Archives: Briefs Reports

Tajikistan holds huge significance for fulfilling India’s broader interests in the Central Asian region especially its ‘Connect Central Asia’ policy. More importantly, stronger India-Tajikistan partnership is of key importance for India to amplify its goodwill in the region as well as to add stability to Afghanistan and meet India’s future energy demands. However, though Tajikistan over the last decade has been the primary recipient of India’s development assistance in the Central Asian region, it still stands far behind in terms of India’s development assistance to other individual countries such as Afghanistan. Thus, taking the above into consideration, through this brief we have tried to highlight India’s desire of assisting in the diversification of the Tajik economy as well as analyze India’s development assistance towards Tajikistan especially its role as a humanitarian aid and in boosting of Tajikistan’s IT, energy and education sector.

The WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) data for 2011 shows that Indonesia comes second after India in number of people without access to toilets. In urban areas 13.9% of the population in India practice open defecation, while the number is 13.1% for Indonesia. This policy note explores how despite being at comparable levels on urban sanitation, the policy approaches of the two countries are different and what India can learn from the approach adopted by Indonesia.

What should India put forward as the mitigation component of its climate contribution (or ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contribution’ (INDC))? Since energy accounts for 77% of India’s greenhouse gas emissions, this question can only be answered as one part of a larger discussion about India’s energy future.

This study conducts a comparative review of seven recent India-focused modelling studies that explore Indian energy and emissions futures, with the explicit intention of informing several policy salient questions.

Some key results that emerge include:

India is projected to double or triple carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 under reference cases, but per capita emissions will still be less than today’s global average;
Coal use under reference cases could rise as much as 2.5-3 times current levels;
Fossil-fuel free share of electricity in reference cases could also rise as high as 31% of the electricity mix, but could also fall from current levels;
Current studies provide an insufficiently robust basis for determining an economy-wide INDC for India, nor do they adequately address sustainable development outcomes;
Future energy and climate planning would be enhanced by a long-term, structured process involving policy-makers and modellers.

Navroz K Dubash, Radhika Khosla, Narasimha D Rao, and K Rahul Sharma “Informing India’s Energy and Climate Debate: Policy Lessons from Modelling Studies.” Research Report (New Delhi: Centre for Policy Research and Laxenburg: International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, April 2015).

In the intergovernmental climate negotiations India has consistently argued against greenhouse gas mitigation commitments for developing countries. This paper argues that while India’s position, given the burden sharing architecture of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, is legitimate, it is not a sagacious position to hold. Poorer nations, and the poorest within them, will be the worst hit by climate change. 34.7% of Indians live on less than 1US$ a day. A vast majority of India’s poor are in rural areas and are dependent directly on climate-sensitive natural resources. The poor have the least adaptive capacity. And, climate change is predicted to have severe impacts in India. It is of critical importance that climate change concerns are mainstreamed into development planning, and concrete actions are taken to transition to a low carbon development pathway. It is also important that commitments are undertaken at a global level, if not now at some future point in time, for it is only cumulative global emissions reductions that will eventually impact the trajectory of climate change.

In the intergovernmental climate negotiations India has consistently argued against greenhouse gas mitigation commitments for developing countries. This paper argues that while India’s position, given the burden sharing architecture of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, is legitimate, it is not a sagacious position to hold. Poorer nations, and the poorest within them, will be the worst hit by climate change. 34.7% of Indians live on less than 1US$ a day. A vast majority of India’s poor are in rural areas and are dependent directly on climate-sensitive natural resources. The poor have the least adaptive capacity. And, climate change is predicted to have severe impacts in India. It is of critical importance that climate change concerns are mainstreamed into development planning, and concrete actions are taken to transition to a low carbon development pathway. It is also important that commitments are undertaken at a global level, if not now at some future point in time, for it is only cumulative global emissions reductions that will eventually impact the trajectory of climate change.

What should India put forward as the mitigation component of its climate contribution? India has dual interests in climate negotiations: safeguarding adequate energy for development, and promoting an effective international agreement to limit its climate vulnerability. To balance these interests, India should pledge well-developed sector-specific actions that maximize synergies across development and climate outcomes. This approach will avoid lock-in to a high carbon growth path while enhancing development. Sectoral actions could include an additional component conditional on availability of international climate finance. In addition, an updated emissions intensity target would serve as a useful complement to sectorally focused action.

Suggested citation: Navroz K. Dubash and Radhika Khosla (2015) India’s Sustainable Development Led Approach to Climate Mitigation for Paris. Policy Brief. Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. Available at: https://cprindia.org/research/reports/india%E2%80%99s-sustainable-development-led-approach-climate-mitigation-paris.

India is undergoing structural urban and economic transitions and has set ambitious policy targets to meet its rising energy needs for development. Expanding coal and renewables are two important pillars of this undertaking and, since 2008, climate protection is of increasing concern. India’s international engagements reflect these motivations of both energy security and climate change, where India is increasingly engaging in transfer of clean and efficient energy technologies to developing countries like itself.

Bangladesh as one of India’s immediate neighbour holds strategic and economic importance for India. A strong India-Bangladesh relationship is important to promote regional stability, enhance India’s connectivity with East Asia and bring economic benefits to India’s landlocked Northeastern region. Diligent efforts of successive Indian governments have strengthened India’s bilateral ties with its eastern neighbour. Moreover, an important instrument used by India to assist Bangladesh’s development are its concessional credit lines, with the most recent example of this being a USD 4.5 billion line of credit (LOC) agreement signed on 4th October. In light of these facts, this brief highlights in detail multiple LOCs extended by India towards Bangladesh, shedding light on their objectives (economic and strategic), implementation record, as well as shortcomings.

Soon after India’s partition in 1947, its historical ties with the Central Asian region (CAR) suffered a setback as it lost its direct overland access to the region. However, in the following decades India somewhat resurrected its relation with the region largely due to its close diplomatic ties with the Soviet Union. Moreover, India was also one of the first nation to open a consulate in what later became Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent. However, over the past decade or so, the significance of close ties with the region has grown as India looks to diversify its energy imports and also strives to maintain regional stability especially in border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Further, with India’s development initiatives in form of grants and lines of credit (LOCs) constituting less than one percent of the of the total volume of grants and LOCs extended by India overseas, there is ample scope for improvement. Thus, keeping these factors into consideration, we have tried to analyze the scope and potential of closer ties between India and the Central Asian region, with a special focus on India’s development partnerships in the region.

The India-Vietnam bilateral relationship in the past has been supported by various commonalities including six decades of anti-colonial interests, pan-Asian nationalism and independent foreign policies. The first instance of India’s development cooperation towards Vietnam predates India’s 1991 ‘Look East Policy’ by thirty years. Importantly, during the past decade, with India’s rapid economic growth and its consequent desire for energy security, open trade through the South China Seas, and development partnership with South East Asia, the strategic and economic significance of Vietnam for India has grown manifold. Furthermore, increased cooperation with India also provides Vietnam with a crucialally and a measure of counterbalance to China’s increasing influence in the region as well as from the conflicting pressures coming from Russia and US. The significance of the bilateral relationship can be well noticed from the signing of crucial agreements in 2003, 2007 and 2011, directed towards enhancing overall cooperation between the two. Moreover, India’s development cooperation towards Vietnam in form of credit lines and grants as well as the quantum of trade between the two has also expeirenced a major boost during the past decade or so. Thus, taking these factors into consideration, in this piece we have tried to analyze in detail stregthening India-Vietnam relationship with a special focus on the diverse forms of India’s development cooperation directed towards this Southeast Asian nation which holds a pivotal position in India’s ‘Look East Policy’.