Greening India's growth: costs, valuations and trade-offs

Table of Contents: 1. Growth vs. Environment Debate 1.1 The Environmental Challenges of Rapid Growth 1.2 Progress So Far 1.3 Study Objectives and Contribution 2. How much does it Cost? 2.1 Summary 2.2 Cost of Environmental Degradation 2.3 Urban Air Pollution 2.4 Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene 2.5 Indoor Air Pollution 2.6 Natural Resources: Land Degradation, Crop Production and Rangeland Degradation 2.7 Forest Degradation 3. How to Value? 3.1 Summary 3.2 Introduction 3.3 Proposed Approach for India 3.4 Direct and Indirect Services of Forests 3.5 Services from Grasslands, Wetlands, Mangroves and Coral Reefs 3.6 Summary and Conclusion 4. What are the Trade-offs? 4.1 Summary 4.2 Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: What are the Trade-offs? 4.3 Methodology 4.4 Scenarios 4.5 Main Results 4.6 Conclusions 5. Way Forward: Striving for Green Growth Annex 1: Methodology of Environmental Health Losses Valuation A1.1 Outdoor Air Pollution A1.2 Impacts from Inadequate WSH A1.3 Indoor Air Pollution A1.4 Valuation of Premature Mortality Annex 2: Methodology for Estimating the Cost of Natural Resource Degradation A2.1 Soil Degradation A2.2 Pastures Degradation A2.3 Forest Degradation A2.4 Natural Disaster Costs Annex 3: Details of the Meta-Analysis Functions used in Estimating Value of Ecosystem Services A3.1 Passive use of Forests A3.2 Grasslands A3.3 Wetlands A3.4 Mangroves A3.5 Coral Reefs Annex 4: Description of the CGE Model A4.1 The Economic Growth Baseline: GTAP-India Model A4.2 The PM10 Emission Baseline A4.3 Sectoral Sources of Particulate Emissions A4.4 Assumption of BAU A4.5 The Health Impact Simulations

India's sustained and rapid economic growth offers an opportunity to lift millions out of poverty. But this may come at a steep cost to its environment and natural resources. This insightful book analyses India's growth from an economic perspective and assesses whether India can grow in a "green" and sustainable manner. Three key issues are addressed. The first is the physical and monetary costs and losses of environmental health and natural resources driven by economic growth. The authors undertake a monetary valuation and quantification of environmental damage, using techniques that have been developed to better understand and quantify preferences and values of individuals and communities in the context of environmental quality, conservation of natural resources, and environmental health risks. The second part estimates the value of ecosystem services from the major biomes in India using state-of-the art methods with a view to preserving them for the future. The third section provides a menu of policy instruments to explore trade-offs between economic growth and environmental sustainability using a Computable General Equilibrium approach with particular attention to air pollution. The conclusions focus on the way forward in terms of policies, measures and instruments as India has to balance the twin challenges of maintaining economic prosperity while managing its environmental resources. (http://www.tandfebooks.com/isbn/9781315867144)