The Importance of Federalism in Decarbonizing India’s Electricity System
India is the world’s third largest economy and power producer with growing electricity demand from low per capita electricity consumption. Despite growth of renewable energy, coal-heavy electricity generation means greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions from the power sector are and will remain an important focus of public policies in India. Electricity demand and generation mixes, and their accompanying social costs from air pollution vary by state. Both central and state governments share jurisdiction over the power sector. Consequently, the differences and interactions between states matter when evaluating and designing policies to decarbonize India’s electricity system. This talk will give an overview of these differences and interactions. It will also contextualize them within current policy efforts and targets as well as future challenges. Policies that have modest or negligible impacts at the aggregate, national level nonetheless have disparate, state-level impacts. This has implications for India’s decarbonization efforts as it aims to increase renewable energy by 2030, meet net-zero emissions by 2070, while ensuring a just energy transition. Speaker: Shayak Sengupta This workshop is part of SGS' Global Research Workshops program, which supports workshops that explore interdisciplinary, transregional themes and fosters the sharing of research across fields and national boundaries.
India is the world’s third largest economy and power producer with growing electricity demand from low per capita electricity consumption. Despite growth of renewable energy, coal-heavy electricity generation means greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions from the power sector are and will remain an important focus of public policies in India. Electricity demand and generation mixes, and their accompanying social costs from air pollution vary by state. Both central and state governments share jurisdiction over the power sector. Consequently, the differences and interactions between states matter when evaluating and designing policies to decarbonize India’s electricity system. This talk will give an overview of these differences and interactions. It will also contextualize them within current policy efforts and targets as well as future challenges. Policies that have modest or negligible impacts at the aggregate, national level nonetheless have disparate, state-level impacts. This has implications for India’s decarbonization efforts as it aims to increase renewable energy by 2030, meet net-zero emissions by 2070, while ensuring a just energy transition. Speaker: Shayak Sengupta This workshop is part of SGS' Global Research Workshops program, which supports workshops that explore interdisciplinary, transregional themes and fosters the sharing of research across fields and national boundaries.