Duration : 5 Years
About the Agreement
- Objectives and Outcomes
- Programme Themes and Activities
- Gender Mainstreaming
- Target Audience
- TERI-NFA Working Paper Series
The Norwegian Framework Agreement (NFA) between the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and TERI, 2008-2013, comes at a critical time in global history when the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) has reported on its assessments of the changes in climate that the world is locked into due to its anthropogenic emissions and has warned of the little time available for meaningful action to address the consequences of such changes. There seems little doubt that climate change will be the single most difficult challenge to international sustainable development, affecting the North and the South, the developed, the emerging, and the developing economies. Inattention to developing adaptive capacities could create secondary spill over impacts, for example, undermine the capacity of states to provide opportunities and services that sustain livelihoods, which in turn can increase the risk of conflict, with serious consequences at regional and global scales. Countries are beginning to take stock of the way they do business, structure their energy economies and live their lives, albeit slowly. Global and national energy security concerns too have intensified in recent years. Beyond the conventional definition that is supply-oriented and is largely geo-political in essence, there is now a reorientation of energy security debates towards wider energy-environment-equity issues. Disconnects between energy consumers and producers, between large and small energy sector players, between carbon emitters and those most vulnerable to climate change impacts are now part of the wider debate on global energy security.
At the national level, India has announced its National Action Plan for Climate Change and the eight Missions and there is need now to begin to put in place initiatives to implement the proposed actions. It is evident that the ambition of the Action Plan requires new thinking and multiple actors and cannot be expected to be implemented by the government alone. This is a time also when India has a great opportunity to pull its population out of poverty, a key requirement of which is the availability of energy to many of its people who are either unserved or underserved. The Indian energy sector will be adopting nationally appropriate measures to contain its carbon intensity.
This is a time when national and global concerns are merging and calling for much greater collective action and multi-actor responses, more dedicated research, and greater financing to enable action. This Framework Agreement is one such initiative at cooperative action which seeks to strengthen linkages between Norway and India, through a focused set of activities and initiatives that address larger global concerns of climate change and energy security.
The goal of the framework agreement is to address global concerns of energy security and climate change through cooperation between TERI, Norwegian and other third party institutions on climate change, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), renewable energy, and energy policy.
The Outputs are disseminated through the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS), which provides a unique platform for government, civil society, corporate sector, academia, and policy makers across the globe for high level discussion around sustainable development issues. The Agreement also supports a Specialized Library on Climate Change (SLCC) which functions as a resource centre to compile, consolidate, and disseminate information in the fields of climate change and energy security. The membership of the SLCC is open for research professionals, scientists, technologists, policymakers, and students across the country.
Divisions in TERI involved
- Industrial Energy Efficiency
- Earth Science and Climate Change
- Social Transformation
- Green Growth and Development
- Sustainable Development Outreach
- Knowledge Management
- Resources, Regulation & Global Security
- Water Resources
- Energy Environment Technology Development
Objectives and Outcomes
Overall Programme Goal
To address global and national concerns of energy security and climate change through cooperation between TERI, Norwegian and other third party institutions on climate change, clean energy, and energy policy.
Programme Objectives
- To address knowledge gaps in 3 strategic areas:
- Clean energy
- Climate change
- Energy security and climate change
- Promote dialogue among stakeholders, and
- Build capacity and catalyse action
Expected Outcomes
- Contribution to the implementation of India's NAPCC and greater knowledge of climate change impacts on India
- Contribution to multilateral approaches on energy security and climate change
- Increased awareness and stakeholder engagement
Programme Themes and Activities
The Programme will focus on three themes: Clean Energy Options, Climate Change, and the interfaces of Energy Security and Climate Change and six activities within them.
Clean Energy
Climate Change
Climate Change and Energy Security
Back to Top
Gender Mainstreaming
The Norwegian Framework Agreement has a strong focus on addressing gender inequities in terms of energy access and climate change in most projects under the agreement. Emphasis is being laid on generating gender disaggregated data that could be used to suggest policy recommendations to address the inequities. These recommendations will form a part of a more holistic policy approach at the country level and the activities and work packages under the agreement are working on this.
The teams for each of the projects has a good gender balance and comprise of young, middle level, and senior researchers, representative of the workforce of TERI.
Gender Mainstreaming in Norwegian Framework Agreement
Target Audience
The target audience will be India in general, and institutions and organization in particular, as well as third party institutions, through capacity building, sectoral impacts assessments, dialogues, and more targeted efforts at incentivising energy change and addressing climate concerns through clean development mechanism, greater penetration of renewable energy and initiatives for improved energy policy.
Through this proposed cooperation with Norway, TERI will also provide useful inputs to the process of international negotiations post 2012 and would build capacity of stakeholders in the country with respect to their participation in climate change mitigation activities.
Key stakeholder groups that this Programme of activities will target and benefit are the rural poor with no access to clean energy, women and children, research community, the business and the policy community, academicians, corporates, and civil society at large.
Back to TopTERI-NFA Working Paper Series
- Energy in the international policy arena: Determining the role of multilateral institutions
- Are weak IPRs acting as barriers to transfer of climate friendly technologies: Assessing IPR regimes in five Asian Countries
- Potential impact of carbon barriers to trade: The case of India's exports to the US under border tax adjustment
- Rural energy access and inequalities: An analysis of NSS data from 1999-00 to 2009-10
- Rural Energy Transitions: Insights from Madhya Pradesh
- Role of technology advancement in promoting renewable energy based mini-grids Pradesh
Clean Energy
The research agenda on the theme of clean energy has two important dimensions. While the first dimension of innovation focuses on use of latest technological and scientific know-how in designing, developing, customising and testing technologies to meet specific end-use applications of rural communities in reliable and cost-effective manner, the second dimension of innovation focuses on how communities associate themselves with the newly introduced technologies and accept/enhance the uptake of energy services for their socio-economic benefits and transition to sustainable developmental practices.
The complete value chain of energy innovation rests upon these two broad dimensions. The framing of these two research dimensions are made in such a way that on one hand it revolves around design, testing and customization of technologies based on the Indian rural market and on the other hand on societal dimension of technological innovation and understanding the dynamics of technological appropriateness and its deployment.
Clean Energy
Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India
Background
'Innovating to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India' is one of the projects under the ‘TERI-Framework Funding for Institutional Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change' signed between the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and TERI.
The research agenda in this project has two important dimensions. The first focuses on the use of latest technological and scientific know-how in designing, developing, customizing and testing technologies to meet specific end-use applications of rural communities in reliable and cost-effective manner. The second focuses on how communities associate themselves with the newly-introduced technologies and accept/enhance the uptake of energy services for their socio-economic benefits and transition to sustainable developmental practices.
The complete value chain of energy innovation rests upon these two broad dimensions. These dimensions have been framed in such a way that they factor design, testing, and customization of technologies based on the Indian rural market and take into account the societal dimension of technological innovation as well as the dynamics of technological appropriateness and its deployment.
One of the key tasks of executing the project involves identification of appropriate livelihoods for intervention and the impact of energy interventions on the identified livelihoods and associated lives. The research agenda is carried through five specific work packages for a period of three years (2010-2013).
These include:
Work Package-1(WP-1):Developing and customizing renewable energy technologies keeping the focus on Indian rural markets and needs.
Work Package-2(WP-2):Testing and assessing the performance of these technologies at the lab scale.
Work package-3 (WP-3):Demonstrating 2-3 customised technologies at 6-8 locations in India.
Work package-4 (WP-4):Conducting technical training programmes at all locations used for demonstration.
Work package-5 (WP-5):Disseminating the findings to the research communities by organizing an international workshop/ knowledge dissemination programme.
The project is currently being implemented in four Indian states i.e. Odisha, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Under this project, 2-3 customized, need-based and application-specific, clean energy based technologies will be demonstrated at around 10-12 locations in the four states. Subsequently, participatory action research will be carried out at these locations to understand emerging socio-technical linkages.
Objectives
- Designing, testing, and customisation of clean energy technologies (e.g. solar, wind, battery chargers, and hybrids) for various livelihood generation activities (such as lighting, communication, drinking water, health services etc.)
- Demonstrating the above technologies and assessing the impact on livelihood activities in select locations and creating local technical capabilities for their servicing. This is aimed at a comparative performance assessment of the various technologies at different locations and for different applications.
Expected Outcomes
- Increased livelihood generation opportunities, enhanced quality of life and improved energy access through installation and commissioning of clean energy based appropriate technologies.
- Increased capacity building through training (on operation and maintenance, market linkages etc.) and research studies.
- Publications
- Events
Publications/Events
Clean Energy
Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India
Contribution to implementation of National Solar Mission
- Development of framework and improved tools for assessing the impact of clean energy based technological interventions on the socio-economic and cultural aspects of communities.
- Enhanced capacity for operating, managing, sustaining, and up-scaling clean energy based livelihood projects through training programmes.
- Development of menu of technological options for use of solar energy based on livelihood generation.
Key activities and achievements
Clean Energy
Innovation to bring clean energy for livelihood generation in India
Publications
--- Working Paper Series
--- Policy Briefs
Coming soon...
--- Others
Concept of Off-Grid solar multi-utility centre for livelihood generation in rural areas
Nivedita Thakur, Parimita Mohanty, Akanksha Chaurey, Arvind Sharma and A.S.Srinidhi
The paper presented at a conference reports the work carried out under one of the work-packages of the NFA with TERI (2008-2013) that includes a mandate of demonstration of customized SMUs in various locations in India. A pilot project under this concept that has been designed, developed and demonstrated in a remote village named Dakshin Dimoria in the state of Assam. This paper presents the various stages involved in design, development, and utilization of the SMU covering scoping study, demand assessment, customization of the SMU design according to available appliances, description of the various sub-systems, and services and utilization monitoring.
Events
Clean Energy Interventions for Livelihood Generation
Date: Between 16 January and 31 January 2013Venue: Delhi Haat, New Delhi
TERI’s Solar Multi Utilities (SMUs) provide access to energy through clean energy interventions, for livelihood generation in rural areas. Using electricity from a solar power plant, a variety of appliances and machines such as mixers, grinders, water purifiers and so on are operated.
This initiative aims to use the latest technological and scientific know-how in designing, developing, customizing and testing technologies to meet specific end-use applications of rural communities in reliable and cost-effective manner. The second focuses on how communities associate themselves with the newly-introduced technologies and accept/enhance the uptake of energy services for their socio-economic benefits and transition to sustainable developmental practices.
Climate Change
The Climate Change theme is covered over three key Activities. Activities 2(a) and 2(b) involve understanding and filling critical knowledge gaps in the extent and timing of climate change effects and designing and implementing NAMAs and REDD Plus respectively. Activity 2(c) revolves around garnering the efforts of businesses and industries in addressing climate concerns and conserving the environment.
Climate Change Activity 2(a)
Impact assessment of climate change including climate change, process and earth system modelling
Background
India is highly vulnerable to climate change due to its diversified socio-economic profile and heterogeneous climatic regions. To address these vulnerabilities and adapt effectively to their impact, it is necessary to build institutional capabilities for climate change projections, both at global and regional scales and quantify sectoral impact assessment for important sectors like agriculture, water resources, and health. The existing state-of-the-art general circulation models are yet to be fine-tuned to address the complexities of Indian summer monsoon before they can be used for reliable monsoon predictions, climate change projections, and regional impact assessment studies. A successful development policy can be formulated only if the uncertainties in impact assessments are minimized, or at least quantified.
Objectives
- To strengthen global and regional climate modelling capabilities at TERI by using an Earth System Model (ESM) and RCMs, to fulfil the objectives of the NAPCC and TERI’s own vision on climate modelling and through this to research climate impacts on the Indian sub continent.
Expected Outcomes
- Institutional capacity building on Earth system model and regional climate model leading to reliable impact assessments.
- To meet knowledge gaps and enhance understanding on climate change processes and its interactions using state-of-art Earth System models.
- Publications
- Events
Publications/Events
Climate Change Activity 2(b)
Developing country participation in addressing climate change. Analysing issues and options for implementing NAMAs and other mechanisms(REDD Plus)
Background
NAMAs
To implement the Reduce Emission from Deforestation and Degradation mechanism (REDD Plus) and presented the assessment at COP 15 of the UNFCCC at Copenhagen in 2009 (http://www.teriin.org/events/CoP15/Forests.pdf). The present research project is part of TERI's continuing effort to assess and design a REDD-plus pilot project in Analyzing issues and options for implementing NAMAs.
The NFA project, ‘Analyzing issues and options for implementing Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs)’ , is an international collaborative attempt in which we partner with Vitae Civilis (Brazil), University of Cape Town (South Africa) and Tshingua University (China). The project aims to identify constituent elements of NAMAs, define country-specific “appropriateness”, and assess the capacity requirements of developing countries for effective implementation of NAMAs—in short, to enable a clearer understanding of the concepts and issues surrounding NAMAs. The key outcome of this study will be a set of objective criteria to clearly define “appropriateness”, which is expected to guide the choice of NAMAs based on the individual country context.
The results of the project will be disseminated through a working paper and a book, which will consolidate the research findings. In addition, the project also supports a quarterly newsletter (three issues of which have been published) to facilitate dissemination and exchange of ideas.
The project seeks to thoroughly engage stakeholders in the process of developing the required criteria defining appropriateness. To gain from stakeholders’ experience and input, a workshop was organized in August 2011, which was attended by several national and international policymakers and researchers, as well as representatives from our partner institutions and dignitaries from the project sponsor, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The workshop witnessed various fruitful sessions with the participants who brought to the table and highlighted key issues and various dimensions of the architecture of NAMAs. In addition, a short survey was also administered to the participants to elicit their responses to identify the socio-economic criteria for evaluation of potential mitigation actions, and the desired characteristics of NAMAs.
The project was also showcased at the CoP 17 (Durban), Dec 2011, at the side-event organized jointly by TERI, ERC (Energy Research Centre) of the University of Cape Town and Tsinghua University. The side event focused on bringing the BASIC country perspectives on an international mechanism for NAMAs and analysis of its linkages at the national level. The progress made in various countries and the gaps remaining were identified and discussed upon.
REDD Plus
The Forestry and Biodiversity group at TERI had earlier carried out a preliminary assessment of India's readiness India. The specific objectives of the project are: (a) To analyze the international architecture for REDD-plus, (b) To study the potential impacts and response options for REDD-plus in India, and (c) To undertake a comprehensive assessment for designing a REDD-plus pilot project in India.
As a learning event, a meeting of the Asia REDD+ Working Group (ARWG) was organized by the Forestry and Biodiversity Group, TERI, New Delhi, and Community Forestry International, USA during Jan 31 - Feb 2, 2011 at TERI University, New Delhi. This meeting brought together the representatives of REDD+ projects being implemented in India, Cambodia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines in order to provide a regional overview of the emerging learning and experience. The project would next hold a stakeholder consultation and meeting in April 2012 to deliberate on the draft paper based on the analysis of the developing global REDD-plus architecture.
Objectives
- To research developing country participation in addressing climate change with a specific focus on analyzing issues and options for implementing NAMAs and REDD Plus
Expected Outcomes
It is expected that the proposed criteria will be utilised to spread the idea of appropriateness in developing countries and bring home the fact that undertaking actions that are country specific will ensure effective mitigation actions in developing countries. It is also expected that it will help to address the north south divide by clearly identifying the areas of cooperation relevant for developing countries. It is hoped that the study will provide a new approach to undertake assessment of developing country needs that can help undertake actions that are effective to tackle climate change and are achievable. The application of this approach will help in identification of priority NAMAs that are specific to each country being studied. The process of policy design and implementation of REDD plus projects in India would be guided.
Climate Change Activity 2(c)
Catalyzing business action on climate change
Background
Given the announcement of the National Action Plan on Climate Change, it is now vital to involve business in operationalising it. As Indian industry rapidly assumes global relevance and proportions, its leadership needs to attain a higher level of consciousness in order to achieve its responsibilities towards a cleaner environment and the climate change concern. This can be accomplished through a combination of long-term strategic thinking in the context of environmental challenges, emphasis on research and development, and a re-alignment of business focus.
TERI–BCSD* member CEOs had proposed the initiation of a project that can draw upon the collaboration and expertise of leading researchers and practitioners who make a substantial contribution to the discourse of sustainable development in India and internationally. The proposed project is a response to a felt need from the business side and is expected to facilitate collaboration of Indian business with international organizations, including Norwegian enterprises, to develop new ideas and approaches to sustainable practices and action on climate change through learning by sharing methods. The overall goal of the project is to enhance the capability of the business sector to innovate by focusing on research based activities and innovative dissemination/engagement programs.
*For the past several years, TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) has been addressing issues related to sustainable development with the Indian industry. It set up TERI-BCSD (Business Council for Sustainable Development) currently a network of over 100 motivated and environmentally conscious corporates . TERI-BCSD is the Indian partner of the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development), Geneva. It is now a pre-eminent business voice on sustainable development issues, a constructive contributor to solutions and a trusted partner of other organizations.
Objectives
- To raise the profile of sustainable development in India in business and the broader community including capacity building initiatives
- To enhance the business sustainability interface on international, including Norwegian, and Indian business sector’s engagement towards action on climate change
- To develop innovative programmes to sensitize and engage business leaders to foster the discourse of sustainable development in India
Expected Outcomes
- Under Research studies on business opportunities:
- Greening the ICT Industry and on ICT Application & Services towards environment sustainability:
- Focused Approach towards industry intervention for greening the ICT Industry and on ICT Application & Services towards environment sustainability.
- Engage with key state and central government departments towards policy change
- Policy Inputs while showcasing Industry good practices and recommendations for way forward towards corporate action plan on climate change - role of ICT
- Greening the ICT Industry and on ICT Application & Services towards environment sustainability:
- Under Capacity Building Programs, Seminars & Events
- Sensitization of industry on efficient water management in business planning through interactive learning / discussion forum
- Corporate awareness and capacity building for business to conduct and govern themselves with ethics, accountability and transparency through sustainability reporting
- Learning by sharing through best practices
Publications/Events
Climate Change and Energy Security
In view of the close interaction between energy and climate change, it is important for India to not only transition to more sustainable pathways, but also to have a coherent view of the evolving trade and climate regimes as they relate to energy and energy technologies. In cognizant with this, the Climate Change and Energy Security theme is based on two key Activities.
Activity 3(a) aims to study and develop strategies to address the energy challenges faced by India and the linkages that the energy challenge has with climate change and water.
Activity 3(b) deals with IPR regimes that govern access to technology at regional and global levels and examining carbon constraints as factors that determine trade regimes which will influence the generation of income and wealth by countries and people.
Climate Change & Energy Security Activity 3(a)
Transitioning India towards sustainable energy pathways
- WP1 -- Analyzing Sustainable Urban Transport: A City Level Modeling Approach
- WP2 -- Analyzing Rural Energy Transitions and inequities
- WP3 -- Preparation of State level energy (electricity) efficiency roadmap
- WP4 -- Water, energy and climate interactions : Identifying issues and addressing reponse capacity at the State level