With South Asia's growing energy demand, governments in the region are facing the short-term pressures of facilitating energy access, while attempting to formulate long-term sustainable strategies. This book explores how the key economies of South Asia are addressing issues such as the diversification of energy consumption profiles and import sources, investments in renewables, enabling universal energy access, challenges to regional energy cooperation, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, and the policy changes that can foster bilateral and multilateral action.As governments seek to ensure access to affordable, reliable, secure, sustainable and modern energy, trends and drivers are emerging and shaping the South Asian energy landscape. The first section of the book examines energy trends at the regional level, while the second section focuses on the internal and external challenges faced by India — the largest energy consumer in the region and the third-largest energy consumer in the world.The diverse perspectives in this volume provide a holistic snapshot of South Asia's ongoing low-carbon energy transition, and highlight the importance of the region working collectively to navigate the many obstacles.

A volume on the political economy of clean energy transition in developed and developing regions, with a focus on the issues that different countries face as they transition from fossil fuels to lower carbon technologies.

South Asia constitutes a key geography in the world today considering its large population and related daunting energy and environmental challenges. Many countries in the region are faced with a growing gap between energy demand and local resources, resulting in an increased dependence on imports. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the energy demand in South Asia will grow at a rate more than double that of the world average in the coming decades. This book addresses the critical subject of energy and environmental outlook for South Asia and presents the wider challenges and the responses at the national and regional level. Features: Discusses and addresses the ongoing energy and environmental challenges faced by almost a quarter of the global population Includes dedicated chapters for each country and presents analysis and recommendations by regional experts Examines how deteriorating air quality and persistent natural disasters are severe environmental challenges for the region Discusses the implications of global warming and climate change for South Asia Includes practical case studies throughout Energy and Environmental Outlook for South Asia will benefit a wide range of stakeholders from various fields including but not limited to energy, environment, economics, national security, and sustainable development. It also serves as a valuable resource for academics, researchers, analysts, policymakers, and representatives of utilities, industry, professional bodies, financial institutions, think tanks, and developmental organizations to better plan their initiatives, activities, and policies. It will help countries in the region and also those around the world by learning from shared experience, and ideally by collaborating for energy and environmental prosperity.

Notwithstanding global growth weakness and financial pressures, growth in South Asia is expected to remain robust, supported by slower fiscal consolidation than in other EMDEs, strong public investment, and a recovery as financial stress has subsided. Policy challenges include, in the short-term, preserving financial stability and restoring fiscal sustainability and, in the long-term, rekindling investment, and managing an energy transition. Currently, the energy intensity of South Asian economies is almost twice the global average—despite a decline over the past two decades that was almost entirely driven by firm-level, within-sector cuts in energy intensity. The potential benefit of regulatory policies, information interventions, and financial support to help accelerate the diffusion of these technologies, as well as the possibility that these could also lend broader support for countries' development objectives. The transition away from fossil fuels may have considerable labor market impacts. A wide range of policies, including better access to high-quality education, finance, and markets; improved labor mobility; and strengthened social safety nets, will be needed to facilitate the adjustment in labor markets while protecting vulnerable workers.

Traditional dependence on the use of non-renewable energy resources has led to adverse socioeconomic and environmental complications in almost all of the South Asian economies. Moreover, the geographical locations have made these nations extremely vulnerable to the global climate changes. Thus, a transition from non-renewable to renewable energy consumption is of immense significance from the perspective of sustainable development in this region. Against this backdrop, the focus of this paper is aimed to empirically shed light on the role of greater trade openness and the simultaneous international fund inflows on facilitation of the renewable energy transition across Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This paper incorporated annual data stemming from 2000 to 2017 and employed the Panel-Corrected Standard Error regression methodology. This paper also estimates the threshold level of GDP growth rate facilitating renewable energy transition in the five aforesaid South Asian economies. Furthermore, panel Granger causality test was applied to distinguish the possible causal associations between the variables in the long run. In light of the estimated results, it is found that trade openness enables renewable energy transition and all the three sources of foreign inflows stimulate positive impacts on renewable energy consumption trends in the selected economies. Moreover, a non-linear relationship between renewable energy transition and GDP growth rate is also revealed from the statistical estimates.

This new volume offers up-to-date coverage of the energy scenario in South Asia, showcasing the major challenges being faced in the South Asian Energy Corridor in the context of energy security versus clean energy. The volume explores the role of diversifying supplies for the future to gain energy security that can lead to mapping joint ventures among conventional rival countries, especially due to the rapidly emerging economies of this region. India, China, Japan, and Pakistan, by their location and demography, occupy a major role in this corridor. The book examines the role of major technologies vis-a-vis dominant energy players in South Asia to put checks and balances on energy security along with clean energy resources hand in hand. The economics along with the geopolitics of various pipelines, ports, and regional strategic relations strongly favor developing an "energy bond" among nations, with both technologies as well as markets available within the same region. The book strongly suggests increasing strategic energy cooperation between the major energy players to maximize mutual interest and reduce carbon emission for larger interests. The volume first provides an overview of the South Asia Energy Corridor. It then goes on to look at the energy scenarios in the countries of the region, considering India’s need for energy security and for clean energy initiatives. The topics include advances in renewable energy in the region, new fossil fuel reserves exploration in South Asia advances in wind and solar energy in the region, and so much more.

This Book Identifies And Documents The Industrial Transformation Research Being Undertaken In South Asia, With The Objective Of Furthering Research Imperatives That Are Critical To Addressing Concerns Regarding Such Transformations. The Book Focuses On Four Issues: (1) Transformation Towards Sustainable Energy Systems, (2) Agricultural Sustainability And Food Security, (3) Transition Of Urban Energy And Environment, And (4) Governance For Sustainable Development. It Provides An Opportunity For The South Asian Scientific Community To Engage In Constructive Dialogue And Share Research Outcomes With Others In The Region, As Well As Globally.