Editorial

BLOGS

Systems Thinking for a People-centered Transition to a Low-carbon Economy

Policymaking is a complex process given the interconnectedness of different sectors. This process becomes more challenging for climate action because of the differing impacts each intervention might have on livelihoods and the economy.

By helping identify opportunities and plan for risks, Systems Thinking can help strengthen political and public support for climate action. In this blog, Arpan Golechha uses a causal loop diagram to showcase systems thinking and its significance in policymaking.

In India, New Solar Parks Can Either Uproot or Uplift Landless Workers

Citing the example of Pavagada Solar Park, this insights blog by Vishwajeet Poojary, Ashwini Hingne, and Ulka Kelkar highlights the risk of climate action exacerbating existing socio-economic inequities — as well as the opportunity presented by the transition in mitigating some of those harms.

India’s Shift to Low-carbon Construction Must Not Leave Workers Behind

Read this insights blog by Niyati Gupta and Steffi Olickal to learn how shifting to low-carbon technologies in the building and construction sector can be made equitable for the present construction workforce.

Photo Blogs

Breaking the Mold: Transforming Bihar’s Brick Kilns

Bihar is among India’s largest brick manufacturing hubs and is heavily dependent on coal and labor-intensive practices. The traditional way of brick manufacturing comes with huge environmental costs. Technological transformation is possible; however, mainstreaming such transformation struggles with inefficiencies due to untrained labor. In this photo blog, Read this WRI India blog Niyati Gupta, Faiza Solanki, Steffi Olickal and Isha Verma explore the technological transformation, challenges, and the way forward for the brick sector in India.

Agrivoltaics: Reimagining Land for Better Livelihoods

The photo blog by Nivedita Cholayil, Vishwajeet Poojary and Shreyas Joshi peeks into the lives of the farmers at the Issapur agrivoltaic plant and demonstrates the potential such plants hold for achieving both energy and food security, equitably.

Conference Proceeding

Addressing vulnerabilities and financing needs for an equitable low-carbon transition

The Conference Proceeding draws from the discussions held during WRI India’s “Cross Country Just Transition Dialogue: Exploring Vulnerabilities and Financing Needs for an Equitable Low Carbon Transition” on the sidelines of COP28 in Dubai.

The Conference Proceeding summarizes participants’ views at the dialogue and highlights the need for place-based studies to inform the just transition discourse and institutional preparedness to engage with questions regarding just transition. It also notes the need to blend finance from private and public sources to fund the social aspects of the transition, such as skilling and safety nets.

Knowledge Products

Macroeconomic Impacts of Long-Term Decarbonization in India: Implications for a Just Transition

India faces the dual challenge of advancing strong climate action while achieving its development goals. Moreover, the low-carbon transition will require a profound transformation of the Indian economy resulting in differing impacts on workers, regions, and communities.

Based on results from the India Energy Policy Simulator, this expert note by Deepthi Swamy and Varun Agarwal presents potential macroeconomic impacts — on economic growth, employment, and tax revenues — in a long-term decarbonization scenario, aligned to India’s 2070 net-zero emissions target, and analyzes the implications of these impacts for a just transition in India.

Linking macro- and micro-economic models for understanding distributional impacts of low-carbon development in India

India’s long-term decarbonization efforts require significant structural changes in the economy as we step up renewable energy and move to a low-carbon development pathway. The current literature discusses the macroeconomic and sectoral but not the distributional impacts of climate action. Since large disparities exist among India’s socioeconomic groups, the low-carbon transition will affect income and social groups differently. To address this gap, this technical note describes a methodology for quantifying household-level impacts across different income groups in India.

It uses the Global Income Distribution Dynamics (GIDD) framework in connection with the macroeconomic Green Economy Model for India (GEM-India). The climate policies are implemented through the macro model, the GEM, and the microsimulation redistributes the effects of the changes at the macroeconomic level amongst income groups and gender in terms of wages, poverty, employment and so forth. This technical note lays out the methodology to link climate policy implementation to household-level income and employment impacts, but not its results.