Climate change mitigation involves strategies aimed at decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting renewable energy sources, improving energy efficiency, and implementing sustainable practices. CSTEP focuses on building models to simulate India's future across sectors, such as transport, industries, buildings, agriculture, and forestry, to find interventions required to achieve a sustainable and secure future. Our work also involves the study of certain themes that cut across sectors (quality of life and development vs climate action, water and land demands for agriculture vs power, etc).
Comprehensive Air Pollution Impact Estimation Can Help Deal with the ‘Triple Planetary Crises’
“Healthy Air, Healthy Planet” — the theme for this year’s International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies 2021 — is upfront in acknowledging the ubiquity of air-pollution effects, calling for collective efforts to improve our air for a better tomorrow.
Turn Down the Heat – Coping with Energy Demand and Thermal Comfort
Thermal comfort is a fundamental need and should not be the privilege of the well-off. The recent string of heatwaves around the world, including in India, have unquestionably been intensified by climate change. Staying ‘thermally comfortable’, especially during these events, is vital for avoiding the health impacts of extreme heat.
With the Climate Crisis On, E10 Might Be India’s Ethanol-Blending Sweet Spot
In his Independence Day address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned India spends over Rs 12 lakh crore on importing energy, and that domestic energy production will be a policy priority for the country.
Sustainable Alternative Futures for Urban India: the Resource, Energy, and Emissions Implications of Urban Form Scenarios
India’s rapid urbanisation underscores the need to balance growing consumption patterns, development goals, and climate commitments. The scenarios presented in this paper were created using our Sustainable Alternative Futures for India (SAFARI) model, a system dynamics model that simulates interlinkages between sectors in India and their competition for resources and energy at the national scale.
Energy and Emissions Implications for a Desired Quality of Life in India via SAFARI
India has to overcome several developmental challenges in the coming decades. Bridging the housing shortage; improving healthcare and education infrastructure; providing 24/7 electricity, clean water, and clean cooking fuels to all; and maintaining food security are some of the challenging goals for India that are in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Government of India has also emphasised its commitment to climate action by ratifying the Paris Agreement and formulating Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets.
Sustainable alternative futures for agriculture in India—the energy, emissions, and resource implications
India’s falling aquifer levels, erratic monsoons, arable land constraints, stagnating crop yields, growing food demand, and rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions necessitate that strategic interventions be planned and implemented to maintain food security in the country.