Blogs

Electric mobility is widely considered to be an effective way to improve air quality and address environmental concerns, which ultimately benefit their primary users. However, the sector’s viability is heavily affected by factors like incentives on discarding used vehicles, favorable government policies, purchase incentives, safety and performance of the vehicles. Consumers are further interested to know how much they would be saving on fuel expenses if they switch to Electric Vehicles (EVs). Some incidents where EVs were not able to deliver the range claimed by their manufacturers have...

Well-designed carbon markets have the potential to harness least-cost emission reductions. Over the last two decades, the Indian industry has built its experience with multiple market-based mechanisms such as the “Clean Development Mechanism” (CDM), “Perform, Achieve and Trade” (PAT) and “Renewable Energy Certificate” (REC) that have led to emission reductions. However, the effectiveness of these market-based mechanisms has been limited...

The ride-hailing industry has altered commuting patterns in Indian cities. Cabs have been the most popular model, followed by buses, bikes and autorickshaws, which have gained matured ridership and continue expanding their businesses.

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There is now growing consensus around a key finding first published by the IPCC in 2018: the world needs to reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by mid-century to meet the 1.5° C temperature target of the Paris Agreement, something which will require transformational changes across energy and transport systems, industrial technologies and processes, and lifestyles.

UN Environment’s Emissions Gap Report...

This is the first blog in a new series on carbon markets in India. In this blog series, we will share insights from WRI India’s corporate carbon market simulation in which more than 20 leading Indian companies participated during 2020-2021.

In December 2020, the Government of India constituted an Apex Committee to oversee India’s Implementation of the Paris Agreement. This...

On January 30, 2020 within two weeks of the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring a pandemic worldwide, India reported its first COVID-19 infection. Subsequently, the first lockdown was announced on March 25. Close on its heels followed a mass migration of workers from parts of the country. This resulted in the displacement of nearly 10 million rural migrants and shortly after, the loss of millions of jobs. At the time of writing, India has more than 1.2 crore total reported cases and also has the world’s highest number of recoveries. Worldwide, there are over 13 crore cases, with US...

Many countries, subnational regions, and companies have recently announced carbon neutrality or net zero emission targets. The world as a whole needs to become carbon neutral by the middle of the 21st century to limit global warming to 1.5C.

For India, development is a priority, but India’s subnational...

With the Indian government making persistent efforts for deeper penetration of the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry in the country, the automobile market is on the verge of transitioning to electric vehicles. It is committed to a goal of making 30% of the vehicular traffic electric by 2030. However, the discussion around EVs inexorably drifts towards charging infrastructure. The two potential models...

The Union Budget 2021 laid out an elaborate financial package to develop metro rail lines across cities. While more metro lines are being envisioned with a focus on building back the economy, post-pandemic mass transit infrastructure also needs to be leveraged to sustain the growth of jobs and urban economy. One such clear opportunity lies before the Mumbai Metro.

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Over the past two decades, extreme temperature events have increased in frequency and severity around the world. The number of people exposed to heat waves has increased by approximately 125 million across the globe. It is estimated that 39% of the global work hours lost due to acute heat were in India alone amounting to 118 billion hours. In fact, cities like Singapore have developed a...