last four decades? Does the Air Act have enough teeth to deal with the crisis?
Read More
There has been a longstanding divide between IAS officers and engineers on disparities in pay, perks, and promotions. Restructuring in the electricity sector has only heightened these tensions to create hostility and mistrust. This blog explores the power struggle between IAS officers, engineers, and the government in the electricity sector.
Read More
Kathryn Hochstetler’s new book Political Economies of Energy Transition: Wind and Solar Power in Brazil and South Africa pries open the hidden political world of the transition.
Read More
States making net zero commitments throws open the possibility of new institutions that quickly funnel economies into low-carbon trajectories. So could these carbon regulators become the central banks of the future?
Read More
The benchmark of credibility for country contributions is whether they include a ‘net-zero’ target. As an important player in global climate politics should India, then, also consider a net-zero target?
Read More
There is a strong belief that WFH will be the new norm in a post-COVID world. How large (if any) are the energy impacts of widespread adoption of WFH in India?
Read More
The benchmark of credibility for country contributions is whether they include a ‘net-zero’ target. As an important player in global climate politics and a highly vulnerable country should India, then, also consider a net-zero target?
Read More