Biodiversity and Food Security: Two pieces of the same puzzle
India is highly dependent on the agriculture sector for its food security, and biodiversity loss leaves crops vulnerable to pests and diseases, thereby lowering yields. It also leads to the increased occurrence of invasive species and reduces the pollinator population. Thus, the interlinkage between food security and biodiversity loss needs to be understood in its entirety.
Energy transition: opportunities and challenges for the Indian power sector
The country has already made significant progress with installed renewable energy (RE) capacity reaching 114 GW as of 30 June 2022. This includes 41 GW of wind energy and 58 GW of solar energy. However, to get to 500 GW, India still has a long way to go. It needs to install more than 300 GW of RE capacity in the next 8 years. For this, a concerted effort from power sub-sectors (generation, transmission, and distribution) and a detailed analysis of the opportunities and challenges of each of them is required.
In this article, we touch upon transmission and distribution.
Innovating for a Better Future!
A brainchild of Professor Flemming Besenbacher, Professor of Nanophysics at Aarhus University, Denmark, UNLEASH is a global initiative that aims to bring together the next generation of youth from across the globe, providing a platform to share ideas, build networks, and create innovative and scalable solutions to progress towards the SDGs. It has been hosting the Global Innovation Labs annually, with the previous editions being in Denmark (2017), Singapore (2018), and China (2019).
Carbon Tunnel Vision Dominates the Climate Crisis Narrative
- The climate crisis is embedded in a breakdown of the larger socio-ecological system, wherein solving carbon will not necessarily solve the crises we are in.
- The West has been pushing a carbon-obsessed mitigation narrative.
Could digital twin models help combat water shortage in India?
There is little doubt that India’s water shortage problem is real and happening! Numbers confirm the alarming reality. According to the Ministry of Jal Shakti, India’s annual average per capita water availability was assessed at 1816 cubic metres and 1545 cubic metres in 2001 and 2011, respectively. This could further reduce to 1367 cubic metres in 2031. In 2019, NITI Aayog reported that nearly 600 million Indians are water-deprived and about 40% of the population will not have access to drinking water by 2030.
Climate atlas of India: District-level analysis of historical and projected climate change scenarios
Climate change is the biggest challenge today and will be so in the coming decades. The increase in extreme events and their impact on natural and artificial ecosystems and lives and livelihoods are conspicuous. Formulation of climate policies and planning and implementation of programmes and projects for adaptation require climate information at various spatial scales.
Energy Conservation Bill 2022: Implications and next steps
India has set ambitious climate targets as part of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to tackle the climate crisis. These include short- and long-term measures such as reducing the emissions intensity by 45%, installing 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity, and achieving a net-zero economy by 2070.
An important step in this direction is the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill 2022, which was passed in the Rajya Sabha recently.
Is India ready for the switch to Green Hydrogen in passenger trains?
Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Minister of Railways, has announced that the country would have its first hydrogen-powered passenger train by December 2023. The train will run on the Sonipat–Jind route in Haryana, which is 89 km. The announcement has created a buzz among researchers in the country.
But are we ready for the switch to green hydrogen in our trains? Let’s assess the economic and technical feasibility of the switch from diesel to hydrogen in passenger trains.
Opinion: Climate adaptation must be transformational, not just fighting fires
For adaptation measures to work efficiently, assessments of capacity, technology and financial needs should be integrated. Regional (national and sub-national) stocktakes should now be initiated to move forward with the Global Goal on Adaptation.