Undertaken By: Council on Energy, Environment and Water, Recent Publication: 2019
India is steadily emerging as a key player in the global energy markets as well as in climate negotiations. And although India is already doing more than its fair share in terms of mitigation, it, along with other countries, might need to take on additional targets for the world to achieve the global target of a ‘well below Two Degree C temperature increase’, as specified in the Paris Agreement.
India, as a developing nation, with competing priorities around limited resources, has to ensure it chooses appropriate and cost-effective options for low-carbon development. India can use multiple options, such as a carbon taxes, an emissions trading scheme (ETS), or a hybrid of ETS and taxes, trading of energy efficiency and renewable energy certificates, and other sectoral policy instruments working in tandem with each other. The key question, however, is ‘how does one choose an appropriate mitigation instrument in the Indian context?’
The Working Group on Mitigation Instruments was constituted to deliberate on the potential mitigation instruments for India, and to develop a framework to evaluate these. The WGMI comprised leaders from the industry, academia and the think-tank community. This white paper presents the findings of the working group.