Passcode: 333444

3:00-6:00 pm: The Socio-Ecological and Cultural Costs of Energy Transitions; Are Sustainability and Sustenance at Crossroads in the Indian Energy Story? 

Session Brief:

• Energy transition is indeed a big disruptive technical shift that goes beyond the narrow exigencies of source and delivery of energy.
• Along with the prospects of a reliable supply security, energy transition also entails demographic, ecological, employment and health concerns, as it essentially involves a reallocation of habitation, income and opportunities too.
• Looking from the prism of how transition alters the economic, environmental, cultural and societal situations of particular households and communities, how does one critically evaluate the continued reliance on coal in the Indian subcontinent as the cheapest solution to energy access and a dependable mode of financial guarantee for many?
• What are the political ramifications of transitions, beyond just the concerns of cost and supply, that needs to be compensating the abandoned, left behind to deprivation and vulnerability in the process?
• How do we establish the link between the economic, cultural and socio-ecological structures at work in India with the continuing energy transition campaigns within the country, informed and influenced by experiences from outside?

Chair: Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group

Speakers:

Shripad Dharmadhikary, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra

• Environmental sustainability of the ongoing energy transition in India.

Gautam Mody, General Secretary, New Trade Union Initiative

• Labour rights and reforms through the prism of redistribution of employment avenues in transition times.

Samantha Smith, Lawyer, Activist & Director of the Just Transition Centre

• Global overview of the employment and labour exigencies in the transition to a zero carbon economy.

Bhargavi Rao, Deputy Director, Centre for Financial Accountability

• Gender in transition: Is the apparent transition to clean energy gender inclusive?

Manshi Asher, Himdhara, Environment Research and Action Collective

• Dialogues on the inter-linkages between environmental justice and a ‘just’ energy transition.