Journal of Resources,Energy and Development

Wetlands are productive ecosystems, providing an array of services that sustain the well-being of dependent biota. Post industrialization and globalization era witnessed a spurt in the anthropogenic activities, leading to the degradation and decline of fragile ecosystems. This necessitates the conservation of vital ecosystems through sustainable management tenets, this requires an understanding of the livelihood support of ecosystems. The focus of the study, discussed in this article, is to understand the worth of wetlands through the accounting of provisioning, regulating, and cultural services. The provisioning services through accounting of tangible benefits (fish, fodder, water, etc.) considering residual values indicate an annual revenue of INR49.70 billion. Similarly, accounting of non-use values of ecosystems through the benefit transfer method indicates regulating and cultural services support of INR196.89 billion and INR37.93 billion per year, respectively. The annual flow of the total ecosystem supply value accounts for INR284.52 billion per year and the net present value (NPV) amounts to INR7320.6 billion, signifying the ecological, socio-cultural, and environmental support wetland provides to ecosystems in Karnataka. Appraisal of ecosystem services allows for adjusted national accounts, which reflect the output of ecosystem services as well as the depletion of natural resources and the degradation costs (externalized costs of the loss of ecosystem services) of ecosystems in economic terms, which will help raise awareness and provide a quantitative tool to evaluate the sustainability of policies towards prudent management and conservation of fragile livelihood-supporting ecosystems. The monetary valuation of ecosystem services can help in building a better understanding of their influence on well-being and can further facilitate information-driven decisions and policy reforms that align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the judicious use of natural resources.

India’s announcement at the Glasgow Climate Conclave in 2021, regarding the nation’s short- and long-term climate actions portrayed an ambition of becoming a green leader in the years to come. The article discusses how accountability has broad horizons which in turn is linked with legitimacy, often neglected in research and when incorporated, in relevance to India’s solar energy transition will revolve around accountability crisis. An accountability–legitimacy framework is created in which the Indian solar energy paradigm is tested where the major findings are solar uptake discrepancies, pertinent to four typologies of legitimacy—technocratic, bureaucratic, financial, and discursive.

Globalization has integrated national and regional economies into a single vast global economy opening up several prospects of growth and dynamic development, largely because of increased opportunities for international trade (Surugiu, et al. 2015). Now governments around the world have liberalized their trade and financial markets, resulting in intensified flow of goods, capital and services within countries, providing economic benefits. However, this has also resulted in degrading of Earth’s environment. The situation has become so grim, that the occurrence of climate-induced natural hazards is now a frequent event. Carbon neutrality (or net zero emission) has been proposed as a solution to anthropogenic climate change and more countries are committing to reach carbon neutrality by the middle of this century. An example of these is the European Union (EU), which wants to become the first region in the world to commit to net zero emissions by 2050. Its carbon neutrality strategy document, ‘European Union Green Deal (EUGD)’, along with other provisions includes taxing imported goods based on carbon embodied in production, known as Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). The CBAM suggests taxing the difference between carbon embodied in domestically produced and imported goods. The adjustment mechanism is based on the idea that a price on carbon consumption will encourage countries to adopt cleaner technologies in production process, along with avoiding carbon leakages to other countries with relaxed environmental standards. This paper tries to understand the concept, rationale, proposed working and discussions around CBAM. It also tries to examine the possible effect of CBAM on carbon intensive and trade exposed (CITE) sectors in India. The paper concludes that iron and steel will be the sectors most affected from CBAM in India and suggests that India and EU must harness increased international cooperation (through Free Trade Agreement) to fulfill twin purposes of economic development and environmental conservation.

The empirical study has obtained insights into the expenditure patterns of cash compensation and the desired constituents of compensation package by the affected landowners in a linear project in peri-urban area of Gurugram district in Haryana. The study concludes that monetary compensation is apportioned between the twin heads of immediate consumption needs and income generating assets, though, the percentage spent under each category is influenced by the geographical location and the sociological attributes of communities. A heterogeneous mix of compensation options was found to elicit greater acceptance among the affected landowners. The individual compensation choices are ascribable to factors such as education, age, size of land holdings, income level, extent of awareness, and access to information.

The findings of the study underscore the need to diversify the compensation choices incorporated in The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013 to optimize the post-acquisition outcomes for the project-affected-families. The paper recommends the adoption of land pooling policy for land aggregation in urbanizing areas to assure high economic return to participating title holders from the serviced parcel of land returned to them through its monetization or utilization for commercial purposes.