Subash Dhar

Low-carbon society scenarios for India

Low-carbon society scenarios visualize social, economic and technological transitions through which societies respond to climate change. This article assesses two paradigms for transiting to a low-carbon future in India. An integrated modelling framework is used for delineating and assessing the alternative development pathways having equal cumulative CO2 emissions during the first half of the 21st century. The first pathway assumes a conventional development pattern together with a carbon price that aligns Indias emissions to an optimal 550 ppmv CO2e stabilization global response. The second emissions pathway assumes an underlying sustainable development pattern characterized by diverse response measures typical of the ‘sustainability’ paradigm. A comparative analysis of the alternative development strategies is presented on multiple indicators such as energy security, air quality, technology stocks and adaptive capacity, and conclusions are drawn.

Renewable energy and low carbon economy transition in India

Cooperation of large developing countries such as India would be important in achieving a low carbon future, which can help in restricting the global temperature rise to 2 °C. Global modeling studies of such low carbon scenarios point to a prominent role for renewable energy. This paper reports scenarios for a low carbon future in India. An integrated modeling framework is used for assessing the alternate development pathways having equal cumulative CO2 emissions. The modeling period ranges from 2005 to 2050. The first pathway assumes a conventional development pattern together with a carbon price that aligns India’s emissions to an optimal 450 ppmv CO2-eq. stabilization global response. The second emissions pathway assumes an underlying sustainable development pattern. A low carbon future will be good for renewable energy under both the development pathways, though the share of renewable energy will be higher under a sustainable pathway. Renewable energy faces competition from low carbon technologies lik...

India’s GHG Emission Reduction and Sustainable Development

India has made voluntary commitment for reducing the emission intensity of GDP in the year 2020 by 20–25 % below that in the year 2005. The Indian approach is based on delineating and implementing cost-effective mitigation actions which can contribute to national sustainable development goals while remaining aligned to the UNFCCC’s expressed objective of keeping the average global surface temperature increase to below 2 °C over the preindustrial average. This chapter assesses three emission scenarios for India, spanning the period 2010–2050. The analysis is carried out using a bottom-up energy system model ANSWER-MARKAL, which is embedded within a soft-linked integrated model system (SLIMS).

Regional cooperation towards trans‐country natural gas market

Purpose – India began gas imports since 2004 through liquified natural gas (LNG) route. Imports through trans‐country gas pipelines could help in bringing gas directly into the densely populated Northern part of India, which are far from domestic gas resources as well as coastal LNG terminals. The purpose of this paper is to report scenarios, which quantify the impacts for India of regional cooperation to materialize trans‐country pipelines. The analysis covers time period from 2005 to 2030.Design/methodology/approach – The long‐term energy system model ANSWER‐MARKAL is used for the analysis.Findings – Trans‐country pipelines could deliver direct economic benefit of US

India's Indc for Transport and 2°c Stabilization Target

310 billion for the period 2010‐2030. Besides these, there are positive externalities in terms of lower greenhouse gas emissions and improved local environment, and enhanced energy security. However, the benefits are sensitive to global gas prices as higher gas prices would reduce the demand for gas and also the positive externalities from ...

Synchrotron X-ray measurement of residual strain within the nose of a worn manganese steel railway crossing

Transport sector accounted for 13 % of Indias energy-related CO2 emissions. Indias Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) specify an economy wide decarbonization target of 33 to 35 % between 2005 and 2030 and includes announcements for urban transport, intercity transportation infrastructures, sustainable logistics and inland waterways to achieve these reductions. The Paris agreement that followed the announcement of the INDC increased the global ambition to stabilize the greenhouse gases so that maximum temperature rise is limited to 2 ?C with an enhanced ambition for 1.5 ?C. The paper analyses how far INDC will reduce the emissions from transport and to what extent a 2 ?C temperature stabilization goal will decarbonize the transport sector. The analysis is carried out using ANSWER MARKAL model for evaluating the energy system in combination with a transport demand module to model future scenarios for India till year 2050. Three scenarios are explored in this paper: i) a business-As-usual scenario ii) an INDC scenario iii) implementation of INDC in a strong climate regime aiming for the 2 oC target. The assessment shows that CO2 reductions from transport would happen through a wide portfolio of options. The highest mitigation is achieved through sustainable mobility strategies, followed by fuel economy standards. Electric vehicles offer significant mitigation benefits, however these are more significant post 2030.

Low carbon scenarios for transport in India: Co-benefits analysis

Switches and crossings are an integral part of any railway network. Plastic deformation associated with wear and rolling contact fatigue due to repeated passage of trains cause severe damage leading to the formation of surface and sub-surface cracks which ultimately may result in rail failure. Knowledge of the internal stress distribution adds to the understanding of crack propagation and may thus help to prevent catastrophic rail failures. In this work, the residual strains inside the bulk of a damaged nose of a manganese railway crossing that was in service for five years has been investigated by using differential aperture synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The main purpose of this paper is to describe how this method allows non-destructive measurement of residual strains in selected local volumes in the bulk of the rail. Measurements were conducted on the transverse surface at a position about 6.5 mm from the rail running surface of a crossing nose. The results revealed the presence of significant compressive residual strains along the running direction of the rail.