Land degradation, extending over 96 million hectares is a primary ecological issue for India that has resulted in catastrophic biodiversity loss and exacerbated extreme weather occurrences. One of the major sources of land degradation is large-scale coal mining to realize country's expanding energy demands. By 2050 climate change and land degradation, will result in $1730 billion loss for India.

Over the last 2 years, the sale of electric vehicles has picked up pace in India, with this year’s sale already surpassing that of last year’s by over 80%. As we observe the World EV day to create awareness about EVs and green mobility, several automobile companies have unveiled their plans of launching more EVs in the Indian auto market. EVs are gaining traction globally as an efficient means to decarbonise transportation and reduce fuel dependency.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on unprecedented adversities for rural populations worldwide, endangering livelihoods and causing psycho-social impacts. These catastrophic effects have been further exacerbated by climate change, with a disproportional impact witnessed among the most vulnerable populations.

The Ministry of Power (MoP) recently came out with renewable purchase obligation (RPO) targets for up to 2030. These targets mandate a specific percentage of the total electricity consumed in all states to be from renewable energy (RE) sources. The move is aligned with India’s COP26 commitments of increasing its RE share in the electricity mix to 50% by 2030. India is battling against climate change and trying to phase down coal and the current RE targets and policies are highly ambitious and challenging.

The world is urbanising at a rapid pace. The United Nation’s report, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision, predicts that close to 70% of the world’s population will reside in an urban area by 2050, placing an enormous burden on natural resources, especially water.

Given that the impacts of climate change will be felt acutely by cities, especially in the Global South, there is a need to adopt new processes — such as used-water reuse — to help secure their future.

India’s rooftop solar (RTS) sector has immense growth potential though it is underperforming currently with only 8 GW installed capacity as against the 40 GW target set for 2022. The potential needs to be realised quickly because the scaling up of RTS is paramount to achieving India’s ambitious renewable energy targets. The recently launched National Portal for Rooftop Solar, which is expected to simplify the application and subsidy disbursement process, aims to accelerate RTS growth in India.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, between 2000 and 2018, agricultural expansion led to almost 90% of global deforestation, which is one of the leading causes of habitat destruction of numerous species. Besides land clearance, several other activities within the sector — land preparation, production and use of fertilisers and pesticides, use of farm machinery, crop residue burning, yield storage, and transportation — are responsible for the emission of some major air pollutants and greenhouse gases.

The push for clean energy transition as an effective climate action strategy is intensifying. Since fossil fuels—which include coal, lignite, and liquefied natural gas (LNG)—are major greenhouse gas producers, they will have to be replaced with cleaner sources of energy production, broadly known as renewables (solar, wind, and hydro). In addition, natural gas, which is significantly less carbon-intensive as compared to coal, is being used as a lower-emission fuel during the energy transition.

At the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, the Government of India revised its non-fossil energy targets for 2030 from 450 GW to 500 GW. To accomplish this, developing India’s solar potential is essential. Given the intermittent nature of renewable energy (RE) sources, we require energy storage systems (ESS) to maintain the power grid's security and dependability. Recent advancements in ESS technologies have resulted in a substantial decrease in capital cost, expanding market growth.

It has been a slow journey, but the pace of air pollution studies is now picking up, and with it, our ability to save lives. Several nations have established standards to monitor air pollution and ensure that it remains within limits. Scientific understanding of various pollutants and their effect on human health has helped us develop ideal standards for safer and good quality air. In 2021, WHO revised the standards for pollution levels after research suggested that even small amounts of pollutants were detrimental to our health.