Evaluating sectoral decarbonization pathways for India’s net-zero ambitions

You are invited to join Professor Mike Lahr for a guest speaker presentation by Professor Kakali Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D. (she/her/elle), McGill University, Montreal, CANADA

Associated reading: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667095X22000113

PAPER ABSTRACT:

In the first of its kind, this study evaluates the socio-economic impacts of two ambitious decarbonization pathways for India (i) aligned with India’s Nationally Determined Commitments (NDC) negotiated through the Paris Agreement in 2015 and (ii) more ambitious NDC plus decarbonization trajectory aligned with India’s recent COP26 commitments at subnational level. The analysis uses a newly developed dynamic macro-econometric regional simulation model – E3-India to evaluate changes in key economic and emission parameters due to energy transition at both national and state levels for India. Impacts on emission intensity of the economy, GDP, employment and income are assessed to highlight the larger macro-economic and regional distributive impacts of existing NDC targets for India.

The results provide three key insights, (i) overall socio-economic impacts of committing to an ambitious decarbonization trajectory primarily articulated through NDCs for India will be positive, but the transition trajectory will have unequal distributive impacts across states and sectors. (ii)The NDC trajectories will have an expansive impact on the harder-to-abate construction sector so along with decarbonization of the energy sector, the steel and cement sector would also need focused decarbonization measures. (iii) In the absence of policies promoting ‘Just transitions’ smaller coal-bearing states will be worst off, stuck with the expansion of only primary and extractive mining sectors while high renewable energy potential states will show expansion in technology-focused sectors and high skilled sectors.

BIO:

Kakali Mukhopadhyay is an Associate Professor for the Agricultural Economics Program (Department of Natural Resource Sciences) at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She is a former Professor of Economics at Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Pune, India and Adjunct Professor/Senior Fellow associate at McGill University, Department of Agricultural Economics (2016-23). She earned an M.Phil. and Ph.D. in economics with specialization in energy and environment from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, India. She has been a senior advisor of E3-India Model, a collaborative initiative of the Regulatory Assistance Project, Vermont, USA and Cambridge Econometrics, UK, for its development and validation.

Prior to joining McGill in 2007, she was a postdoctoral research fellow and subsequently a faculty at the Center for Development and Environmental Policy, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, and Madras School of Economics, Chennai, India. She was also a postdoctoral/visiting fellow/visiting research scholar of the Faculty of Business Management, Oulu University (Finland 2001,2007); Stockholm Environment Institute (Sweden 2001); the SOM Research School, Groningen University (the Netherlands 2003); UNU MERIT, Maastricht University (the Netherlands 2003;2010;2019); OECD (2017) and the School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand 2005). Additionally, she has served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the De La Salle University, Manila, the Philippines (2014,2016), and as a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (2017).

Her research focuses on energy and environment, renewable energy and economic growth, trade and environment, air pollution and health, regional economic integration, R&D, Global Value Chain, economics of health and Nutrition, and food safety. She has received a number of international fellowships and awards by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Indo-Dutch Program, the Ford Foundation, and the Presidential Award from the Chinese Government. She has also received the Best Professor Award in Energy and Environmental Economics in 2017 and 2018, under the National Education Award in India. She holds a key expert position at the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and similar positions in ASEAN Vision 2025, the Asian Development Bank, and Shastri Indo-Canadian Program. As the Project Director, the first of its kind regional Supply Use Table for the state of Maharashtra was constructed, sponsored by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Maharashtra at GIPE, Pune.

She has over 110 publications including peer-reviewed journal articles of international repute and several books, edited book chapters, popular articles and working papers. She has authored seven books in various fields of energy, environmental pollution, trade and I-O modelling. She has completed several studies on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme, UN-ESCAP, UNCTAD, Asian Development Bank, ERIA-Indonesia, Shastri-Indo Canadian Institute, Public Health Agency of Canada, Genome Canada and Genome Quebec, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, BioFuelNet Canada, West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency, Indian Council of Social Science Research, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Maharashtra and South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics—SANDEE.