Year after year, the many days marked for environmental awareness push for concrete actions to protect our planet.

Rather than jumping on the ‘Go Green’ bandwagon and hastily considering the on-the-horizon (and sometimes even the in-the-pipeline) options, it would be simpler to start off with correcting the wrong we are doing—by giving up the habits that are bad for the environment. This would be quicker too, which is crucial given the time we have for arresting or limiting environmental damage and climate change.

A 40 GW target of installed rooftop solar (RTS) capacity by 2022 was set by the Government of India in 2015. Measures such as government subsidies and mandatory RTS installation on government buildings and public offices were taken to help RTS grow. However, India’s total installed RTS capacity as of 31st March 2022 is only 6.65 GW.

A greater push for residential RTS space is needed to reduce the negative impact on DISCOM finances. This would help in increasing the overall uptake of RTS without harming the financial health of DISCOMs.

Climate Change may feel like an insurmountable problem and our future may look bleak. But all is not lost. On World Environment Day 2022, CSTEP launched a new campaign — Climate On Our Minds. Because there’s Only One Earth.
Through this campaign, we hope to enable climate action triggered by informed conversations on what this crisis means.

The impacts of climate variability, climate change, and extreme events are visible globally and in India. The Global Climate Risk Index 2021 ranks India seventh, considering the extent to which India has been affected by the impacts of weather-related loss events (storms, floods, heatwaves, etc.). The index signals that the repercussions of escalating climate change are exacerbating and can no longer be ignored.

India needs to grow a lot more food, and do it sustainably to be able to meet its future food security and also keep its climate commitments. Precision farming is still nascent in the country, but could offer a way forward.

A spate of EV explosions in India has raised safety concerns about the technology. However, it is too early to write off EVs on the evidence of these incidents. Only detailed investigations and analyses will reveal whether the battery explosions in Hyderabad and other parts of the country occurred due to extreme weather conditions, battery mismanagement, or other reasons. 

Low-cost air quality sensors are the talk of the town. By addressing cost issues and bringing in portability, these sensors are quickly becoming the game-changers in efforts toward better air quality. Low-cost sensors (LCS) enable dense monitoring of air pollution, allowing policymakers to target interventions at highly polluted areas, thereby improving air quality. But their large-scale use needs careful consideration, given the concerns around the accuracy and reliability of LCS data.

This paper presents our analysis of the impact of integrating electric vehicles (EVs) and rooftop photovoltaic (RTPV) on the power system distribution feeders at the 11 kV level. For the assessment, we selected a sample urban feeder that served both domestic and commercial consumers within Bengaluru city limits. The EV-demand projection was considered on the basis of a report by Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, while the RTPV potential was estimated using CSTEP’s Rooftop Evaluation for Solar Tool (CREST).

Over two-thirds of Indian goods are transported on roads. About 11 million freight vehicles carry 2.1 trillion tonne-km of freight annually (Bernard Aritua et al., 2018). These vehicles are largely dependent on fossil-based fuels (90% is diesel) for their movement (NITI Aayog et al., 2021). The road freight sector consumes about 70.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) and emits 213 Mt of CO2 annually. Thus, it accounts for approximately 53% of the country’s transport fuel consumption and about 54% of CO2 emissions.