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At the current rate of around thirty-four billion tons of CO2 emissions per year, we could exhaust our carbon budget in less than a decade

Ways to attain growth, create jobs, and meet developmental targets with minimal carbon emissions are priorities for both India and the EU.

An economic return alone might not be sufficient to induce green financing. A more holistic rate of return, considering the social cost of carbon, will be appropriate

Cutting oil and gas out of the climate conversation won’t work because – like it or not – they will underpin the global economy for years to come

India has the longest coastline in the Bay of Bengal, making it critical for the country to manage maritime security challenges in this space. However, given the transnational nature of most maritime threats, India must cooperate with other Bay littorals and the major powers to address these issues. The Bay of Bengal is a vital part of the Indo-Pacific geostrategic construct, and a secure Bay is fundamental to a stable Indo-Pacific. By addressing

Central Asia, which is seen by India as a potential region to explore its wider energy options in the form of hydrocarbons, hydro-electric power and uranium reserves, is apparently slipping out of its hands largely due to the energy stance of other countries.

India holds a primary interest in the Freedom of Navigation through the South China Sea. It also has an economic interest in exploring hydrocarbon resources in the area. But how effective are India's role as the balancing actor that the ASEAN nations seek?

Experts identified trade in hydrocarbons and uranium as the two important cogs of bilateral energy cooperation

India's urgent requirements for hydrocarbons seem to be prompting it to look for proverbial strange bedfellows. Shrugging off the ideological baggage of the Cold War era and the Nehruvian idealism, India is all set to pursue a realistic foreign policy.

This paper examines India’s role, and stakes, in the so-called ‘Arctic Paradox’: As the Arctic region witnesses an unprecedented rate of ice-melt because of global warming, new routes are being opened, paving the way for untapped hydrocarbon and mineral resources to be exploited. While India has been active in the Arctic for over ten years, it has not fully made use of its Observer status, and it must give new energy to its activities in th

Carbon-intensive assets are a financial time bomb.

The Arctic region, with its vast reserves of natural gas, minerals, oil, and hydrocarbons, presents energy and economic opportunities for countries, including India. India’s Arctic Policy, released in 2022, signalled the country’s intent to expand its engagements in the region beyond its historical focus on scientific research and climate studies. While the policy acknowledges the region’s growing economic potential, however, it does not ad

Canada’s world-class energy resources and national interests in global energy diplomacy must be articulated coherently and to the fullest

The first universal, legally binding global climate accord signed at the 21st session of the Conference of Parties (COP) in Paris in 2015 committed to long-term goals for “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.” However, as world leaders prepare for the Facilitative Dialogue (FD) ahead o

India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions for climate action emphasises the creation of an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to three billion tonnes by 2030 by increasing the country’s green cover. At the same time, however, harmful human activities such as legal and illegal logging, as well as deforestation for development purposes seem poised to negate the impact of these climate-action plans. While steps are being taken to prevent t

Only a small trickle of INDCs has been submitted by other countries. So there isn't much by way of international examples for India to consider. The EU has said it will reduce its carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. Mexico has submitted both conditional and unconditional INDCs.

The Indo-Pacific, which holds most of the world’s mangroves, faces serious risks from natural disasters, including those related to the long-term sustainability of coastal communities and valuable ecosystems. Mangroves uphold biodiversity, support ecosystem functionality, and sustain local livelihoods; however, financing their conservation is proving to be a massive challenge. This report examines the ecosystem services provided by mangroves, i

At the Obama- Xi talks, there has been some movement forward on the so-far intractable issue of Hydroflurocarbon (HFCs) emissions. Washington and Beijing have agreed to work together to eliminate the use of HFCs and persuade countries like India to join this effort. This could mean trouble for the tenuous alliance of BASIC.

Modi and Obama need to focus less on India's near-term carbon emissions and find ways to boost its use of renewable energy like solar and wind. Such an approach will address Delhi's need to grow its economy and Washington's desire to lessen the weight of coal in India?s energy mix.

Russia is considering supplying Hydrocarbons to India through pipelines and both countries have commissioned joint study groups to analyse the feasibility of the project.

Starting with the challenges faced by Indian petroleum sector in its hydrocarbon discoveries, the scenario remains to be unimpressive even after nine rounds of NELP bidding. Out of sedimentary basin area of 3.14 million km2 only 22 per cent has been well explored, while similar percentage is poorly explored.

Government agencies at the city, state and central level are paying greater attention to sustainable transport as the way forward for India’s mobility sector. However, for sustainability measures to have lasting outcomes in policy and practice, institutional reforms are urgently needed. The National Urban Transport Policy, which governs India’s urban mobility policymaking, was amended in 2014 to create city-specific, low-carbon mobility solut

The international community has been engaged in negotiations around climate finance for three decades now, and working definitions continue to assign the role of funder to advanced economies, and that of recipient, to emerging ones. This brief makes a case for expanding such narrow definitions. It calls on countries such as India to re-imagine not only the idea of climate finance but also the mechanisms of raising funds and the channels f

Given its vast coastline, Delhi should devote its attention for now to importing hydrocarbons by sea, investing in equity oil in Russia and other energy-rich countries, and concluding swap arrangements rather than grandiose transregional pipelines.

Green jobs in the U.S. are nice, but won’t get India and other big emitters off a carbon-intensive development path.

Although Africa’s greenhouse gas emissions are low, its contribution to climate change mitigation is critical to global climate action. This report evaluates Africa’s climate policy through the lens of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities,’ an asymmetrical allocation of responsibility for climate action, determined by differences in countries’ contributions to historical emissions and their current capabilities to fight climate c

Agriculture is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, even as it feeds the 8-billion global population. Around 75 percent of farms, globally, are family-owned and under 2 hectares; together they produce a third of the world’s food. These smallholder farms produce 15-percent lower emissions per hectare than a large farm. Yet, smallholders bear the brunt of climate change, which threatens their livelihood. Big agribusinesses, meanwhile,

This paper highlights the likely impact that the Trump energy policy reset may have on Washington’s approach to energy transitions domestically and globally. It seeks to identify any recalibration that this changed approach may have triggered in the long-term agenda of US partners. The paper focuses on the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—a country that has substantiated its commitment to clean energy pathways with sizeable investments of political

While much of the Indo-Russian relationship appears to be already existing ties, especially in the military-technical cooperation and hydrocarbon industry, trade and economic relations are faced with myriad challenges. It is time to diversify the trade basket to include technology, pharmaceuticals, etc.

The current Just Energy Transition Partnerships framework does not work for India because it prioritises G7’s agenda and overlooks our specific energy transition needs and challenges

India and Russia already have mutual stakes in the hydrocarbon sector. The stage is set for this time-tested friendship to deliver results. They should now extend their integration beyond conventional strategic ties.

Climate change is a global commons problem requiring concerted actions by all. While recognising this, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has also acknowledged the principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,’ which assigns greater responsibilities to developed countries in mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reducing their carbon footprint. There have also been deliber

Grasslands that provide a variety of ecosystem services for humans—including carbon storage, which is important to mitigating climate change—are among the world’s most threatened habitats. In India, grassy ecosystems are not accorded any legal protection. Vast acres of these grasslands are converted for revenue-generating use, altering their ecological dynamics and threatening the livelihoods and cultures of pastoral and agrarian communitie

This report explores the role of water credits to incentivise conservation, optimise allocation, and integrate sustainability into corporate and agricultural water use. Modelled after carbon credits, water credits incentivise stakeholders—including agriculture, industry, services, and households—to offset consumption by investing in water conservation and efficiency measures. The study examines economic and ecological valuation models and pri

The budget by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam falls short on climate action, failing to bridge the gap between ambition and execution for a sustainable future.

Sustainable finance emerged as a key issue to tackle climate change at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference and is spurring a global transition to net zero. A peculiar feature of the race to net zero is that it cannot be achieved unless all countries can meet their targets, and any positive step towards it will benefit all countries. The drive to achieve carbon neutrality and net-zero emissions needs to be targeted through a range of

The challenge of a “net zero” for India is not an easy one. Being one of the fastest growing economies with the second largest population that aspires to be $5 trillion economy soon, will India be able to circumvent the trade-off between the environment and economic growth?

Two intertwined territorial contentions remain unresolved between China and Japan in the East China Sea.

क्वांटम कॉम्प्युटिंग तंत्रज्ञानाचा अवलंब भारतासाठी कार्बन फूटप्रिंट कमी करण्यासाठी क्रांतिकारी ठरू शकतो.