Resources & Sustainable Development

India has been on the brink of adverse impacts of climate change given its huge population, inequality and poverty. As the country is growing, massive energy intensive infrastructure is being put in place and will continue to be put up in the coming future. With the unabated growth and spiraling emissions, the country is at a precarious position to be one of the largest polluters in the world. While, India is developing a strategy for low carbon growth with its ambitious renewable energy targets, a lot remains to be done.

The India Office of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung supports the expansion of renewable energies, by showcasing policy options and experiences from the “energy transition” in Germany. We aim at a sustainable production and use of natural resources, working towards realizing improved resource governance, especially in the area of water resources. We also contribute to the discussion about “development” in India – what it is, and what it could (or should) be all about – and promote debate and knowledge generation towards new and alternative forms of production and consumption, in India and worldwide.

HBS Pakistan

India and Paris Agreement: Past, present and future

Five years since the Paris Agreement, we are at an inflection point. The current policies of the countries have put the planet on a path to a 3.2°C temperature increase this century. Very soon, we will exhaust the carbon budget for 1.5°C.  This will have devastating consequences on communities, economies and ecosystems in the developing countries like India. It is in India's interest that the global emissions are reduced significantly. For this, India will have to take a leadership role in climate negotiations. The energy transition taking place in the country provides space for India to be a leader in climate actions.
By Chandra Bhushan
Anthropocene assaults on biodiversity, painting a dismal picture of the future of life, including human life. Illustration by Abhishek Chauhan. All rights reserved.

Nourishing community in pandemic times

The corona pandemic makes us understand that the earth is a commons, and that our lives are shared. This insight is not a rational concept, but springs from an emotional need. Individuals accept hardships by restricting their contacts in order to protect community. The understanding that we need to protect others has been able to override economic certainties within days. Humans chose to put reciprocity first. Reciprocity – mutual care – is neither an abstract concept nor an economic policy, but the experience of a sharing relationship and ultimately of keeping the community of life intact. This community of life englobes humans, but also other-than-human beings. Only if we understand that the metabolic process through which we participate in life is an act of nourishing a community shared with other beings, can we move away from treating others – human and non-human beings – as objects. By Andreas Weber
abhi

Perspectives Asia: Asia for Future

While Asia is home to some of the fastest growing economies and some of the world’s top polluters, it is also one of the regions worst hit by climate change. This edition of Perspectives Asia presents the work of climate change activists in Asia who are calling their governments and people to action. They are raising their voices, some of them despite severe restrictions on the right of free assembly and freedom of speech.

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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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Articles

Vikalp Sangam core group statement on the need for creative, long-term alternatives in view of COVID-19

As India and the world face a completely unprecedented crisis due to the spread of COVID-19 virus, the first and immediate response must be health and treatment facilities, physical distancing, relief and basic needs packages to workers, basic need services, and other such measures that both reduce the risk of spread as also provide economic and survival security to those worst affected not only by infection but by the shutdown of ordinary life.

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.
Bee drawings by children, teenagers, and adults during the NCBS Moth Day, National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru (arrangement by Sebastian Walter).

Pollinators in the urban age

The beginning of the ‘urban age’ comes along with a worldwide decline of insects –due to human impact on the environment. Especially alarming is the loss of bees and other pollinators, because of their importance for agriculture and thus for our food security as well as for the stability of ecosystems. Considering the worsening conditions on farmland, growing urban areas might function as refuges for endangered bees. In this article, we describe the situation of wild giant honey bees in the rapidly developing megacity Bengaluru (also called Bangalore), the high-tech capital of the Indian state Karnataka. Naturally nesting in the open in big trees and at cliffs, these bees use high-rise buildings as nesting sites in the city. Excerpts from interviews with citizens of Bengaluru give insights into increasing conflicts between humans and bees, but also show possibilities of coexistence.
By Sebastian Walter and Axel Brockmann
One of the iron ore mines in Keonjhar district. Photo by Bikashkumargiri1997

Environmental regulation and post-COVID-19 economic recovery

On 24 March 2020, the central government declared a nationwide lockdown to deal with the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which caused the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in India. The lockdown, implemented without the necessary social and economic support by the state, represented a harsh ‘tradeoff’ in favour of public health. The country’s already sluggish economy took a massive hit due to the global pandemic and the near complete closure of international and domestic trade of goods and commodities. However, when the government began its unlocking efforts, it relied on incentivising highly environmentally damaging extractive projects to stimulate the economy. This article analyses the environmental and mining sector reforms and the key legal amendments proposed by the government as part of its post-COVID-19 economic recovery plans. The process, timing and content of these legal changes show that the government used the COVID-19 lockdown as an opportunity to push through undemocratic legal changes that would result in more long term environmental and social costs to society.
By Kanchi Kohli and Manju Menon

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
More on Resources & Sustainable Development

Publications

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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Informing the Indo-German solar energy partnership

India’s ambitious solar power target of achieving 100 gigawatt (GW) by 2022 faces several impediments. A series of consultations were organized to understand the challenges from a broad group of stakeholders and to seek inputs on solar policy requirements to pave way for India’s energy transition.

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The Ocean Atlas

Overfishing, the loss of biodiversity, and an immense pollution – the seas are under stress. The Ocean Atlas 2017 delivers in more than 40 infographics and articles all the relevant data, facts and contexts.

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