Policy Brief

Improving air conditioners in India

26 Apr 2018
| Mr Karan Mangotra
| Swati Agarwal
| Alex Hillbrand
| Sameer Kwatra
| Bhaskar Deol
| Amartya Awasthi
| Anjali Jaiswal
| Stephen O. Andersen
| Nancy J. Sherman
| Durwood Zaelke

Most modern ACs in India already use climate friendly gases, but increasing their energy efficiency will further boost carbon reduction

Minimum Support Price of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) and Its Sustainable Harvest: A Social Safety Measure for MFP Collectors in India

15 Feb 2018
| Dr Jitendra Vir Sharma
| Dr Yogesh Gokhale
| Mr Nishant Jain
| Mr Yatish A Lele
| Ms Aparna Tyagi

Forests in India are treated primarily as social and environmental resource, and only secondarily, as commercial resource. More than 300 million people derive full or partial livelihood and sustenance need from forests. Many a times, communities are compelled to harvest forest produce unsustainably due to lack of adequate finance to meet their day to day life supporting needs. With such large population dependent on forest resources, the minor forest produce (MFP) sector is India’s largest unorganized sector.

Measures to Control Air Pollution in Urban Centres of India: Policy and Institutional framework

09 Feb 2018
| Dr Sumit Sharma
| Mr Jai Kishan Malik
| Ms Sangeetha Ann Wilson
| Ms Meena Sehgal
| Dr Sachin Kumar
| Mr Sunil Dhingra
| Dr Suneel Pandey
| Dr Anju Goel
| Dr Hina Zia
| Ms Ilika Mohan
| Dr Atul Kumar
| Ms Akshima Tejas Ghate

Background and Objective Many Indian cities including New Delhi are included in the list of most polluted cities in the world (WHO 2014, Cheng et al. 2016). About 80 per cent of cities in India violate the prescribed standards of ambient air quality (CPCB 2014). Multiple sources contribute to the problem and, hence, sector-specific strategies are required for control of air quality. This policy brief aims to analyse the whole issue in terms of key drivers, such as rapid urbanization, transportation, industrialization, power generation, and agricultural activities, that subsequently lead to air pollution at different scales in India.

Persistent organic pollutants in Indian environment: a wake-up call for concerted action

11 Jan 2018
| Dr Girija K Bharat

India has a comprehensive apparatus of environmental laws. However, the lack of an integrated approach to the regulation of chemicals, poor management of pollution, and the fundamentally retrospective vision have resulted in ineffective implementation of the laws as demonstrated by the example of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the environment.

Heat Island Effect in an Industrial Cluster - Identification, Mitigation and Adaptation

24 Nov 2017
| Mr Prasoon Singh

The Ib-Valley region of Odisha is a rapidly growing industrial hub with a range of large industries as well as coal mining. The study seeks to assess the heat island effect in this region, which could be attributable to anthropogenic activities. This briefing paper outlines the Heat Island mitigation and adaptation strategies based on the study conducted in this region. Thermal hotspots have been identified using approaches such as remote sensing based Land Surface Temperature (LST) modelling and field survey based ambient temperature and humidity monitoring.

SDGs: An imperative for climate change

13 Nov 2017
| Ms Mrinal Mathur

This paper examines the historical progression of the important global developments and climate change agendas as well as throws light on the interface between climate change and sustainable development. The paper

Zero Draft Policy on Regulation of Nanoproducts in Agriculture

10 Nov 2017
| Dr Alok Adholeya
| Dr Ratul Kumar Das
| Dr Mukul Kumar Dubey
| Dr Mandira Kochar
| Dr Reena Singh

The use of nanotechnology in agriculture may help India meet challenges such as depleting soil health, rise in food grain demand and the need to make agriculture sustainable.

Discussion Paper: Restructuring the Environmental Governance Architecture for India

30 Oct 2017
| Ms Nidhi Srivastava
| Mr S Vijay Kumar

The Discussion Paper examines the current architecture of the main environment related legislations, namely the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980; The Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; and The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, in the context of the Constitutional provisions and the evolution of approaches to better environmental management, including those emanating from international conventions.

Discussion Paper: Why we need a New Mineral Exploration Policy for National Mineral Security

15 Jun 2017
| Mr S Vijay Kumar
| Ms Swati Ganeshan

Discussion Paper on Roadmap for Achieving Additional 2.5-3 Billion Tonnes CO2e Sequestration from Forestry Sector by 2030

17 Apr 2017
| Mr Jitendra Vir Sharma

In India, forests are considered as social and environmental resource primarily and more than 275 million people are deriving their full or partial livelihood and sustenance needs. India has stabilized its forest and tree cover but quality of forests is degrading due to unsustainable harvest of fuelwood and other minor forest produce. The Government of India has communicated to UNFCCC to achieve voluntarily additional 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2e by 2030 from forestry sector on October 2, 2015 and further ratified on October 2, 2016.