Energy, Environment and Climate Change

Programme About

The Energy and Environment Programme (EEP) teaches and carries out policy-focused research in energy, environment, and climate change. Despite the pandemic, EEP faculty and researchers published eleven papers in peer-reviewed journals, five papers in conference proceedings, one book chapter, and eight articles in national newspapers/magazines and delivered invited talks in other institutions. EEP faculty prepared a NIAS Policy Brief on a transition plan for the power sector. They conducted two stakeholder consultation workshops involving participants from the government and industry as well as experts from academia andcivil society. While NIAS recommendations related to thermal power plants are under implementation by the Government of India, the government also seeks periodic inputs from EEP faculty on matters related to energy and climate change policies. In the coming year, EEP faculty will continue to focus on emerging research areas, such as affordable energy security, water security, sustainable cities, and urban emissions.

Programme Head
R Srikanth
Professor and Dean
School: School of Natural Sciences and Engineering
Programme: Energy, Environment and Climate Change
Room no: S-11
Tel: 080-2218 5135 Fax: 080-2218-5028
rsrikanth@nias.res.in
Faculty
Visiting Professor
Phone:
E-mail:
avkrishnan@nias.res.in
Doctoral Student
Phone:
+919810326878
E-mail:
aarizahmed066@gmail.com
Post-Doctoral Associate
Phone:
E-mail:
Dilip Ahuja
Head
School:
Phone:
E-mail:
rahuja@gmail.com
Homi Bhabha Chair Professor
Phone:
(O) 080-2218-5105, 09836176868
E-mail:
dinesh.srivastava@nias.res.in
Post-Doctoral Associate
Phone:
E-mail:
Assistant Professor
Phone:
080-22185131
E-mail:
harini@nias.res.in
Hippu Salke Kristle Nathan
Assistant Professor
School:
Phone:
E-mail:
happyhippu@gmail.com
Doctoral Student
Phone:
E-mail:
Professor
Phone:
Tel: 080-2218 5135 Fax: 080-2218-5028
E-mail:
rsrikanth@nias.res.in
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Assistant Professor
Phone:
E-mail:
rudrodip@nias.res.in
Soumya Deep Das
Doctoral Student
Phone:
E-mail:
Dr. Raja Ramanna Chair Professor
Phone:
080 2218 5169
E-mail:
Sudha.Mahalingam@nias.res.in
Sudip Kumar Kundu
Doctoral Student
Phone:
E-mail:
Tanmay Ghosh
Doctoral Student
Phone:
E-mail:
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Associate Professor
Phone:
080-22185167
E-mail:
tejalk@nias.res.in
Research Fellow
Phone:
E-mail:
Energy Studies

Energy studies includes a very wide range of sub-themes. EECP contributes to many of these sub-themes through its research. This includes studies on the power sector specifically, e.g., evaluating reforms in the power sector, the role and scope of clean coal technologies, developing models for optimal electricity supply, and analysis of inter-regional power flows. Faculty and scholars at the EECP also do research on the energy sector as a whole, including and beyond the power sector, e.g., exploring the role of renewable energy systems and their potential impacts, modelling of solar thermal systems, exploring the potential for sustainable fuels in the transport sector, development of integrated energy-environment-economy models, evaluating the implications of energy transitions for labour and other developmental indicators, and energy use and mechanisation in agriculture, among others.

Environmental Studies

Faculty and research scholars at the EECP are involved in multiple projects that study various aspects of the interaction of human systems and settlements, and the environment. This includes studies on air quality and its impacts on public health, environmental policy and jurisprudence in coal mining regions, integrated water resource management, sustainable transportation in cities, vulnerability and adaptability of ecosystems, ecosystem services with a focus on aquatic systems, evaluating airshed properties of urban regions, rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems, and modelling urban micro-climates, among others.

Climate Studies

Research focusing specifically on climate change, includes studies on climate change mitigation, adaptation, and understanding and addressing vulnerability to climate change. This includes the study of global environmental and climate change policies, climate change negotiations, and exploring ideas of equity in climate action. EECP also studies the nature and scale of socio-economic impacts of weather variability, extreme events, and climatic uncertainty on production of goods and services. Understanding existing responses to ongoing changes and exploring methods of strengthening these responses with access to scientific knowledge and technological instruments is an important part of this work.

Interaction between Earth and Human Systems

Funding Agency: Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India 

Project Description:  This project is primarily designed to conduct PhD dissertation research inter alia in the following areas: 

  • Socio-economic impact of the Agrometeorology (Agromet) Advisory Services and Marine Fishery Advisories (MFAs) provided by IMD and INCOIS, respectively.
  • Impact of air pollution on public health
  • Strategies to enhance the sustainability of public transport
  • Developmental and environmental Impacts of select river linking projects
  • Policies and enablers to achieve SDG 7 (Clean and Affordable energy).

Besides, research is also being conducted on the microclimate of select metropolitan services and air pollution models.

Climate Change Mitigation in India’s Third National Communication

Funding Agency: Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, Government of India 

Project Description: This project aims to provide a draft of the chapter on “Climate Change Mitigation” for India’s Third National Communication to the UNFCCC. Climate change mitigation is one of the most important focus areas in climate policy. It encompasses a vast arena of interventions, policies, technological development, and deployment, that are aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, consequently leading to limiting the rise in global surface temperatures to below certain limits.  

The need to limit GHG emissions on a global scale is increasingly becoming an important determinant of energy policy, even in developing countries such as India. This is a consequence of the fact that effective global climate action requires some form of contribution to climate change mitigation from all nations.  The nature and scale of such contributions may of course vary based on the formulation of domestic policies in accordance with national circumstances, historical responsibility, and an assessment of the country’s role in the global arena. In this context, India’s contribution to climate change mitigation far exceeds its past and current responsibility in causing climate change, despite the developmental challenges the country faces, which are now further exacerbated by the prolonged COVID-19 crises on the domestic as well as international front. 

This is the context in which the assessment of India’s efforts on climate change mitigation will be evaluated and reported. Potential and existing interventions to reduce emissions by either increasing energy efficiency, substituting fossil fuels with green energy technologies, or replacing processes themselves where possible, undertaken in the country since the Second National Communication, will be discussed in this chapter. The chapter will discuss these in the context of India’s role in climate change mitigation as understood within the guiding principles of the UNFCCC, that underline the importance of equity and differentiated responsibility in climate action.

Role and Viability of Nuclear Power

Funding Agency: Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (A Government of India Enterprise) 

Project Description: Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) are based on well-established, safe, and environment-friendly technologies in India that can generate power on a 24x7 basis unlike VRE sources.  Based on the administrative approvals and financial sanctions accorded by the Government for future NPPs, the total installed nuclear power capacity in India is expected to rise to 22,480 MW by the middle of the next decade. Considering the total TPP capacity of 205 GW in India today and the aspirations of India’s young population there is a need to develop a national policy and strategy along with action plans to expedite the construction of NPPs in time to replace a significant part of TPP capacity. In the long term, given the imperatives of mitigating climate change, while meeting India’s developmental requirements, there is a need to realistically assess the potential for NPPs and conduct and honest and transparent comparative analysis of nuclear energy technology vis-à-vis other  technologies in terms of their best possible use in the Indian context. Such an analysis must also consider the strategic role and multiplier effect of NPPs on India’s economy as a whole. 

A Status Report on the Rare Earth (RE) Ecosystem in India

Funding Agency: IREL (India) Limited (A Government of India Enterprise) 

Duration: 9 months 

Project Description: The focus of the report will be on a RE Policy Framework for the Government of India to act on. A critical review of the current global RE industry will form the first section of the report. The second part will take stock of the status of RE developments in India. It will identify the prospects and problems for the development of a viable RE industry in the country. The third part will link Indian capabilities to the global scene and identify a set of options with a ranking scheme that has both supply (technology) side as well as demand (product/ market) side dimensions. The final section of the report will link the different strands into an integrated picture of the various options for consideration of decision and policy makers at the Government of India level. The aim of the report will be to provide a comprehensive assessment of commercial as well as strategic RE value chains. The focus will be on attaining self-sufficiency and meeting domestic needs through all available means that includes both indigenous development as well as technology transfer. The report will only address the downstream part of the RE value chains. In view of the importance of “Green Energy” as well as the initiatives already taken pertaining to Permanent Magnets in India, the report will lay special emphasis on these value chains.

Urban Management
Harini Santhanam
Harini Santhanam
Harini Santhanam
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Past Events
Lecture Hall NIAS Wednesday Discussion
International Collaborations in Basic Research and Conflicts between Nations
Dinesh Kumar Srivastava, Homi Bhabha Chair Professor, Energy, Environment and Climate Change Programme, School of Natural Sciences and Engineering
Lecture Hall
06 April 2022