Low-Carbon Development

Climate change will have wide-ranging socio-economic impacts across demographics unless action is taken to mitigate it. Our current systems of economic development are largely carbon intensive, which result in a great deal of carbon emissions. Climate change is expected to have severe effects across sectors unless urgent action is taken to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 50 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels . Economic growth and climate change mitigation are not separate or antithetical to one another. Acting on climate mitigation strategies can result in positive economic benefits over a longer term.

While lowering emissions from carbon-intensive sectors is an important component of mitigating climate change, we must also focus on enhancing our developmental strategies to make economic growth inherently climate resilient. Such an approach will allow India to meet its climate targets while continuing an upward economic trajectory. The effort towards low-carbon development is closely tied to the tenets of the Paris Agreement that encourages economy-wide reduction and mitigation targets along with the development of market and non-market-based approaches to tackle climate change. The Paris Agreement also requires countries to track and regularly report their climate actions and GHG emissions as a means to evaluate progress on their NDC targets.

Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation is supporting efforts to develop and implement integrated climate strategies, establish linkages between climate action and socio-economic impacts and deepen engagements among stakeholders. We are helping to advance national and state level efforts to better understand the implications of global commitments on India’s development paradigm. We are also supporting efforts to build adequate capacities amongst various stakeholders to manage greenhouse gas emissions.