Sun, Wind, and Biomass

Description

Sun, Wind, and Biomass: India's Path to a Sustainable Future examines the current state of the Indian economy, tracing its trajectory towards a fossil fuel-free energy future. It posits that harnessing sun, wind, and biomass can provide a sustainable economic alternative to polluting energy sources such as domestic coal and expensive oil and gas imports. Such a transition is projected to provide substantial benefits not only for the national economy but also for public health, the latter occasioned by the anticipated improvements in air quality resulting from the projected change in the energy system. Contrary to the concerns about the negative implications for economic development, the authors suggest that the transition to a carbon-free future offers a range of beneficial opportunities, especially for the youth in impoverished rural environments. Thus, they situate India's transition away from fossil fuels within the context of planet Earth's history, underscoring the abruptness of humanity's encounter with the reality of a potentially devastating and relatively immediate change in global climate.

Prem Shankar Jha is currently Visiting Fellow, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Harvard University. He has served at the United Nations Development Programme, New York, Damascus, and Syria. As a journalist, he has been associated in an editorial capacity with Hindustan Times and The Times of India, and has been a columnist for The Hindu, Outlook, and Business Standard. During 1989-90, he was the Media Advisor to the then Prime Minister of India. He was awarded the 'Energy Journalist of the Year' by the Washington-based International Association for Energy Economics in 1988. He has also received two Lifetime Achievement awards for journalism from the Shriram Foundation and the Mumbai Association of Journalists (The 'Red Ink' award) in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Apart from being a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University (1994-2007; 2019-present), he was a Visiting Professor at Sciences Po during 2007-08.

Michael B. McElroy currently serves as the Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Harvard China Project. He was appointed as the Abbott Lawrence Rotch Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Harvard University in 1970. McElroy has been the founding Director of the University Center for the Environment and the founding Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. He has advised and continues to advise multiple agencies of the government, not only in the United States but also in China.

Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. India's Goals and Constraints in the Battle against Global Warming
3. The Crisis of Unemployment that India Cannot Evade
4. The Crisis in Agriculture: a) In Dryland Farming
5. The Crisis in Irrigated Farming: End of the Green Revolution
6. Coping with Air Pollution
7. India's Current Energy Consumption and Projected Demand
8. Where Is India on the Road to Renewables?
9. India's Wind and Solar Power Potential
10. Potential for Green Hydrogen in India: Green Versus Grey Hydrogen
11. How Far Can India Go in Replacing Fossil Fuels by 2050?
12. Biomass Gasification Can Complete the Journey to a Net Zero World
13. Correlating Decarbonization with Population Density and Economic Need
14. Combining Decarbonization and Economic Growth to Open a New Future for the Rural Poor: 1. What Solar and Wind Energy can do:
15. Combining Decarbonization and Economic Growth to Open a New Future for the Rural Poor: Biomass gasification could be the answer
16. Summing Up: The Path to Net Zero and Human Survival
A1. Earth: A Dynamic Planet, Fuelled by the Sun, Shaped by Life and by Tectonic Forces that Determine the Properties of its Surface
A2. Emergence of Humans as a Force for Global Change
A3. Perspectives on the Changing Composition of the Atmosphere
A4. Perspectives on Earth's Changing Climate