Policy Brief
Discussion Paper: Aligning India's Sanitation Policies with the SDGs
31 Jan 2020
| Dr Girija K Bharat
| Mr Nathaniel B Dkhar
| Ms Mary Abraham
Our paper dwells on the policies, programs of the 'sanitation' subsector and explores current government policies in India for the linkages with ‘sanitation’ component of the SDG 6 as well as their implications for the other SDGs.
Crop residue management: Solution to achieve better air quality
30 Jan 2020
| Dr Arindam Datta
| Dr N K Ram
| Mr Sunil Dhingra
| Mr Mrinal A. Emmanuel
Residents of different cities (probably villages too) of India breathe some of the least healthy air of the globe. During 2017, about 76.8% of the population of India were exposed to annual population-weighted mean PM2·5 greater than the limit recommended by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQ: 40 mg/m3) (Balakrishnan, Dey, Gupta, et al. 2019). Over last five years, the annual population-weighted mean ambient PM2·5 concentrations were significantly higher over the Indo- Gangetic Plain (IGP) region in comparison to other parts of the country. It should also be noted that polluted air is the second highest health risk factor in India (Balakrishnan, Dey, Gupta, et al. 2019).
Accelerating the uptake of energy-efficient air conditioners in India
30 Jan 2020
| Mr Manjeet Singh
| Mr Gaurav Phore
The energy demand for HVAC in India has been increasing continuously over the past years and is projected to grow even more as per ICAP. This policy brief assesses the issues associated with relatively low share of 5-star ACs in the total annual production and gives a detailed outline of various options to increase the market share for the energy-efficient 5-star room ACs in India. The comparative analysis of the options discussed in the policy brief is done by taking into account the factors such as cost, efficiency, political acceptability, net benefit and extent of uncertainty.
Carbon finance: Solution for mitigating human–wildlife conflict in and around critical tiger habitats of India
29 Jan 2020
| Mr Yatish A Lele
| Mr Jitendra Vir Sharma
Our study in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh indicates to the fact that use of Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS) approach to generate carbon finance can yield 8 times more finance than just considering the aspect of carbon sequestration.
Gender and climate change: Assessing the evolution of gender mainstreaming tools
27 Dec 2019
| Ms Arunima Hakhu
Framing any climate action needs to take stock of the social contract in a community. Given the diversity in risk, resilience, preparedness, and levels of development, different communities will likely be affected non-homogeneously (Denton, 2002). Intersecting social stressors like class, caste, age, and gender, will likely become starker against the onslaught of disturbances in the form of air pollution, floods, and droughts (Rao and Hans, 2018).
Fleet Modernization: A solution to achieve better air quality
10 Dec 2019
| Ms Shivani Sharma
| Dr Anju Goel
| Mr Souvik Bhattacharjya
| Ms Mani Juneja
| Mr Nitin Bajpai
| Dr Sumit Sharma
India's transport demand has grown from a total of 5.3 million in 1981 to 230 million in 2016, with two-wheelers and cars having 73% and 14% share, respectively. Commercial vehicles though constitute only about 5% of the total fleet, contribute to nearly 80% of total PM emissions. Phase-wise implementation of fleet modernization (transforming pre BS-IV commercial vehicles to BS-VI) would lead to a 40-80% reduction in PM and NOx emissions from the sector by 2025. The total number of avoided mortality from attributable to PM5 reduction from fleet modernization between 2020 and 2040 is estimated to be more than 500,000.
Opportunities with Biofuel: Co-benefit of Air Quality Improvement
05 Dec 2019
| TERI
| Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
| Tampere University, Finland
While biofuels have been discussed as one of the ways to reduce air pollution, changing the process of bio-diesel production is needed to reduce tailpipe emissions of nanoparticles. These are lesser known pollutants even more harmful than PM2.5 and PM10.
Nutrient pollution in the South Asia Seas (SAS)
03 Dec 2019
| Ms Mrinal Mathur
Anthropogenic activities like (i) agriculture fertilisers, (ii) coastal pisciculture, (i) sewage discharge, (iv) industrial activity, (v) burning fossil fuels and (vi) effluents from ports increase nutrients in surface water and seas. Nitrate pollution is largely caused by agriculture run-off, discharge from industry and manure or sewage. Phosphate pollution is tied to improper treatment of detergents in wastewater and from agro-fertilisers. These land-based pollutants make their way to coastal waters through networks of rivers and streams and cause nutrient pollution in the marine environment.
Discussion Paper on Clean Development Mechanism as Catalyst for Sustainable Development Mechanism Under Article 6.4
27 Nov 2019
| Mr R R Rashmi
| Ms Ritu Ahuja
Our analysis highlights the necessity of undertaking a full transition of unused certified emission reductions (CERs) from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in order to create a trust in the international processes and the market mechanisms.
Discussion Paper on Article 6 – State of Play
27 Nov 2019
| Ms Tamiksha Singh
| Ms Ritu Ahuja
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement focuses on a framework for countries to voluntarily cooperate using market and non-market based approaches to raise ambition, thus providing an opening for carbon markets in the post-2020 regime.