Resources & Sustainable Development

Heinrich Böll Stiftung

Plastic Atlas

The Plastic Atlas highlights the scale of the crisis, and the global impacts of plastic production, consumption and disposal on other key global challenges such as human health and climate change. It also outlines the role of plastic for key industrial sectors such as agriculture and tourism and describes the corporate interests and drivers behind the plastic crisis. Finally, the Plastic Atlas presents an overview of key anti-plastic regulations, zero waste solutions and a snapshot of the growing global movement working towards a future free from plastic pollution.

India’s climate conundrum

The world has just over a decade to prevent the climate from unravelling in catastrophic ways. While the primary onus for avoiding this looming calamity lies with the rich industrialised nations, India, which is now the world’s third biggest emitter, is committed to the Paris Agreement. However, whether it can muster the political will and the financial muscle to shift to a low-carbon economy while raising the living standard of its billion plus citizens is a trillion dollar question the answer to which will become clear only after 2030 when it begins to decouple its economic growth from its emissions.

By Rakesh Kalshian

Energy Atlas: Figures and facts about renewables in Europe

The European Energy Atlas 2018 is published at a time when the EU Member States are discussing their energy and climate strategy until 2013. It thereby not only provides a compass on the differing energy discussions in Europe but also reveals how a Europeanization of the energy transition will be the more efficient and cost-effective option for all Europeans.

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India’s energy transition: Potential and prospects

The book captures India’s potential for a large scale energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. It analyses whether the ambitious renewable energy targets that India has set upon itself are possible and also provides ideas and recommendations that will help realize energy access for all in the country.

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Democracy & Society

Women and genetically modified crops: Bt cotton in India

Women and genetically modified crops: Bt cotton in India

Studies on Bt cotton swing between the efficacy of Bt cotton and its failure in providing rights and choices to the farmers. Based on a review of discursive analysis and selected field visits to cotton farmers in rural Maharashtra and Rajasthan, this study on Women and Genetically Modified Crops: Bt Cotton in India, attempts at understanding women’s experiences and voices in the cultivation of Bt cotton. Discussing the coloniality of power and knowledge in the given patriarchal system in India and in countries of the Global South, the authors argue for the recognition of work, knowledge and rights of women farmers and how these can be developed in a gender-responsive and sustainable manner.

By Govind Kelkar, Dev Nathan, R Rengalakshmi and Varsha Joshi

Between a rock and a hard place

For over two decades now, green politics in India has largely been about resisting neoliberalism and replacing it with an alternative development ethos. During this period, the greens jousted with governments that, while being committed to a liberal economic order, were also politically secular and liberal. But now, with a majoritarian Hindu state, which is even more fanatically neoliberal, firmly in the saddle, green politics is in a state of limbo. New rules of engagement are a must. Whether they are possible is moot.

By Rakesh Kalshian

Digital India through a gender lens

This policy discussion paper seeks to present a critical overview of Digital India, evaluating the extent to which the outcome areas of the program address gender-transformative change. It also offers suggestions for building an enabling environment to expand opportunities and strategic life choices for women, and contributing to gender equality, as economic, social and political arenas are fundamentally redefined by digital technologies. This paper draws upon a detailed policy study titled ‘Digital India through a Gender Lens’, undertaken by the authors in 2017-18, with support from the Heinrich Böll Stiftung.

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Occupation of the coast – Blue economy in India

The Blue Economy involves economic activity that engages with the various components of the oceans. As the Blue Economy gets underway, this research report re-visits various aspects of coastal development and weaves together a narrative of their impacts on the fishing communities.

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India International

A note on green federalism: Sharing best practices

The success of green federalism depends on what institutional mechanisms are created to establish communication and procedures between the various tiers of government and the thematic resorts that need to be involved to adequately address projects and programmes towards ecologically sustainable development.

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Perspective Asia: Nationalisms and populisms in Asia

The latest issue of Perspectives Asia aims to draw a fine line between different forms of nationalism. The articles from various Asian countries focus on strategies and political styles adopted by populist leaders and explain how nationalistic and religious ideas are distorted by politics. 

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The Heinrich Böll Stiftung/ Heinrich Boell Foundation is a German foundation and part of the Green political movement that has developed worldwide as a response to the traditional politics of socialism, liberalism, and conservatism.

We are a green think-tank and an international policy network, our main tenets are ecology and sustainability, democracy and human rights, self-determination and justice. We place particular emphasis on gender democracy, meaning social emancipation and equal rights for women and men. We are also committed to equal rights for cultural and ethnic minorities. Finally, we promote non-violence and proactive peace policies. To achieve our goals, we seek strategic partnerships with others who share our values.

Our namesake, Heinrich Böll, personifies the values we stand for: protection of freedom, civic courage, tolerance, open debate, and the valuation of art and culture as independent spheres of thought and action.

Our India Liaison Office was established in 2002 in New Delhi. Working with governmental and non-governmental local project partners we support India’s democratic governance through informed national and international dialogue processes with a view to enhance the diversity of green thinking.