The GGKP's Seventh Annual Conference took place on 21-22 October 2019 in conjunction with the Global Green Growth Institute’s Global Green Growth Week 2019 (GGGW2019) on the theme of “Achieving Global Energy Transformation” in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Joydeep Ghosh presented his paper “An Assessment of Potential Drivers of India’s Sustainable Energy Transformation” in Session C.1: Policy and Planning Approaches for the Green Energy Transition. Ghosh is an independent researcher and co-founder of the Institute for Economic Modeling Studies in New Delhi, India. He has held several research and consulting positions with such organizations as the Institute of Economic Growth, International Food Policy Research Institute and Ernst & Young. His research interests include macroeconomic modeling, climate change, agriculture and rural development, and he has been published in several journals, including Economic Modelling, Journal of Policy Modeling, and Environment and Development Economics. Ghosh holds a PhD in Economics from Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics in Pune, India.
1) Briefly describe the topic and conclusion of your research.
As part of its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted to the UNFCCC, India has committed to achieve 40% electric power from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030. In this paper, we assess the implications of interactions between regulatory policy and technological developments in sustainable energy in the light of India’s NDCs using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The main conclusion of our research is that regulatory policies such as carbon pricing are required to scale up sustainable energy technologies, and to bring down emissions. Standalone technological developments in sustainable energy may not be enough for scaling up. Further, advances in potential coal-based technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) can help to achieve similar emission reductions as wind and solar at a lower economic cost. Technological developments in CCS could make it an attractive tool for promoting low-carbon growth in coal-dependent economies.
2) What are the key policy messages/implications?
- Regulatory policies such as carbon pricing and technological developments in sustainable energy reinforce each other and therefore must be considered together for achieving successful impacts. This can help reduce the gap between policy objectives and implementation.
- There is significant scope for public-private partnerships for scaling up sustainable energy.
- R&D on sustainable energy and its impacts are urgently required for developing countries through collaborative efforts.
- Generating awareness about the long-term benefits of sustainable energy and carbon mitigation policies is crucial.
3) If applicable, briefly elaborate on the policy framework and financing mechanism.
Regulatory policies such as carbon pricing could be a useful mechanism to finance R&D in sustainable energy. This in turn could create more jobs in these sectors.
4) Are there any challenges you would like to underline from this research?
This research shows that achieving the correct balance between regulatory policies and sustainable energy objectives is crucial.
5) What are the opportunities for collaboration around this issue?
There is significant scope for policy-oriented research in sustainable energy in the developing country context.
6) Which session are you interested in attending at GGKP7 and why?
I am interested is the session on socially inclusive transitions and the launch of the Green Growth Index, especially as these are my areas of interest.