Current electricity markets operate on a cost minimizing objective for power supply. However, countries across the world need to decarbonize their power systems in line with their policy objectives to mitigate climate change. In this context, this paper presents a framework to analyze synergies and trade-offs in cost and emission minimization strategies in the power sector. Emission minimizing objective can reduce emissions from existing fleets having flexibility in electricity supply, regardless of renewable energy capacity additions.
Agricultural adaptation to climate change includes changes in agricultural management practices which will be quite effective in reducing the probability of crop failure and improving the socio economic condition of farmers. Knowledge about the decision making process of farmers can help in identifying the determinants of adaptation to them. It is very important to model the farmers' behaviour and decision making process to answer the reasons for farmers' suicides and inequalities arising out within the farmers belonging to same group.
Coastal fishing communities are highly susceptible to disasters resulting from oceanic extreme weather events. However, there have been limited studies on understanding recovery exclusively in these communities. This study provides an assessment of the drivers of recovery in coastal fishing communities of Odisha — who were impacted by cyclone Phailin in 2013 — based on data collected through a household survey.
Lockdown seems the most effective way to prevent the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as no vaccine is currently available in the market to cure it. Thus, India has enforced nation-wide lockdown from 25th March to lower the spread of this contagious virus and associated illness. This study aims to quantify the changes in pollution levels as well as meteorology during the 6-weeks COVID-19 lockdown over 17 cities of India for 5 major criteria pollutants using publicly available air quality data.
Existing flood modeling studies over coastal catchments involving different combinations of model chain setup imparting complex information fails to entail the needs of policy or decision-makers. Thus, a comprehensive framework that pertains to the requirements of practitioners and provides more perspicuous flood hazard information is required. In this paper, a novel approach translating complex flood hazard information in the form of decision priority maps derived using a rational combination of models (physical and statistical) is elucidated at the finest administrative scale.
Himalayan regions have increasing sediment yield due to undulating topography, slope and improper watershed management. However, due to limited observation data, and site accessibility issues, less studies have quantified sedimentation loads in the Himalayas, especially Nepal. This has hindered the investments on run-of-river hydropower projects as high and unpredicted sedimentation has increased losses in hydropower production. Therefore, there is a need to understand key physical processes driving sedimentation in these regions, with the available data.
Sustainable development goals connect policies addressing air quality and energy efficiency with complementary benefits for climate mitigation. However, a typically fragmented approach across these domains hinders effectiveness in addressing short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs)—including methane, carbon monoxide, non-methane volatile organic compounds and black carbon—to supplement CO2 mitigation. Here, to support policy coordination in India, we assess climate co-benefits of air quality and clean energy policies, using multiple metrics (global warming and temperature change potentials).
Coupling of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian monsoon (IM) is central to seasonal summer monsoon rainfall predictions over the Indian subcontinent, although a nonstationary relationship between the two nonlinear phenomena can limit seasonal predictability. Radiative effects of volcanic aerosols injected into the stratosphere during large volcanic eruptions (LVEs) tend to alter ENSO evolution; however, their impact on ENSO-IM coupling remains unclear.
Cities are cardinal and nodal points of a country. Any stress or shock on a city can have cascading adverse effects on the socio-economy of the entire nation. An attempt has been to develop indices, indicating the vulnerability to climate change/environmental hazards, for Indian cities located in different bio-climatic zones. The indices generated in the study are based on socio-economic variables and provide an overview of the potential vulnerabilities faced by these cities in the context of climate disasters. Eleven cities located in six different bio-climatic zones have been studied.
Dynamic Regional Climate Models (RCMs) work at fine resolution for a limited region and hence they are presumed to simulate regional climate better than General Circulation Models (GCMs). Simulations by RCMs are used for impacts assessment, often without any evaluation. There is a growing debate on the added value made by the regional models to the projections of GCMs specifically for the regions like, United States and Europe.
