PROMOTING LOW
CARBON TRANSPORT IN INDIA
Low Carbon City:
A Guidebook for City Planners and Practitioners
Authors
Subash Dhar
UNEP Risø Centre, Denmark
Minal Pathak
CEPT University, Ahmedabad
P. R. Shukla
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
August 2013
iii
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank Dr. Shobhakar Dhakal, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Thailand, and Mr. Vatsal
Bhatt, Brookhaven National Laboratory, for reviewing this guidebook. The report has greatly benefitted
from their critical and insightful comments and suggestions.
We are most grateful to policy makers and planners in several cities, and numerous researchers and
practitioners who spared their valuable time for perceptive discussions.
We would like to acknowledge and express gratitude to Prof. Shuzo Nishioka and the LoCARNet team for
insightful discussions and their continued support of our research. We also thank Prof. Yuzuru Matsuoka
(Kyoto University) and Dr. Mikiko Kainuma, Dr. Toshihiko Masui and other
researchers of the AIM
(Asia-Pacific Integrated Model) team from NIES (Japan) for discussions on modelling methodologies and
their applications.
Our special thanks go to Ms. Kamala Ernest from UNEP, for her support and valuable input in the
preparation of this guidebook. Special thanks also to Ms. Josephine Baschiribod and Ms. Surabhi
Goswami for providing valuable editorial inputs during the preparation of the final report.
Authors
v
Contents
List of Tables and
Figures
vii
Abbreviations
ix
1. Introduction and Outline
1
1.1 Context
1
1.2 Cities and climate change
1
1.3
Aims and audience
2
1.4 Chapters
2
2. The Science of Global Climate Change
5
3. Global Agreements and Targets
9
3.1 Meaning of the term ‘low carbon’
9
3.2 Global targets
10
3.3 Emission paths for stabilising temperature at 2°C
10
3.4
Global carbon price
11
3.5 Global energy system transitions (changes in LCS vis-à-vis BAU)
12
3.6 Emission scenarios
13
4. What Does a 2°C Scenario Mean for India?
17
4.1 Demographic transition
18
4.2 Economic growth
21
4.3
Infrastructure choices
22
4.4 National emissions pathways
23
4.5 National energy and emission indicators
26
4.6 CO
2
intensity of electricity
29
4.7 Fuels for transport
30
5. What Does a 2°C Stabilisation Mean for Cities?
33
5.1 Vertical and horizontal integration to align national and city-level climate actions
33
5.2 City indicators for energy and emissions
35
5.3 Technology transitions
36
5.4
Urban form and structure
37
5.5 City emissions pathways
38
5.6 Transport sector – scenarios, framework and options
40
5.7 Industries
47
5.8 Buildings sector: framework and options
47
5.9 Waste sector
50
6. Towards an
Integrated Approach
55
6.1 Adaptation
55
6.2 Aligning climate and development
56
6.3 The co-benefits approach
57
7. Conclusions
59
8.
References
61
Appendix
67