This report summarizes the findings of the Asian Development Bank's technical assistance project TA-7250: Cross- Sectoral Implications of Biofuel Production and Use in India. Implementation of its national biofuel policy will help offset the effects of oil price increases on the economy of India in the next 2 decades. The advantages of biodiesel, as a supply-side response to counter the adverse impacts, are significant. Bioethanol, in contrast, will not generate sufficient economic benefits to justify social costs. Therefore, first-generation bioethanol has limited scope in India. As these biofuels compete for agricultural resources and compromise food security, a combination of policies---biodiesel expansion, energy efficiency improvements, and food productivity increase---will provide India with better energy security, food security, and opportunities for inclusive growth and carbon emission reduction.
New evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Updated estimates show the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to prevailing levels from almost a decade ago. Although progress continues to be made in reducing child stunting, over 22 percent of children under five years of age are still affected. Other forms of malnutrition are also growing: adult obesity continues to increase in countries irrespective of their income levels, and many countries are coping with multiple forms of malnutrition at the same time – overweight and obesity, as well as anaemia in women, and child stunting and wasting.
Energy is fundamental to the economic development of a society. Ensuring energy security is critical to the security, sovereignty, and well-being of any country. However, there is no consensus on the definition of energy security. Energy Security and Economic Development in India: a holistic approach attempts to construct an appropriate definition for the concept of energy security. The evolution of energy security is traced at both the global level and in the Indian context. This book elaborates on the concept of energy security, highlights its linkages, enumerates India's indigenous energy resources, examines the status of energy security in the country, and makes policy suggestions to ensure energy security in the country.
Zusammenfassung: This volume discusses the reduction, recycling, and reuse of industrial and agricultural biomass wastes to develop value-added products using environmentally sustainable practices and technologies. Through these waste valorization approaches, biomass waste materials can be converted into useful bio-chemical products, sustainable construction materials, polymers, bio-energy, and bio-fuel as sustainable alternatives to products and materials with negative environmental and health consequences. The chapters highlight the development and implementation of eco-friendly solutions to biomass waste production with the aim of reducing natural resource deterioration, bolstering rural and small-scale business systems in communities impacted by pollution and climate change, and providing power from residual biomass to broadly reduce environmental impacts through improved waste management practices. The book is intended to be a useful resource for researchers, policymakers, NGOs, government agencies, and local community authorities working in waste management and environmental sustainability
Drawing on the OECD’s expertise in comparing country experiences and identifying best practices, this book tailors the OECD’s policy advice to the specific and timely priorities of India, focusing on how its government can make reform happen.
The second ‘green skills’ forum organised by Cedefop and the OECD-LEED in February 2014 provided an open space for discussion between researchers, policy-makers, social partners and international organisations on skills development and training needs for a greener economy. The focus of this ...
Food security means access by all people at all times to enough food for an active and healthy life. Available data suggest that more than 700 million people in the developing world lack the food necessary for such a life. No problem of underdevelopment may be more serious or have such important implications for the long-term growth of low-income countries. This report outlines the nature and extent of food security problems in developing countries, explores the policy options available to these countries in addressing these problems, and indicates what international institutions such as the World Bank can and should do to help countries solve their food security problems. It suggests ways to achieve the desired goal in cost-effective ways. It also identifies policies that waste economic resources and fail to reach the target groups. (BZ)
Updates for many countries have made it possible to estimate hunger in the world with greater accuracy this year. In particular, newly accessible data enabled the revision of the entire series of undernourishment estimates for China back to 2000, resulting in a substantial downward shift of the series of the number of undernourished in the world. Nevertheless, the revision confirms the trend reported in past editions: the number of people affected by hunger globally has been slowly on the rise since 2014. The report also shows that the burden of malnutrition in all its forms continues to be a challenge. There has been some progress for child stunting, low birthweight and exclusive breastfeeding, but at a pace that is still too slow. Childhood overweight is not improving and adult obesity is on the rise in all regions. The report complements the usual assessment of food security and nutrition with projections of what the world may look like in 2030, if trends of the last decade continue. Projections show that the world is not on track to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030 and, despite some progress, most indicators are also not on track to meet global nutrition targets. The food security and nutritional status of the most vulnerable population groups is likely to deteriorate further due to the health and socio economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report puts a spotlight on diet quality as a critical link between food security and nutrition. Meeting SDG 2 targets will only be possible if people have enough food to eat and if what they are eating is nutritious and affordable. The report also introduces new analysis of the cost and affordability of healthy diets around the world, by region and in different development contexts. It presents valuations of the health and climate-change costs associated with current food consumption patterns, as well as the potential cost savings if food consumption patterns were to shift towards healthy diets that include sustainability considerations. The report then concludes with a discussion of the policies and strategies to transform food systems to ensure affordable healthy diets, as part of the required efforts to end both hunger and all forms of malnutrition.
This book focuses on various issues of energy, energy efficiency and environmental policy in China. It discusses different aspects on how China may maintain its fast economic growth through good management of energy consumption and development of various energy sources.
On August 24-25, 2010, the National Defense University held a conference titled “Economic Security: Neglected Dimension of National Security?” to explore the economic element of national power. This special collection of selected papers from the conference represents the view of several keynote speakers and participants in six panel discussions. It explores the complexity surrounding this subject and examines the major elements that, interacting as a system, define the economic component of national security.
