Public engagement
Opinions
Now for a green Bharat abhiyaan
Navroz K Dubash
India Today | 7 January 2025
Navroz K Dubash, writing on climate change in India Today’s ‘India @ 2025’ special issue, argues for keeping the pressure on developed countries for emissions reductions and finance but also suggests three key domestic priorities for India: Enhance climate resilience in cities/coasts, and plan for adaptation, e.g, in agriculture and water; Build a low carbon economy that creates jobs; Reform governance structures and the legal framework to address climate governance challenges.
Managing air quality: Answer is in airsheds
Shibani Ghosh and Bhargav Krishna
Hindustan Times | 28 October 2024
Four key issues to consider for effectively implementing an airshed-level approach to air quality management: development of robust knowledge systems; appropriate institutional structures; clear powers and functions of the airshed authority; and accountability mechanisms.
Climate and development: What opportunities, what threats?
Navroz K Dubash
ODI’s Development Policy Review | 20 September 2024
While it may be in the interests of developing countries to do development differently for climate reasons, the technological fact of falling renewable energy prices by no means imply a post-equity climate politics. But with weak prospects for a grand global bargain around climate and development, we may be in for messy country-by-country approaches to low-carbon development transitions.
In the news
Multi-agency collaboration needed to arrest heatwave: experts
The Hindu | 17 February 2025
At the National Disaster Management Authority’s national workshop on heatwaves 2025, Aditya Valiathan Pillai emphasised the need for structural change in heatwave management, pointing out that city planners often neglect to include heat in their planning, instead treating it as a risk for health and disaster management to address once a heatwave hits.
Life in a city that can’t breathe
Hindustan Times | 16 January 2025
“Politicians should acknowledge that this cannot be solved with quick fixes like smog towers, they need to develop a 5-year strategy to equip regulators with technical expertise to reduce the impact of the most toxic sources and chart progress with sound science” – Bhargav Krishna talks to the Hindustan Times
Polluting industries are now exempt from dual approvals before setting up ops
Mongabay India | 16 December 2024
“The expectation is that they will self-regulate, but we know well that asking industries to do so is not necessarily the best idea” – Bhargav Krishna on exemption of dual approvals for polluting industries to set up operations.
Mounting economic costs of India’s killer smog
France 24 (AFP) | 26 November 2024
“From missing a day at work to developing chronic illnesses, the health costs associated with that, to premature death and the impact that has on the family of the person”, Bhargav Krishna explained the costs adding up in every phase during smog season in India to France 24 (AFP).
Speaking engagements
“Adaptation finance will be of limited use in reducing vulnerability until we build an institutional structure and political conditions that know how to deploy it correctly. Prior conditions to adaptation finance need to be met if the objective is to save lives.” Aditya Valiathan Pillai at a discussion on ‘Climate challenges & opportunities’ by the Global Centre for Environment and Energy on 16 December 2024.
“Adapting to climate change means not just addressing the immediate impacts of a climate disaster but planning to address those we haven’t even foreseen the scale of yet–intense and long heatwaves, storm surges, or sea level rises” – Bhargav Krishna at a webinar on ‘Climate Change: South Asia’s Biggest Threat?’ organised by The Democracy Forum. Watch the entire conversation here.
“To effectively address future heat waves, heat action plans must be tailored to local contexts, prioritize the most vulnerable, and ensure sustainable, long-term funding.” – Tamanna Dalal during the discussion on ‘Piecing Together a Heat Action Plan: What’s Needed and What’s Often Left Out?’ at the Heat Rising Convening, organised by Wipro Foundation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment and Azim Premji University.
At a training workshop on heat action plans for Rajasthan’s government officials and health experts, organised by NRDC and NDMA in October, Tamanna Dalal discussed gaps in India’s response to extreme heat. She highlighted the need to leverage centrally sponsored schemes such as MGNREGA and Nagar Van Yojana to finance the implementation of the heat action plan.
Aman Srivastava moderated a discussion on ‘Policy Frameworks for Supporting Carbon Dioxide Removal’ with RR Rashmi, Distinguished Fellow, TERI, and Rathin Roy, Former Economic Advisor – PMO, organised by Alt Carbon on 16 October 2024. They discussed the policy actions India needs to undertake to scale carbon removal efforts & make our climate finance frameworks more robust.
Ashwini K Swain chaired a panel discussion at the Centre for Science and Environment’s Climate Week event on 17 October 2024 on how the energy sector can go through a scalable and affordable transition.
Aman Srivastava spoke at Carbon Reset Summit, India’s first durable carbon removal summit in Mumbai on 8 October 2024, about the necessary policy frameworks to support emergent CO2 removal technologies. He highlighted the need for these frameworks to be designed in a way that complements mitigation actions, considers socio-environmental impacts, and strategically manages public finances.
