Blogs

Negotiators from across the globe are currently meeting in Spain at the 25th Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). On their agenda is a complicated item – how should countries use carbon markets to meet the global climate challenge?

Why does carbon need a market?

Climate change is a market failure. In spite of the climate impacts of economic activities, the economic costs of such impacts are not accounted for in market prices, leading to higher emissions than ideal for a...

This blog series is part of an ongoing project by WRI and its partners to encourage apparel companies to break away from traditional business models and invest in clothing reuse - resale, rental, and repair models.

Until a few years ago, Indian households followed a typical pattern of using clothes. A new shirt was first worn by the eldest child, followed by younger siblings and cousins. If it was still in a somewhat wearable condition, it was given to the house help and if not, it ended up as a cleaning cloth. Recently, however, Indians increased their spending on clothes...

The 25th annual Conference of Parties (COP 25) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began on 2nd December. The Paris climate agreement under the UNFCCC has two mechanisms to address the global climate challenge. First, each country must submit a nationally determined contribution (NDC) of the climate actions that it intends to achieve in the medium run. Second, NDCs must be reviewed through a global stock-take and be ...

In August 2018, WRI India launched its first edition of a monthly newsletter on electric mobility, ‘EVConnect’. It was clear that although electric vehicles’ sales and growth in charging infrastructure was embryonic and sporadic, its ecosystem had the potential to benefit Indian cities and states, which warranted further exploration. Electric vehicles provide a host of benefits such as curbing tailpipe emissions from vehicles, the ability to store renewable energy in vehicle batteries and reduced foreign oil imports, to name a...

This blog post was originally published in The Hindustan Times.

As per the State of Global Air 2018 report, the country lost 11 lakh people due to air pollution. But, we have still not understood the severity of the issue.

Last Sunday, over 3,000 people turned up in the morning to protest against the growing air pollution in Gurugram. Protests are part of our society, so it was not surprising to see...

This blog post first appeared in The Wire.

After a few months of respite, Delhi’s air quality plunged to unhealthy levels a week or so ago, rekindling concerns about the approaching winter, and debates on managing crop burning, vehicular pollution and cracker-bursting during the upcoming Diwali festival. Since September, the national capital...

This blog post first appeared in Hindustan Times.

Air pollution is a health emergency. Schools are shut, many offices have offered work from home to their employees. The air outside is so bad that doctors are asking people to leave Delhi NCR, if possible. In this forced vacation, my 10 year old daughter asks me if I also had pollution break during my school days?

The question has been puzzling me. It was last year when we experienced ‘pollution break’...

This blog post originally appeared in Hindustan Times.

Over the past few years, around the time when Diwali ends and winter sets in, Delhi’s plummeting air quality reaches dangerous levels, initiating a series of debates and actions among environmental experts, governments and citizens. Experts have attributed this post-Diwali decline in air quality to polluting firecrackers, crop burning, a change in the wind directions, and vehicular...

This blog post originally appeared in WRI Insights.

India is ground zero for extreme heat. More than 6,100 people have died from heat events since 2010. Half of the country reeled under severe heat waves this summer, when temperatures reached over 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees F) in many places.

The urban...

This blog originally appeared in WRI Insights.

It is a humid monsoon afternoon, and Dr. Ann Miriam and Dr. Vijay Anand Ismavel are worried as they check their diesel stocks. It is the fifth day with no electricity, and their hospital is running entirely on backup diesel generators. If this keeps up, they'll soon need to send someone to the nearest fuel station, 25 kilometers (15 miles) away, to buy more diesel. But there's no guarantee they'll be able to get more...