Panel Discussion on Indian Economy and Climate Change: Issues and the Way Forward
Thursday, 23rd March 2023
9.30 am – 1.00 pm
@ Adiseshiah Auditorium, MIDS
[On a personal note: I am in real awe with the way this Concept Note has been framed so beautifully! Just browse your way through the article, by reading through the signpost words highlighted in yellow, and you will feel the reading so breezy!]
Concept Note
The pandemic had devastated the economies around the world.
While most of the countries were struggling to recover from its impact, another shock has come in the form of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Developed countries such as the USA and many European countries are still struggling to recover from the impacts caused by the aforesaid events.
India is among the very few countries that continues to recover steadily from such impacts.
In recent years, climate change accompanied by natural weather pattern changes, such as El Nino effect, are predicted to have a significant adverse impact on India’s economic growth in the coming years.
In the past, heat waves in northern parts of India significantly reduced wheat output, leading to food inflation.
Similarly, heat waves and drought are also expected to hamper agricultural growth in the country; this will have its own cascading effects such as low demand for agricultural machinery, leading to job and income loss in allied and manufacturing sectors.
In addition to slowing down economic growth, climate change leads to a general deterioration of human well-being.
The central, state and local governments in India are taking up several initiatives to mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts.
However, it is found that India will need an additional investment of USD $1 trillion by 2030 to meet its national goal on climate change; in the absence of financial contribution committed by the developed countries, India will need to find more financial resources which appears to be a difficult task.
Similarly, achieving ‘net zero’ by 2070 requires economic growth, especially through industrialisation, to be adhering to sustainability principles (such as ESG).
This is because of the fact that the economy is already experiencing a significant amount of environmental damage cost imposed by existing environmental problems such as air and water pollution.
In the absence of indicators (e.g. green GDP) to measure if the economy is moving on the sustainable path, formulating evidence-based policies to deal with climate change and other environmental problems becomes a difficult task in the coming years.
In this context, the proposed Panel Discussion to be jointly organised by the RBI and MIDS will bring eminent experts working on various aspects of climate change to discuss the current issues, progress made, and the future course of action under the broad spectrum of the Indian economy and the environment.
More specifically, the Panel will focus on the following:
What are the sector-specific impacts of climate change in India?
What measures are in place and what progress has been made on achieving the climate-related goals?
What additional measures are required to enhance the progress?
What are the emerging areas which need more focus?
What are the issues with climate finance and how do we generate resources?
Are there cost-effective local solutions to deal with the climate change issues in the Indian context?
Everyone is Welcome!
—Events@MIDS
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