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.
Foolproofing the Future
The deluge of recent calamities including Cyclone Amphan, floods in Assam, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, and the wildfires in California and Oregon bears testimony to the recurrence of climate crises in rapid succession. In fact, the year 2020 has underscored the uncertainty and unpredictability of such catastrophes. The regularity of such incidents calls for the immediate application of resilience thinking.
A comprehensive energy policy is the need of the hour
A comprehensive energy policy is vital to India meeting its developmental goals; however, it has fallen short. India's extant Integrated Energy Policy (IEP), which was prepared in 2006 by the Planning Commission, is dated. Renewable power, electric vehicles, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) goals, etc., have meant that a fundamental rework of the energy policy is warranted.
Evaluation of MERRAero PM2.5 over Indian cities
The present study evaluates the performance of NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Aerosol Reanalysis (MERRAero) over Indian cities by validating its PM2.5 concentrations (reconstructed using individual species concentrations) against that of the real-time hourly observations. The study period of the present analysis is between 2013 and 2015. Several performance statistics (mean bias, mean absolute bias, mean fraction, correlation coefficient, FAC2) are derived for the assessment, which was carried out on various temporal scales.
Identifying predictors of personal exposure to air temperature in peri-urban India
•Limited agreement between ambient and personal air temperature
•Overall moderate correlation between ambient and personal air temperature
•Nighttime predictors included household altitude, ceiling height, and income
•Daytime predictors included housing characteristics and GPS-tracked altitude
•Time in agricultural labour was predictive in women and time travelling in men
mmaqshiny v1.0: R-Shiny package to explore Air-Quality Mobile-Monitoring data
Stationary air-quality monitors do not capture spatial variations in air-pollution. Mobilemonitoring or "sensors on a mobile platform", is an increasingly popular approach to measure high-resolution pollution data at the street level. Coupled with location data, spatial visualisation of air-quality parameters helps detect localized areas of high air-pollution, also called hotspots. In this approach, portable sensors are mounted on a vehicle and driven on predetermined routes to collect high frequency data (1 Hz).
Developing a Low-Cost Passive Method for Long-Term Average Levels of Light-Absorbing Carbon Air Pollution in Polluted Indoor Environments
We propose a low-cost passive method for monitoring long-term average levels of light-absorbing carbon air pollution in polluted indoor environments. Building on prior work, the method here estimates the change in reflectance of a passively exposed surface through analysis of digital images. To determine reproducibility and limits of detection, we tested low-cost passive samplers with exposure to kerosene smoke in the laboratory and to environmental pollution in 20 indoor locations.
Delhi Metro Reopens: How To Make Public Transport Safe Post-COVID?
COVID-19 has definitely put the brakes on public transport. With physical distancing being the norm, many people who can afford to, are likely to avoid it, at least for a few more months.
But public means of transport such as the bus and metro will continue to be an efficient and affordable mode of transport for most commuters. Therefore, there is an urgent need to revamp and restructure the services with safety and sanity checks.
MGNREGA: Improving Lives & Livelihoods
Reams of newsprint have been spent on the devastating blow to the job market and economy during the current pandemic. Amid this pall of gloom, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) brought comfort to 55 million households by ensuring livelihoods from April to August 2020. Many of those who got jobs under the scheme were the ones who had reverse migrated from cities due to complete shutdown during the pandemic.
Implication of emission regulation on cost and tariffs of coal-based power plants in India: A system modelling approach
•The study estimated the investment required to meet new emission standards for coal power plants in India till 2030.
•The cost of electricity generation from coal power plants will increase by 9–25% with pollution control technologies.
•Study also highlighted the challenges in implementing emission standards and provided suitable policy recommendations.
The Importance of Selling Electric Vehicles and Their Batteries Separately
The roads have been cleared for a surge in two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles (EVs). On August 12, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) published a notification allowing the sale and registration of EVs without batteries. The move is expected to increase their adoption rates by dropping the vehicles’ price. In fact, delinking batteries from EVs reduces the upfront purchase cost by 30-40%, making their price comparable to or lower than conventional internal-combustion-engine vehicles.