India’s long-term low carbon development strategy (LT-LEDS) underscores the need for adopting a sectoral approach to decarbonisation, recognising that each sector, be it energy, transport, or industry, has unique challenges and opportunities for emission reduction. Drawing inspiration from the strategy, much of the work by the Climate Change, Urbanization and Sustainability (CCUS) vertical has focused on answering key policy questions, developing tailored strategies, and providing data-driven insights to support clean energy research.
Recently, CCUS made the collective decision to venture into modelling and has worked tirelessly to build four models, each focusing on a specific policy dimension that needed further research insights. In particular, the ICRIER Samriddhi Global Trade CGE modelhas been developed to estimate the diverse impacts of explicit carbon tariffs and externally imposed CBAM on India’s domestic production, trade competitiveness, and emission levels. Next in line has been the ICRIER Sampada Regional Waste Input-Output model, which assessed the socio-economic impact of waste management policies. It delved into the macroeconomic and technological gains from effective waste management and the impact of circular economy parks on a state’s economy. Similarly, the ICRIER Unnati Regional CGE Model has been built to estimate the employment impact and other macroeconomic effects such as migration of sub-national transitions to a cleaner energy system. Last but not least, the ICRIER Prakriti Disaster Management Model, a regional input-output (RIO) model, has been developed to examine the impact of disasters on local businesses and the economy. We hope these models and their subsequent iterations will continue to provide evidence-based research to inform domestic policy and negotiation stances for India.