SNAPFI
TERI is currently undertaking a national study under the SNAPFI project for IKI and DIW that seeks to highlight the role of international climate finance to drive just transitions. Under this project, we have explored the landscape for just transitions in India and understand the component of additionality. Additionality seeks to establish that international climate finance is essential to ensure that energy transitions do not have adverse impacts on the socio-economic development of India.
AFEF-ICC Land-Based Climate Action
TERI is undertaking research on the impact of land-use mitigation interventions, especially activities like REDD+ and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), on the local stakeholders, especially vulnerable and marginalized communities and women. Through this project, we aim to develop a just transitions framework which can analyse and assess the impacts of climate interventions and projects in the land-use sector from a perspective that prioritizes the socio-economic well-being and climate justice of these stakeholders.
Enhancing Climate Action in India
TERI is working on a project funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies that aims to identify a finance landscape of just energy transition in India and how can some multilateral or plurilateral partnerships suffice the existing finance gap. The objective of this project is to produce a research paper addressing the crucial inquiry of India’s willingness to engage in partnerships considering the second-order impacts of the energy transition at present in massive. Furthermore, we aim to explore the implications of such partnerships for the international finance system.
Implications of moving away from coal
TERI, in association with MacArthur Foundation, is working on a project to comprehensively cover the aspect of just transition in the Indian context, specifically with respect to coal. This project covers both upstream (i.e. coal mining industry) and downstream (i.e. coal-dependent MSME sector) scenarios. It works on building a national-level framework that shall guide future policies and actions with outcome-based indicators for an equitable transition. The framework shall also aim to reduce the social and economic cost of the transition for coal-dependent communities, particularly the workers. Additionally, it works to create a knowledge base and strategy for effective outreach.
India's Case study on Just Transition (2020)
The project aimed to create a case study on India, exploring how a just transition can be achieved alongside the type of transformational change necessary to address climate change. The case study examines and presents the lessons on how CIF investments in India have contributed to or interacted with efforts to ensure just transitions, including challenges met, while sharing potential future opportunities.
The study explores the barriers to, and drivers of, India's energy transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. It draws insights on how Climate Investment Funds (CIF) supported projects have interacted with just transition issues in the country. It uses a framework developed by the Just Transition Initiative — a partnership between CIF and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) — to explore the diverse perspectives and approaches of the key actors involved in India's energy transition.
Towards a Just Transition Strategy for India
The project aimed to cohesively understand the economic and socio-economic relationship of coal with respect to the area and the actors that were involved in its mining and production.
Two working papers were launched as part of the project- ‘Assessing vulnerability from coal dependence and need for a Just Transition’ and ‘Harnessing Opportunities for a Just Transition in India’.
The project titled ‘Assessing vulnerability from coal dependence and need for a Just Transition’ delves deep into the aspect of the linkages that surround the Indian coal economy and the possible economic, societal, and cultural repercussions that the coal mining states would have to face in the case of a coal phase-out.
The second paper, titled ‘Harnessing Opportunities for a Just Transition in India’, attempts to highlight the developmental challenges in key mining locations and more so in a situation when mining activities may cease to exist in the future. It further attempts to bring to light the opportunities that mining states need to exploit to address social and developmental challenges.