Browsing by Author "Garg, Amit"

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    Electricity supply options, sustainable development and climate change priorities: case studies for South Africa
    (Magnum Custom Publishing, 2007) Winkler, Harald; Mwakasonda, Stanford; Garg, Amit; Halsnaes, Kirsten; Mukheibir, Pierre
    This report summarizes the results of the Projecting future energy demand: Balancing development, energy and climate priorities in large developing economies project that has been managed by the UNEP Risø Centre on behalf of UNEP DTIE. The project, sponsored by UNEP, is a partnership between the UNEP Risø Centre and centers of excellence in South Africa, China, India and Brazil. The focus of this report is on the energy sector policies that mainstream climate interests within development choices. The country study results for future energy and environment projections that are included in this report are backed by intensive economy-energy-environment modeling by the Energy Research Centre at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, wherein general scenario analysis of the energy sector explores some policies in more depth. The report argues that starting from development objectives is critical to mitigation efforts in developing countries. Instead of defining local benefits as ancillary to mitigation, reductions of GHG emissions should be seen as the co-benefits of policies that drive local sustainable development. A development-focused approach seems more likely to be implemented than the imposition of GHG targets by the international community—especially as South Africa has adopted development targets such as the Millennium Development Goals and promoted the Johannesburg Plan of Action.
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    Sustainability of electricity supply and climate change in South Africa
    (UNEP Risø Centre, 2006-11) Winkler, Harald; Mukheibir, Pierre; Mwakasonda, Stanford; Halsnæs, Kirsten; Garg, Amit
    Global responses to climate change are gradually considering the potential synergies between sustainable development and climate change policies. In the coming years developing countries face great challenges in development and its impact on climate. The path of development chosen by the region, upon which lies the future growth of energy and emission trajectories, would be greatly influenced by technological developments, economic cooperation between countries, and global cooperation in mitigation and adaptation of climate change. In many developing countries policies that are sensible from a climate change perspective can emerge as side-benefits of sound development programmes. In the energy sector, for example, price reforms, sector restructuring, and the introduction of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies - all undertaken without any direct reference to climate change - can mitigate climate and other environmental risks while achieving their main goal of enhancing economic and social development. Moreover national development policies in these countries pay considerable attention to extending developmental benefits to the poor people. These include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, ensuring primary education for all, women empowerment, enhancing life expectancy, energy access to all, and environmental sustainability. Most of these align with the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and also enhance the adaptive capacities of the populations towards adverse impacts of climate change.