As conversations on climate change become mainstream, the implementation of mitigation and adaptation measures has acquired greater urgency in India. With a population of 1.4 billion living in areas exposed to sea-level rise, increased cyclonic activity, extreme heat waves, flooding, and impacts of erratic monsoons and landslides, sustainable development has taken on a renewed relevance in India. Its salience in protecting lives, livelihoods and the country’s massive investments in infrastructure cannot be overstated. The traditional idea of good governance is focused on service delivery, mapping resources, and ensuring justice in policy-making. Climate change and its impacts across sectors now need to be taken into account in policy-making.
Sustainable development itself has seen a sea-change in terms of both perception and implementation. Great significance is attached today to understanding scientific concepts and making science-based development plans and policies. This has helped evolve a range of tools that link sustainable development to technological solutions. However, governance institutions at local and hyper-local levels continued to be dogged by an information asymmetry on the implications of climate change. Scientific and research bodies in India are working to minimise this gap while working closely with policymakers.
With more effective data on various environmental indicators publicly available, climate change policies can be equipped with a better understanding of casualties — this is especially so in the case of adaptation and mitigation. The need of the hour is to integrate science-based understanding into real-world technology solutions. Integrating technology-based solutions with public policies centred around sustainability can potentially have cascading effects, and ultimately make for good governance.
An example of this approach is evident in the country’s efforts towards integrating solar power into mainstream energy supply. In 2010, India launched its National Solar Mission and met the target of installing 20,000 megawatts of renewables four years before the deadline. The country then committed to doing more on this count. As of March, more than 60,000 megawatts of solar capacity have been installed.
An outcome of competitive bidding on tariffs led to solar power rates in India becoming one of the lowest in the world. The policy was supplemented with the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) scheme, which, amongst other things, stresses the need to power the 10 lakh grid-connected agriculture pumps with solar energy. Under this scheme, individual farmers who have grid-connected agricultural pumps are supported to run their water pumps on solar power – two-thirds of the cost is covered by the Centre and state governments. The farmer can use the generated solar power to meet irrigation needs and the surplus energy can be sold to the distribution company at a pre-fixed tariff.
At the international level, India and France spearheaded the International Solar Alliance (ISA), at the 2015 Paris climate conference, to promote the use of solar energy. The ISA now has 114 members.
This multidimensional approach to integrating solar in India’s energy supply has been bolstered by 28 central government policies that have subsidised renewable energy — they have a total outlay of Rs 11,529 crore. Such policy and fiscal incentives have transformed the country’s energy sector. They can provide the road map to other forms of sustainable governance. India’s drive towards renewables is a wonderful example of combining science and policy to design a bouquet of solutions that can address the needs of a complex and vast country like ours.
Another instance of implementing sustainability goals through innovative policies is the Swachh Bharat Mission — it directly addresses Sustainable Development Goal 6 which emphasises the importance of sanitation, cleanliness, and hygiene.
Adroit use of technology can help achieve systemic shifts like carbon neutrality. Various instrumentalities can be invoked — these include market-based mechanisms for the pricing of carbon that employ cutting-edge know-how in the effective sequestration of carbon. These mechanisms also help to increase the transparency of systems, ensure last-mile delivery of the benefits of sequestration, and help design plans and policies regarding compliance and liabilities. All these come together in a framework-based system. This solutions-based approach will also help educate and empower people in taking climate action. It gives people a role in regulating industries, determining the quality of goods and services and framing the level of competition and trust.
The priority now should be to preempt the new structural shift in governance and combine it with values such as equity, fairness, inclusiveness and accountability, while managing negative externalities. Examples set by the country’s solar power drive and the Swachh Bharat Mission can be emulated. As India looks to gradually phase out coal, there is an opportunity to apply science and policy to provide a just and equitable solution to the millions employed in the coal ecosystem. A just energy transition in India can serve as the blueprint for other developing countries.
This transition will benefit from multi-institutional communication across verticals in the public and private sectors. Technological innovation, public participation and solutions for sustainable development will provide opportunities for scaling up solutions. As the world eyes India’s leadership of the G20, planning for structural shifts and innovation could lead to good “sustainable” governance.
Tripathi is Professor, IIT Kanpur and Chaturvedi is PhD candidate, Stanford University
