With the launch of the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance during COP 26 in November, where India positions itself could have far-reaching implications.

Sarda’s remote location cuts off its market linkages and increases the challenge of making electricity accessible and other basic services. We document the deployment of solar in this community.

As the Sustainable Development Goals were in the final hours of negotiation in 2015, and in the early days of implementation in 2016, IISD experts reflected on the implications for countries, the UN system, and our own programs of work. These articles, first published as a series of blog postings, are the outward expression of that thought process. 

Kerosene is used by millions of households in rural India to meet basic lighting needs, and subsidies have long been used to make the fuel more affordable. But for health, safety and environmental reasons, a switch to solar power is better—and more affordable in the absence of kerosene subsidies.

Goal Seven of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations last month, calls on governments to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”