Main Banner Image
Environment

Third Ashok Kotwal Memorial Lecture: Voluntary Carbon Markets: Challenges and Opportunities in Developing Economies

The Ashok Kotwal Memorial Lecture was instituted in 2022, in memory of our founding Editor-in-Chief, as an annual lecture on key issues in development. For the third edition on 11 December 2024, Profe...

  • Videos

Financing the climate transition of India’s power sector

A cornerstone of India’s climate transition plan is to shift towards a high-efficiency, low-emission power sector. In this post, Vardhan and Tilotia outline the investment and financing challenges a...

  • Perspectives

Can education propel climate action?

While youth in the developing world are anxious about climate change and ready for action, they are constrained by a lack of information and knowledge. In this post, Masood and Sabarwal discuss insigh...

  • Perspectives
Refine list by:
--Please Select--
--Please Select--

Is adaptation to climate damages a blessing or curse for developing nations?

Pathways reflecting current climate action commitments by different nations mean a global warming level much higher than the level at which the world will be faced with manageable climate damages. Fur...

  • Perspectives

Usharmukti project: A confluence of institutions for rejuvenating rivers

Usharmukti, a project of the Government of West Bengal, is being carried out in collaboration with civil society organisations in the western part of the state, to carry out watershed activities under...

  • Notes from the Field

Early-life exposure to air pollution: Effect on child health in India

More than half of Indian population gets exposed to PM2·5 greater than the annual limit recommended by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards. This article examines the effect of outdoor air poll...

  • Articles

How much do households contribute to ambient air pollution in India?

Burning solid fuels like firewood in homes for cooking, heating, and other energy services is the single largest source of air pollution exposure in India. In this post, Chowdhury, Chafe, Pillarisetti...

  • Articles

The ‘Right to Energy’ and carbon tax: A game changer in India

India's carbon emissions in 2014 were more than three times its level in 1990. While the emissions have increased sharply, their distribution across income groups is extremely skewed. The poor in Indi...

  • Perspectives

Compensatory afforestation funds: A means or an end?

India has one of the most ambitious targets for forest cover as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement which will require considerable land and financial resources. In ...

  • Perspectives

Gone with the wind: Crop-burning and the human costs of pollution

Globally, an estimated 4 million people die prematurely because of air pollution every year. This article exploits seasonal changes in air quality arising due to agricultural fires – used by farmers...

  • Articles

Rural electrification and structural transformation: A guar(anteed) bet?

Is large-scale electrification necessary for the structural transformation of rural economies? This article combines two natural experiments in India – an exogenous agricultural boom in the northwes...

  • Articles

Nobel laureate William Nordhaus’ ideas for India

William Nordhaus has won a share of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics for his contribution to climate economics. In this post, Dean Spears discusses Nordhaus’ work and its implications for India. He...

  • Perspectives

Understanding India’s energy and emissions future

India is an important player in global climate change mitigation, and it is crucial to understand its energy and emissions future. Projections for India’s 2030 CO2 emissions from energy range from 9...

  • Articles

Financing scale-up of rooftop solar power via municipal bonds

While India’s solar power generation capacity has increased dramatically in recent years, the rate of deployment of rooftop solar is still insufficient to achieve the national targets. In this post,...

  • Perspectives

Rural Electrification with Off-Grid Community Microgrids: An Impact Evaluation in Uttar Pradesh, India

This project assesses the socioeconomic effects of solar microgrids. The lack of access to electricity is a major obstacle to the socioeconomic development of more than a billion people.

  • IGC Research on India

Recent Contributors

Digvijay S.

Digvijay S. Negi

Ashoka University

Rohini

Rohini Pande

Yale University

I4I

I4I Team

Ideas for India

Hammad

Hammad Farooqui

Azim Premji University

Anshuman

Anshuman Tiwari

EPIC India

Nicholas

Nicholas Hagerty

Montana State University

Bipasha

Bipasha Maity

Ashoka University

Sutirtha

Sutirtha Bandyopadhyay

Indian Institute of Management Indore

View all Contributors

Most Popular Environment Posts

Happy Seeder: A solution to agricultural fires in north India

It is believed that much of the pollution in Delhi in November every year originates in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana where farmers burn their fields to dispose of crop residue. This ...

  • Articles

Carbon dioxide emissions from India’s industries: Data sources and discrepancies

Industries are one of the most significant contributors to energy-related carbon-dioxide (energy-CO2) emissions in India – the share of industries in the total emissions was 25%, second only to powe...

  • Perspectives

Has environmental regulation been successful in India?

India has an impressive number of environmental regulations – but have they been a success? This column presents evidence that while initiatives such as catalytic converters for cars have reduced ai...

  • Articles