As a developing economy, India has numerous developmental aspirations. How India meets these goals without worsening the climate crisis is at the heart of CSTEP's work. Addressing climate change and enabling a secure and sustainable future for Indian citizens require an overhaul of previous paradigms on development and resource utilisation. This is reflected in our work on developing low-carbon trajectories for development with an emphasis on nature-based solutions.
We are working with state governments across India to build capacity on risk and vulnerability assessments to inform their respective action plans on climate change. The transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is crucial to achieving a secure and sustainable future. CSTEP's studies explore the possibility of a greater integration of renewables in the energy sector.
National Law and Policy Hackathon
CSTEP partnered with E-Cell at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) for the first National Law and Policy Hackathon.
How to pollution-proof doorstep delivery
The near-death blow dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic to global economies notwithstanding, e-commerce companies have not just thrived but have witnessed a much higher growth rate. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, e-commerce companies registered a growth of 31 per cent in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. The consequent increase in demand for e-commerce deliveries has had an impact on the environment in urban areas and will inevitably lead to rise in emissions and air pollution.
Need to operationalise green indexing of govt programmes
In India, the implementation of a large number of developmental and infrastructure programmes have often led to environmental degradation. Very often, environmental damage is recognised post-implementation of a programme or a project.
The Government of India has Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and clearance requirements for large projects. Even this is a flawed process since most of the projects are cleared anyway. Of late, there have been efforts to further dilute the EIA.
Central funds to cities for improving air quality likely to be misused
Early November, the Ministry of Finance announced that a total amount of INR 2,200 crore would be transferred to 40 cities with a million-plus population to aid in improving air quality. This is in alignment with the National Clean Air Action Programme (NCAP), launched in January 2019 by the Government of India, which aims to cut pollution by 20-30% in 122 non-attainment cities by 2024. This funding would be the first tranche of a total INR 4,400 crore support the 15th Finance Commission announced in February 2020.
Walking on thin ice
Changes in the climate system over tens of thousands of years brought about ice ages and interglacial warming periods. Science confirms that climate change, which is a large-scale and long-term change in the earth’s weather patterns, is human-induced and not due to natural causes.
Globally, the past five years have been the hottest on record, extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, and droughts have gone up five-fold, and economic losses have increased seven-fold over the past 50 years.
India’s newly planned vehicle scrapping policy: A 2-in-1 solution to curb air pollution and revive the auto industry
Nearly 4 million commercial vehicles in India are expected to ride into the sunset soon. The much awaited vehicle scrappage policy, expected to be notified shortly by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), aims to scrap older commercial (more than 15 years) and private vehicles (more than 20 years). Currently, the total number of vehicles older than 15 years in the country is around 28 million (including all categories), of which nearly 4 million are commercial.