An earlier post discussed the poor financial health of utilities in India, and some of the problems faced in the renewable energy sector as a result. This post will be a discussion of potential measures that could be considered to mitigate the risks faced by renewable energy power producers, and better protect their financial interests. […]
The Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has recently released two notifications related to environmental clearance. Green norms for the building and construction sector The first one is a notification published on November 15, 2018, relaxing the green norms for the building and construction sector. A copy of this notification is not available […]
The Air Quality Index (AQI) data that is widely available for the Delhi-NCR region is focussed primarily on particulate matter in the category of PM10 and PM2.5. These refer to particulate matter with diameter of 10 microns and 2.5 microns, respectively. There is another category of super-fine particulate matter with a diameter of 1 micron […]
The latest support for a tax on meat comes from a modelling study led by Marco Springmann of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, University of Oxford. The results and conclusions of the modelling exercise were recently published in PLOS ONE. This study is important for highlighting the health benefits of taxing meat, […]
I wrote about the Supreme Court’s directions on firecrackers here. Some of the Constitutional aspects of the judgment have been discussed here. This is the final post in the series of posts on the Supreme Court’s firecracker ban. Here I will discuss some concerns arising out of the timing of the judgment, and the potential […]
I wrote about the contents of the recent Supreme Court judgment on firecracker here. The partial ban on firecrackers directed by the Supreme Court has polarized opinion. One school of thought believes that a partial ban, in the current conditions of severe air pollution, is inadequate. Another somewhat related criticism of the judgment is about […]
At the time of writing this, on the eve of Diwali 2018, the AQI in Delhi lies steadfastly in the “Hazardous” category, as it has been for several hours now. Yet, I can hear the sound of firecrackers outside my house, in open defiance of not just concerns of health and self-preservation, but also a […]
Yesterday I had the chance to attend two webinars which concerned the energy sector in India. These two webinars were quite different in their content, but united by a common theme: transformations in the dynamic energy sector. The first webinar focused on the changing role of DISCOMs or Indian utilities, while the second webinar discussed […]
I had the opportunity to attend a workshop organized by the World Resources Institute and the Centre for Policy Research on Energy and Environment Modelling in New Delhi on October 29. The workshop was attended by policy-makers from the Government of India, as well as policy professionals from think tanks and consultancies. Apart from the […]
The de-carbonization of the energy sector, through an increased share of renewable energy, is an urgent need. India has set itself a target of increasing its renewable energy capacity to 175 GW by 2022, and increasing the share of electricity from non-fossil fuel based energy sources to 40% by 2030, as part of its Nationally […]
India Environment Blog 