Developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision-making in India: a review
India faces a dual challenge of economic development and responding to climate change. Although India’s per capita emissions are well below global average, the country is one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. Indian policymakers and stakeholders require high-quality data and research t...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6f13 |
| _version_ | 1797746927767388160 |
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| author | Siddarth Durga Meredydd Evans Leon Clarke Rangan Banerjee |
| author_facet | Siddarth Durga Meredydd Evans Leon Clarke Rangan Banerjee |
| author_sort | Siddarth Durga |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | India faces a dual challenge of economic development and responding to climate change. Although India’s per capita emissions are well below global average, the country is one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. Indian policymakers and stakeholders require high-quality data and research to assess low-emissions, sustainable development strategies. Peer-reviewed literature is a key source of this information and also a key venue for conversation amongst research leaders. This paper examines the recent peer-reviewed literature on India’s 2030 and 2050 pathways. We conducted a systematic literature review to identify key quantitative national modeling studies. From the 34 studies identified, we synthesized scenario data to draw common conclusions and identify critical research gaps. The main focus was on examining the coverage and the state of information available on low-carbon pathways. Overall, we find a few scenarios that are potentially consistent with a 2070 net-zero goal, but more limited assessment of pathways to reach net-zero emissions before this date. Mitigation pathways with greater ambition are required across all energy sectors to ensure a smooth transition to net-zero emissions by or before 2070. The scenarios confirm that reducing emissions to below 2 GtCO _2 yr ^−1 by mid-century would necessitate significant transformations of the Indian energy sector, such as, a decrease in unabated coal power capacity, transportation modal shift, and industrial process switching. The assessment also finds substantial differences in final energy estimates reported across studies, particularly in transportation. The lack of consistency in, and transparency about underlying drivers, assumptions, and even outputs across studies points to the critical need for the sorts of coordinated, multi-model studies that have proven exceptionally valuable for decision makers in other major emitting countries. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:43:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-23edd72720d640db916d3d6d7c8daa27 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:43:49Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-23edd72720d640db916d3d6d7c8daa272023-08-09T15:32:07ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117606300410.1088/1748-9326/ac6f13Developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision-making in India: a reviewSiddarth Durga0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5016-3540Meredydd Evans1Leon Clarke2Rangan Banerjee3Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , College Park, MD, United States of AmericaJoint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , College Park, MD, United States of America; Center for Global Sustainability, University of Maryland , College Park, MD, United States of AmericaJoint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory , College Park, MD, United States of America; Center for Global Sustainability, University of Maryland , College Park, MD, United States of AmericaDepartment of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Mumbai, Maharashtra, IndiaIndia faces a dual challenge of economic development and responding to climate change. Although India’s per capita emissions are well below global average, the country is one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. Indian policymakers and stakeholders require high-quality data and research to assess low-emissions, sustainable development strategies. Peer-reviewed literature is a key source of this information and also a key venue for conversation amongst research leaders. This paper examines the recent peer-reviewed literature on India’s 2030 and 2050 pathways. We conducted a systematic literature review to identify key quantitative national modeling studies. From the 34 studies identified, we synthesized scenario data to draw common conclusions and identify critical research gaps. The main focus was on examining the coverage and the state of information available on low-carbon pathways. Overall, we find a few scenarios that are potentially consistent with a 2070 net-zero goal, but more limited assessment of pathways to reach net-zero emissions before this date. Mitigation pathways with greater ambition are required across all energy sectors to ensure a smooth transition to net-zero emissions by or before 2070. The scenarios confirm that reducing emissions to below 2 GtCO _2 yr ^−1 by mid-century would necessitate significant transformations of the Indian energy sector, such as, a decrease in unabated coal power capacity, transportation modal shift, and industrial process switching. The assessment also finds substantial differences in final energy estimates reported across studies, particularly in transportation. The lack of consistency in, and transparency about underlying drivers, assumptions, and even outputs across studies points to the critical need for the sorts of coordinated, multi-model studies that have proven exceptionally valuable for decision makers in other major emitting countries.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6f13Indiaclimate mitigationenergyemissionsscenariosmodeling |
| spellingShingle | Siddarth Durga Meredydd Evans Leon Clarke Rangan Banerjee Developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision-making in India: a review Environmental Research Letters India climate mitigation energy emissions scenarios modeling |
| title | Developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision-making in India: a review |
| title_full | Developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision-making in India: a review |
| title_fullStr | Developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision-making in India: a review |
| title_full_unstemmed | Developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision-making in India: a review |
| title_short | Developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision-making in India: a review |
| title_sort | developing new pathways for energy and environmental decision making in india a review |
| topic | India climate mitigation energy emissions scenarios modeling |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac6f13 |
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