by Armin Rosencranz, Siddhanth Prasad and Abhiroop Chowdhury (Authors are, respectively, Dean, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor at Jindal School of Environment and Sustainability, O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana) We must make deep efforts to decarbonize, both to make headway against the climate crisis and avoid irreparable harm to our economy, society, and civilisation. In view of the general consensus on this issue – which has existed for nearly three decades now – it is alarming that we have not yet taken corrective action. However alarming the status-quo may be, it is anything but surprising. To explain, let’s consider the case of the carbon tax. Largely pushed by economists as the most efficient method to control emissions, it has struggled in the real world to gain acceptance. The problem is not that the economic policy advisors are wrong in theory, but that some of them are unseeing to the real-world constraints on rational policy making. The carbon tax is deeply unpopular among the electorate. Much of the resentment comes from the negative popular reaction to the word ‘tax’. Whatever its basis, a rational politician would do well to acknowledge such sentiments. To do otherwise would be to risk electoral decimation. The longer environmentalists take to recognise that policy making is not solely based on reason or logic, the easier they make it for unscrupulous but clever opponents of climate action to delay change. Rampant forest fires, frequent natural disasters along the coastlines, intensive draught and desertification is destabilizing the global ecology, lives and livelihood of billions. Environment, climate change requires sustainable solutions. Climate situations are worsening day by day. Even with a cooling La Niña event, and ongoing pandemic, 2020 was one of the three warmest year in record with 2011-2020 being the warmest decade. Global temperature is 1.2 degree Celsius above record since the industrial revolution. It is predicted that if the global average warming increases by more than 3°C by 20701 , it can lead to a loss of $6 trillion in present value terms by 2050, which will be 6% of India’s GDP in 2050. There is a hope with substantial emission reduction nation can have an economic gain of $11 trillion by 2070. One of the major source of Green House Gasses (GHG) emission is transportation and energy sector. A report indicates that during 2019, 29% of emissions is generated by transport sector while energy sector contributed to 25% at US2. A 2014 report indicated that India’s GHG footprint was 3,202 million metric tonnes CO2 equivalent, of which the energy sector contributes 68.7 percent. Diversifying the energy production and adopting ‘Electrical vehicles’ can be an effective solution to tackle the current climate change impacts. India’s energy production is largely dependent on thermal power which accounts for about 70% of produced electricity, which is also a major contributor to GHG emissions. On the other hand, Nuclear technologies are safer, greener and can produce more affordable energy. The cost budget of an energy producing unit is estimated…
