- Delhi, Delhi, India
Navroz Dubash
Centre for Policy Research, Environmental Law and Governacne, Faculty Member
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Building Productive Links between the UNFCCC and the Broader Global Climate Governance Landscape1. This article reflects and builds upon discussions at a December 2013 workshop held in Neemrana, India, sponsored by the Centre for Policy Research (New Delhi) and the Mitigation Action Plans and Sce...more
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An energy supply approach is inadequate to India’s energy requirements at a time when multiple objectives need to be addressed. The state of play in energy supply and demand is examined, and the recovery of an older tradition of attention... more
An energy supply approach is inadequate to India’s energy requirements at a time when multiple objectives need to be addressed. The state of play in energy supply and demand is examined, and the recovery of an older tradition of attention to energy demand patterns in addition to energy supply is argued for. The gains from an explicit attention to the fact that India has to address multiple and simultaneous objectives in shaping energy policymaking are laid out, and emerging methodologies to serve this goal are discussed. Shifts in governance patterns are a necessary part of transitioning to a broader, and more development-focused approach to energy policy
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Institutions can affect coordination, consensus, and strategy
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Michael Renner’s paper on environmental security provides a useful starting point for discussing the relationships among the traditionally defined environment, security, and development policy arenas. The paper’s strengths suggest why it... more
Michael Renner’s paper on environmental security provides a useful starting point for discussing the relationships among the traditionally defined environment, security, and development policy arenas. The paper’s strengths suggest why it is important to explore these relationships, while its weaknesses exemplify the definitional and conceptual challenges of establishing robust and policy-relevant links. We begin this comment with a brief set of reactions to Renner’s paper, suggesting areas requiring further attention or definition. In subsequent sections, we discuss the problems of defining ‘environmental security’ and an appropriate conceptual framework. Using a framework that has been proposed in the literature, we identify elements of a policy agenda that emerge from a more precise delineation of the realm of environmental security, and suggest high priority avenues of policy research to support that agenda.
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Institutions can affect coordination, consensus, and strategy
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This chapter assesses national and sub-national mitigation policies and their institutional settings. There has been a marked increase in national policies and legislation on climate change since the AR4 with a diversity of approaches and... more
This chapter assesses national and sub-national mitigation policies and their institutional settings. There has been a marked increase in national policies and legislation on climate change since the AR4 with a diversity of approaches and a multiplicity of objectives (see Section 15.2). However, Figure 1.9 of Chapter 1 suggests that these policies, taken together, have not yet achieved a substantial deviation in emissions from the past trend. Limiting concentrations to levels that would be consistent with a likely probability of maintaining temperature increases below 2 degrees C this century (scenarios generally in the range of 430-480 ppmv CO2eq) would require that emissions break from these trends and be decreased substantially. In contrast, concentrations exceed 1000 ppmv CO2eq by 2100 in many baseline scenarios (that is, scenarios without additional efforts to reduce emissions). The literature on mitigation scenarios provides a wide range of CO2 shadow price levels consistent w...
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Carbon emissions—and hence fossil fuel combustion—must decline rapidly if warming is to be held below 1.5 or 2 °C. Yet fossil fuels are so deeply entrenched in the broader economy that a rapid transition poses the challenge of significant... more
Carbon emissions—and hence fossil fuel combustion—must decline rapidly if warming is to be held below 1.5 or 2 °C. Yet fossil fuels are so deeply entrenched in the broader economy that a rapid transition poses the challenge of significant transitional disruption. Fossil fuels must be phased out even as access to energy services for basic needs and for economic development expands, particularly in developing countries. Nations, communities, and workers that are economically dependent on fossil fuel extraction will need to find a new foundation for livelihoods and revenue. These challenges are surmountable. In principle, societies could undertake a decarbonization transition in which they anticipate the transitional disruption, and cooperate and contribute fairly to minimize and alleviate it. Indeed, if societies do not work to avoid that disruption, a decarbonization transition may not be possible at all. Too many people may conclude they will suffer undue hardship, and thus undermin...
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Two of the most contentious issues raised by critics of the performance of the World Bank have been the institution's involvement in the forest sector, and its promotion of structural adjustment. In this report, the authors and their... more
Two of the most contentious issues raised by critics of the performance of the World Bank have been the institution's involvement in the forest sector, and its promotion of structural adjustment. In this report, the authors and their colleagues in Papua New Guinea, ...
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... Shyam Divan, Gopal Krishna, Kanchi Kohli, Manju Menon, Nick Robinson, Geetanjoy Sahu, Himanshu Thakkar and Videh Upadhyay also contributed ... Rajib Dasgupta (dasgupta_jnu@yahoo. com) and Ramila Bisht (ramila.bisht@gmail.com) are at... more
... Shyam Divan, Gopal Krishna, Kanchi Kohli, Manju Menon, Nick Robinson, Geetanjoy Sahu, Himanshu Thakkar and Videh Upadhyay also contributed ... Rajib Dasgupta (dasgupta_jnu@yahoo. com) and Ramila Bisht (ramila.bisht@gmail.com) are at the Centre of Social Medicine ...
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India’s move to electrify every village and household in the country has been lauded as a success. Building on decades of targeted programmes and public investments by multiple governments, the country completed 100% village... more
India’s move to electrify every village and household in the country has been lauded as a success. Building on decades of targeted programmes and public investments by multiple governments, the country completed 100% village electrification in April 2018; a year after, it has electrified nearly all ‘willing’ households. Despite the time it took to get here, these achievements are important milestones in India’s development trajectory. But does connecting households to the electric grid resolve the electricity access challenge? The answer depends on whether electrons flow through the wires and whether all consumers are served equally and adequately.
Research Interests: India and Electricity
While there is growing attention to climate policy, effective coordination, design and implementation of policy require attention to institutional design for climate governance. This paper examines the case of India, organized around... more
While there is growing attention to climate policy, effective coordination, design and implementation of policy require attention to institutional design for climate governance. This paper examines the case of India, organized around three periods: pre-2007; 2007–2009 and 2010-mid-2014, providing institutional charts for each. Several key themes emerge. First, the formation of climate institutions have frequently been driven by international negotiations, even while filtered through domestic context. Second, once established, institutions tend not to be stable or long-lasting. Third, while various efforts at knowledge generation have been attempted, they do not add up to a mechanism for sustained and consistent strategic thinking on climate change. Fourth, coordination across government has been uneven and episodic, reaching a high point with a specialised envoy in the Prime Minister’s Office. Fifth, the overall capacity within government, in terms of specialised skills and shee...
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The growing focus on climate policy in India is not matched by an equivalent level of attention to institutions . Effective institutions are also needed for the design, coordination and implementation of policy. This paper examines the... more
The growing focus on climate policy in India is not matched by an equivalent level of attention to institutions . Effective institutions are also needed for the design, coordination and implementation of policy. This paper examines the functioning of institutions, organised around three periods: pre-2007; 2007 to 2009 and 2010 to mid-2014. Several key themes emerge: First, the formation of climate institutions has often been ad hoc and is inadequately geared to India’s co-benefits based approach to climate policy. Second, there is a lack of continuity in institutions, once established. Third, coordination across government has been uneven and episodic. Fourth, while various efforts at knowledge generation have been attempted, they do not add up to a mechanism for sustained and consistent strategic thinking on climate change. Fifth, the overall capacity within government remains limited. Sixth, capacity shortfalls are exacerbated by closed structures of governance that only partially...
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Economic & Political Weekly EPW January 21, 2012 vol xlvii no 3 13 should be on instilling integrity in the top rung of governance. Honesty, like corruption, follows the law of gravity – it percolates downwards; clean sing the top will,... more
Economic & Political Weekly EPW January 21, 2012 vol xlvii no 3 13 should be on instilling integrity in the top rung of governance. Honesty, like corruption, follows the law of gravity – it percolates downwards; clean sing the top will, by itself, produce a better administration at lower levels. First, giving the Lokpal supervision over the Central Vigilance Commission which investigates complaints against lower level bureau cracy will suffice. Second citizen charters deal with aspects of delivery of services and should have a separate enforcement and monitoring body. Third, some fundamen tals of the art of negotiation need to be kept in mind. You do not publicly denigrate those with whom you sit at the table to iron out differences; calling some one a cheat and a liar makes him automatically illdis posed to you, however meritorious your demand. And then there is the adage that the best is the enemy of the good – an in sistence on all or nothing usually results in getting the l...
We gratefully acknowledge the research contributions by Seher Shah and Prabhat Upadhyay towards this paper. The ideas in this paper have also been refi ned through discussions with colleagues on the Expert Group on Low Carbon Strategies... more
We gratefully acknowledge the research contributions by Seher Shah and Prabhat Upadhyay towards this paper. The ideas in this paper have also been refi ned through discussions with colleagues on the Expert Group on Low Carbon Strategies for Inclusive Growth, comments received during a faculty seminar at the Centre for Policy Research, and feedback received during a review workshop held at the Centre for Policy Research in January 2013. We have also benefi ted from comments by M V Ramana, Shantanu Dixit and Harald Winkler. All remaining errors of fact and interpretation are the responsibility of the authors alone.
This paper explores ideas of regulatory diffusion and transplant. I suggest that the existing literature, which focuses on channels of diffusion and macrocontextual variables of sectors and countries, insufficiently accounts for how the... more
This paper explores ideas of regulatory diffusion and transplant. I suggest that the existing literature, which focuses on channels of diffusion and macrocontextual variables of sectors and countries, insufficiently accounts for how the nature of institutional outcomes are shaped by the way regulatory agencies are adopted and embedded into national political economies. In particular, using the case of Indian electricity regulation, this paper suggests that when adoption is driven less by national policy choices, and more by the role of external actors, such as multilateral donor agencies, there is little scope for ex ante deliberation of the role regulatory agencies can and should play within national governance systems. Instead, the functioning of regulatory agencies are better explained by ex post adjustment, as agencies seek to accommodate existing political pressures, accompanied by efforts to explain and justify the foundational myth on which regulator adoption was based. Regul...
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3 development strategies,” (for convenience I use the term “low carbon growth plan” (LCGP) in this note) have gained considerable currency. Indeed, “major economies” agreed to prepare low carbon growth plans in their L'Aquila... more
3 development strategies,” (for convenience I use the term “low carbon growth plan” (LCGP) in this note) have gained considerable currency. Indeed, “major economies” agreed to prepare low carbon growth plans in their L'Aquila Declaration of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate of July 9, 2009. Political momentum, therefore, is growing to include this approach as part of a Copenhagen climate deal. However, the concept of carbon strategies or plans is ill-defined, making it extremely challenging to understand the implications of enshrining such plans in the global climate regime.
Planning for India’s energy future requires addressing multiple and simultaneous economic, social and environmental challenges. While there has been conceptual progress towards harnessing their synergies, there are limited methodologies... more
Planning for India’s energy future requires addressing multiple and simultaneous economic, social and environmental challenges. While there has been conceptual progress towards harnessing their synergies, there are limited methodologies available for operationalising a multiple objective framework for development and climate policy. This paper proposes a “multi-criteria decision analysis” approach to this problem, using illustrative examples from the cooking and buildings sectors. An MCDA approach enables policy processes that are analytically rigorous, participative and transparent, which are required to address India’s complex energy and climate challenges.
Growing political pressure to find solutions to climate change is leading to increasing calls for multiple disciplines, in particular those that are not traditionally part of climate change research, to contribute new knowledge systems... more
Growing political pressure to find solutions to climate change is leading to increasing calls for multiple disciplines, in particular those that are not traditionally part of climate change research, to contribute new knowledge systems that can offer deeper and broader insights to address the problem. Recognition of the complexity of climate change compels researchers to draw on interdisciplinary knowledge that marries natural sciences with social sciences and humanities. Yet most interdisciplinary approaches fail to adequately merge the framings of the disparate disciplines, resulting in reductionist messages that are largely devoid of context, and hence provide incomplete and misleading analysis for decision-making. For different knowledge systems to work better together toward climate solutions, we need to reframe the way questions are asked and research pursued, in order to inform action without slipping into reductionism. We suggest that interdisciplinarity needs to be rethough...